“One thing about me, I don’t quit. EVER.” Goth-rock Valkyrie Raven Gray has just finished her first tour in Europe, supporting Mimi Barks on the This Is Doom Trap tour. She gave a few moments to MetalTalk after her haunting, beautiful set at the Camden Assembly.
She is still dressed in a black feathered outfit, buzzing and grinning after inviting us to the green room after an undoubtedly successful show.
“It’s been fucking amazing,” Raven says about the tour. “It’s my first tour, my first time leaving America, so that’s fucking gnarly.”
Raven Gray was born in Florida and drove to LA when she was 19. “I had $600 to my name,” she says. “I met a lot of people who really helped me get where I am now. It’s been a fucking roller coaster. But it’s been worth it, and I’m so fucking blessed and grateful to be here. I couldn’t have done it without my team.”
This striving shines through in her music. I am reminded of A Splinter In Soft Skin from Casting Shadows and the lyrics, “Like embers in the snow, I walk the streets of hell. I’m melted into smoke. I will bear your cross in a valley made of sin.” It’s pensive, dark with chugging, palm-muted guitars contrasting with Raven’s signature tremolo. A wonderful song.
Raven was joyful about touring with Mimi Barks. She described how Mimi reached out to her after listening to Raven’s album collaborating with Morgoth Beatz. “I looked at her aesthetic,” Raven says. “I was like fuck yes, and immediately after I sent the vocals, she’s like All right, this is going on my album.
“We became best friends. Then she invited me out on tour. I’m so fucking grateful. She’s amazing.”
Raven’s influences are manifold. She reams off lists of artists, including Andy Warhol, Corey Taylor, Lana Del Ray, Chester Bennington and many more. She especially shouts out her producer and sound engineer, HD-8448.
“He’s an incredible sound designer and an artist himself,” Raven says. “I finally found the right producer. It takes a while, but his sound design is insane. We’re working on an album.”
Beyond music, one of her main influences is firmly based in gothic romance and her faith. That shines through in her work. “Love is one of the purest forms of art,” Raven says. “The Bible is one of the most gothic, ancient texts. It’s very inspiring to me.
“There are also gothic cities, churches, cemeteries, rainstorms and dim lighting, which are some of the things that make me feel warm and comfortable. When I say cemeteries, it is because they are a reminder that mortality is inevitable.”
Raven knows this first-hand. Her inspiration to create comes from her suffering and battle with addiction. “I’ve always been a poet since I was a young girl,” Raven says. “I have hundreds of journals. I finally wrote a journal recently that was about my healing, my new life. I thought I was going to die for a really long time.
“I had an accidental overdose on fentanyl and I lived which really made me closer to God, to the source.
“It gave me the urge to talk about my mental health. I had to decide if I was going to do what I was destined to do or give up completely.
“One thing about me, I don’t quit. Ever.
“Because I don’t quit, I’m on tour, I’m writing a new album. I have hope for the first time since I was a little girl. I feel like I can breathe.”
Ever moving forward, Raven Gray dreams of further collaborations with Canadian Prog-Metal SpiritBox and folky Doom-Metal siren Chelsea Wolfe.
She gave a shout-out to TORTURETWINN of Richmond, Virginia USA. He’s got a beautiful tenor. It’s Trad-goth with heavy Robert Smith vibes, ala the Cure and Type 0 Negative feels. Standout tracks for me are PURGATORY and DAGGER. It’s thoughtful, evoking noir vibes. Worth checking out.
Raven has big plans beyond music, with a focus on mental health. She gave an inspiring speech during her set at the Camden Assembly, where she exhorted the crowd to know that “You fucking matter.”
“I want my fans to know that they are not alone,” she says. “Mental health is really important to me. I’ll be opening an artist’s retreat and rehab after my senior album. It won’t happen for a very long time, but I care about these people.
“I know what it’s like to want to die. I don’t know if someone in my audience is struggling with suicide addiction, sexual trauma, mental ill-health, etc. It’s so important to me that I use my platform to uplift the people in my community, in my little nest that I am building.”
Raven lives by her word. She has taken knocks and not given up in the face of serious adversity, and it lives through in her music.
Looking to the future, Raven says “2025 is going to be a massive year for me and my team.”
I hope to see what is to come in Raven’s journey. Her music is pensive and cathartic, with themes of love, pain and resilience. If this speaks to you, then come join the nest.
Find out more about Raven Gray at theravengray.com.
