Single of the Week: Conan Gray - Maniac

On the eve of headlining a sold-out run across North America, “The Comfort Crowd” Tour, buzzing 20-year-old bedroom pop singer-songwriter Conan Gray unveils his official new single “Maniac” today.

On the song Conan said:“I wrote maniac in the shower after getting a midnight drunk sob text from my ex. They’d been running all around town telling everyone that I was some freak who wouldn’t leave them alone when in reality, they were the freak. They were the one acting like a maniac— sending strange late-night texts and showing up at my shows unannounced. T thought it was hilarious and all my friends had dealt with the same thing, so I decided to write a cathartic post break-up song dedicated to psychotic exes. that’s how maniac was born.”

Nodding to horror classics like Zombieland and Dawn of the Dead, the action goes down on “Devil’s Night” just a day before Halloween. The teasers for the video have shown Conan and his friend Jess (played by Netflix’s The End of the F***ing World star Jessica Barden) working at a movie theater. Watch the full video to see what happens……

Conan also said of the video: “I think everyone has dealt with a psycho ex at one point in their life. with the “Maniac” video, I wanted everyone’s worst nightmare to come true— all of your exes coming back from the dead to haunt you all in one night. “Night of the Living Exes,” if you will. The second I came up with the video, I knew immediately that I wanted Jess Barden from “The End Of The F***ing World” to play the best friend. Jess is incredibly talented, and her character reminds me a ton of my own best friend who I’d seen date a slew of different types of people. The jock, the artsy one, the nice one, etc. I thought it’d be fun to showcase all of the stereotypes in a cheesy 80’s horror movie esque video.”

Later this month, Conan returns to the road for “The Comfort Crowd” Tour. The six-week run kicks off October 29 at The Pageant in St. Louis, MO. It stops in major markets across the country, including New York’s Terminal 5 on November 12th, before concluding with a three-night stand at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, CA December 11-13. 

In addition, he recently was featured in V Man’s Fall/Winter 2019 issue, UPROXX, Paper, and Grammy.com in addition to receiving a nomination at the YouTube STREAMY Awards in the category of “Breakthrough Artist.”

“The Comfort Crowd” Tour follows his recent sold out European tour, as well as a momentous North American spring headline tour that included sold out shows in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Toronto.

Conan Gray has been making a name for himself with his songs "Comfort Crowd,” “Crush Culture,” “Checkmate” and “The King.” He’s earned praise from Troye Sivan, Khalid, Brockhampton’s Kevin Abstract, and BTS has SOLD OUT ALL dates on his last two headline tours, performed at Lollapalooza and recently had a showcase for fans in NY and LA with over 10,000 RSVP’s. Previously featured in V Man’s Fall/Winter 2019 issue, Paper, iD, Fader, Teen Vogue, UPROXX, Grammy.com, MTV, Dazed & Confused, Billboard, Genius, Clash Magazine,  Notion,  and more – he is currently working on his debut album due out in early 2020.

Fresh off of his release of his Sunset Season EP -Earlier this year made his TV debut on Late Night w Seth Meyers, (watch HERE) and is an incredible live performer). He is a mixture of Lorde meets Taylor Swift, meets the new king of Gen Z Pop. Not to mention he has a rabid online fan base of loyal followers (Instagram: 1Million Followers, Twitter: 460k Followers, YouTube 1.52 million subscribers).

Gray continues to make major waves on his own terms. A string of hits has vaulted him to the forefront of modern pop. With songs from his recent Sunset Season EP and all singles released to date has generated over 250 million streams.

Armed with nothing more than Garageband and a cheap microphone taped to a lamp, Conan Gray released his song "Idle Town" on his YouTube channel as an ode to his hometown of Georgetown, TX. The song went viral, and he later joined forces with LA based producer Dan Nigro to finalize his Sunset Season EP. In January, 2019, Conan made his television debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers, before opening for Panic at the Disco! for several shows on their arena tour. Conan has sold out two North American and European tour.