Skylar Grey Rewrites Her Midwestern Girlhood On ‘Wasted Potential’Out Now

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Today (5.22), Skylar Grey, the 5x GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter whose haunting hooks and razor-sharp pen have left fingerprints of some of the biggest songs of the last decade, returns with WASTED POTENTIAL – an 11-track excavation of memory, desire, rebellion and the strange beauty of the Midwestern hometown she spent years trying to escape. 

“All of my albums have been special to me, but this one is extra near and dear to my heart,” shares Grey. “It’s full of nostalgic childhood memories that make me cry, make me laugh, and make me better understand the person I am today. I hope when people hear my story, it will make them feel less alone and less afraid to be themselves.”

Born and raised in the tiny town of Mazomanie, Wisconsin, Grey grew up surrounded by music – her mother played Celtic harp while her father sang in a barbershop quartet, and Grey began performing publicly with her mother at age 6. The soundtrack of her girlhood was harmony, but to her, it felt like a wasteland: cornfields stretching toward nowhere, small-town rituals repeating themselves season after season. For a young dreamer with a restless streak, it felt less like home and more like a place to outrun.

WASTED POTENTIAL lives in the tension between those truths. Across the album, Grey revisits the fragmented memories that molded her – bonfires on the bluffs, bike rides to the pool, teenage crushes hidden beneath bleachers, drunken carnival nights fueled by vodka stashed in plastic water bottles – not with bitterness, but with empathy. The places and people she once dismissed now glow with complicated affection, and what once felt suffocating has softened into something almost sacred. 

Written by Grey and co-produced alongside Danny Majic (G-Eazy, Jimin, Flo Rida), the project takes on “bubblegrunge,” a collision of raw-edged confessions and punk inspirations, undeniable pop melodies and the dark emotional honesty threaded into her songwriter DNA. Grey also tapped producers Bryan Yepes (Drake, Latto), Bangs (Doja Cat, Don Toliver), Sage Skolfield (The Weeknd, DJ Khaled), Brandon Csupo (Latto, Cece), Orion Meshorer (Taylor Swift, The Kid Laroi) and Jonathan Hernandez for select tracks, and co-wrote “Bullshit” and “That’ll Be Fine” with her husband and fellow artist Elliott Taylor. 

Tracks like “Motivation” and “Nirvana” ache with longing for the sleepy Midwest she once couldn’t wait to leave, while “Come,” “Black n’ Blue” and “Spine” cut into the chaos of sexuality and self-discovery, written like a page out of her teenage diary. “Bullshit” sinks into the emotional whiplash of a relationship, where silence speaks louder than the words unsaid, while “Plastic Water Bottles” recasts drunken recklessness into something relatably tender. “Unfaithful,” wrestles with guilt, self-sabotage and the uneasy act of confronting yourself honestly, before “Cool Kids” circles back to the sting of never quite belonging. 

Listen to WASTED POTENTIAL here             

From “Love The Way You Lie” and “Coming Home” to “Clarity,” Grey’s work has soundtracked a generation of listeners, with credits spanning era-defining hits for Eminem, Rihanna, Dr. Dre, Zedd, Macklemore, Kehlani and Christina Aguilera. Across her career, she has amassed more than 19 billion catalogue streams to date, cementing her place as one of modern pop’s most influential yet elusive forces. 

Grey has recently appeared on The Dumb Blonde Podcast with Bunnie XO and Showing Up with Andy Grammer to talk more about her upbringing and new album. Plus, she was recently announced as the voice of Fawn, an AI-powered comforting creature companion from Silicon Valley startup Fawn Friends. Today, she’ll host an exclusive album release party at the Napa Valley Car Club. On May 26, she’ll appear at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles for a conversation about her journey and new album, moderated by acclaimed actress Marissa Bode. Tickets for the event are available, here.