Gray in living colour

Some 13 years and six albums into her career, there’s a certain public perception of Macy Gray that seems to distract the public from her often brilliant music.

Over six feet tall, usually outlandishly dressed and croakily voiced, the 44-year-old singer-songwriter’s now more known for her physical and personality quirks than for her songs (breakthrough hit I Try notwithstanding).

It’s a conundrum Gray and friend Nicole Scherzinger pointedly poke fun at in an interlude on her new album, Covered. Displaying great comic delivery, Scherzinger earnestly advises Gray on how to arrest the so-called decline of her career: basically, to stop being herself and start copying Britney, Shakira et al.

“You need to try new things to be the best artist you can be — like Britney Spears,” Scherzinger tells her pal.

“I get this whole thing about my career having a downward slope, but I never thought of it that way,” Gray told the Star Observer down the line from LA.

“I just make music, and some stuff a lot of people are going to like, other stuff no one’s going to like.”

For Covered, Gray’s put her own inimitable stamp and vocal style on songs by rock and alternative acts like Metallica, Radiohead and Arcade Fire. Teaming up with iconic producer Hal Willner, she said she made sure not to overthink the project — each song was recorded live in the studio, often in a single take.

“I came up with the idea of taking rock songs and turning them into soul songs,” she said.

“It felt like a good challenge. We did it in two and a half weeks, and I’m really proud of it.

“Everything was really off the cuff. We hadn’t even picked all the songs by the time we started making the record. We wanted to keep it really spontaneous and fun.”

Planned covers of songs by Fiona Apple, Prince and the Kings of Leon didn’t make the cut, but some left-field choices did. Gray turns Yeah Yeah Yeah’s indie anthem Maps into a funk-soul stomper, and makes a few lyrical tweaks to My Chemical Romance’s hit Teenagers to reflect her current living situation — as the beleaguered mother of three teenagers.

“They put you through a lot. I’ve definitely been through a lot of nights of crying,” she sighed when asked about her pubescent brood, who all feature on Covered.

“They’re just people who are trying to figure out who they are, but they don’t want advice from anybody. It kind of terrorises everyone around them. I like my kids though, don’t get me wrong!”

INFO: Covered is out now.