Macy Gray
Biography Macy Gray
Macy Gray
is a multi-award-winning American musician, songwriter, producer and actress. She has drawn comparisons to some of the world's most celebrated; including Billie Holliday and Janis Joplin. She is most renowned for her own approach to sound, lyrics and fashion.
Born Natalie McIntyre in Canton, Ohio, on September 6, 1969, Macy remembers very vividly, being bullied in her school years - remarkably for her voice. "I had this super high pitched voice, and everytime I spoke, someone would laugh and mock me. So I stopped speaking in public. I was so afraid of the rejection and humiliation. It made me quiet, which was really devastating, because I had so much I wanted to say. It forced me to find other ways of expressing myself - not consciously, it just went that way. I started making up songs...they would just pop in my head. As miserable as I was at school, I understand now that everything happened just the way it was supposed to. Had I been accepted and popular in high school, I don't think I would have ever turned to music."
Despite her difficulties growing up, Macy was a gifted student who began Classical Piano Study at age 7 After being told by her mother that her only ticket out was college, Macy made a point to ace her high school education. After graduating high school in 1987, she got acceptance letters from The USA Naval Acadamy, USC Film School and Standford Creative Writing. Macy chose USC FIlm School and moved to Los Angeles.
While at film school, Macy met a young music major. Charmed at first sight, she told him she was a passionate musician who wrote lyrics. Macy was neither of those things at the time, but it worked! She was invited to his dorm room to write and record music on his 4-track. "We started making songs after class and on weekends, and it just grew on me. I had to be around music all the time. It wasn't so much that I loved it, I got to the point where I couldn't do without it."
Macy's first live performance was at a downtown Los Angeles hotel singing jazz standards for Sunday brunch. "I'm singing my heart out, and everybody's at the buffet or the bar, talking way louder than I could sing. No one was paying attention to me, but that was ok because I didn't have much confidence in my voice at the time." After graduation, Macy opened her own night spot in Hollywood, called: THE WE OURS, a small cafe that featured open mic on the weekends.
Over the next few years, Macy would work several jobs, most notably as a production assistant at MTV and VH1. In her spare time, she was recording whenever she could, making "demo tapes," mailing them to record labels, playing clubs on the Sunset Strip. In 1994, Atlantic Records A&R, Tom Carolan, happened to catch her performing at the Roxy. He signed the 25 year old, and Macy recorded her first album: "Thing of Beauty."
That same year, Macy found out she was expecting. Upon Atlantic hearing the news, Macy was dropped from the label and "Thing of Beauty" was never released.
By 1997, Macy was married with three kids, living in North Hollywaood. With so much new responsibility, her dreams of stardom seemed far away. When she separated from her husband and moved back to Ohio to live with her mom, she had no idea that her demo had landed on the ears of Jeff Blue, an executive at Zomba publishing.
Miraculously, Jeff got a hold of Macy's Ohio phone number and called. He expressed that he was particularly excited about a song on the tape called: "I Try." Jeff shopped the tape to label execs and in the winter of '98, Macy was invited to meet the President of Epic Records, the late Ms. Polly Anthony. The label released "Macy Gray on How Life is" on July 1, 1999. It is 5 time grammy nominated and sold over 9 million copies.
Starting July 1, 2024 we will begin the year long celebration of the 25th birthday of "On How Life Is" in Australia; and continue through 2025 in Europe, South America, Asia and the United States.
