The Gray Kid’s self-described “trunk-wobbling anthems and ballads of love and lust” brings to your ears a bit of soul, rock, electronica and a lot of big bad beats… all this under an umbrella of creative and truthful raps. The Gray Kid ripened his innate lyrical gift by playing early shows with nothing more than an iPod and a wireless mic. Finally forming his four-piece dream team called “Spirit Animal” that have toured and recorded with the likes of Ben Harper, The Pharcyde, Taj Mahal and Tricky, The Gray Kid is ready to bravely expose to the world, his new 2008 album “Willoughby” mixed by Danny Kalb (Beck, They Might Be Giants, Rilo Kiley).

Without a record deal, The Gray Kid has already licensed a track for the hit show 30 Rock on NBC and self-produced two previous albums. His capacity to make “body-rocking” music has been proven. From hosting the PLUG Independent Music Awards to sharing numerous live concert stages with leaders of the new school pack (M.I.A., Cool Kids), The Gray Kid is creating immense media buzz from the likes of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and Interview.

Seeing him perform live is unlike anything you’ve experienced as he dances and sashays back and forth, interacting intimately with his captive audience. As your endorphins kick in, you’ll first sway and then “be forced” to dance into a trance as you sweat though a classic trip-hop-soul-pop love fest. Amidst a multi-explosion of sinuous sounds, The Gray Kid charms the audience (especially the throngs of female fans) with his oh-so-sweet Prince-like vocals that dramatically shifts into high gear as aggressive yet intelligent rap voices out potent lyrics about love, lust and life. Punctuated by killer syncopated beats and virtuoso guitars channeling through a sea of textural synthesized waves, Spirit Animal is one big bad machine intelligently designed to enable The Gray Kid to bravely explore the realm of dance + soul oriented pop.

After a phenomenal live set at The Beatles Revolution Lounge that left the audience craving for more, MojoRepublik caught up with the borderline whiz kid and destined soon-to-be rock star. In between those two characters that live in his public world, we found a warm, congenial and exceptionally intelligent human being that quietly lives in an inner world filled with passion and brutal honesty.

Mojo: How did you get the name “The Gray Kid”?

Gray: Oh, it’s old. It’s about combining lots of different things and to make music that’s appeals to everybody.

Mojo: Is it representative of the gray area?

Gray: The metaphor works for sure like that. It’s like trying to find the common ground between everyone and my ultimate goal is for everybody to be celebrating all at once.

Mojo: How would you define your music?

Gray: Pop music that’s acceptable as heavy, but it still has content. I try to make songs that are meaningful. Its entertainment but it’s also supposed to be intelligent, cool, and very relevant. In other words, it makes you think about things or feel something.

Mojo: When you write a song, what is it based upon?

Gray: There’s a combination of experiences and emotions and rarely any politics. If politics are involved they are just as references and used as metaphors … not direct attacks on certain people. It’s mostly combining story-telling with real life experiences. If it’s a song about a girl, it may well be a song about two or three girls or something intrinsically that you’ve discovered about yourself. I pull from different things and make it universal that way. That’s why you have an album. It’s about a certain time period or a group of things you have been thinking of. The next one can be about different things … it doesn’t have to always be about getting drunk and high or sad and lonely. It can be about all these things at once. If you can figure out how to make people experience all of those emotions … that’s powerful.

Mojo: Who were your influences growing up?

Gray: Growing up, Nas… Boot Camp Clik… East Coast New York rap music. Then as I got into college I discovered Tricky, Radiohead and Bjork which all influenced me to be more musical and more progressive with my ideas.

Mojo: Do you remember the first moment you wanted to sing?

Gray: Well I got into acoustic guitar prior to making instrumental music, back in ’98, so I remember wanting to sing then. When I got into the “Kid A” from Radiohead kind of thing with “Latristic”, I always remember that I was so glad I had the experience of singing harmonies. I was so proud especially when I realized I could do it. The next group I didn’t get to flex it as much and was part of the reason I left. I knew there was more for me in terms of capabilities.

Mojo: What was the feeling like transcending from all Rap to now singing?

Gray: Once a lot of people like what you are doing, it became a challenge of wanting to be able to do more. It’s not good enough for everyone to tell you it’s good because I always want to make it even better. Now it’s to the point where I take things that I hear and try to learn them or at least imitate them in my head enough to understand where they are coming from and then to apply it in this context. The idea would be to take all these great ideas that people have had over the past 70 years … about how to make great American music whether blues music, rock music or soul music …and then be able to use those ideas in a way that the average 14 year old would understand. That would be the ultimate goal. You have to pay attention to what’s happening just enough and still really care about what already took place.

Mojo: When do you think you reached the peak of you rapping career?

Gray: Well now, I am still rapping, and singing. It’s always been both and the biggest challenge is getting other people in the industry capacity to be able to relate to the idea of doing both. It’s like if you do a comedy, then people only want you to do comedy. They don’t want you to do drama because they don’t think you can do it. It comes back to the whole range of emotions thing where people think you can’t possibly feel both of these things at the same time. As a normal human being, you can’t go from sad and lonely to drunk and high without pretending. It’s very real and it’s very human. It’s always been so confusing to me that the idea if you do too many things it would hold you back

Mojo: When other people write about your music, what do they label you as?

Gray: There are a lot of comparisons of other artists, but for the most part they write about how it is diverse. Most people who write about it are usually supportive.

Mojo: Do you do all the writing or do you collaborate?

Gray: I do most of it. I produced the record but there are a few tracks produced by computer J who is a bad-ass musician and actually plays keyboard in the band. On this record, I have been fortunate to have people like that around me to record with new instruments. I have this broad network of people. Everyone in the band all play two instruments each so it’s great. We’re able to produce in a real sense where I have a vision and I don’t have to push every button or play every note. It’s much easier when you have people that are all great at their jobs and better than me at jobs. Essentially I’m responsible to lead the charge and to sing the songs. Every other job there is someone better than me whether its publicity, drums or the website.

Mojo: How albums do you have out?

Gray: Two albums out. One is called 5,6,7,8 and the other one is called Vultures, and this new one is called Willoughby.

Mojo: How did the name Willoughby come out?

Gray: It’s just a pretty name I think. It’s a street in LA that’s like the clearest path, so I relate to that.

Mojo: Are you currently signed on a record label?

Gray: No. I am unsigned and I am mixing the record with a guy named Danny Kalb.

Mojo: In a business sense, tell us about your future?

Gray: Live music. For a band like us the internet can not change live performances. It’s like the oldest way of making music. So no matter what happens with digital and mp3s, if we are playing a hundred shows a year we profit. If we can get to the point where we can make $5K a show, I will play every other day. That’s the best use of our time. Before you could sell albums but now it’s basically free, it’s all about live shows, then merchandising.

Mojo: What do you think about bands that are putting out vinyl?

Gray: It’s cool I think, but it’s like a luxury.

Mojo: When do you think CD’s will disappear from the shelves for good, like the 8 track?

Gray: I say … 2013. That sounds too far off to me when I say it out loud but five years … and they won’t be on the shelves. There’s going to be something on the shelves.