Artist: Darrin Bradbury
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Latest Album: Artvertisement
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
It’s not from being on stage, but this one time, my tour manager Josh and I broke down an hour outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, on the way to opening for Robert Earl Keen. The van just up and died. We were on the side of the highway wondering what to do when we called AAA. It turned out that we were just below the amount of miles that AAA would tow — making our arrival to open for Robert Earl Keen, pulling up right behind the tour bus in a tow truck, jumping out of said tow truck, running on stage, plugging in and playing.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?
Unfortunately, I find that often characters hide behind me, making me speak for them as they cower behind me, quite frankly it’s exhausting. I wish they’d just speak for themselves, I just keep collecting them, as voices in my head.
Before every show I’m usually pretty antsy. Offstage I’m fairly introverted. One of my best friends from back in New York wrote this song about a decade ago on a road trip we were on through the Midwest called “Moon in the Blue Sky.” I always find a quiet spot to sing it to myself.
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
Abstract expressionism, gestural painting, de Kooning, Pollock, Picasso, as well as authors Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Bukowski, John Fante. I also dance when no one’s looking.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
Every song is the toughest, roughest, most pain in the ass, shit kicker, tooth knocker, sock rocker, and you don’t always win.
Photo credit: Weston Heflin
