Performance uplifts Amelia Wray’s spirit. “It was easy to see that from a young age, my twin brother Mitchell Wray and I were born to perform,” she remembers. “Growing up, we were always singing and dancing around my kitchen and we spent all our free time performing in countless musicals and plays. But as I grew older, I realized that my love for performing was much deeper than just theater. Singing was my passion! My favorite thing about performing is the feeling that takes over my body. I am my most confident self when I’m on stage performing music I’m so proud of.” She got her start as Sophia on Sydney to the Max. “Playing Sophia in Sydney to the Max was a very special experience. I was able to work with so many talented actors like Danielle Fishel who directed one of my favorite episodes, “Bummer Rental,” and live out my actress dreams. But easily one of my favorite parts is meeting the amazing fans who watch the show. They are the reason I am where I am today. I am so thankful for them!” However, music has always been her true calling, as she explains. “Music fills my soul. It’s the outlet I can always turn to no matter what. Songwriting allows me to express emotions and relive certain experiences. Artists like Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter have been huge inspirations to me. I love artists that take personal experiences and create relatable music because I find myself doing that when I write. My co-writers on ‘disappear,’ Michael Orland and Bill Grainer, are both so talented and unique in their own ways…they are my absolute dream team. Whenever I’m feeling stuck, they know exactly how to put my ideas into words (and music!) Time flies when I’m writing with them. I can literally hum a line, and all of a sudden we’ll have a whole verse written!”
Her aforementioned single, “disappear,” was the silver lining of a stormy rain cloud. “‘disappear’ is a song that was born from a personal experience of mine. Journaling is my favorite way to de-stress when I’m in a fog, and ‘disappear’ happened to bloom from one of those moments. I knew this experience was something authentic and real, so I wanted to create something out of it. I have been working with Michael Orland, who was the voice coach and musical director on American Idol for 17 seasons, for years and he is someone I trusted with this song idea of mine. He brought in Bill Grainer, who writes with legends like Jennifer Hudson, and we started creating. The three of us instantly hit it off as a writing team. We had chemistry right away. We kept writing and writing and eventually ‘disappear’ was born. When we felt it was time to get it produced, we brought in the brilliant Miklos Malek, who’s worked with people like Jennifer Lopez, and the song became perfect!” Amelia pulls no punches about the agony of being left in the dust by a situationship. “You can read the lyrics of ‘disappear’ and get a sense of exactly how I reacted. I experienced all the emotions – confusion, frustration, and disbelief, and I feel that my song lyrics do a great job of expressing those. When you develop any sort of relationship with someone, you get to know them really well. When things don’t work out between you two and you watch them move on and pretend like you don’t exist anymore, it hurts. You feel overwhelmed with questions and emotion. The lyric ‘I know that you know that I’m still here’ is easily the most powerful line. It’s the overall theme I want to share through this song. It’s about the ex-significant other pretending like you don’t exist anymore, even though inside you know them so well to the point you can see they’re faking it. ‘Tell me what the hell is it you fear’ and ‘Is your conscience clear?’ are two questions I found myself pondering, and these lyrics truly speak for themselves.”
This experience taught her that heartbreak is unpredictable and that healing is not linear. “I think it’s really important to understand that everyone deals with heartbreak in their own way. Things are not always going to be equal between two people – that’s just life. One person might take a really long time to heal, while the other might move on in a day, or at least they pretend like it. But it’s okay to take time to process heartbreak…in fact take as much time as you need! We all heal differently and you need to allow yourself to feel the pain. Heartbreak only makes you stronger.” The song represents a bold defiance to indifference. “‘disappear’ is a fight song. It’s about fighting to be heard, letting them know that the relationship mattered, and it will not be erased or forgotten. It’s about constantly having to face their social media which, let’s face it, is hard not to do these days! He might need to pretend you vanished into thin air so he can move on with someone else, but we all know that’s easier said than done. The truth is, there’s no wrong or right amount of time to cope with heartbreak. Things do get better with time, but even though they say ‘time heals everything,’ there’s always going to be questions that go unanswered. Those are the questions that are asked in ‘disappear.’ And even though sometimes we don’t get all the answers we want or need…eventually that’s what makes us really get to know ourselves.” After all, our most important relationship is with ourselves and sometimes, you have to hold your own hand.
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Amelia Wray Captures the Pain of a Lost Situationship with New Single, “disappear.” Photo Credit: Matthew Aaron.
