THE SONG
"The song, out Feb. 22, is about "finding your way through that unsure ground as you grow up, and allowing your personality to mature with you," Vanderwaal explains.
The artist adds that the track is "special" to her because of how it was made. "I wrote the intro, chorus, and the second line, and then I stopped and gave up on it for a few days," she says. "Usually, if I'm going to write a song, I have to finish it then or I'll never be able to revisit it because I'm out of that moment and that momentum is lost. I thought I was leaving 'Stray' behind, and then the rest just popped in my mind later." (Bustle.com MARISSA DESANTIS Feb. 22, 2019)
“So, I was on tour, I filmed the movie and came back home and it was just weird, being in that world and like separate personality of myself for so long and then having to like really quickly go back to like high school normal stuff, and I feel like everyone, at that point of going up and going to school and stuff, it’s like everyone has a point where they feel like they almost like labelled their personality, you know. I found myself almost like wondering, what IS my personality? Who am I? I wrote Stray, kind of about that, and trying to sort of reconnect with myself, I guess. I hadn’t released anything for about a year, so it was a long time. My fans are really considerate for me, I feel it’s like different from other fans, because we are kind of like growing up together, so I feel like we are very close because we go through kind of the same things. But, everything that’s happened to me kind of perfectly let into Stray, and I think that’s why it’s so close to me, cause it’s kind of like about not anything specific, but about how I have been feeling for a while. Not just like a memory.” (Grace Vanderwaal Finds Herself in "Stray" Music Choice Feb. 25, 2019)
“Stray is kind of just about sort of finding yourself as you are growing up. Because obviously everyone evolves and changes and its just about staying in touch with yourself as you change and you know, not getting distracted. Most of the inspiration for this song wasn’t really about growing up in the industry but more about growing up in my personal life and balancing those two, ‘cause I think it was confusing for me, you know, with kind of like my “work”-personality and my “normal” personality, going back to school and kind of wondering where I fit in, you know? That sound like so cliché, but it’s how I felt. I am happy that it happened though, because I wrote Stray and it’s probably one of the closest songs to me that I have written in a while, which feels good.” (Grace Vanderwaal opens up about her struggles growing up on "Stray", Interview with Entercom, released Feb. 22, 2019)
VanderVault member Dennis Peloquin has tracked the production of the song: "Grace records in studio on or about August 25, 2018 ( https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm7QZsDg2_c/ ). The song is finished mixing and mastering on or about December 23, 2018 ( https://www.instagram.com/p/Bruo-LjFeAr/ ). The song is released on February 22, 2019 ( https://www.instagram.com/p/BuMLZ1HBwyR/ ). In this case the turn around time from studio recording to song release was six months." (Post by Dennis Peloquin on the Vandervault sep 22 2020)
THE MUSIC VIDEO
Every time I finish a song – I am very, very visual, like when I write a song, I kind of watch a movie in my head and that’s how I wrote through all the scenes and emotions. So, usually when I finish producing a song … I can listen to it, and I immediately see a music video in my mind of it, and the Stray video came quick. I could watch every single shot, I could see the music video and I knew that Blythe could take exactly what and make it real, and she did that, and I am so proud of it. When I got home [after the video-shoot] my feet hurt so much, because I biked barefoot on this bicycle … the pedals are spiky, and we kept doing loops and loops and loops and loops and around and around and I was walking all day. And after that, I had a photo shoot, where I was also barefoot on the rocks of the dessert. (Grace Vanderwaal opens up about her struggles growing up on "Stray", Interview with Entercom, released Feb. 22, 2019)
“This one was really like a 100% my concept and it came out beautifully. The whole point was to kind of have the two sides of it, so kind of like the one maybe you’re more in touch with and maybe the darker side, so I wanted to display that visually in a music video. I don’t know why I am barefoot; it’s just like – I am in the desert, you know what I mean, I am supposed to be like ultra-natural, ‘cause it’s supposed to be like “angel” Grace, which sounds kind of stupid. So, it’s like what shoes DO you wear with that? You Know? You can’t wear tennis shoes; you definitely can’t wear heels. I feel like it just makes sense, to be barefoot with that, you know. The blindfolded bike riding was supposed to kind of represent, I guess going through life blinded. I guess that was what I was trying to say. For me, with my life and how strange it is, and how unpredictable it is. I can only explain it as riding a bike with your eyes closed. It was very hard to do. I almost fell many, many times. It was really scary. I genuinely was blindfolded. I saw a little bit, like through the tulle, but it was really scary. When the bike crashes and angel Grace is staring at the wreckage, it kind of was to mee, at one point, the bike WILL crash, but you still have yourself to fall back on. It’s just like, if you are chasing after something and it falls apart, you are still going to have yourself to look over it.” (Grace Vanderwaal Reacts to YouTube Comments on Her Music Videos, Teen Vogue Apr. 14, 2020)
“I feel like everyone has a personality that they show for different people they know in their life, and they may switch to those involuntarily. It feels like I'm biking blindfolded, growing up and maturing, and obviously, if you're not yourself you're going to crash... growing up and not knowing where I'm going to go or what the next turn is; industry or not, I think it's something everyone faces." (Bustle.com MARISSA DESANTIS Feb. 22, 2019)
"Barefoot on a bike and wearing a black scarf over her eyes near Joshua Tree National Park in California. She says her "super scary" stunt is meant to be symbolic and embody "that personality of taking risks and not knowing what I'm gonna do," she says. In reality, "if you zoom into my face, I was low-key petrified. I saw a very little slit of road in front of me, a terribly, bumpy desert road." When I was on tour, I wrote many songs, definitely enough to have a very short EP. But they were all off. And I was afraid that I was losing that thing, you know? So that's why I mention writing in the song. I want to be able to write again, the way I used to. I did fall once. And I was very proud of myself (for only falling once). The van with all the cameras would speed up to get me to go faster. I was scared out of my mind." (USA Today Carly Mallenbaum)
