Artist of the Week: Conan Gray

Niccijade Reeves-Alhark

Staff Reporter

Conan Lee Gray was born in Lemon Grove, California on December 5th, 1998. In a Draw My Life video Conan made, he explains that through his childhood he moved a lot and lived with his sister. He and his sister lived in switched households often due to their parents being divorced. To cope with his life troubles, Conan turned to music, drawing, and the Internet.

Conan began to make YouTube videos when he was in 4th grade, where he sang original songs and covers, did tutorials, and filmed vlogs. YouTube is where Conan gained his following and fan base that would continue to grow as he started his music career. In an interview he did with The Forty-Five, he says that Lorde and Taylor Swift were his songwriting inspirations.

The first song Conan officially released was Idle Town, released on YouTube as a tribute to his senior year of high school. It was put on his debut EP Sunset Season in 2018 along with his single Grow when it was released on Spotify and other music platforms. Conan continues to release singles throughout the following years, gaining more popularity with his music and YouTube channel.

In 2020 Conan released his debut album, Kid Krow. It consists of 12 tracks, containing two of his most popular singles, Maniac and Checkmate. Conan calls its contents a mashup of genres in an interview with Cosmopolitan, folk, pop, and grunge specifically. He went on to explain that the album goes over a lot of personal things that he was afraid and embarrassed to show, like how insane he felt about going through certain emotions.

Kid Krow is one of my favorite pieces from Conan. It is a very emotional collection of songs that people can relate to and visualize. Though I love all of the songs on the album, if I had to choose, my favorite songs would be Affluenza and Checkmate.

Affluenza is about the reckless “disease” that Conan sees plague the people around him. The song has an ironical paradise-sounding melody with lyrics that go over the consequences of wealth and how he himself does not want to experience them.

Checkmate is a song about revenge and tricking the trickster, hence the name. I really liked how the lyrics displayed this game-like attitude and how the instrumental described the song’s mischievous nature.

Overall, Conan Gray is an artist that will not be forgotten, with his clever lyrics and interesting concepts. If you want to start listening to him, I recommend you listen to Kid Krow and his latest single, Astronomy.