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It's hard to forget Macy Gray. It's been over 15 years since her song "I Try" was released, and it's still impossible to not hum along to the contagious beat that won her a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2001. Her distinctive, raspy voice has stayed with all us through the good times and the bad times. "I Try" is a song about love that speaks to everyone. "I was with my ex-husband at the time, and the song explains what was going on at the moment. Not really a long story," she laughs. The ability to connect with her audience through music is something that still prevails, and comes through in her newest single, "White Man." Becoming a musician was not a plan Macy had thought through until she was older. "I didn't really know what I wanted to do until my early 20s," she says. "But I took piano lessons when I was seven for eight years." This introduced her to the world of music at a young age. "I had to practice every week, for 30 minutes every day," Macy exclaims. Today, she is proud to have that skill, but playing the piano was not Macy's favorite part of childhood. "I hated it. It was awful," she rasps. Music seemed to always be around her. "There was always music blasting on the radio. There was always music in the house, so I kind of knew every song." As she got older, MTV was starting to become popular — that's when she truly became involved and devoted to the world of music. "That's when I learned rock-and-roll, metal. I was growing up in a time when there was a lot of music out there, and a lot of new forms of music were coming up. I got exposed to all that stuff." Her fame has been attributed to her single "I Try," however, Macy explains a lot of her success comes from being on the scene at the right time. "I think it was the song, and I really worked my album. I flew it all over the world. I was very excited and new at the time, so I wasn't too cool to do stuff. I did everything," she exclaims. "I was a new artist, and I came around at the right time, when music was really open to new things. I think my timing was just really good." In 2016, Macy returned to the music scene — this time under a new label. Chesky Records released her newest album in the fall of 2016, titled Stripped. The album quickly climbed to the top of the jazz charts, and put Macy back in the public eye. Stripped — a collection of ten live new songs, jazz interpretations of her best songs, and a couple of covers— debuted at number 2 on the US Traditional Jazz Albums chart. Her love for jazz is not new, in fact, it has been around her for a while now. "At the time that I was coming up, jazz was very popular. I was just lucky. Bob Marley was still around, and metal and rock got very popular. Then hip-hop came out. It was all available. Now it's been siloed down, into a couple different types of music," Macy explains. Being exposed to all kinds of music is what helped Macy become the artist she is today. "All that stuff is still around, but they don't really celebrate those kind of genres like they used. It's a new day, a different time, but when I was coming up you got to see and be exposed to everything. It was a good time in music to be born." Stripped is a true indication of her music trajectory as an artist. The true mastermind behind this album is Chesky Records. "It was really organized by the label. They are very unique in that they make their own album. They find the singers that they want to do that with, they kind of low-key produced their own album," she says. "I really can't take credit. I was honored to do it, and I loved it. It was a great experience for me and I learned a lot from it." Macy has a lot of experience putting albums together, and a lot of her old school forms came in handy during the production of Stripped. However, the process of putting together a live jazz album was a little different. "There was no fixing, we got the best take and that's what went on the album. I was comfortable doing it. But it didn't sink into me until after the fact. There was one mic, one track. You can't really go back and fix it. And I didn't really get it until after it was done, but I think it came out great," she says proudly. The release of Stripped is only the beginning of Macy's resurgence. She has a new album on the horizon, which she claims will be "really terrific." Earlier this year, she released a new single, "White Man," which Macy tells us is a call for society to move forward, not backwards. "The key is let's come together. It's about that, about speaking out to people, letting them know that that you exist, and that you matter. It's a call out to let's not go backwards, let's come together. It's not meant to offend people. It's just saying, Hey, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere. Let's be alright," she says. Macy went on tour this spring, and continues her global tour this summer. Recently she was in Miami Beach and performed at the Faena Theater. While there, she enjoyed some of the perks of being in Miami. "The nightlife is beautiful." For Macy, it's refreshing to step outside of California where the party ends at 2 a.m. "I love coming out and doing whatever I want until 6 a.m. The food is beautiful, and it's just a good spot to be." The Faena Theater was delighted to have the award-winning artist perform her new songs from Stripped, as well as the tracks that made her famous such as "I Try" and "Do Something." ML For the latest news, visit http://macygray.com/ and follow her Facebook: https://www.facebook. com/macygrayslife/, Twitter: https://twitter.com/ MacyGraysLife, and Instagram: https://www. instagram.com/macygrayday/ To find out what events are coming to Faena Miami Beach this summer, visit: http://www.faena.com/miami-beach/entertainment/