Check Out Sue Ray’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sue Ray.

Hi Sue, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m lucky! I was born into a musical family and from the age of eight, cut my teeth playing at my local country music club. My father was in a couple of bands, and my mother joined me in a kid’s performance group that went around performing at local festivals and carnivals.

So, from the age of about nine, I was being paid to perform. I had the bug! When I was fourteen my dad taught me a few chords on the guitar and that was it, I went straight off and within weeks had written my first song. It just fell out organically and I had no comprehension at the time of what a blessing that was.

I went through a hard rock/punk/heavy metal phase through my teens, so my singer-songwriter vibe was put on ice as I took more to play guitar in several all-girl rock bands. I studied sound engineering, music production, and acting in Brisbane Australia, and continued through my twenties performing at local clubs and festivals, always as a backing singer and guitarist.

Then one night I was asked to perform an acoustic set at a local club called The Troubadour. I’d never focused on that before, so I got up and played a few Cowboy Junkies covers and a few of my own songs that had never seen the light of day, and the response was unexpected. Everyone kept asking why I hadn’t been doing it before. Long story short, Jamie Trevaskis, the proprietor of the club offered to record some of my stuff in his studio. So, I took him up on the offer and we recorded eight tracks.

I never meant for them to be made public, but after he mixed them, they came up so great that we decided to release it, and that is my first EP “Best Beware”. It took me on a path I’d never considered, a couple of tracks off the EP got high rotation on local and independent radio stations in Australia and secured me performances at folk/blues/country festivals around Australia.

I then moved to London in 2010, where I focused on writing and performing. I came back to Australia in 2011 and recorded my first album “Red Roses”. It got nominated for Best Country Album in the Australian AIR Independent music awards and won a Queensland Music Award for best “Indigenous Track”. I also got nominated that year for “Female Artist of the Year” in the Queensland Music Awards. That got the momentum going and I was soon getting bigger slots at the more prestigious national music festivals. I then applied for my American Greengard in the Greengard lottery and insanely got it the first time.

Was obviously meant to be! I’d already been to Nashville in 2012 to perform at the Americana Music Conference and fell madly in love with the city, its energy, and the comradery. So as soon as I got my Greengard, I moved straight to Nashville. I got a place in East Nashville, right around the corner from Fanny’s House of Music. I loved living there, I found the city and its musicians so welcoming and inclusive.

I instantly started going to open mic nights, writer rounds, and any gig I could and totally immersed myself in the vibe of the city. In my three years living there, I was fortunate to write and perform with some incredible writers and at some of my favorite venues like The Bluebird Café, The 5 Spot, and Family Wash. I also ran an open mic night on Broadway at The Nashville Underground every Wednesday night. As I’m an Aussie, we called it the Downunderground Showcase, and I’m proud to say we kept it going for a good while.

During that time, I wrote prolifically and when I went back to Australia for a visit, I recorded my third album “Live at The Junk Bar” then I returned to Nashville and soon recorded my next EP “I Would Never Do That”. My partner and I got pregnant and decided to move back to Australia to have the baby, so I spent a couple of years focusing on my family and was able to get work as a songwriting mentor at the University of Southern QLD where I work with Indigenous youth.

It’s been incredibly rewarding and has made me a better listener, a better songwriter, and a better performer. In 2017, we were going to move back to Nashville, but my apartment in East Nashville burned down on Christmas Day. It was a devastating blow, so we were homeless and had to stay put in Australia. Soon we discovered baby number two was coming so we waited a bit longer, then Covid struck, and we got stuck in Australia.

So, over the periods of lockdowns and isolation, I found songwriting became a place of solace and comfort. I decided to start recording the songs at home in my own studio, and in 2021 released three singles. The first one “All The Lonely Ones” reached number one on the AMRAP Independent music charts and the third single “Take Me Away” won the best “Blues’n’Roots” track in the 2022 Queensland Music Awards.

After spending most of 2021 touring and performing, I’m currently engaged in recording my next single and at the end of the year, once our borders are completely open, we hope to get back to the States.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows. In my early career in the late 90s, it was a very heavily male-dominated industry in Brisbane. I was in one of the few female rock bands getting around, mostly we got positive reactions, but were often made to feel like we were just decoration or something to be toyed with, not taken seriously.

It did make me work harder to be taken seriously, so I can be grateful for that. I’ve certainly experienced my share of sexual harassment and found I had to develop a thick skin to have the tit jokes and sleazy comments bounce off. I found staying mostly sober a way to deal with the feelings of being unsafe in some of the late-night performance environments and maintain some control over how I was treated.

Also, the competitive nature of other female acts was something I struggled with occasionally. In an environment that’s male-dominated, you’d think that the women would stick together, but often it became very competitive when we were forced to compete for the limited placements, so navigating that and finding a way to work in a positive and productive way with my female peers took years to rationalize and accept.

Not mean to sound bitchy, but it’s just the nature of the beast when we’re put in situations where we must compete to get a tiny portion of the opportunities offered to our male peers. I’ve also endured bouts of anxiety, imposter syndrome and depression, and plenty of episodes (some lasting months and even years) where I stepped away from music because of a lack of self-belief and confidence.

Moving to Nashville and getting out of the smaller scene in Brisbane was a big stepping stone for me to get out of my head and away from the comfortable rut I’d gotten myself into. Traveling and writing with artists from other cities and countries taught me a hell of a lot about myself as a writer and a person and helped me learn to be a more adaptable, open, and honest songwriter.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I knew from a young age that I was drawn to the arts. Straight out of high school I got a Diploma of Film & Television, Cert IV in Contemporary Music, Certificate in Sound Engineering & Video Production, and later in my thirties completed a songwriting course at the Songpreneurs Retreat in Nashville TN. Initially, I wanted to get into theatre, but after studying sound engineering, found myself drawn more to performing live in bands.

My Dad owned a musical instrument store in my hometown, so I’d worked there since I was a teenager and over the years I’ve worked in a number of music stores, including Carters Vintage Guitars in Nashville. I’m a nerd for guitar pedals and vintage instruments and that’s a passion of mine. I currently work at Bandland, the local music store in my hometown, and also run songwriting and mentoring workshops for Indigenous youth for the University of Southern Queensland.

I never set out to be a mentor or songwriting teacher, but when I returned from Nashville, a couple of organizations that work with Indigenous youth contacted me, knowing of my experience and unique perspective of being an Indigenous female songwriter, so they asked if I could work with their students using music and songwriting as a way to help them express themselves. I wasn’t sure how it would work, but after my first workshop, I was hooked.

The kids are incredible, their stories not only moved and inspired me to learn more about my own Indigenous heritage but to learn more about how I can engage First Nations youth to share their stories of growing up in the community and introduce them to the general public in a constructive, positive and inclusive way.

Because of my years of training and performing, what I offer as a mentor is quite a niche, and I’m finding more and more teaching institutions are approaching me to work with their students, so I’m thrilled to be so busy doing what I love. I’m proud to say that I’ve written an album’s worth of songs with various First Nations school students and will be recording them with the students and releasing them later this year.

It’s brought meaning and intention to my songwriting, and a sense of pride in the positive impact music can have on our youth. As much as I’m proud of my own achievements with songwriting and performing, it’s the working with these young Indigenous students that brings me the most fulfillment and pride.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Corny as this sounds, just keep at it. Whatever that looks like for you. If it means having a day job and just chipping away at night and weekends. Or if it means quitting your day job and diving headfirst into it, it’s all valid ways to pursue your passion.

Don’t focus on the outcome, just write down your main goal, then the smaller goals you need to tick off to get to the bigger goal, and just start chipping away at them at whatever speed fits your lifestyle and mental health. It sounds patronizing, but honestly, if you know in your heart there is something you’re drawn to, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Sure, there will be times of feast or famine in the industry, but please don’t get obsessed with having to be “busy” and “performing” all the time, it’s about adapting. In my early years, I used to think that not being busy meant I was not progressing, but that just isn’t true, and it took me years to realize that the quiet times are an opportunity, not a representation of any failure on my part.

They are an opportunity for convalescence, rest, and regrouping. True success has no time limit, the idea that you must have achieved all of your success by 25 is utter bullshit. I’m in my 40’s now and am writing the best songs I’ve ever written, playing the best gigs I’ve ever played, and my new music is still getting played on the radio.

I don’t say this to give you permission to be lazy, it’s more just that you don’t have to burn yourself out early on to be successful. Be gentle with yourself! And to quote a tacky meme I saw once “It’s not the goal, it’s the journey”. It took me twenty years to realize that is actually freakishly true.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.sueraymusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sueraymusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sueraymusic
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/sueraymusic
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/sueraymusic
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/sue-ray-1
• Other: www.sueray.bandcamp.com

Image Credits
Theresa Hall Photography, Anna Haas Creative, LaVonne Bobongie, David Kelly Photography, and Vera Cahajlova Photography