Gretta Ray on the heartbreak of severe illness

Inherited

Australian singer-songwriter Gretta Ray discusses her journey from winning Triple J Unearthed High to facing a life-altering heart infection

Key takeaways

• Gretta Ray won the Triple J Unearth High competition at age 18 with her song 'Drive'.
• In 2024, Gretta was hospitalized in London with infective endocarditis shortly after arriving.

Main topics

• Music career milestones
• Health crisis and infective endocarditis

Notable quotes

Getting sick imploded life as I knew it.

Conclusion

The episode provides an inspiring look at finding strength, gratitude,

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Greta Ray, Australian singer-songwriter, you first rose to prominence when you were 18 years old when you submitted your debut single, Drive, to Triple J's Unearthed competition and it's been 10 years since you released Drive. Speaker 4 (0:12) Getting to still do this like 10 years on from that moment is really special and a lot has happened in that 10-year period. I want to go back to 2024, you'd Speaker 3 (0:22) arrived in London and after two days you were admitted to hospital where you found out that you had a Speaker 4 (0:27) rare heart condition. Getting sick imploded life as I knew it. I lost my health, my long-term relationship, my plans for my career. I was pretty desperate to like find any way to make what was happening in my life something that was empowering rather than something that I would let destroy me. Speaker 2 (0:53) This episode of Inherited is brought to you by Prime Video. Your new favourite rom-com movie, The Love Hypothesis, is available exclusively on Prime Video. Speaker 3 (1:03) Greta Ray, welcome to Inherited. Hi, thanks for having me. Thank you for coming in. This isn't the first time we met. We met on stage at Maisie Peters' Melbourne tour. You so kindly taught me, Charlotte and Annabelle, the dance that we came out for for about two minutes. And how many times do you think we rehearsed that before we went out? Oh my gosh, Speaker 4 (1:20) so many. We had like a real system. By the time that I met you guys, it was like, okay, so Maisie's obviously got a lot to take care of. And she will come and like show like the basics of the dance. And then when she has to like go, and work it was like okay and over to Greta and Greta will like polish up the dance and I was you know I was very happy to like take on board that role. dance boot camp backstage at the Forum. It was. Speaker 3 (1:43) It was so much fun. The Animal and Charlotte couldn't get over it. We were buzzing after that night. And you performed Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac with her on stage. Oh my gosh, I know. A perfect mashup with her Speaker 4 (1:55) song Say My Name In Your Sleep, which I sing backing vocals on on the record. And I remember when she was first telling me about that song and she was like, yeah, it's kind of got this like, you know, similar sentiment to Silver Springs. And so the fact that we could do a mashup, it's pretty awesome. Like, Two, like, singer-songwriter girlies singing those lyrics, just all the conversations that we've had about, like, what we're writing about and all of the heartbreaks, like, over the years. It was, like, very special getting to have that moment with her. When Speaker 3 (2:22) did you first meet Maisie? Was it over in London? It was over in Speaker 4 (2:25) London. We met 2020 right before the pandemic meant that I had to head back to Australia. So I was living over there at the time was my first attempt of trying to live in London. And we were at a Lennon Stella show. Do you know Lennon Stella, the artist? No. Oh, my God, she's magnificent. So there's like a duo, Lennon and Maisie, and they're on that show Nashville. So Lennon is like the biggest sister. Oh, Speaker 1 (2:48) yes, I know the show Nashville. Speaker 4 (2:48) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 1 (2:49) And she's amazing and she was doing Speaker 4 (2:52) a show in London and I went along and I saw Maisie across the room and by that point we had so many mutual connections and I had always been like one person away from her and I was such a fan and I – would kind of like watch her on Instagram and be like, I just really feel like we would be best friends. So I saw her across the room and I was like, I'm just going to go and say hi. And I'm just going to introduce myself. And she was so wonderful. And we watched the show together. And then like right after the show ended, I was like, so like, do you want to like hang out? Like, and she was like, oh my God, yes. I literally have like three friends. And so we went and got sushi. I think it was the next day. And then we just like chatted for hours. And I remember we spoke about so much and we had so much more to talk about. And then we parted ways and we were texting afterwards being like, oh my God, that was so great. And then we hadn't even spoken about Taylor Swift. Like, and she was like, oh my God, wait, there's so much that we have to address. Had she performed at Taylor Swift by that point yet? Speaker 3 (3:54) No, this was 2020 Queen. This was like so Speaker 4 (3:57) long ago. But it was like we were such huge fans, both of us, obviously. So anyway, yes, and now we're still so close. And to kind of maintain this like long-distance friendship like with the time zones being so crazy. Like she has seen me at my lowest of lows like and, yeah, it's very – we often joke about the fact that it's like, I couldn't do this job without you like in the sense of having someone. across the sea to talk to about like all of the intricate details about um yeah working as a full-time musician and all that that comes with like I feel very lucky to have her and her wisdom and with our like album campaigns we're always kind of in sync somewhat And with Fluorescence, like that's like kind of six months ahead of my next album campaign. So whenever we're talking about that stuff, she's like giving me advice. And yeah, it's, I'm very lucky to have her. It's Speaker 3 (4:49) important to have people like that. Friendships, especially in the, you know, career and field that you're in, that you can bounce. Because these Speaker 4 (4:54) creative industries can be crazy sometimes. Speaker 3 (4:57) They can be Speaker 4 (4:57) crazy sometimes. But yeah, she is very wise and there's a lot that I have learned from her. Well, Speaker 3 (5:02) your rule is singing grace with your dad's extended family. I want to go right back to the start when you first got introduced to music and how your love of music came to be. You told our producers that it's something you and your family do before every meal. Essentially, you said, don't date me unless you feel intensely caroling at Christmas and singing grace, holding hands at every other gathering. Speaker 4 (5:21) I love that. Yeah. Speaker 4 (5:25) It's true. I think one of my favorite things is like having lunch or dinner with my extended family, all of the cousins, and there's like a new boyfriend or girlfriend there like for the first time. And then we all hold hands and start singing and just the look on that poor person's face being like, whoa, I've joined a cult. Because we all love to sing and we do this beautiful grace and like, you know. five-part harmony or whatever like it's so yeah it's just been tradition like my entire life to do that before every meal and um yeah it's very special and I'm not necessarily like religious and by any means but you know my ma and pop like they both we I went to church with them when I was a kid and so yeah it's just I think it's that thing of singing together and that is yeah it's become this rule that we do that before every meal when all of us are lucky enough to be catching up and also like we all live in different states and so it's rare when we can all get together and have that time together. So I feel like, yeah, getting to sing, it just, yeah, symbolises like our love for music and our love for each other. Speaker 3 (6:28) Take me back to your childhood when your love of music began. Are both of Speaker 4 (6:32) your parents musicians? They're both musical people. They're not. My mum is an education consultant and my... Dad has worked in like group work facilitation and they're both amazing and I look up to them so much. My dad, because, you know, the Grace tradition is like, yeah, with his extended family, like all of those people are very musical people. My dad has like a beautiful singing voice. And my mom, she kind of like grew up doing little cover gigs and she was actually the person that taught me how to play guitar. And she is such... Like she's like a music head. Like she's such a fan and listens to so many music podcasts and will like send me links to things. Like she's really up with, you know, the times. Like she knows what's going on in the music scene. And the other day she went to a gig and then she sent me like all of her thoughts on it. I think in like another life she could have been like a music journalist or something. And so they're just both very passionate about music and the arts and like hugely supportive of what I do, which I'm like I don't take that for granted. I feel very lucky. And they're both, yeah, beautiful singers. And so growing up, I have been like extensively surrounded by musicians and music. We've listened to so much music and we're always singing and my parents love to put on house concerts at my family home. And they invite people over? That is so cool. How many people will come? I mean, it kind of like depends, but I mean, sometimes it's like... 30, 40 people around. And like, sometimes it's like, you know, they'll do it as like a ticketed thing. So the artist can then profit from that gig, which is obviously like, you know, artists need to make money. So yeah, I really love that. And so it's definitely like if you're going to an event that is organized by my family, they'll be singing. Like you just kind of have to be prepared for that. to happen. We're all going to break into song at some point. It's awesome. Speaker 3 (8:26) I love it. Has there ever been a time when you've brought like a new date or partner over and... Like, did you tell them before or surprise Speaker 4 (8:32) them? I mean, I think it just kind of comes with the territory. Like, I can't really remember having to, like, sit anyone down and be like, right, so we're Speaker 1 (8:39) going Speaker 4 (8:39) to get to my house and there's going to be some singing because it's like it's so, you know, who I am. Like, I think if I've not had this experience, but if I were to ever have the experience of, like, bringing a partner back home and then being like, oh. All that music stuff that you do is really weird. I would be like, whoa, what the hell? This is not the right person. Absolutely. Speaker 3 (9:01) So take me back to when you first started writing music. How old were you? Seven. Seven. So what did writing Speaker 4 (9:07) music for seven-year-old Greta look like? We had a keyboard that got kind of dropped off at our house, which was just kind of like, oh, do you guys want this keyboard? Like, I'm giving it away or something, like a random situation. Suddenly we had a keyboard. It was put in my room and I just kind of started to play around with it. Like, I'd never, you know, played an instrument by that point. I was only seven. And then I just kind of figured out some notes and immediately started writing a song, like before I could properly play the instrument. And then I was like, and now I will perform it. And yeah, then after that, that was my whole family's life forever was just me being like, guys, take a second. I have a song that I would like to play for you. Well, yeah, in your final year of Speaker 3 (9:52) high school, you won Triple J's Unearthed competition. And that's when you submitted Drive. Yeah, crazy. It's Speaker 2 (9:57) been Speaker 3 (9:57) 10 years since Speaker 2 (9:58) Drive. Girl, Speaker 3 (9:59) I know. Speaker 2 (9:59) How does that Speaker 3 (10:00) feel? Like looking back at Greta playing Drive at 18 when she won that competition. So now, I mean, you've got your show next week in Sydney at the time of recording. I Speaker 4 (10:09) do, yeah. You know, like the overriding feeling is just I feel so grateful. I know that's like very cliche, but like getting to still do this like 10 years on from that moment is really special and a lot has happened in that 10-year period. And getting to kind of live my life in a way where I can document it through music and then be fortunate enough to... know that there's going to be an audience to like listen to these stories that I have to tell about my life and relationships and all of my thoughts and feelings. Like, yeah, I feel incredibly privileged to get to do this. And when I look back at that footage from 10 years ago, I just am like, whoa, I was so young. Like that is kind of, you know, what I think every time I watch it. But I also was so... I was captivated by this love affair that I had with music at the time. Like, I was so deep in writing songs all the time. I was just obsessed with it. Like, it was, you know, not something that kind of happened out of the blue. Like, I had just been writing and writing and writing. So when that moment kind of did happen for that song, it kind of felt like, well, I mean, here we go. You know, like I had been just kind of like. hustling in a way for like the two years prior because I had recorded this EP called Elsewhere and going into the studio and working on my original music had kind of you know really given me a sense of purpose and kind of like brought me to life in this whole new way and I was like cool I'm just going to keep writing and I'm going to play some shows and I'm going to do this and so I had all of this like enthusiasm and excitement about it and I think you can really see that on my face in the in that video which is such a precious video. Because I was just like so in love with it. And, you know, my love for that song still like is very real and authentic because I think that it could just as easily be the case where I went, oh God, Speaker 3 (12:06) that song, it's like Speaker 4 (12:07) been around for 10 years. I don't want to sing it anymore. But when I hear it and when I sing it, I am reminded of, you know, how lucky I've been to build this beautiful thing and the adventures that I've gotten to go on as a result of it. Oh, it'd be so special. And you do Speaker 3 (12:22) have just such a beautiful, incredible voice. You were so talented. You were 18 when you first rose to prominence. When did it dawn on you that you'd become Speaker 4 (12:30) more than like a local musician? I kind of look back on that time kind of from when I was like 18 to, I reckon 18 to like 21. And it was a very exciting couple of years, but I was kind of, I think as anyone of that age would have been, I was kind of just like floating through that time. You know, like I was like, whoa, we're playing all the shows. Because at that time, like there were so many more festivals, like touring was kind of like a much bigger thing. And I was just playing a lot of shows and I was kind of meeting all these fans because I guess with the nature of what had happened with Drive, it was like. suddenly, here's an audience that you have, which is amazing. And I was so lucky for that. But I think, you know, I was also, yeah, incredibly young and trying to navigate like, okay, well, I'm so grateful to these people for being here. I want to give them a good show. I want them to connect with and enjoy the music. And I want to nourish this relationship that I have with them as a result of them listening to my music. But that was kind of a lot for someone so young, I suppose. And, you know, I played Like the year after Unearthed, the year after I graduated high school, I played Splendor in the Grass, which was amazing. And there were so many people. And I just like look at footage of that time. I'm like, oh, my God. Speaker 1 (13:47) 19-year-old Greta. I Speaker 3 (13:48) was so Speaker 4 (13:48) tiny. Like I didn't know what to do with that crowd. And there's so much to learn about like stagecraft and like all of the things that you need to focus on making a – you know, a great show come to life. And I was really now in hindsight, like quite keen to like scratch the itch of the pop thing, which I wasn't really