Danielle Bradbery
During her Spotify House set at CMA Fest this year, singer-songwriter Danielle Bradbery announced that her first album in over six years was coming in September. She also shared that it would be her first independent project.
The talented songstress first entered the public eye at age 16 when she won season four of NBC’s The Voice. She released her self-titled debut album in 2013, and followed it in 2017 with I Don’t Believe We’ve Met, which reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country Albums chart. Both projects infused Bradbery’s award-winning voice with a pop-country sound.
Since then Bradbery has turned heads with a handful of singles, like the Gold-certified “Stop Draggin’ Your Boots” and fan-favorite “A Special Place” as well as “Never Have I Ever,” “Break My Heart Again,” “Runaways,” “The Day That I’m Over You” and “Monster.”
But when she went to work on her first independent album, Bradbery felt that she still had so much to share with her fans. The final result was a project with seven relatable, true-to-life songs with a fully-embraced pop sound.
“Over the past few years I have played peekaboo with some pop and R&B sounds. That has always been such a genuine love in my personal music taste,” Bradbery tells MusicRow. “I love all different types of genres. I grew up listening to everything. Country music feels like home but I’ve been working on bringing other things that inspire me into [my music] and really trying to nail what that sound is.
“I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of that—just making music that I genuinely love and not really putting a label on it.”
Bradbery’s unbridled creativity allowed for an album that sounds unapologetically her. Its honesty and self-acceptance highlights a new era for the singer, and it’s infectious to boot.
“I learned so much [being a label artist] and I’m grateful to say that I was able to bring those tools into doing an independent album,” she says. “It’s different, though. I have a lot of creative control, which is awesome. It’s a freeing feeling.”
On the album, Bradbery takes the listener on a journey of complicated feelings. She’s love-struck on “Wake Me Up” and drunk with intimacy on “Windows.” On track three, “Broken Boy,” she’s facing disappointment and relationship anxiety, then she’s pleading with God to heal her partner’s brokenness on “You Could.” By track five, “Wedding or a Funeral,” Bradbery is grieving the relationship.
Track six, “Real Ones,” acts as a love letter to her supporters, the ones who are by her side no matter how successful or valuable she seems to the outside world. Bradbery closes the album reclaiming the insults that have been hurled her way with “That’s Why (You Love Me),” which almost serves as a mission statement for the self-acceptance that can be heard throughout the album.
The collection is so true to her that she named it Danielle.
“After all these years, people have watched me grow up from being 16 on The Voice—such fragile years—to my 20s—also fragile years—and now being 28. It felt like it was time to let down the curtain. After all this time, I wanted to share myself on first name basis with my true fans that have followed me all the way, and the new ones. It’s the raw, 20s version of Danielle, so I decided to name it Danielle.”
Bradbery says the song that set the tone for the album was one of the “most vulnerable” ones, “You Could,” which she wrote with Emily Weisband, Sam Sumser and Sean Small. The stand-out track is striking, with Bradbery begging, “Fix him. Make him love me like I wish he would.”
“That is the first song that I’ve really talked about my faith,” she says. “I was in a toxic relationship and had a conversation with God, saying, ‘I can’t fix him. My tank is empty and I can’t do it, but you can.'”
Another stand-out track is the Weisband, Josh Miller and Michael Lotten-penned “Wedding or a Funeral.” Its haunting vibe sticks out on a playlist, and its lyrics about the internal turmoil you feel as you watch your ex move on struck a chord with fans, becoming a favorite early on.
“I didn’t know what to think of that song at first. It’s such a cool song, and it was very fitting with my experiences with this whole last relationship,” she says. “My producer [Sam Sumser] was like, ‘Put your vocal on it. Let’s just feel it out.’ As soon as I started singing it in the booth, I knew it was a good call.”
One of Bradbery’s personal favorites is “Wake Me Up,” a track written by Kendall Brower, Fran Litterski, Anna Kline and Daniel Emilio Perez.
“That song came to me from Kendall, who was one of my main girls through this project. I decided to start the record with it because it was just so fitting for an album after six years. It gives a feeling of rebirth.”
Another fan-favorite, “Broken Boy,” finds Bradbery in a mood she communicates so well: anxiety and sadness.
“I’m such emotional person. I’m such a lover and a caretaker. I feel very heavily,” she says with a laugh. “I grew up listening and singing along to Carrie Underwood, who does sad songs so well. Those were the types of songs that always challenged me when I was singing along with them, so it’s just become a theme.
“Piano is also a weakness for me. It’s one of my favorite instruments. That’s just been my bread and butter,” Bradbery adds. “At first I was like, ‘I don’t want to be boring. I have to sing these songs live, so I have to do them a certain way for it not to be a sleeper, but I’m slowly getting to a point where I’m just really living in it.”
With all seven tracks, the artist hopes that Danielle is a window to her soul.
“We really took the time to be very intentional and tell a story about what’s been going on. I feel like did a pretty good job at going in order as best as we could,” she sums. “There’s a lot of just special moments on this album, and there’s a lot of surprises coming after that. I’m just so excited to continue this whole journey.”
Bradbery will treat the The Basement East in Nashville to some of her new music next Friday (Sept. 27). Tickets are available now.
