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Perhaps a hard person to get to know, Kitchener's Allister Bradley is more likely to be listening to the conversation than dominating it. That's because he loves to put himself in everyone else's shoes for a moment. He's a humble man with a quiet wit, which is why his songs are often surprising in their insight, passion and emotional intensity. To meet him on the street, one would never guess at the depths of emotion playing, or perhaps churning, inside him. Step inside Bradley's songs, like “Goodbye, Bedford Falls”, “Not Today” or “If Ever I Cried” and you’ll meet a man who pays attention to the pain, the pleasure, the conflict and the joy of those around him.
No, he didn’t attend a school for the performing arts (his parents decided it was too unsafe to pursue a career in music), he hasn’t been playing in bands since high school, he’s forgotten almost as much about classical music as he ever learned in those many years of 5:30am piano practice. Instead, a university degree in Mathematics and 15 years developing software for corporate interests gave way to a yearning to actually make an impact on people’s lives. The years of music lessons, high school bands, and a lifetime of listening and enjoying music, have solidified into a musical foundation that he’s built upon with specialized training in the craft of songwriting. Now that he’s out of the corporate world and back onto the stage, we can have the opportunity to glimpse into the mind of the quick wit with the extremely serious side, the shy boy who is finally telling stories the way he sees them.
Bradley quietly released his debut album “No Games” in 2004, an album which still gets regular airplay for 4 of its songs despite a woefully inadequate marketing campaign. Two of the songs earned award nominations in 2006, one for Canadian Smooth Jazz Songwriter of the Year, another for Toronto Independent Music Awards’ Best Male Performer. Not bad for a woefully inadequate marketing campaign…
The follow-up album was released in March 2008, with an official release concert in May 2008. Entitled ‘Too’, Bradley describes the album as "Sting having cocktails with Norah Jones, while Billy Joel and Bruce Hornsby argue over the check." Piano-dominated arrangements play in and out of various styles, from 70's R&B through emotional ballads and cheeky jazz-inspired pop. With songs ripe with emotion, social consciousness and occasionally a sense of humour, you’ll get a pretty good idea that this songwriter is constantly thinking beyond Friday night's dinner. The lead-off single, "What A Day", finished First Place in the 2008 Great Lakes Songwriting Contest, took the grand prize in Mike Pinder's SongWars 2008, and finished Top 20 in the 2008 Unisong International Song Contest. "Not Today" earned a 2nd place finish in Mike Pinder's SongWars 2008 and a 4th place finish in the 2008 Unisong International Song Contest. "The Tip of My Tongue" has been nominated for a 2009 Canadian Smooth Jazz Award, in the category of Song of the Year.
Apart from writing and recording his original songs, Bradley has developed his recording skills into sidelines as an independent record producer and film composer. Having scored two independent films and produced recordings for several Ontario singer/songwriters, he's finding ways to satisfy every creative part of his being, including maintenance and new development on his artist website, www.allisterbradley.com. When he's not busy creating, he can often be found mentoring other songwriters, including a staff position at the Toronto Summer Songwriting Workshop. The next workshop is scheduled to take place in July 2009.
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