London’s Girl Ray are no strangers to re-invention. The three-piece comprising Poppy Hankin, Iris McConnell and Sophie Moss, made an immediate impact with the release of their 2017 debut Earl Grey on the influential indie Moshi Moshi (Anna Meredith, Florence & The Machine, Kate Nash), which channeled the baroque 70s soft pop of Todd Rundgren through the scrappy aesthetics of 80s UK indie and earned high praise from several outlets. Their second LP, 2019’s Girl, saw the band change direction dramatically, taking on a kind of indie-fied R&B feel and in 2021 the band returned in yet another new guise, releasing the one off, house-adjacent single “Give Me Your Love” that was produced with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and Al Doyle.  

Today, Girl Ray have returned to signal a new direction with a new single entitled “Everybody’s Saying That”, a shimmering, disco-inspired indie pop track they made with the revered producer Ben H Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, MIA, Belle & Sebastian), accompanied by a video directed by Alice Harding.

“The lyrics on this single were inspired by the straight-to-the-heart simplicity of the disco greats,” explains singer/guitarist Poppy Hankin. “I wrote it while missing my partner while on tour in 2020, and it plays on themes of new love and self-doubt. Musically we took reference from the nu-disco resurgence that seemed to be taking off in 2020, in particular from the likes of Kylie Minogue (Disco), Jessie Ware (What’s Your Pleasure?), Dua Lipa (Future Nostalgia) and Róisín Murphy (Róisín Machine). We were really inspired by all of these women re-imagining disco.”

About the video she added, “We met Alice, the director, while we were all working in a coffee truck on film sets over the pandemic. Alice is the special kind of person you can put total faith in and know she’ll make something amazing, so when she agreed to direct our video we were beyond excited. We wanted the video to have an emphasis on atmosphere and colour rather than narrative to fit in with the feel of the song, which Alice achieved wonderfully. Lyrically the song is about longing, and even though it was filmed in Slough, the video has pure Hollywood vibes thanks to a hugely talented cast and crew, and countless favours that Alice managed to pull in. We hope you enjoy it.”

The director, Alice Harding, added, “It was such a pleasure to direct this video for Girl Ray. We forayed into the underground to a party harking back to the halcyon days of Studio 54 – in a boy-meets-boy story of love, lust, music and pure 70’s disco joy.”