Victor Ray Interview - U.K. R&B/Soul Singer & Songwriter

Over the past two years, singer & songwriter Victor Ray has emerged as an exceptional new artist to watch. He has a powerful, soulful voice that is easy to recognize, and his songwriting skills have steadily developed throughout this period. Ray has now released four EPs, and each one shows a progression as an artist.

Ray has just released his fourth EP, I WILL (on Decca Records & Universal Music), which is his best work to date. It contains the single “Hearts Break and People Change,” a dynamic uptempo song that has a big chorus, and is full of energy and emotion. The EP also explores a hip-hop sound on “Sticks and Stones,” which features rap contributions by Kojey Radical and Strandz. And the EP ends strongly with “World At My Feet,” an aggressive uptempo track that shows Ray’s growing confidence as an artist and person.

Ray was born in Uganda, but then he moved with his family to Newcastle, England when he was one year old. By the time he was six, he was singing constantly and loved it. Then when he was 17, he began to sing on the streets of London, and some of the videos of him busking went viral.

It was in early 2023 that Ray independently released his first EP, called I Was, that included the key song “Hollow” plus three other songs. Then later in 2023 he put out his second EP, which had the uniquely titled “Popcorn and a Smoothie,” a heartfelt song about how his father cared about him, but he wasn’t always there.

By 2024, Ray had signed with Decca & Universal, and he released his third EP, I Tried. This was a solid collection of songs, particularly the soulful, aching ballad “Comfortable.” The EP also included the positive, gospel-tinged song, “Falling Into Place” (featuring Debbie).

Now with the release of Ray’s new EP, I WILL, he is reaching a larger audience and he’s launched an extensive concert tour, headlining shows in Australia, France and the U.S. This month, he will be performing live in North America, playing shows in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Toronto.

Later this year, Ray will release a mixtape that will include the songs from his four EPs, plus some new tracks. Then in 2026, Ray is expected to come out with his first full album.

Here’s the video of Victor Ray’s single, “Hearts Break and
People Change.”

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Victor Ray. He tells how he got started with singing and writing songs, and busking in the streets London. He also discusses each of his four EPs, particularly his latest one, I WILL.

DK: I read that you were born in Uganda and then grew up in Newcastle. How did you get started with music and singing?

Victor Ray: I was born in Uganda, but we moved to Newcastle when I was one. So Newcastle’s really all I knew for my early life. But I was always singing. I was like that kid that was annoying. I know my mum was getting annoyed of all the random shouting and singing in the house. My first performance was when I was maybe six. I think it was at a school Christmas concert; I had a solo and I went on stage and I loved it. I was quite a shy kid, but I remember being onstage and feeling really confident. So I think that’s when I knew.

DK: Early on, I read that you performed live, busking in the streets of London. Is that true, and did some of your videos go viral?

Ray: Yeah, so I started busking when I was 17 and that was around 2017. I just wanted to try it because I was singing so much at home. I was doing a few gigs here and there, but it was hard to get the gigs I wanted. So I was like…let me go out and I can [try busking]. I ended up doing that, and I saved money and moved to London. Then a couple years later (around 2021) I had my first video. I uploaded my first video on TikTok and Instagram and it would start to go viral. And then a bunch went viral after that, and it’s kind of rolled into now. So I’m really lucky.

DK: I recently watched your video with Teddy Swims on the streets of London, singing “Crazy.” That was a great performance by both you and Teddy.

Ray: Thank you. That was the first time I met Teddy, and now I’m lucky to call him a good friend of mine. That was such a fun day, singing with Teddy.

Here’s the video of Victor Ray’s song, “World At My Feet.”

DK: Two years ago you released your EP called I Felt. Can you talk about making that EP?

Ray: I’ve now done four EPs, and I tried to touch on my different influences. Early on, I wrote songs on my country guitar in my bedroom, and I wanted my first EP to encapsulate that. And this singer-songwriter genre that I grew up listening to and loving. So with that first EP, it was me telling some of these stories that had really affected me in a way that I felt most comfortable in, when I first started writing.

DK: On your I Felt EP, I like your song, “Popcorn and a Smoothie,” which has a unique title and idea. What’s the story behind writing that song?

Ray: That’s one of my favorite songs; it’s one of the most deep ones that I have. It’s a story about me and my relationship with my dad, and I tried to take his perspective in a way. Also, a brother that I have that I didn’t get to know very much when I was growing up. And it’s kind of like this cycle. I know a lot of people experience it, having a distant parent and this cycle of almost abandonment in families and how that could affect people that are innocent parties in it as well. So I was trying to dig into my experiences and try to write from a place of hope as well, just hoping that things can get better and hope that other people can listen to that song and feel a bit of hope and feel inspired to try and make a change as well in that whole life.

DK: Last year you released an EP called I Tried. Can you talk about the songs on an EP? I particularly like your song, “Comfortable.”

Ray: I love that EP and that song in particular, I wrote it in 2020, so that was before I released any music. I wrote it from experience, the breakup of my first relationship I was in. And enough time had passed for me to reflect on how I was inside that situation. I think I could look back on it with more self-awareness. The song is basically a story about how as a person, and as people, we tend to find and lean back on what’s comfortable, even when that situation might be toxic, when the uncomfortable thing would be to be alone and not have anyone. It’s a story that I think a lot of people resonated with, which I think is why it did so well for me.

Here’s the video of Victor Ray’s song, “Sticks and Stones”
(feat. Kojey Radical & Strandz).

DK: You have now released 4 EP with similar titles: I Was, I Felt, I Tried and the new one, I WILL. What is the meaning of creating these titles for your EPs?

Ray: My first EP was called I Was, the second one I Felt, the third one I Tried and then this one is I WILL. And I feel this EP in particular it like the the last page of the first chapter of my story, and I wanted each of these EPs to tell a story, to introduce myself as an artist in a different way.

The first EP was very singer-songwriter, the second one was more R&B-focused. The third one had a bit more soul with “Comfortable,” and this new EP has a bit more hip-hop and a pop influence as well. It’s as much about that and setting the scene for the foundation for the rest of my career, and it’s also you know this EP in particular it was very much about…I want people to know that I came from singing on the street, and I’m telling my story in a way, like how did I get to this position now? And I feel I worked so hard for so many years to get here and have this seat at the table. So I feel like I’ve finally earned the right to release a song called the “World Is At My Feet” because of all the hours that I put in. So that’s what this project is about.

DK: I like your new song “Hearts Break and People Change,” which is powerful and emotional. What inspired you to write this song?

Ray: A lot of people think this song is about a relationship, but it was actually it’s a friendship that I had that was my first time that I experienced like…I have quite a close circle of friends and that song was one of the first times I experienced falling out so badly with a close friend of mine, and now being left in this place of being unsure. Because for me, these kind of friendships shaped me as a person, so that hit me quite hard. And the song is about me getting to a place of acceptance and being like…I think this is life, people grow apart, people fall out, and we have to move from it. It’s coming to terms with that reality.

DK: I also like your song “Sticks and Stones” which is different. It’s got a hip-hop flavor and it features rappers Kojey Radical and Strandz. Can you talk about that song and collaborating with them?

Here’s the video of Victor Ray’s song, “Still The Same.”

Ray: I love that song so much. It’s so funny—around 2020 when I was busking, Kojey Radical actually walked by me, gave me some money and put me in his (Instagram) story. Then the other day, I told him about it and he had no idea, so that’s a nice full circle moment. But I’ve always been a huge fan of him and Strandz. UK rap and hip-hop has always inspired me.

When I wrote “Sticks and Stones,” I wrote it with a producer called Owen Cutts who’s amazing, and he’s worked a lot with Stormzy, so he helped me come out of my comfort zone. But it was originally just me on the track, and then I happened to meet Strandz and Kojey separately throughout the year and then we got on. We worked on a few things together, and then I was like, “I’ve got this track that I feel like you guys would be great on,” and luckily they were excited and happy to do it. So we created something amazing, and for me it was important that the song is about the streets that I grew up in, and how that changed me.

DK: I also like your song “World At My Feet,” which is very confident and powerful. Can you talk about writing this song?

Ray: These days, when you see so many people online and people seeing that my song has come up and I’m touring, people can think, “How did that happen?” But for me, this was not an easy path to take, like. For years I was singing on the street to put milk in my fridge and pay for my rent, and I was writing. I committed so many hours to this thing, and some of the lyrics in the song is like, “I broke every string till my fingers would bleed. I found my voice in a song that wasn’t written for me.” And that’s talking about all the hours I spent playing guitar, learning, and then singing these covers that eventually would go viral and that’s how people would find me. So I tried to tell my story in a way, and the hip-hop nature and the drums in that song gave me this confidence to be like…I really earned this. It’s been years and I’m here and now I know exactly what I’m capable of. And I feel like the world could look over in my direction and be like,…Oh, there’s something happening there, which is really exciting for what I plan to do next.

DK: Now that you’ve released these EPs, do you have plans to release a full album?

Here’s the video of Victor Ray’s song, “Comfortable.”

Ray: I do. I’m definitely working on my first studio album right now. I’ve started writing it. So that’s exciting, and it’s probably coming out in 2026. But before the end of this year, I planned to put out a mixtape, which will include all the songs on the EPs, and a couple new ones. I write so many songs, and I wanted this opportunity to get out these other ones that maybe didn’t quite fit in the concept of these EPs, but they fit in this time and space of me and my career. So I will have a mixtape coming out hopefully towards the end of summer.

DK: I want to ask you about your live shows and your touring. I read that you’re playing shows in France, and then then you’ll be coming to America for shows.

Ray: Yeah, I’m actually in France now. I’ve got a show tonight in Lille, so that’s exciting. It’s my first time here, but I love it so much. For me, the live show is it; it’s my favorite part. These shows are a mix of more intimate ones with me and my guitarist, and then I’ve got some that when my whole band is going to be there as well.

It’s great because I feel like I want people to discover me through live music, because that’s where the songs really come to life. I feel like I sound so much better live than I do on tracks, and I feel like I can really go somewhere. All those years I spent busking and performing, it told me to dig inwards when I’m singing because I spent so many hours trying, I had to be by myself and the music for so long, that I figured out that’s how I can really connect with myself, with the song, and how I can get other people to connect as well. So the energy is always so fun in the shows. And it’s always a really good time. So I’m excited to come to America and play these songs for the first time.