February 2, 2020 a regular winter evening in Downtown LA, Stanley Ray is about to hit one month since he released his debut album, ‘BabyBoy‘.
Everyday consists of online promo, shooting inter-photo shoots, self-shot photoshoots, trying to book as many podcasts as he can, and now also preparing for his 1st background acting gig for an upcoming Netflix movie that’ll be shooting next month.
Stanley says it’s been a journey living in LA for 5 months now. Starting out as a waiter and cashier before becoming a background actor, Stanley struggled for survival. “I had no money. I lived off of a ‘$5 only a day’ budget for food and was walking around with a pair of Nike slides on my feet because I had no shoes”, says the 21 year old.
But Stanley’s no stranger to struggle, his 1st attempt at living on his own was in 2017 in Las Vegas, NV. Sleeping on an air mattress with 2 other roommates, he was setting out to become a singer and actor, but didn’t stay long because things ended up not working out. “I’m gonna see where LA takes me. I didn’t originally plan to move here but it’s the place that called me 1st”. He feels confident in how everything’s playing so far. he’s released an album independently and booked his 1st paid background acting gig just by searching the Internet, no agency or company behind him whatsoever. “It’s a lot of consistent hard work to make this happen. I’m pulling from my own pocket and doing my own research”.
But album critics, haters, and Internet trolls tried to berate him with negative comments about not only his music, but his sexuality and age. A lot of people he’s met so far always seem mortified and intimidated by the amount of ambition he has to have moved out on his own at such a young age, not once but twice now… 1st time being 18 fresh out of high school living in Vegas and 2nd time being 20 moving to LA.
Stanley’s also always been very androgynous and isn’t new to being mistaken for the opposite gender. His long eye lashes and fairly long wavy/curly fine hair and high singing registered voice definitely caused confusion when he stepped on the scene. “I don’t get offended when people think I’m a girl”, he says. “What offends me is when people are homophobic and bash me because I’m gay or because I don’t sing in a low register like a regular boy or because their perception of me is that I’m too young. Focus on my talent, not my age, my range, or sexual preference”.
But it still doesn’t stop there, because Stanley recorded the album from a studio app on his flusey Android phone, some people tried convincing him to just call his record a mixtape instead of a studio album, because of the albums non studio quality mixing and slight distortion. “That’s been something I’ve been fighting for even prior to my album dropping”, he says, annoyed. “I felt my record deserved more than to just be called a mixtape or demotape. I put my everything into making it so I wanted to release it as an actual album, and I did just that. I didn’t care what everyone around was saying”.
Critics and Internet trolls aren’t the only ones shrugging him off, Stanley also hasn’t had any luck with performing much since his debut. “A lot of times when I ask to perform at a concert or gig, I’ll get turned down because I’m not a rapper with the typical trap music sound”, he explains… “or sometimes I’ll get told its because of the type of music I make. clearly I’m an old soul so I guess that’s just not the type of music most people wanna see live these days”.
Stanley says it’s modern day artists like Bruno Mars and Teyana Taylor that give him hope and inspiration that people will come around to the type of music he makes. “I’m a new artist and I wanna be established from the beginning”, he explains. “I don’t wanna be categorised or overlooked just because I’m not considered cool or hip or trendy”. On a final more lighter note, Stanley says the next couple of weeks also consist of starting production for the music video for his debut single ‘tinderlinderlover’. After a couple weeks of searching, he says he’s found a videographer that he hopes can help him shoot an amazing but laid back and mellow music video for the R&B love ballad – “it’s a love song but I’m gonna try not to be cliché and do the typical concept that most music videos for love songs do”, he chuckles.
