Conan Gray Details the Downfall of a Toxic Relationship on ‘Jigsaw’

Conan Gray is going down the rock road — and he’s placing the sonic puzzle pieces in all of the right places. On Friday, the pop singer released “Jigsaw,” the latest single from his as of yet untitled forthcoming album.

On the electric guitar-heavy track, the “Heather” singer details what it’s like to change himself for someone who doesn’t like him for who he is: “If changing my clothes/ Would make you like me more/ If changing my hair/ Would make you care/ Then I’d grab the kitchen scissors/ And cut myself to slivers/ For you,” he sings in the track’s opening verse.

Gray originally wrote the song as a “diary entry rant” for himself and drew the cover art, which depicts Grey being cut in half by a pair of scissors, to reflect some of the song’s lyrics.

“I was so used to trying to please everyone that, when it came to love, I started to do the same,” Gray said in a press release. “It didn’t work, obviously.” He added: “By the end of it all it, I ended up looking in the mirror and barely recognizing my rearranged and twisted reflection.”

Gray hopes the track inspires his fans to stay true to themselves and to not change for others.

“Destroying yourself to win somebody’s love will only leave you empty on the other side. Because in the end, that person won’t love you, just the version of you that you made for them,” he said. “Instead, choose to become somebody that you love.”

By the end of the song, his voice filling with rage, Gray realizes: “All I did just to make you happy/ Still you don’t even fucking love me/ Killing parts of myself to fit you/ Clear as shit I was not the issue.”

Before sharing the track officially, Gray performed an acoustic snippet of the song on TikTok.

“Jigsaw” follows singles “Astronomy,” “People Watching,” and “Telepath,” which Gray released last year. He’s expected to release his sophomore album this year after dropping debut Kid Krow in 2020.