Danielle Bradbery’s Sophomore Album Is Fueled by Her New-Found Confidence
“It sounds cliché, but confidence was a huge, huge thing that I had to gain and figure out and work on,” Bradbery admits.
Five years have come and gone since Danielle Bradbery hit the country music scene following her big win on NBC’s The Voice, but that time has only allowed the singer to find her true identity within her progressive sound on her forthcoming sophomore record.
Breaking into music at the ripe age of 16, Bradbery lived the typical teenage life and followed whatever she was told without voicing her own opinion. Now that she’s seen the industry from behind the looking glass, the “Sway” singer decided it was time to make her own rules.
Her upcoming project features ten tracks total, seven of which Bradbery laid down her deepest and most vulnerable feelings into the personal lyrics despite her hesitation she felt early in the creative process. Varying the sounds from the mix of country, pop, R&B and Latin sound she grew up around, Bradbery reassures there’s something for everyone as the album plays its way through.
“I Don’t Believe We’ve Met is what I go towards in music. I wanted to sprinkle a little bit of everything so every song doesn’t sound the same. At first, I thought that was going to hurt me. But you know what? It gives people a category of what they want to listen to. I wanted that. If it doesn’t all go in the same category, that’s fine. I want a little bit of everything. It was fun making it,” Bradbery recently shared with Sounds Like Nashville.
Bradbery notes her personality switches up day by day depending on how she’s feeling, and she wanted her second-ever studio record to mimic the emotions she dealt with throughout the making of it. Allowing herself to open up on a level she’d never experienced before, she gained self-assurance and a worthwhile stance along the way unlike when she first stepped onto the scene as a young girl.
“It sounds cliché, but confidence was a huge, huge thing that I had to gain and figure out and work on,” Bradbery explained to SLN. “The first album and first everything, I was 16 years old. I had no idea who the heck I was as a person. I had my mom everywhere with me. At 16 years old, you’re not a grown-up whatsoever. You pretend you are. You still have your attitudes and your fits. You’re still such a baby. I was not only having to figure out who I was as a person, but as an artist. I was learning about the business side of things. Now I’m 21. I’ve learned a lot. I thankfully grew up and gained confidence, which has helped me in so many areas in the music industry. I’m so thankful for that.”
With tracks ranging from the doo-wop sounds of her lead single, “Sway,” to the raw lyrical liability in “Human Diary,” Bradbery proves her coming-of-age confidence with grace and grit worthy of a newfound poise in her sound.
I Don’t Believe We’ve Met hits shelves on December 1.
