Phoebe's Melody Brad Kella

• 1 Home To Me 04:42
• 2 Eve & Frank 02:58
• 3 Shelter 03:34
• 4 Reverie Of Isolation 04:58
• 5 Journey's End 04:23
• 6 Webs Of Design 04:51
• 7 Levels 05:20
• 8 Phoebe's Melody 04:15
• 9 New Beginnings 02:09
• 10 Triumph 04:07
• Total Runtime 41:17

Info zu Phoebe's Melody

Liverpudlian virtuoso pianist Brad Kella is releasing his debut album ‘Phoebe’s Melody’, a remarkable album from a unique artist with an equally remarkable story.

When Brad Kella won Channel 4’s The Piano, he knew his life would change forever. And so it has proved. From being homeless and playing street pianos to make ends meet, he’s now living out his childhood dream of performing his own music to audiences of thousands in the world’s greatest concert halls. ‘It’s been the best feeling in the entire world,’ he says from his Liverpool home, where he lives with his partner and two young children. ‘If I could put that feeling from those shows into a bottle and sell it, I’d be a billionaire.’

When Brad Kella won Channel 4’s The Piano, he knew his life would change forever. And so it has proved. From being homeless and playing street pianos to make ends meet, he’s now living out his childhood dream of performing his own music to audiences of thousands in the world’s greatest concert halls. ‘It’s been the best feeling in the entire world,’ he says from his Liverpool home, where he lives with his partner and two young children. ‘If I could put that feeling from those shows into a bottle and sell it, I’d be a billionaire.’

One of music’s most extraordinary, inspiring and freethinking talents, Brad’s career has taken off since he was named the winner by superstar pianists Lang Lang and Mika. He has signed with the independent record label Modern Sky, appeared at Classic FM Live at the Royal Albert Hall and performed his own sell-out show at Liverpool’s famed Philharmonic Hall – a real pinch-me moment. ‘I let the audience know I’m just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dreams have come true. The audience got behind me so well – you can’t beat a Scouse home crowd. It was like my own classical version of Anfield.’

Brad could ‘create an album a day, just because I love creating music,’ he says – and he’s poured his heart into his debut album. Playing his own pieces for eight hours from memory, he recorded it in London’s RAK studios, in collaboration with top string players and British orchestrator Rosie Danvers, who has worked with the likes of Coldplay, Jay-Z and Adele. ‘The album is something I’m so proud of. It’s sounding much bigger and better than I could have anticipated. Each piece is a reflection of a moment in my life, a step-by-step musical illustration.

Titled ‘Phoebe’s Melody’ in honour of his two daughters, who gave Brad ‘a huge amount of determination to get to a situation where I record an album’, the recording opens with the stirring ‘Home to Me’. It captures the moment Brad started to feel comfortable and safe with his foster parents Eve and Frank, who are the subject of their own song, which Brad played on The Piano. Both songs were released as singles last year.

A self-taught musician, Brad has his own unconventional approach that sets him apart in a classical world ruled by scores and traditions. He puts that down to playing from his heart and soul, rather than from reading printed music. ‘If I read music, that means I’m sat in front of someone else’s music, which immediately takes away huge amounts of creativity in the process,’ he says. ‘It puts me under immense pressure when I have to go on for a concert in front of thousands with no music in front of me. I think the pressure of it sparks amazing moments during the performance. Sometimes I’ll change a certain melody on the spot, and no one is expecting it.’

Brad absorbs wide-ranging influences into his broadly neo-classical style, and hopes his music will be played by others both today and in generations to come. In the past, he played a keyboard and, later upgraded to an electric piano, funded by a government scheme. Now he has a Steinway upright, given to him by Channel 4’s The Piano. ‘It just sounds absolutely perfect. It’s got so many more dynamics and it’s such a gorgeous instrument. It’s changed my composing.’

Brad Kella

Brad Kella
Coming from a council estate in Liverpool to winning a national classical music awards show, it’s not meant to happen. But it’s like I manifested it from these early moments…’ Says Brad Kella, the most surprising young musical prospect of 2024, from the home he shares with his partner and two young children. ‘I was always fascinated with music.

Says Brad Kella, the most surprising young musical prospect of 2024, from his home he shares with his partner and two young children. ‘I was always fascinated with music. Even as a little boy, watching films with my mum, I’d be drawn to the sound effects from the TV. Then later, when I went to high school, I heard a teacher playing the piano, and I remember thinking how amazing it was that someone could do that. It was like something in me clicked.’

There are fewer stories more heartfelt and inspiring in music than Brad’s. Though only at the beginning of a promising career, there have been enough peaks and troughs that would discourage the most hardened artists. Coming through early adversity, being fostered and ending up living on the streets – he went on to win Channel 4’s national televised talent show, The Piano.

Growing up initially in Bootle, a working-class suburb of Liverpool, a problematic family situation led to Brad and his twin brother being placed into foster care at the age of seven. In this more stable environment, Brad’s love of music was given room to blossom. ‘After seeing that teacher play piano in high school, I went home and asked my foster parents – Eve and Frank – if I could have a piano, which just seemed like a pipe dream. At first they got me a keyboard, and I picked it up really quickly. Then there was this government grant available to kids who’d been fostered, which funded an electric piano for me. After that, things progressed quickly. Because me and my twin brother were on our own quite a bit and my foster parents were quite elderly, I’d just spend hours on hours playing. They’d go to bed at about half ten, then I’d just plug my headphones in and play, sometimes until four in the morning, even when I was in school the next day. I had no training, no lessons. But it’s like there’s this muscle memory from somewhere I can’t explain. Straight away I was composing my own songs.’

Even then, it wasn’t plain sailing. Frustrated at his formal education, Brad walked out of every one of his GCSE exams, and subsequently, an application for a scholarship at the prestigious Liverpool School Of Performing Arts (LIPA) was rejected. But his high school persevered on his behalf, and Brad was given a shot at qualifying in exceptional circumstances, after which, he performed one of the only perfect auditions in the school’s history.

A steady period followed at LIPA, but changes in the order of fate meant that his world was again turned upside down, after turning eighteen, when the death of his mother led to a spiral in which he was effectively homeless for a period. Brad and his long-time girlfriend drifted around Liverpool. By chance, he was filmed playing one of the public pianos in Liverpool One shopping centre. The video went viral, pricking the ears of the producers of a new, classical music-based talent show on Channel 4 called The Piano. Somehow, they found him and urged him to audition. ‘I just applied for the show, expecting nothing to come of it. I went into the Manchester audition wearing a tracksuit… not looking like a piano player at all. But they were blown away, they said. I played one of my own songs. Everyone was advising me not to, because other contestants were playing classical standards, and it was a risk. But Lang Lang and Mika, the judges, they loved it. I won the Liverpool heat, then the Manchester heat in a big concert hall, and then, unbelievably, the whole show. And since then, my life has completely changed.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet