Mackay musician the voice of the Olympics

From the sugar city to the big city, Jack Gray’s musical journey has been meteoric. Olympic in fact.

Mackay born musician Jack Gray has become the voice of Australia's Olympic Games campaign. Picture: Contributed

FROM the sugar city to the big city, Jack Gray's musical journey has been meteoric. Olympic in fact.

The 21-year-old Mackay born and bred singer-songwriter has become the Australian voice of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, his song This Is Our Time is the theme for the squad's upcoming exploits.

Now based in Los Angeles, Mr Gray is in awe of the journey that has been.

"How crazy is that? I feel honoured and it's a really special thing," he said.

"It started out like a year ago when I wrote it. It was more a political song talking about hate and discrimination and the hook was 'this is our time' and we're just killing it.

"Our generation doesn't stand for all that bullsh-- people just let slide back in the day. I wanted to talk about how our generation is just killing."

Mackay born musician Jack Gray has become the voice of Australia's Olympic Games campaign.

Mr Gray grew up in South Mackay, a student with schools St Marys, Mercy College and St Patricks.

At first, he fought with the fact he loved music. Despite a self-confessed lack of ability, all he wanted to do was play football.

While his family had always been musical, it took a few years of education and a school yard crush to fuel what has developed into a career.

From that point, Mr Gray's relatives would regularly come to his family's Cuttlefish Court home for jam sessions.

As he has transformed into a song-writer, it has been his relationships that have fuelled his writing and musical ambitions.

"All day I'm thinking of concepts and what I can talk about. What are people going to relate to and what story do I want to tell?" he said.

"When I'm hanging out with my friends and they tell me a story about what they're going through with their (relationships) that's where I tend to get all my ideas from.

"It's a bit scary to put so much of your personal (stuff) into these songs and then you have to share them with the world. It's a scary thing opening up yourself like that but I'm getting used to it - slowly but surely."

Never has there been a moment since his musical journey began that Mr Gray thought about putting the guitar away. Every experience he had has been transformative.

Travelling through North America and Europe with the Dean Lewis tour was a truly eye-opening experience for the young musician.

He said travelling had evolved his music writing "more than you could even imagine".

"I've grown up so much since travelling; it's very easy to feel stuck in a bubble when you're just in one place all the time," Mr Gray said.

"Travelling has opened my eyes a lot to all the different cultures and it's so crazy to see what else is out there.

"There is a specific culture with the music (in Australia). When you grow up there it's hard to do your own thing, break out and form your own lane.

"But when you're travelling you realise it's not the be-all-end-all what everyone is listening too, there is so much else out there that people love.

"You learn that and start incorporating it - you rethink what you think music should sound like."

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