In this episode of ‘Music You Should Know,’ Conan Gray talks about his new album Wishbone, where he breaks down the spiritual meaning of his album, why he thinks it’s “truly miserable,” his inspiration with “Vodka Cranberry,” why he expects fans to show up in jammies for his ‘THE WISHBONE PAJAMA SHOW’ tour, what song Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan and him wish they wrote and recorded and more!
What’s your favorite track off of ‘Wishbone?’ Let us know in the comments!
Conan Gray: I understand why people are interested, because humans are naturally curious creatures, but I don’t give a f–k because they’re never right. Writing the album was like my favorite part of that time. I had so much fun. I was writing lyrics, smiling ear to ear like so happy to get things off my chest, I felt immense freedom. I was literally, I literally have never had a better time writing an album, which is hilarious because the album is truly miserable.
I named it Wishbone because I think relationships remind me a lot of wishbones. It’s like the only wishing ritual that requires two people, but a wishbone requires two people, and they essentially make a bet against each other, and they’re like, “Hey, I want my wish to come true. So let’s do this. You might win and get your dreams come true, but I also might win, and if I win, then you get nothing.” And it reminded me a lot of, I don’t know, breakups and relationships, and it was a time in my life where I was very superstitious because I was going crazy.
It just felt like a song that encapsulated the entire album. A lot of the feelings that I hit on the album all get, I don’t know, summed up in “Vodka Cranberry.” It felt like the right song to kind of give people a taste of what’s gonna be on the whole thing. I think I have been around on Earth long enough to know that I am so entirely un-special and not unique in any way whatsoever. And I think that when it comes to things that we experience in life, we all feel the same things and even like super niche stuff, like someone wearing one specific hat over and over and over, and it’s a polo cap is like, so un-unique to me. There are so many people on Earth who also wear that polo cap. So to me, I’m like, I can get as specific as I want in any song because I know that I don’t matter, and that I’m just like everyone else.
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