After much anticipation, Mia Wray released her debut album, hi, it’s nice to meet me, last week.
According to Wray herself, her debut was long overdue, with some of the tracks stretching as far back as 2018. “I’m proud. I don’t know what I am without it,” she says. “I don’t really give myself a choice, I have to keep doing it.”
When Wray was first coming through, the late, great Michael Gudinski acted – as he did for so many up-and-coming Australian artists – as a mentor, sounding board, and fierce advocate for her.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, which features in our March-May issue, Wray opened up about how much Gudinski meant to her, recalling her first meeting with the industry icon.
“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,” she said.
“I think he was a little bit like, ‘Fuck, OK, shit,’ It really excited him that I was so sure of what I wanted. From there, our passion just matched.”
Gudinski’s sudden death in 2021, after signing Wray to Mushroom, left her understandably devastated.
“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,'” she told Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
Looking back, however, she sees Gudinski’s 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,” she said.
We had high praise for Wray’s debut album.
“The aptly named hi, it’s nice to meet me has everything you’d want from the Melbourne-based artist — glistening pop tunes, emotion and a brilliant showcase of different genres, from bedroom-pop to alt-indie to rock,” we wrote in a four-star review.
“Fans of Wray will already know and love her vocals, but new listeners will be stunned by her raw lyricism. When she first signed to Mushroom’s Ivy League Records in 2021, the label said Wray’s ‘talent as a songwriter, player and vocalist are undeniable and we cannot wait to share what we’ve been working on with the world.”’ Australia, get familiar with Mia Wray now before you get left behind.”
The March-May 2025 issue of Rolling Stone AU/NZ is on newsstands now.
Whether you’re a fan of music, you’re a supporter of the local music scene, or you enjoy the thrill of print and longform journalism, then Rolling Stone AU/NZ is exactly what you need. Click the link here for more information regarding a magazine subscription.
