Conan Gray‘s new single “People Watching” was released!

The video is shot in a story-telling style. Gray is pictured as a barista working in a café where he narrates the lives of couples who come into the café. He sings about their love as an outside observer, “… only looking just to live through [them] vicariously”.

He sings “I’ve never really been in love, not seriously”; however, in the chorus to the song, he admits “I wanna feel all that love and еmotion, be that attached to the person I’m holdin’.” He hints that his past experiences with love have caused him to be hesitant to love again when he says “Some day I’ll be falling, without caution,
but for now I’m only people watchin’”. 

The release of “People Watching” closely follows the release of Gray’s single “Astronomy” in May 2021. “People Watching” was co-written with Julia Michaels and Dan Nigro (who Gray previously worked with on “Heather” and “Maniac“).

“‘People Watching’ is for all my fellow lonely people who wonder what it’s like to be deeply in love,” Gray said regarding the inspiration for the song. “I’ve never dated anyone in my entire life, so I’ve spent so many years of my life watching perfect couples sit in cafes and share coffee, whispering sweet nothings to each other. I can’t help but fantasize about what it must be like to feel that emotion.”

Public spaces like cafes are perfect settings for observing others. Pictured as a barista, Gray is the ultimate invisible observer. Over the course of the video, he becomes so caught up in the observation of others around him, he forgets his own job responsibilities. No customer seems to notice as coffee cups come crashing around him or when drinks spill everywhere. To them, he is just the person who serves them coffee.

“There’s nothing I love more than watching them exist in their little world, where seemingly nobody else exists to them,” said Gray. “The song’s lyrics are things I’ve eavesdropped off of times I used to spend people watching at the cafe in college. Studying them living their lives lets me live vicariously through them, in a way.”