“These tracks tell a precise story,” Victor Ray explains to Apple Music about his third EP. “It starts from a toxic place, and then moves towards somewhere more hopeful. There’s less heartbreak-type stuff [on this EP] as I’m slowly realising, ‘OK, maybe everything will be all right’, and I’m trying to lean into that emotion through the music.” In 2023, Ray’s first releases—the i was. and i felt. EPs—followed the Uganda-born, Newcastle-raised singer-songwriter making waves on TikTok as he busked across the UK and mainland Europe. Closing out his trilogy of soulful EPs [while leaving the door open for a fourth], Ray calls on producers Jake Tench, Humble the Great and AKA Block to tackle a gauntlet of emotion for i tried.. Opener “Comfortable” simmers with vulnerability before an absorbing change of pace follows with psych-funk number “Halfway There”, and Ray calls on a former busking buddy—London soul riser Debbie—for melodic, heartwarming closer, “Falling Into Place”. “[During lockdown] I was just writing,” Ray says. “So in some ways, despite what I was feeling, it was actually a great time for me in terms of my career. I’m so happy people are getting to hear these songs. It’s all part of how I deal with tough situations just in life. So it’s a beautiful thing to be able to transform them into something meaningful.” Read on as he guides us through the EP, track by track. “Comfortable” “This track might be my favourite release so far. It’s about my experience of landing in so many of the same toxic situations, and it really opens [this EP] in such a beautiful way. It’s also quite a powerful way to start the chapter. First, by accepting the past and then trying to move forward to a better place.” “Halfway There” “I had so much fun writing this song, and I love playing it in my sets. It’s about discovering a romantic situation and hoping that something serious can come from it. It’s such a breath of fresh air and means a lot to me. I wouldn’t say it’s as deep as ‘Comfortable’, personally, and it still took us two days to write this—but it was a lot of fun. We weren’t taking ourselves too seriously, and we experimented with so many different melodies, harmonies, everything. Once we found this guitar groove, it all came together quite fluidly.” “Lose Myself” “I wrote this track [in 2021] with [British producer] PRGRSHN, and a writer called Dyo [British singer-songwriter Dayo Olatunji]. They’re both legends to me, and it was the first time I had met either of them. With PRGRSHN, especially, it’s like he really wants to know where your heart’s at musically—and then find the right sound for you in the moment. It’s quite a spiritual thing when I write with him, actually. I feel like this track is so different to anything I’ve put out. I was still early in my collaborating with others here, and I wasn’t really sure what was going to come out of it. Now, when I can go in, I lead the room, so to speak.” “Falling Into Place” (feat. Debbie) “We started this off with Jake playing some chords whilst I was humming away. We’ve worked together loads, by the way, me and Jake, now it’s what we do. I’ll hum something and he’ll say, ‘Bro, just put that on the mic.’ At the beginning of this song, you can even hear a click [sound] in there, because we recorded it through our headphones, it was only supposed to be a reference—but we just loved the way it sounded. It’s kind of a through line throughout the whole song as well, so I love that bit.”