\u2018Hearing my own song on the radio is a surreal experience\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After 20 years, Peter Lawrence Gray \u201997 is playing music again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Clarkie who performed on the tuba at Carnegie Hall while in high school and strummed his Gibson SG Firebrand guitar every day in his Clark residence hall room recently recorded several songs that have earned significant radio play in the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2023, Gray\u2019s song \u201cFirst Time Ever\u201d charted at No. 12 on WHRV, a flagship NPR station for folk and Americana music. Across the Atlantic Ocean, his songs \u201cWhen You Say\u201d charted at No. 11 and \u201cYou\u2019re Only Lonely\u201d at No. 27 on New Brandenburg Radiotreff in Germany for Americana and adult contemporary music. \u201cYou\u2019re Only Lonely\u201d also charted at No. 50 on Radio ARA in Luxembourg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnly through music can I explore and discuss my feelings with such precision.\u201d<\/p>Peter Gray<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n As a teen, Gray catapulted from his high school\u2019s beginner band to advanced band within six months, and by his sophomore year was playing for Bridgeport University\u2019s college band. After he graduated from Clark with a psychology<\/a> degree, the music faded. Gray devoted himself to a real estate career in Connecticut, where he is now the president of the Pyramid Real Estate Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of what I do for a living, and a lot of what I did at Clark, is logical and concrete,\u201d he says. But music is quite different. Gray calls it \u201can emotional journey of self-growth.\u201d After a two-decade break, he realized there were certain emotions he needed to express, and music was the best release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnly through music can I explore and discuss my feelings with such precision, and others can hear, feel, understand, and hopefully relate to what I’m putting out there,\u201d says Gray. He also plays the bass guitar and keyboard and has even included the glockenspiel in some of his music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As he wrote and composed in his studio, Gray sought out someone to give him vocal training. He believes that the human voice is one of the hardest instruments to play \u2014 but one of the most important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It quickly became very apparent to me that your singer is your sound, and if they leave, you\u2019re no longer your own band,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, I found a music teacher and started taking singing lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gray worked with a vocal instructor from Argentina who teaches virtually. \u201cIt turned out that it wasn\u2019t that I couldn\u2019t sing. Everything I had learned in high school and choir was wrong,\u201d he says. \u201cShe untrained me from my training. It turns out, I love singing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n