Bradley Kim
I’ve known Bradley Kim’s music since the release of his single “growing pains”. Since that day, I never stopped listening to his music. His songs kept getting better and better and his debut EP Starting Over only contains great songs. I believe Bradley Kim will only keep growing and evolving. We definitely need to keep an eye on him.
Go stream Starting Over now ! :)
Introduce yourself - what's your story?
Honestly still trying to figure this one out! I find that I’m still learning new things about myself everyday. That said, I am a 24 year old, openly gay, indie-pop artist from Seattle, WA. I grew up playing sports and was lucky enough to get the opportunity to play division 1 football at the Air Force Academy. While simultaneously harnessing a newfound love and passion for music, I balanced military/academic demands with athletic demands in college. I learned and experienced a lot through all of these intersecting jobs and I use a lot of those experiences in how I write songs. After graduating, I got stationed in middle Georgia and spent about 18 months there and I am now currently on month 5 of my 36ish month stint I will have in North Dakota until I can get out of the military and do music full time. Since graduating, I’ve just been making super cool friends and working on honing in on what the “Bradley Kim” sound is and will be moving forward. I’m really excited to share everything that I’ve been working on lately.
What music did you grow up listening to and how has it influenced your music?
I grew up sharing an iTunes account and iPods with my older siblings, so I primarily listened to whatever they were listening to since I didn’t have the ability to find my own music until high school, laughs. I was really into The Fray growing up and especially with all of the new stuff I’ve been making, I’m hearing a lot of the influence in my choice in melodies and the way I sing and belt parts of the song. Over the past few years, people like Chelsea Cutler, Zachary Knowles, Quinn XCII, etc. have influenced a lot of the music I’ve been making and continue to because they’re all just so good at what they do. I also grew up in touch with my Hawaiian roots because I listened (and still listen to) a lot of Kolohe Kai, Common Kings, J Boog, etc. and I definitely get inspiration from elements of what they do.
When did you start making music? When did you realize that you wanted to make a living from writing, and recording music?
I wrote my first song at the end of my senior year of high school when I was 18. It was hot garbage. I’ve obviously gotten a bit better since then, but my first experience with music was a creative prom-posal to a girl when I was a junior in high school. I just had a ton of fun with it and knew I wanted to keep doing it in whatever capacity I could. Since then, I’ve always loved music and knew I’d continue to do it regardless of my success, but it really wasn’t until I got the opportunity to open for Dermot Kennedy that I made the realization that this is what I was meant to do with my life. I had some cool experiences prior to that, but that was the moment I will always look back at, no matter how far I take this thing, and point to as the pivotal moment in my career.
Could you describe the songwriting/production process for this EP?
I originally started writing “Starting Over” with my friend, Ryan Nealon, as a way to cope with a 3.5 year relationship that meant more to me than words can describe ending; I never had any intention of writing an EP, I just wanted to get through the breakup. The first two songs off of the EP were written shortly after the breakup so they convey much more of the raw emotions that I was feeling directly after, and the last 3 songs are where I take more of an analytical perspective to not only the relationship, but myself and my experience as a gay man in general. It’s kind of a mirror into how I processed the break up: coping with the fact that I had to start over and readying myself for what’s to come, moving out of the apartment that we shared, reshaping what I had pictured in my mind for my future, learning how to love myself since I never had to do it for myself, and looking back with gratitude because I never thought I’d have the chance to have a relationship with another man as an openly gay man.
When did you begin writing and recording this project? Who helped you create it?
I started writing the first song with Ryan Nealon who played a big part in helping me get through the breakup. Todd Tran played a huge role in this EP as he produced 4 of the 6 songs and selflessly spent hours listening to me pour my heart out to him to both help him produce and to help me. Kaleb Naylor mixed and mastered 4 of the songs and produced the two that Todd didn’t. I also had help writing every song on the EP except for 20. Those writers are: Ryan Nealon, Dalton Mauldin, Kaleb Naylor, Jordan Turley, and Chloe Copoloff. Chandler Eggleston helped with his guitar wizardry, Ricky Johnson shot the cover art, Nicholas Mauro did the graphic design for the cover art, and Nicholas Liddle helped me with PR for the EP. It took a VILLAGE, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the amazing people I have in my life that I get to work with. This EP wouldn’t have happened without their help.
When working on this project, what were the biggest challenges you faced?
Creatively speaking, a few of the songs went through multiple overhauls as I was a little picky and sometimes fickle with certain sound selections and directions (sorry Todd and Kaleb). That was a little tough, but once we found the direction it was easy from there. From a writing perspective, I like to say that initially writing these songs feel cathartic because it’s helping me to process my emotions and learn more about myself. However, I think the biggest challenge came with content creation for these songs. I’d like to say that I have processed everything that I wrote about, but being forced to create content for it kind of forced me to revert back to a previous version of myself to accurately promote it. I understand the necessity of content creation for a body of work, but with this EP specifically, it felt like continuously ripping open a scab every time I had to promote the songs. It did so much harm to my mental health despite it originating as a healing tool, and that is one of the biggest reasons why I’m happy the EP is out.
This EP really takes us through a range of multiple emotions just being the listener. We experience heart break, healing, and moving on. When creating this EP, at any point did you feel you shouldn’t say this or that? How did you decided what did and didn’t make the EP?
A big part of me feels wrong for sharing aspects of our relationship, but a friend in the industry taught me that being an artist means getting over that because you are sharing your story and your truth. That said, I feel like I irritated some of the writers I got to work with because I didn’t ever entertain the idea of badmouthing the other person. It sometimes forced us into a box because how do you write a breakup song if you don’t have anything bad to say about the other person? Regardless, I think we got a uniquely beautiful project as a result because a lot of people define their relationship by how it ends, and this paints a picture of how successful our relationship was despite it ending after 3.5 years.
As an artist, what is the hardest part? And what is the best part?
I still just think it’s so cool that an idea that originated in my brain can turn into a whole ass song. I’m still so in awe of the process even though I’ve done it hundreds of time; I still have that child-like excitement every time I get done with a new demo. As an independent artist, having complete creative freedom and owning 100% of my masters is definitely a huge plus side, but on the financial side, having the power and money from a label would make a lot of the financial struggle of being an independent artist go away. I’m not 100% sold on always being an independent artist or 100% wanting to get signed eventually, I think I’m just going to be open and see what organically comes my way, and choose whatever is best for me at the time it comes if it comes.
What biggest lessons have you learned since the beginning of your career?
Honestly a ton of lessons that I couldn’t narrow down to a single lesson… In no particular order:
1-No one is going to make your career happen for you except for you.. you have to do the work if you want it to happen.
2-Write about shit you care about; don’t write about topics you think your audience wants to hear because at the end of the day, all people care about in general is authenticity. If you are unapologetically you, then things will fall into place.
3-Learn to appreciate the process. It’s going to be HARD a lot of the time as an artist, but remembering why you started doing music is crucial to your longevity.
4-Celebrate anything and everything.
5-Your worth and success as an artist are not tied to the number of listeners or streams you have.
There are a bunch more but those were the first 5 I thought of.
What advice would you give to artists out there?
Life is too short to be doing shit you don’t want to be doing. I say this weekly to myself and to others. I’d rather regret taking a shot with something I want to do and end up broke than spending the rest of my life doing a job I’m half-passing and wondering if I could have made it in music.
What message do you want to give to the LGBTQIA+ community?
To my LGBTQIA+ fam: I love you all and I draw my strength and courage from every single one of you. We didn’t have a lot of gay music to bump growing up, but get ready for my music to be gayer than ever. Also, you can do ANYTHING you set your mind to. Be delusional. I didn’t think I belonged in football, let alone football at the division 1 collegiate level because of my sexuality, but that’s only because society convinced me I couldn’t. Stay authentic and don’t let anyone else tell you who you are or what you can do. Only you can define who you are.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
While there’s a lot of other things I would want to address here with this question, I think I’ll keep it simple to what each person has the ability to do today: never keep positive thoughts about someone to yourself (unless they’re inappropriate). I think we underestimate how big of an impact complimenting a stranger has and I try to not keep these good thoughts I have to myself. Putting positivity out into the world with something as simple as this would make the world a better place :)
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