Greya – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the electro pop artist, Greya, reveals what she does before taking the stage. You can check out the rituals, after the break.

My pre-show ritual is pretty much a fever dream. If I have a show that night, it’ll be the only thing I’m thinking about all day. I’ll usually wake up way too early, and start singing through the entire set as I’m brushing my teeth and doing my makeup. If my voice cracks or I forget a line of a song, I’ll usually start mumbling things like “okay try again” or “don’t freak out you got this”. Then ensues the endless FaceTime calls, usually starting with the band I’m with. I’m not sure why, but I compulsively tell everyone “I’m so nervous” about a million times before the show. Probably in the hopes they’ll say something that helps.

Once that’s through, I usually FaceTime my voice teacher or use a voice memo on my phone to do warmups. Someone told me once that if you’re over-prepared, nerves have nothing on you, and I live by that. Usually, I have trouble eating at all the day of a show because of how nervous I am, but I make sure to get down at least two meals anyway. It sounds terrifying, but sometimes I’m not even mentally or emotionally nervous when any of this is happening- it’s my body reacting to the adrenaline. That in and of itself trips me up having to tell my legs and hands to relax even as I’m walking on stage.

My mom is really superstitious. Growing up, if our team was losing a hockey game, she’d make us all switch seats to change the energy. If we were winning, nobody dared move. I definitely bring some of those tendencies to my pre-show ritual. I take everything as a sign- if practicing a song sounded best while I happened to look to my left, I plan on looking left at that same part during the show. Just little things like that. I hope as I get more experience post-Covid, (if there will ever be such a thing) my pre-show ritual evolves past doomsday prep and into something more creative and fun, and I think it will.

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