Inspired: #352 - Bradley Baker

Cornwall artist Bradley Baker rounds off the year with the deeply personal single, ‘Younger’. The track is driven by Bradley’s raspy soulful vocal, evocative guitar melodies and perfectly pairs sparse and raw arrangements with touching layered dynamics. Bradley, who only started making music during lockdown, talks to us about some of his current inspirations.

Who are your top three musical inspirations and why?
The reason I first ever picked up a guitar was because I saw a video online of Lewis Watson and I instantly fell in love with the way he made his music and for me he’ll always be almost an idol in that regards but also Ben Howard, I remember going to one of his shows many years back and being absolutely mesmerised and in awe, he inspired to be to try and put more of an electronic twist into my music, which I’m still working on… Another artist I’m inspired by at the minute is Holly Humberstone, after only discovering her music last year I quickly fell in love with her sound and the message she sends out through her music, its so great to see so many people succeeding :)

Is there a certain film that inspires you and why?
For me personally I’ve never been massively into films/TV as I’ve always just been working or out with friends but my go to film to watch is the 1996 Jumanji with Robin Williams, for me that’s my all-time favourite film.

What city do you find the most inspiring and why?
For me personally Ive always lived by the coast and for me having that freedom to be surrounded by beaches and water has always been an escape, growing up I always found that going to the beach and getting in the water helped clear my mind of any stress and worries, so that naturally led me to be inspired by my surroundings down here.

Who is the most inspiring person to you and why?
I feel like I have lots of people in my life that inspire me to achieve great things but my main inspiration is my mum, seeing her pick herself up from low points in life and seeing where she is now motivates me and makes me feel like anything is possible.

What were your inspirations when writing ‘Younger’?
When it came to writing ‘Younger’ I knew everything had to feel right, the sound and the lyrics, the inspiration behind the song was my sister, finding out we had different fathers after living half of our lives not knowing was very heartbreaking and emotional. I kept a lot of these feelings to myself but I feel like having all of these feelings and thoughts built up inside of your mind sometimes can be unhealthy and I feel like song writing is a great way to get these thoughts out.

How would you like to inspire people?
A message I would like to send to people is that whatever your goal is in life, it is achievable, I see lots of people give up on there dreams because it gets hard. I want everyone that discovers my music to realise that anything is possible

Interview by Karla Harris