Skylar Grey will release her hotly anticipated debut album Don’t Look Down from KIDinaKORNER/Interscope on July 9 th, it was announced today. True to her unconventional style, Grey will release a track with an accompanying music video each month leading into the album release, beginning on April 16 th with her song “Final Warning.” Don’t Look Down is executive produced by Eminem and Alex Da Kid.
“After years of experimenting and collaborating with so many amazing people, I’m beyond excited to be putting out an album of my own,” said Grey. “It took a while, but I finally found a balance between sounds that truly represents me- an emotional, small town American singer songwriter who ventured into the land of hip hop music. ‘Final Warning’ is my favorite song on the album. I wrote it the same week I wrote ‘Love the Way You Lie’ in my cabin in the woods in Oregon, inspired by the same tumultuous relationship.”
The 11-track album will feature various songs and visuals that take the listener on a sonic exploration spanning darkly brooding yet beautiful vocals, innovative beats, biting lyrics and vast cinematic imagery. Lyrically, the album’s songs are reflective of Grey’s life from rebellious childhood years to more recently as she struggled to find her place in the world, and it showcases Grey’s dusky, ethereal voice and gift for haunting melodies, which are set to inventive, percussive beats.
Grey’s journey to this point has been studded with highs and lows. She was born Holly Brook Hafermann in the village of Mazomanie, Wisconsin, a town so tiny it does not have a stoplight. Grey began performing professionally at age six with her mother as a folk duo, and by the age of 14 had released three independent albums. In middle school, exhausted from the ridicule from her peers, Grey went solo and began writing her own music, eventually quitting high school during her junior year to move to Los Angeles and devote herself to becoming a serious artist. After releasing a major label solo album as Holly Brook in 2006 that didn’t accurately reflect Grey, she asked to end her recording deal and took to the road earning a living on the road with Duncan Sheik, playing keyboards in his band as an outlet to express herself musically since she couldn’t release any of her own music for a year and a half following her label departure. She worked her way up the California central coast, landing at the Southern coast of Oregon where she took up residency and isolated herself in a cabin in the woods and began writing more music. This adventure inspired the name change and allowed Grey to evolve as an artist, musician and songwriter and has led her to produce a comprehensive album reflecting her personality in every fulfilling way she has dreamed of.
The first single, “C’mon Let Me Ride,” amassed more than 4 million views in less than three days and has garnered more than 13 million views in total. Since the release, Grey has been named (For More on Skylar Grey Click Next) one of Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30 musicians in their 2012 special issue alongside Adele, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Drake and Bruno Mars. She also wrote Cee Lo Green’s newest single “Only You,” and is a featured vocalist on will.i.am’s upcoming solo album #willpower due April 23 rd from Interscope Records.
Grey is a five-time GRAMMY-nominated singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is responsible for co-writing some of the most memorable songs to light up the Billboard Hot 100 and iTunes sales charts, totaling more than 25 million singles globally. Grey co-wrote the biggest selling single of 2010: Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” which earned her two GRAMMY Award nominations for Best Song and Best Rap Song of the Year. She also co-wrote and appeared on Dr. Dre’s “I Need A Doctor,” which she performed alongside Dre and Eminem on the 2011 GRAMMY Awards telecast and for which she was nominated for two GRAMMY Awards. In January 2012, Grey released The Buried Sessions of Skylar Grey , which featured special acoustic performances by Grey of three songs she wrote and produced: the original demo of “Love the Way Part III” (the original “Love the Way You Lie” made popular by Eminem and Rihanna), “Coming Home Part II” (originally performed by Diddy-Dirty Money) and “Words” (originally “Words I Never Said,” performed by Lupe Fiasco).
