After rising to fame on YouTube as a high schooler, 21-year-old Conan Gray signed a major-label deal with Republic and shared his heartfelt debut album Kid Krow in March. Gray has followed-up his album’s release with a tender visual alongside his lovelorn ballad, “Heather.”
Directed by Dillon Matthew and Gray himself, the video is an intimate visualization of the singer fluidly moving between feminine and masculine beauty standards. Gray opened up about his inspiration around the track, saying he penned the song as a reflection on a crush he had in high school who didn’t love him back:
“when i was in high school, i had a crush on the same one person all four years. but that one person did not love me back, instead my crush liked a girl named heather. heather was gentle and beautiful, inside and out. she was warm like a summer day, and had so many friends. she was soft and so easily lovable– everything i am not. the heather video is my way of becoming all of the things that i envy about heather. i would’ve done anything to be like her. wear the right pretty clothes and act the right effortless way. reject all the things that made me who i am. anything to be loved back by the person i loved. anything to be their first choice. the slow transformation throughout the video was made to represent the feminine and masculine traits i constantly switched between in order to become who i knew my crush would like. somebody soft and sweet. somebody like heather.”
Watch Gray’s “Heather” video above and revisit Uproxx’s interview with the singer here.
Kid Krow is out now via Republic. Get it here.
