CultureMap QA

David Gray on U.S. tour: 'I see it as a precious thing that I'm allowed to do'

David Gray plays at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie on July 3, along with Amos Lee.

David Gray/Facebook

David Gray hit it big back in 2000 with the re-release of his album White Ladder and the hit “Babylon.” Since then, the indie British rocker has had a steady if unflashy career, one whose sales have always proven better in the United Kingdom than in the United States.

But he’s unfazed by it. “I’ve got a very strong fan base, which I’m thankful for; I’ve got a lot of passionate fans,” he says. “I’ve spent a huge portion of my time coming over here to play music for them.”

In advance of his latest stop in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a July 3 co-headlining concert with Amos Lee at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie, Gray talked with us about his career, his latest album and what a co-headlining tour is really like.

CultureMap: You’ve been around for more than 20 years now. How do you feel about touring nowadays compared to when you first started?

David Gray: You can’t quite be as excited as you are when you first started because you’ve not done any of it yet. There’s a kind of insane amount of excitement and energy that you have when you’re 20-odd years old and somebody’s sending you over to America to go around.

You’ve never been to Texas, and you’re just laughing continually at just how crazy everything is — how big the portions are and how much A/C is cranked everywhere you go. You’re taking it all in; who can say that you could ever be that excited?

I know what a show is; I’ve done enough of them. That’s what’s most precious to me. The hotel rooms and the tour bus is all well and good, but it’s what happens out on the stage that I look forward to; in terms of that, I relish it.

But it’s more finite now. When you’re younger, you don’t think about how much of this stuff you might ever have to enjoy. But as you get on a bit, I don’t take it for granted at all. I see it as a precious thing that I’m allowed to do.

CM: How did the idea for a co-headlining tour with you and Amos Lee come about?

DG: I think it works well in the summer with these big venues if you’ve got somebody of a similar caliber, and hopefully it’s a good musical fit. I don’t know Amos’ music very well, I have to be honest; he’s not so well-known in the U.K. I’ve heard a few things online and he seems to have a beautiful voice. He’s obviously a popular artist over here, so I’m hoping it all fits together.

We had a tour with Ray LaMontagne five years ago which went very well, working along similar lines. So that’s the idea behind it all.

CM: Will you have a chance to work with Amos at all before the tour gets started?

DG: We’ll meet for the first time on the first show of the tour. That’ll be the first time I get to take a measure of his band and his sound and his whole vibe really, so I’m hoping for good things.

CM: Do you think there’s a chance that you’ll collaborate onstage?

DG: We played The Beatles’ “Dig a Pony” when we did the Ray LaMontagne tour; that was great fun. So if something like that could happen, I think everybody would enjoy it. We’ll just have to wait and see.

CM: You were in Dallas last year in support of Mutineers. Do you anticipate any significant changes to the set list on this tour?

DG: There’s a time pressure; it’s a much more condensed set. I would normally play for two-plus hours. When you’ve got an hour and 15 minutes, it doesn’t feel very long at all. It’ll feel like some kind of greatest hits package even with the new record thrown in.

The set will have a lot of momentum. I am going to change things around; we’ve worked up a load of numbers that I haven’t played from previous records for quite a while. There’s probably 40-odd songs to choose from, and within a revolving set it will change a lot night-to-night. But obviously the big numbers will turn up as they usually do to push the buttons where required.

I’m really looking forward to it. But co-headlining is obviously a different science, and on the few nights that I have to go on first, that’ll be a different thing as well. You write your set accordingly; it’s always changing.

This is a different band from the Mutineers tour; I stripped it back from eight people to five, and the backing singers are gone. So we’re back to a slightly looser, slightly different set-up with five of us playing and everyone singing. It’s a slightly different beast than the Mutineers tour, and there will be a different set to match.

CM: You’re playing here on July 3, and July 4 is Independence Day. Do you have anything special planned?

DG: No, we do the opposite of celebrate. All of us are clinging to the rags of the empire. We’ll just sit in misery somewhere.

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Movie Review

New film The Plague turns tween bullying into chilling drama

Photo courtesy of IFC

Everett Blunck in The Plague.

Anybody who’s attended elementary school in the last 100 years knows the concept of “cooties,” a fictional affliction that is typically caught when touched by a member of the opposite sex. A more updated version of the same idea is featured in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, this time called the “Cheese Touch,” making anyone who touches a moldy piece of cheese on the school’s basketball court an outcast.

A much more menacing version of this “disease” is on display in The Plague, which takes place at a summer water polo camp for tweens. The film focuses on Ben (Everett Blunck), a slightly awkward boy who struggles to fit in with the “cool” crowd led by Jake (Kayo Martin). That group has no problems making fun of others that they deem to be different, especially Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), who has been ostracized because of a rash he has that the kids call “the plague.”

Ben wants to be part of the main group, but his natural empathy leads him to reach out to Eli on more than one occasion despite Eli engaging in some uncomfortable behavior. With the camp’s coach (Joel Edgerton) not much help when it comes to the bullying tactics by Jake and others, especially those that take place at night, Ben is left to fend for himself. His vacillations between wanting to be accepted and wanting to do what’s right continue until his hand is forced.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Charlie Polinger, the film has all the feel of a horror movie without actually being a horror. The staging used by Polinger gives the film a claustrophobic feel as Ben can’t seem to escape the psychological torture inflicted by Jake and others no matter where he goes. He also employs a jarring score by Johan Lenox to great effect, one that’s designed to keep viewers on edge even when nothing bad is happening.

No matter how far removed you are from middle school, the film will likely bring up feelings you thought you had left behind. Much like with Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Polinger finds a way to tap into something universal in his depiction of tweens, an age when everyone is still discovering who they really are. Some go along to get along, others don’t even attempt to fit in, but no one truly feels settled.

Whether the plague is real or not in the world of the film is up for debate. While most of the time it comes off as something made up to underscore the feeling of otherness felt by Ben, Polinger does literalize it to a degree. He even tiptoes up to the line of body horror before wisely retreating, although what he does show will still make some viewers squeamish. However, because he seems to be leaning one way before pulling back, there’s the possibility that some will be disappointed by the tease of something more intense.

The film’s biggest success is in its casting. Finding good child actors is notoriously tough, and yet Polinger and casting director Rebecca Dealy found a bunch who sell the story for all it’s worth. Blunck, Martin, and Rasmussen get the most play, but everyone else complements them well. Edgerton is the only well-known actor in the film, but he’s used sparingly and isn’t asked to do much, leaving the kids to carry the story on their shoulders.

Fitting in as a tween is hard enough without others actively trying to find ways to cast someone out. The Plague is an effective demonstration of the dynamics that can play out in a competitive environment that also includes a group that has yet to develop into fully-rounded people. It features discomfort on multiple levels, marking an auspicious debut for Polinger.

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The Plague is now playing in theaters.

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