Conan Gray told NME about his new album ‘Wishbone’ backstage at Reading 2025, saying it dissects “every little piece of what a breakup feels like”. Check out the video interview in full above or read our chat below.
‘Wishbone’, Gray’s fourth album, was released earlier this month and follows his 2024 record ‘Found Heaven’.
“It’s my baby, I’m obsessed with it. I’m so proud of it,” he told NME backstage at Reading after his huge main stage set. “It’s an album about breakups and about every little piece that you go through when you’re going through a breakup. It’s denial and wanting someone back, and anger and then missing someone, and then empathy, but also, like, ‘Fuck you’. It’s a dissection of every little piece of what a breakup feels like.”
Gray explained that, musically, the album was inspired by the records he grew up listening to. “I think all the influences came together to make a very indescript sound, which is very me. My goal with the album from the beginning was to just make something so unbelievably you, even if you don’t really know exactly what that is. Just follow your gut.”
Asked if he felt that ‘Wishbone’ is the “most you” album he’s released so far, he replied: “100 per cent, and I feel like the listeners would agree.” Read our full chat with Conan Gray below.
NME. Hello Conan. It’s your first time at Reading – you just played on the main stage. How did it go?
Conan Gray: “It was a lot of fun. It was really exciting to sing new songs from my album. I’m always like, ‘Oh my god, what if they don’t know the words yet?’ It’s only been a week since it’s come out, but they knew the words! I felt very loved.”
A great crowd reaction! Was there one particular song that you were really nervous about that went down really well?
“I really liked people singing along to ‘Nauseous’. It’s one of my favourites on the album, and I feel like it was good to know that real human beings actually hear the song.”
Why is that one of your favourites?
“I just like how plain it is. It’s very much just like, ‘You scared the shit out of me’, and then that’s it. Sometimes you just need to be like, ‘You know what? You’re so wonderful and loving that you scare the shit out of me, bye!’”
Relatable. You’ve had a big summer so far – including two festival moments a lot of people would kill for. You were the ‘Apple’ girl for Charli XCX and you were also Sally for Role Model. You begged Charli to let you be the ‘Apple’ girl, but how did you get to be Sally?
“I’ve known Tucker [Pillsbury aka Role Model] forever, like maybe six or seven years? So I’d been to a show in LA the week before, and I told him at the show, ‘I’m gonna be Sally for Gov Ball. We have to make this happen.’ So then we made a fun little plan.”
How was it being Sally?
“So fun and also it’s just a fucking banger. We were singing ‘Sally[, When The Wine Runs Out]’ the whole summer after. That moment started me and my friends’ summer.”
You reunited with producer Dan Nigro for a few songs on this album. What’s so special about your creative relationship and what you make together?
“Well, he’s very me because we’ve been making music together since the beginning of me ever making music with my first EP, ‘Sunset Season’. It’s been eight years with Dan, and I don’t know, we really grew up together in a huge way, and our relationship is really mature at this point.
“He very much told me at the beginning of working on the album, ‘We’ve made plenty of albums together now. How about with this one, you just follow your gut and write everything yourself? Just do it – just go and write.’ He gave me permission, like, ‘Hey, don’t even bother with the co-writing, don’t even bother with the sessions – just go write in your bedroom. That’s what you do best. So just go do it.’ And that’s what I did.”
Does it feel like going home when you’re working with him again after working with other producers?
“100 per cent. He is the person who taught me how to even record music or what producing music even feels like. And we still make music in his garage, and it’s always been like that.”
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