Tag: Picasso

BGS 5+5: Darrin Bradbury

Posted on by Editor

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.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show

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

BGS 5+5: Joshua Radin

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Joshua Radin
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Latest albums: Here, Right Now (LP) and Acoustic From Sunset Sound (EP)

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I have no idea how to answer that. There are way too many to choose, and not just musicians. But to name a few, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Tom Petty, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Paul Cezanne, Henry Miller, J.D. Salinger, Dostoyevsky, Hesse, Picasso, Tolstoy …

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

The first time I headlined and sold out the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. I had lived in NY for years and that was my favorite spot to see music. So when I finally decided, later in life, to start playing and writing music, being on the other side of that stage was magical.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Hmm, that’s a good question. I’d have to say that this happens very frequently. And nine times out of ten, I’ll end up scrapping the song because if it seems like too much effort, I always feel like it wasn’t meant to be written.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I have so many on tour. And at home. But on tour, I wake up on the bus, Google “best coffee near me” and start my day from there. Then I’ll usually walk around the city snapping photos, stumbling down streets without a plan. Everything on tour is planned out once I’m at soundcheck that day, so before that, I like to experience as much spontaneity as I can.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Another great question! Especially because when I’m out on the road, ninety percent of what I think about is where I’m going to eat my next meal… tough to decide but maybe — eating Prince St. Pizza in New York on a stoop, while Bob Dylan busks on the street for change with an open guitar case on the sidewalk.

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez