Conan Gray took a detour into retro, bombastic synth-pop with last year’s Found Heaven, and his new single, “This Song,” is yet another evolution — a melancholy, indie-ish, string-enhanced mid-tempo track with production by Phoebe Bridgers collaborator Ethan Gruska. The song is the first release from Gray’s next album, Wishbone, executive-produced by Dan Nigro. Gray also announced a new tour with opening act hemlocke springs, which begins Sept. 11 in Ohio and ends in Mexico in October.
In a recent social media post, Gray explained that he had been secretly writing the songs on Wishbone, out Aug. 15, for two years. “After shows in the basements of the venues, in the sheets of my hotel beds, in narrow gaps between tours, I’d come back home and write all the things I felt nobody wanted to hear,” he wrote. “Maybe even the things I didn’t want people to hear… I didn’t know I was making anything, and I had no plan to release any of it.” Eventually, he started playing the songs for his friends, who liked them, and then took them to Nigro and began recording.
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“Over time, I began to feel something I’d never felt before,” Gray continued. “I started to need the music… . It felt like the music was reminding me who I am, at an experimental time in my twenties where ‘who I am.’ had no definition at all. Slowly I started to see myself in full picture. The slivers of myself I’d always been, but never faced. The songs I’d always been writing, but never singing. Before I knew it I was surrounded by an album.”
The Wishbone Pajama Show Tour Dates
Sep. 11 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
Sep. 13 — Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
Sep. 14 — Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Sep. 16 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Petersen Events Center
Sep. 17 — Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sep. 19 — Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
Sep. 20 — Fairfax, VA @ EagleBank Arena
Sep. 22 — Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live
Sep. 24 — Nashville, TN @ Ascend Amphitheater
Sep. 26 — Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
Sep. 28 — St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
Sep. 29 — Kansas City, MO @ Starlight Theatre
Oct. 1 — West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
Oct. 3 — Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
Oct. 4 — San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
Oct. 6 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Oct. 16 — Mexico City, MX @ Palacio de los Deportes
Oct. 17 — Guadalajara, MX @ Auditorio Telmex
Oct. 19 — Monterrey, MX @ Auditorio Banamex
