Mia Wray is in a place of quiet affirmation. “Every time I look in the mirror, I see a version of myself I recognise a little more,” she says, a small smile tugging at her lips. “It’s like meeting yourself again after being a stranger for so long. Now, I’m the most me I’ve ever been.”
This moment of clarity comes as the Melbourne singer-songwriter, 29, gets ready to release her debut album, hi, it’s nice to meet me, in March. It’s an album full of heartbreak and loneliness, concerned with the often messy process of figuring out who you really are.
At the heart of it all is Wray’s acceptance of her sexuality. The first single, “Nice to Meet Me”, came about during a long-term heterosexual relationship, when she met a woman and felt a pull she couldn’t ignore.
“About two weeks later, I was in London on a month-long writing trip,” she explains. “It was my first time overseas alone as an adult, and I couldn’t hide from it anymore. I realised this wasn’t just a lighthearted crush. It felt so deep, and I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t there.”
Another track, “Sad But True”, reflects the painful next step — coming home and confronting the reality of her decision. “It’s about coming to terms with the fact that it’s so sad this didn’t work out because, in my head, I thought I’d be with him forever. It was so heartbreaking because he was just broken. And as much as I was feeling so broken, I still felt so sure that it was the right thing. It’s a very confusing feeling.”
Releasing these tracks has been part of Wray’s process. “I remember doing an interview with triple j for the first single, and afterwards I was sitting in the car listening back, thinking, ‘Did I just come out on live national radio?’ I didn’t even realise how much it was still happening. Even one of my best friends was like, ‘I had to find out through someone else that you were gay,’” she recalls. “It was just such a turbulent time.”
While she’s grateful for the chance to be open, Wray is quick to point out that her album isn’t just about a “gay awakening.” “I think a lot of people are calling it that, but I don’t want it to be put in that box,” she explains. “To me, it feels more like a self-discovery album.”
The 12 tracks on hi, it’s nice to meet me are a mix of intimately written reflections and polished pop production, with Wray’s raspy, emotive vocals weaving through it all — something fans have come to expect from tracks like 2023’s “Monster Brain” and her viral cover of DMA’S’ “Delete”. Despite the heavy themes, hope still shines through and moments of light poke through the darkness.
Wray credits her writing sessions with Australian artists like G Flip for helping her tap into her songwriting. “I felt so lonely and trapped with these thoughts, honestly like I was losing my mind,” she shares. “So those sessions really saved me. I could express and work through all my feelings and what they meant. A big part of my job is being vulnerable with strangers.”
Wray’s path to this point hasn’t been a straight line. Growing up in Noosa, Queensland, far from Melbourne’s music scene, she taught herself music through YouTube using her grandparents’ piano. It was a quiet, personal pursuit.
“I could kind of uncover this thing without it being, like, a public thing. It just grew in the space of my room,” she recalls. “I was a shy, serious kid. I used to sing behind a curtain when I was little, but I loved it so much that I eventually overcame the stage fright.”
By 14, she was gigging at local piano bars and weddings, and by 15, she entered the Telstra Road to Discovery. She didn’t win, but she caught the attention of Mushroom Publishing’s Bill Page, who offered to help her develop her music.
“He gave me his card and said, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to help you, but I’m going to help you.’ From then on, I’d send him my original songs and creatively and personally, we were so in tune.”
At 16, Wray signed with Mushroom Publishing and began writing songs in Nashville. By 18, she’d moved to Melbourne to take her career to the next level. “That’s when I started experiencing life outside my musical bedroom,” she laughs. “I was a late bloomer — not very social, everything went into my craft. But in Melbourne, I started meeting friends, going out, drinking, kissing boys, all that stuff. The Melbourne music scene, as Paul Kelly says, is the musician’s university. I played every venue.”
She was firmly on the rise. Offers started flooding in, including one from The Voice, but she turned it down. “After reading the contract, I was like, ‘Fuck that. That’s not for me.’” But the show led her to a key opportunity. Veteran A&R Peter Karpin took an interest in her songs, and after turning down The Voice, she found herself in deeper conversations about her music.
When word spread that Wray was looking for a record deal, the late Michael Gudinski, legendary record executive and promoter, wasn’t about to let her slip away. Their first meeting was more about Page’s recommendation than mutual interest, but Wray impressed him nonetheless.
“It was just me and Michael, no one else. He asked me, ‘What do you want out of this?’ and I laid it all out: a full live band, a horn section, backup singers. I told him exactly how the lights would look, how it would sound, everything. I even started drumming on the coffee table and singing.
“I think he was a little bit like, ‘Fuck, OK, shit,’” she laughs. “It really excited him that I was so sure of what I wanted. From there, our passion just matched.”
Wray credits Gudinski with being her fiercest advocate. His sudden death in 2021, after signing her to Mushroom, was a devastating loss. “I felt like I lost my main champion — the one with real influence and respect among his peers. Before that, I felt a weight off my shoulders, thinking, ‘It’s OK, Michael’s got this.’”
Still, she sees his passing as a turning point. “I think it’s been a really good lesson to not rely on a senior white man with lots of power in a suit to make me successful. As much as I loved Michael, I realised that success has to come from me.”
Now, with her debut album and a tour around the corner, Wray is ready to embrace whatever comes next. “I feel like it’s already half-digested and I’m already writing my next album. I’m just excited for the rest of it to come out — for everyone to know the rest of the words, the rest of the story.”
This Mia Wray interview features in the March-May 2025 issue of Rolling Stone AU/NZ. If you’re eager to get your hands on it, then now is the time to sign up for a subscription.
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