Interview with Danielle Bradbery

Danielle Bradbery is one of the true rising stars of the country music industry. After winning ‘The Voice’ back in 2013, Danielle has gone from strength to strength, releasing her ‘I Don’t Believe We’ve Met’ album at the back end of last year to great critical acclaim. We caught up for a chat with Danielle on Friday, talking about her album, her latest single with Thomas Rhett, playing here in the UK, ‘The Voice’ and much more!

I’d like to start by congratulating you on your sophomore album ‘I Don’t Believe We’ve Met’. The album was released 10 months ago. You must look back on the release with great pride?

Oh yeah. I’ve been so excited to go around and have people listen to my new album and sing it to people and have them sing it right back to me. It’s been really, really amazing. In a sense, it’s been so much fun to share my honest story to everybody and I want to continue that. It’s been really, really fun.

One of the tracks on the album is ‘Hello Summer’. In a fantastic reworking of the song, you recently released ‘Goodbye Summer’ featuring Thomas Rhett. How did that come about?

So originally I had gotten ‘Goodbye Summer’ put to me by Thomas Rhett. We had it as ‘Hello Summer’ for my second record and that’s what it went on as. I put out a single and it was kind of slower and more powerful and we all got together and decided we needed more of an upbeat song. So we came across ‘Hello Summer’ and remembered that Thomas Rhett was a huge part of that song. And we asked Thomas Rhett if he wanted to feature. And he immediately came back and said yes, which was really, really exciting.

We actually changed it to ‘Goodbye Summer’, which a lot of people were a little bit confused about! But originally it was ‘Goodbye Summer’ and we changed the lyric at the end of the song to ‘Goodbye Summer, hello to my broken heart’. It kinda worked out perfectly, as we were going into the fall and the winter, and ‘Goodbye Summer’ makes a little more sense.

Thomas Rhett was real excited, which made me even more excited. We got in the studio and we recorded together – it wasn’t the first time working with him, he’s allowed me to work with him on his stuff which has been really, really fun and I’ve learned so much from that. I’ve got to write with him and sing with him on stage, so by the time it came to do stuff for my project, I feel like I know what to do a little bit more, so I give him thanks for that. Its been really fun to work with him, continue this journey with my single and have him right there, so it’s been really, really fun.

And you’re performing alongside Thomas here in London on the 17th November, with Devin Dawson too! How excited are you about this event at the Hammersmith Apollo?

I am so excited. I am so excited to come back with Thomas Rhett and Devin Dawson. I’m so excited to go back to Europe. I’m so excited, I know I sound like a broken record, but when I found out I was getting to do that and being able to come back – I think it’s my 3rd time coming back to Europe this year. The shows are going to be so fun and I can’t wait to see all the fans again, so it’s going to be unbelievable.

As it’s your 3rd time playing in the UK this year, can we claim you as a little bit British now?

Um, yeah!! I feel like there’s a little bit in there! I just need to come back a little bit more and use it as an excuse to come back again. Yeah, I feel like it’s in there (laughs).

If you had to name one thing that you liked about visiting the UK, what would it be?

Oh man… There’s so many things that I love. The people I love, the atmosphere, the scenery, that everything is so beautiful there. I don’t know, I can’t pick one thing, I love a little bit of everything to be honest.

I want to take you back to the spring of this year and the release of the video for ‘Worth It’. It’s just you singing to an empty theatre and it’s just magical. Filming that must have been some experience?

Yeah. That was one of my favourite music videos, you know, ‘Worth It’ being a song that is very, very close to my heart in every lyric. I wrote that from a real situation and real feelings that I had, which I was hoping would come across to all my fans, you know that they can relate, and they can feel that way, they can feel ‘worth it’ in any situation.

I mean, to start, I already felt so close to that song and when it came time to do the music video I wanted something very vulnerable and very personal, and that was, you know, standing on stage, representing my life and what I’ve been through. Being vulnerable and going through so many things, I’m in an empty theatre and screaming at the top of my lungs that I’m ‘Worth It’, you know, hoping for people to show up, hoping for people to listen to what I have to say.

That was kind of the message of the video and I wanted to make it as powerful as I could. Singing by yourself is more powerful than a crowded room in front of so many people, so it was one of my favourite videos to film and journeys to go on and it was also really, really fun to make.

Obviously winning ‘The Voice’ back in 2013 has had a major impact on your career. How do you think it helped prepare you for the success you’ve had since?

Like you said, it was a big moment in my life, in my career, the start of everything. It has helped me with a lot of things. I still to this day will stop in my tracks and be like, ‘Ok this I what I need to do or this is how I need to act’ and that’s definitely a thing that I learned from the show. You know, I consider ‘The Voice’ as kind of like a boot camp for the music industry to an extent – I learned how to sit there and do an interview in front of the camera, I learned how to be comfortable in front of cameras and I learnt this all so fast. Working with other artists like Blake (Shelton) and Adam Levine and all of those amazing artists have taught me so many things, and just to have fun on stage and be confident, so I owe a lot to that show of course. Things that I do to this day I have learned from them.

I then asked Danielle some fun quickfire questions –

Favourite current Netflix show! – Oh man, I love ‘Stranger Things’ (laughs)
Which song on the radio right now makes you ‘sway’? I love Ariana Grande’s ‘God is a Woman’ – love that song!
Pineapple on pizza? Yes or no? No, that’s a no for me!
The Big Bang Theory or The Big Machine? Oh, the Big Machine! (Danielle’s record label)

To finish, aside from the London event, what plans do you have in store for the rest of 2018?

I’m gonna be working my butt off writing a bunch, trying to get new music out for everybody. I’ll perform out a lot more, and I’d love to make a debut appearance on an award show. So there’s a lot that I have in mind and hopefully all of that will happen.

Head to https://daniellebradbery.com/ to keep up to date on all things Danielle Bradbery!

Interview conducted by Nick Cantwell (twitter.com/nickbelles_gals)