ON THE RISE
“I live my life in sounds;” Bailey Grey, indie-pop, singer-songwriter shares. New Jersey-based, globally trained musical theater and performance artist unpacks the creative channeling of her life’s chapters into her newly released LP, Love it All.
Bailey rewinds us back to a young age, where she grew up immersed in music. Her dad was a music teacher and band instructor, and having been regularly exposed to a diverse range of eras and genres, Bailey knew she was immediately drawn to the language of music. Much of her early artistic foundation came from theater, growing up as a Broadway child actor in NYC and then eventually earning her master’s at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
While she admits that she has enjoyed the imagination and discipline of it all, she also found herself living in other characters’ storylines, or within the realm of auditioning spending a lot of her time trying to fit into certain boxes, which understandably kept her from knowing parts of herself. She strove for an art form that would help her discover and process her truth, her authenticity, and the world around her. And voilà! An album was born.
Bailey Grey’s debut LP, Love it All, explores her journey of self-discovery in the midst of a chaotic yet beautiful world. Writing in a range of genres, from indie-pop and jazz to alternative rock and blues, Bailey reflects on what it means in her life to “love it all”: the adversity, the triumphs, the process, and the lessons. Both playful and introspective, the album reveals how embracing her music has helped her validate the lows, ride the highs, uncover her strength, and celebrate her resilience and humanity.
The EP’s Title track “Love It All,” helps us understand the intertwined nature of her creative process and her life story.
I want to think that I could love it all,
I wanna reach into the sky and let the stars fall
Create a spark, a wave,
Embark on something beautiful
Bigger than you
Bigger than I could ever be
I fall in love with every song that I hear,
Polyrhythmic harmonies reflect my atmosphere,
The intervals, my neighbors
The chords my fresh air
When I misplace my key the rhythm still lingers here
Another integration of her identity and creative process is how she embraces imperfection, and what makes us human. While there’s so much beauty in what humans can be, there are also reminders of the darkness we create when we’re at war with and within ourselves. In those moments, it can be hard to find love. Bailey shares the power of music as both an outlet to cope with the senseless imbalance, and a way to unite and connect with others despite the growing divides.
The world can be overwhelming at times, and finding a platform to make a positive impact and share love can be challenging, but it’s part of her spirit. It’s a loaded and overarching theme behind the album and the title track, “Love It All,” sets the stage for unraveling what that means.
Bailey points out the intentionality behind the order of the LP’s songs and takes listeners on a roller coaster of these interconnected experiences. The music genres and corresponding energies both reflect the emotional turmoil and the appreciation of it all.
She explains that each song comes to her differently…sometimes it starts with lyrics, other times with a full-blown orchestra in her head, or even a simple guitar riff and chord progression. The process is different every time. She especially loves the collaborative aspect of bringing each vision to life with her counterpart and producer, Sam Cook-Stuntz.
From the jazzy pop-twist in “Out in Under” to the vulnerability of “Battle Cry”, complemented with an emotive harmonica, Bailey Grey sings:
It's what I need to make the truth seem loud
Sometimes farthest away from the crowd.
She elaborates on growing up with the pressure to conform to certain standards, and how, in the noise and chaos of trying to fit in, you can end up feeling totally isolated or buried. In those moments, she’s learned the importance of creating space to find clarity and reconnect with herself. For her, that solace “away from the crowd,” often comes through journaling and poetry, which serve in pulling pieces from within or seeding new songs.
Then there’s “Use Me,” with its playful piano groove and delightful imagery that explores a healthy take on death.
Since its release as a single a few months ago, “Use Me” has struck a chord with listeners and fans resonating with the many ways of recycling your body after death. One particularly moving moment came when a mother reached out to Bailey on TikTok, and asked to use the song for her son's end-of-life ceremony. He had passed away at a young age, and the message gave her a sense of connection through a really difficult grieving period.
From the power of those messages, to the blue-eyed soul of “Get Lost,” with its expressive and cinematic vocals...
To the alt-rock vibes of “Nothing”...
To the springy, sweet ukulele in “When I Fall”, a song Bailey shares was one of the first she ever wrote and then reimagined recently during a new chapter of falling in love...
And finally, to the intimate, acoustic, and perfectly imperfect live rendition of “Easy,” which closes out the LP.
The twists and turns of Bailey’s creativity in this album are endless, so take the listening ride and enjoy the spontaneity of Love it All.
Love It All is available now on all streaming platforms.
Bailey closes with a few reminders to listeners and readers alike,
“Make more stuff. Make more art. You can find yourself through your creativity and really uncover who you are. Too many people stray away or give up because it's a hard industry to break into, but even if you do a little bit each day, it’s worth it because it’s what you love.”
To stay connected with Bailey Grey follow her on social media:
ON THE RISE
As Belle & Sebastian share their buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, frontman Stuart Murdoch has spoken to NME about capturing the feeling back home and his hopes for the team since childhood.
Released today (Tuesday June 2), the Scottish indie heroes’ bid for their nation’s tournament anthem was written after the team’s surprise 4-2 qualifying win against Denmark.
“I felt like we were watching history in the moment, like the hand of God from the old National Lottery adverts was pointing at us,” Murdoch told NME about that game-changing victory. “It was meant to be. Scotland aren’t a terrific team and Denmark are better, but it just felt that day that Scotland were destined to win. Three out of the four goals were things of beauty.”
Produced by and co-written with Pete Ferguson and premiered at the band’s recent London Royal Albert Hall show as part of the anniversary tour for their classic first two albums ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, the soaring song is intrinsically Belle & Sebastian as it morphs from a hymn to a an orchestral disco jam as Murdoch sings of a nation’s hopes and his own boyhood dreams.
NME spoke to Murdoch from the band’s North American tour, where we found him in a graveyard in Texas. “I was just looking for a park because Austin is a pretty scary place downtown now, so I’ve ended up in the Texas Cemetery,” he shared via Zoom.
Was there anyone famous buried there?
“I was looking around and I found the founder of Austin City Limits, which is pretty cool as that’s where we’re playing tonight. I’m looking at one now and it just says, ‘Martin: he loved the law’. Then underneath it says, ‘Billie Louise: she loved the lawyer’.”
We joke that there’s the opening to a Belle & Sebastian song if there ever there was one. “It’s great! It’s given me inspiration.”
For now, read the rest of interview with Murdoch below as he tells us about Scotland’s chances, 30 years of hurt, if fans will be singing it at the top of their lungs in Canada, the US and Mexico this summer, and what’s next for the band.
NME: Hello Stuart. Here we are with ‘It Only Takes One Lion’ Who needs three?
Stuart Murdoch: “Who needs three? Good question. I wouldn’t know!”
What’s the mood been like in Scotland since you qualified?
“It’s funny. I’ve noticed this everywhere: with the World Cup there’s a mixture of cynicism and anticipation. When the actual tournament starts, everyone will get excited about it. Because of FIFA, the peace prize, the ticket prices, people seem quite down about it. I found that in Mexico. They were quite fed up with the general hype about it. I’m in the States just now and you shouldn’t believe all the hype: people are people. The States are just as ‘great’ as ever. We love coming here, we love the cities. The general sense of North American optimism will make for a good tournament.”
“With Scotland though, people will definitely be excited about it. You have to understand, it’s been 30 years since Scotland qualified so I think everybody and their dog has written a song for the team.”
How do you meet the challenge of penning a World Cup anthem, when there have been so many legendary bangers and absolutely shite duds?
“I never planned it. I woke up with a tune in my head and a feeling. That’s the way it should always be for songs. I couldn’t control myself and it was quite straight-forward. I wrote this initial bit about how I felt about the current World Cup team and the qualifying game. It was more introspective.
“When it starts off with, ‘The days are dark and long…’, it’s just my general feeling about football. I’ve been going to see my own team quite a lot recently. It’s my little anthem for how I feel about football and following Scotland for the last 50 years, just the ups and downs. It’s quite a heartfelt thing. When I was eight or nine, the Scottish team meant so much to me, it the thing I was most invested in. There’s a line in there about how I used to memorise the whole squad before ‘78 and 82.”
Tell us about lyric: “This is Scotland, where everyone knows you start with nothing… where you can join an army for peace”…
“My wife made the video for it and she said, ‘I’m not sure I like that line about everyone starting with nothing’. Our first game is against Haiti and they really have nothing. Their country is pretty poor and they’re going through hard times. It was almost a throwaway line and I’m not sure what I meant by it, but in a footballing sense every game starts with nothing. Even if it’s against Brazil, you’ve always got a chance!
“The army refers to The Tartan Army, which has really been quite a remarkable institution for the past 30 years. We changed from drunken buffoons that used to wreck things to this excellent supporting brigade.”
It’s not your standard football sing-along. Can you see it being sung in the terraces?
“I’m not sure, I didn’t cynically design it for that. Many people have said to me in the past, ‘None of your songs have a chorus, you need to write one’. ‘This is Scotland’ is a chorus! They things need to happen organically. I’m sure the fans will still be singing ‘Yes sir, I can boogie’ for years to come.”
What do you actually think of Scotland’s chances right now?
“With the last Euros, they maybe got stage fright or didn’t have that tournament experience. I think Andy Robertson [captain] will be telling them, ‘We really need to produce our best stuff’. If they do and we see them actually playing football, then I don’t really care about the results that much. I just want to see Scotland exceeding our expectations of them. That Denmark game was so crazy that everything after just feels like a bonus.”
If miracles do happen and Scotland make it to the final, how will you celebrate? A free gig in Glasgow?
“Of course, yes! Free everything. If we even got close, I think the whole country would shut down for a year and the GDP would drop. We’d go into a massive recession but no one would care.
“We were playing a gig in Mexico City and I told the crowd, ‘It’s you and us, Mexico and Scotland in the final’. Mexico have never really got close either. I told them it would be five goals a piece, even after everyone takes a penalty and we have to share the trophy. I would settle for that.”
You released two albums in quick succession with 2022’s ‘A Bit of Previous’, 2023’s ‘Late Developers’ and then your debut novel Nobody’s Empire in 2024. You’ve been busy! Is there any progress on new material?
“We went through a period where we recorded a lot and we said, ‘Let’s not record for a while and give ourselves a couple of cycles off’. We’re doing these 30th anniversary shows so we’re just going to lean on the back catalogue and cruise for a while. We’re doing a year on and a year off so everyone can focus on different things.
We’re not looking at new Belles stuff for a while. I’m meant to be developing Nobody’s Empire into a film, so that’s my next task. It’s a long way off from being made but I’m going to write the script for that.”
Scotland’s first World Cup tournament match is against Haiti on Sunday June 14, before they go on to play Morocco on Friday June 19 and Brazil on Wednesday June 24.
The band’s ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ anniversary tour continues throughout the summer, performing the iconic albums in full during across the UK, Europe, North America, Mexico, Australia, Singapore and Japan. Visit here for tickets and more information.
