If you’ve been searching for the perfect soundtrack to 2020, you’re in luck.
Gritty, uncompromising, and with no-f*cks-given – Mia Wray parachuted onto triple j Unearthed and nailed the landing with a showstopping first upload.
Whether your first taste of ‘Work For Me’ was its first spin on 2020 with Richard Kingsmill, it’s music video premiere on triple j Unearthed’s socials or one of it’s many follow up plays on triple j in the two week’s since it’s upload, it’s the type of song you immediately copy and paste into every group chat and ensuing conversation.
Whilst it might’ve been triple j Unearthed’s introduction to Mia Wray, the 24-year-old from Melbourne is certainly no stranger to music.
“I started singing maybe around 11, when my grandad passed away,” she told us in a full chat you can hear up top. “He left his piano to us and the only place that it would fit was in my room.”
“I started playing it secretly and I think one day my sister thought that it was a CD and she realised it was me singing. I knew straight away that I really loved doing it.”
From her bedroom to the world wide web, Mia began uploading covers and quickly built up a decent audience. But if you do recognise her name from YouTube, her unmistakeable voice is pretty much the only part of “Mia Wray 2.0” that you’ll recognise.
“I used to be very folk pop, girl-with-guitar kind of thing. I think now, I’m inspired by the visual of Florence and the Machine just dancing around on stage and being super free. Lana del Rey, Maggie Rogers - anyone with a bit of grit and soul and a real presence.”
The boldness present in those musical references is a massive reason why ‘Work For Me’ hit with such force. Production-wise, there’s some stomping percussion and, at its climax, a flurry of horns. But the main drawcard is the no-holds-barred song writing delivered by Mia’s massive vocals.
It’s pop music at it’s toughest, grittiest and most powerful. The inspiration? A particularly rough day at work: “I was working in a café and it was the built up anger of me dealing with people taking their anger out on me and feeling angry with myself because I felt like I had so much more to give.”
“I wrote (‘Work For Me’) to remind you and me that we are bad b*tches.”
Although Mia Wray has been in Unearthed orbit for only a fortnight, the hype around “what comes next?!” is palpable. But for Mia, the musical goal is pretty simple and summed up perfectly in her profile’s bio.
