Chris Grey enters the week with a new milestone in motion: DEATH WON’T DO US PART, his single with Ari Abdul released last Friday. We spoke with him just days before the drop, right in the middle of the countdown, as he crossed a billion streams and approached ten million monthly listeners. Even without traditional promo, the Toronto-based artist has built impressive momentum through a sharp digital strategy and a sound that connects fast with his audience.
“Once I wrote down that first line, a whole world sort of opened up,” he says of the new single, pointing to a clearer direction for what comes next. The conversation comes at a key moment: he returns to London this Friday for a sold-out show at The Dome, a major step leading into the rollout of his sophomore album early next year. What sets Chris apart is the framework behind his music. Raised between two Kingstons — Jamaican on his father’s side, Canadian on his mother’s — he blends R&B, reggae, disco, and rock into a dark pop style he writes and produces himself entirely. “I’m drawn to emotions that feel too big,” he explains.
Chris, we’re just days away from the release of DEATH WON’T DO US PART. Where’s your head at as everything starts to shift from private to public?
I’m always somewhere between excited and nervous on release day. The whole process of making the song is all pretty private, and then all of a sudden millions of people are listening. But I’m very proud of this song: it’s dramatic, romantic, and maybe a little unhinged in the best way, but it sounds like me.
The track carries a sort of emotional voltage that doesn’t pretend to resolve anything. What was the first spark that pulled you into the world of this song?
Most of my songs start with the production. I made this very dark, beautiful, cinematic instrumental, and I wanted to write something that captured the emotion in it. Once I wrote down that first line, “Death won’t do us part,” a whole world sort of opened up. The lyrics tell a story of an unconditional, immortal kind of love. The whole song feels like sitting in those feelings and letting them be intense.
Ari Abdul joins you on this one. Rather than asking about chemistry, we want to know: what changed the moment her voice entered the demo?
This is our second song together, and we’ve known each other for so long now. I’ve always heard a second voice on this track and knew she would be a great fit. She understood the vibe instantly, and her voice added this haunting softness that made everything so much more emotional. After that, I couldn’t imagine hearing the song without her on it.
When you start something new, are you following a mood, a visual, or a sentence that refuses to behave?
Honestly, it changes every time. Sometimes it’s a feeling, sometimes it’s a visual, and sometimes it’s an idea for a story I want to write. I love creating songs that feel like you just walked into the middle of a movie scene. If I can see the cover art and the music video in my head when I’m making the song, that’s when I know I’m onto something.
“I love creating songs that feel like you just walked into the middle of a movie scene.”
You come from two Kingstons in two different countries. How does that dual origin move through your work in ways you notice only when you look back?
My dad was a DJ born in Kingston, Jamaica, so I grew up with music playing all of the time, especially soul, reggae and disco records. My dad wasn’t the type to put on Wheels On The Bus ten times in a row. When he used to pick me up from school, I remember I could always hear his music blasting before I could even see his car. And then my mom was born in Kingston, Canada, and was more into the rock and pop staples. Those early influences have somehow found their way into my sound. Visually, my next album is definitely inspired by my Jamaican heritage.
Your partnership with Rebellion Records has become its own narrative thread. What made you recognise that their model could hold the world you were building?
The first thing that drew me to Rebellion is the fact that it is artist-owned. Michael, the founder, and I clicked right when we met, both as musicians and as people. What I thought was a two-day meeting in NYC turned into the start of an amazing partnership and friendship. Michael and I align on a lot of things when it comes to the music industry, and I’m very grateful that we met when we did. It’s been surreal to see my career and the label grow so much together over the last two years.
Rebellion operates outside traditional industry playbooks. What have you learned from a digital-first environment that you don’t think a classic label setup would ever have taught you?
I’ve learned how fast things can move when you’re not stuck in a traditional system. Today, people find so much music through edits and various communities online. I think fandoms and subcultures are driving the future of entertainment. Other labels are starting to catch on to that, but Rebellion got there first. It’s truly amazing to see how much digital marketing can move a song or a whole project.
When did it hit you that your relationship with Rebellion wasn’t just supportive but symbiotic, that you were shaping the ecosystem as much as inhabiting it?
The response to my song LET THE WORLD BURN grew my career and the label side by side. We built every strategy and initiative together, and it was amazing to see our hard work pay off. That’s how I knew I wasn’t just an artist on a label, I was in a true partnership.
There’s always a tension in your work: devotion pressed against destruction, softness against spectacle. Do you chase contrasts intentionally, or do they surface once you’re deep into the process?
I think the contrasts show up on their own. I’m drawn to the intensity of an emotion, love that feels too big, feelings that get too messy. I tend to write in that space where things feel both beautiful and chaotic, which naturally creates tension in my music.
“Today, people find so much music through edits and various communities online. I think fandoms and subcultures are driving the future of entertainment.” 
Your catalogue feels cohesive but restless. What’s the element you always return to to keep the centre from drifting?
Sonically, I always come back to dark, cinematic production and concepts that feel dramatic or romantic. The emotion behind the song could be longing, obsession, heartbreak, whatever, but it has to hit you in that gut-level way. Even when I’m experimenting with different sounds, I need that intensity to be there so the world still feels like mine.
You’ve got a sold-out show at The Dome right after the release. What part of DEATH WON’T DO US PART feels designed to hit differently in a room rather than in headphones?
I already know that the chorus is going to hit completely differently in a room. It’s going to turn into this big, dramatic moment everyone can scream together. The production is super cinematic too, so it’ll just fill the space in a way you can’t recreate anywhere else. The song was meant for that release of energy.
Toronto seems to anchor you creatively. What does the city give you that you can’t access anywhere else?
Toronto keeps me grounded. There’s something comforting about seeing the same streets I grew up on and being near the people who knew me before any of this. No matter how crazy things get, being home helps me reconnect with why I started making music in the first place. The city also keeps me inspired. The sound of Toronto was a strong influence when I started making music. So many incredible artists have come from this city in the past few decades, and I hope that I can continue that legacy.
Your sophomore album is already in the works. Without revealing too much, what question or tension is currently guiding you as you shape it?
The new album is leaning into questions that feel a little quieter but deeper. It’s still dark and emotional and dramatic, but it’s a lot more about figuring out where you’re meant to be and who you’re meant to be with when everything settles. I keep thinking about love in a larger, almost timeless sense.
And finally, when someone presses play on DEATH WON’T DO US PART, what’s the first physical sensation you hope arises before any lyric even registers?
I want people to feel that sense of longing and passion right away. The production is intense and cinematic from the start and feels emotional before you even know why. At the end of the day, it is a love song, and I want people to think of that ‘one person’ when they listen.