Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Jaclyn Bradley
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
My first music memory is performing at my preschool graduation. During my song, I observed the audience smiling, laughing and cheering. I learned that day that my singing could quickly make people happy.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I studied opera in high school and college. It was great training, yet I always felt unfulfilled singing only the music of other people. During September 11th I was living in New York City and my roommate worked in the World Trade Center. Amidst this great tragedy, filled with overwhelming emotion, I picked up my guitar and started to write.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
I recently released the single, Love like 1983 which is a song about the beauty and simplicity of the past. It was a time before cell phones, internet, and digital music where everything, including love, felt more pure. While we cannot time travel, I try to bring elements of a simpler era into the current time. I wanted to remind my listeners that the gold of 1983 is still possible in modern times.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
I am the modern Joni Mitchell, if she went country.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
I met my partner who is also my cowriter. He has inspired and influenced much of the way I write today, with stories, heart, and a bit of southern rock.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Many of my songs over the years have included a nod to my classical roots, especially with the addition of strings. I have an upcoming release called Chicago that includes cello, played by Jordan Alegant.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Stephan Wilson Jr. His track, You’re a Song, is so beautiful and moving, especially to anyone whose life has been greatly shaped by music.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
In my high school, I was the only career musician in my class and I was one of the only people in my town pursuing a life in music, so as a kid my life choices sometimes felt unattainable, misunderstood or far away. In my 20s I moved to LA and was hired to work as a personal assistant to celebrity Danny Bonaduce, his then-wife Gretchen and their family. We filmed a hit Vh1 television show together and my original music was performed on the series. I was invited to work with influential music supervisors, entertainers and personalities regularly, which helped me to grow as an artist and find inspiration from a community of like-minded people. Yet after years of learning and performing in Hollywood, I felt called to give back, so I moved home and became a board-certified music therapist. In this new venture, I led the largest study in history to bring live music into the operating room. That study helped me to quantify what I already knew: that music had the ability to quickly help people. The study showed that one song reduced anxiety by 40% and I now had proof that music was medicine.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
I hope that my music offers listeners a moment to hear their own voices and feel their own feelings more strongly so that they can in engage in the world more authentically. Real people who know themselves make the world a better place to be in.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
Music has taught me much, but mostly it has taught me to surrender. In life, as long as I’ve followed my heart and passion, I have been lead to beautiful experiences with creative people. In some parts of my life, I have tried to control or force an outcome, but in music I have always trusted the flow and I think this lesson has taught me a lot about everything.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
SXSW in Austin… and I’d love to one day be mentioned in Rolling Stone Magazine.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette . They both completely moved and inspired me as a young girl. They showed me that it was possible for female artists to be honest, sometimes controversial and unapologetic. They had charisma, character and guts. I have met them both, yet to collaborate with them would be magical.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4FSIr0kyOFELSjzRRDYpJc
IG: https://www.instagram.com/iamjaclynbradley/
Music School: www.rocktownlorain.com
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
To raise my daughter to be a strong, self-confident, joyful young woman; to exuberantly teach the next generation of music-makers at my music school, Rock Town Music Academy; to keep choosing love and adventure, and to always follow where the music.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I read a biography about Mozart when I was in college. In his 35 years of life, he wrote 800 works, lived in a half dozen cities, and traveled to over 200 towns. With music as his engine he lived abundantly, even hundreds of years ago. Music is an extraordinary vehicle. I hope every reader and listener finds their passion so that they, too, can live a life that is full.
