David Gray

Maybe something makes you realize that you lose a little bit.

And when it comes back, you're certainly not going to forget how important it is.

Well, I don't think it gets any easier on the body or the mind, to be honest.

You enter a sort of weird world of exhaustion and adrenaline.

And it's the distance from home and your forced proximity to other individuals that you've spent far too much time with in the past makes it a challenging process.

How did I word that?

That was quite careful.

This is the politics show, so I was quite political there.

They're all friends, though, right?

Yeah, no, we are.

We're a big dysfunctional family.

And that's all part of it.

There is real loyalty and investment there.

We've been playing this music.

This is the flesh of my music, my band.

But yeah, you've all spent a lot of time in close quarters and going away in the pressure cooker.

I wish I could say I can be more chilled out about shows when I'm older.

the show is everything and it has to count every second of the show they're all different it's a new audience for me it's go again you go again each night you don't do the same thing you did last night it's a new show so you have to make it again and and feel a new connection and build that from song one till it finishes it's got to be special that's what you're there for to be present on the stage not just turn up and go through the motions like a sort of jukebox style gig so

That's demanding.

And I obviously have high standards and they have to meet those standards.