Danielle Bradbery joined the country music family in 2013 with her debut on the television show The Voice. Under her amazing coach and mentor, Blake Shelton, Bradbery won season four and instantly signed with Big Machine Records. Following her winning, she released her debut single ‘The Heart of Dixie’ which displays her effortlessly authentic voice. Since 2013, Bradbery has released her self-titled record and a few non-album singles. However, 2017 is bringing much excitement and anticipation for Bradbery. With her new single ‘Sway’ being out for about three weeks now, fans and listeners alike are drawn to its R&B draw and pop tendencies.
‘Sway’ is Danielle’s first co-penned single. The process is something she had never imagined she would be able to do, but now having that creative freedom, she is thrilled. “It’s really an unbelievable feeling. Obviously in the beginning I didn’t have any idea what it was like, or how it went. I’m thankful for the people behind me who helped push me to my limits and push me out of my comfort zone. Now I’m right in the middle of it and I’m just getting better and better every day. I’m writing a lot.” Being new to the writing process, Bradbery stated “the writing process is so different and I think that’s because I really did have no idea how it went. The more you do it the more you get the hang of it.”
She helped co-write the single with Grammy Award-winning Emily Weisband and Johan Fransson. Weisband and Bradbery are very close friends, which helped make her first ever writing process less nerve-wracking; “it’s awesome that I got to write it with one of my best friends, Emily Weisband. We always have fun together in the writing room. If we’re feeling emotional one day, that’s what we’ll write because she knows what’s going on with me and I feel comfortable telling her a deep secret. But for ‘Sway’ it was a day where we just didn’t want to care and make a free feeling song!” So it’s safe to say there were no problems collaborating her ideas with these professional writers. Bradbery has written with those two more than once and she credits them for being amazing writers. Johan Fransson is actually from Sweden, and Danielle says “he has such a creative mindset and can get things done.”
Since being granted the creative freedom to write her own music, Danielle has really taken a liking to it and is especially fond of the fact that she co-wrote her latest single – “it was really awesome. It’s so cool knowing that it [‘Sway’] came from my mindset… I think it’s a lot more meaningful to get into a room with other writers and just kinda brainstorm together and figure out my spot in the writing room. It’s really cool to see what I’m getting better at.” Bradbery informed us that there will be more co-written songs from her on her forthcoming album.
‘Sway’ has transitioned into a more sonically different theme than her previously released music. ‘The Heart of Dixie,’ her debut single, was a more traditional country sounding song with banjos, guitars and grassy lyrics. The transformation of her new single can be related to being R&B and having pop tendencies. Bradbery chose this route because this is the music she grew up listening to most, despite her country roots. However, she said that ‘Sway’ is the only song of that measure on her new album. “The rest of the songs are going to be more R&B country because personally, I grew up listening to R&B and, fun fact, I listened to Latina music. But of course, my heart will always be country. I just wanted to go outside of the box a little bit with the songs I’ll be putting on the album.” She sees this transformation of her sound to be continued because “it’s the sound that I love most and I’m still trying to figure out my sound, so we’ll see how this album goes and how ‘Sway’ does. I want to see how people react to it. On a personal level, it’s the sound that I turn to most so we’ll see how everyone else takes it. I’m excited to see it.”
Fans so far, are reacting positively to ‘Sway’ – “I really only like to focus on the positive things,” she laughed. “They’ve been listening to it and many people say that it’s very catchy. Even when we showed it to people of the music industry before we released it, the main word they used was catchy – and I was like ‘well ok! That’s a good sign!”
Bradbery has music idols that she will always look up to and want to model her sound from; “Carrie Underwood and those big vocal artists, and I’ll extend it to Beyoncé or Mariah Carey. When I was younger and singing in my room that’s who I sang to. I love singing along to their songs, and I would push myself to see if I could hit those high notes like they could. I would say mostly my childhood music influenced a lot of things, even now.” Danielle said that her mom would listen to R&B and Latina music and her dad’s side was country – which explains her want to mesh the different genres together in her music. Bradbery loves dancing and music that makes people feel like they want to dance, which she says is another part of her younger days. Bringing forth her childhood music is an important task for her and she is doing a great job integrating it into the next generation of country music.
Fans can expect a tour from Bradbery when her album hits. “I’m waiting to get the official release date of the album. We just wanted to see where it goes. When I get that date, I’m going to be posting it everywhere! Hopefully it will then lead to a tour and a radio tour.” So be ready fans, Danielle plans to be off and running with her forthcoming album and she has big plans marking pivotal moments in her career!
For now, get your copy of her latest single ‘Sway’ and get your dance on. This song is a sure fire summer anthem that you won’t want to miss out on. Keep an eye out for album release details in the future and keep up to date on all things Danielle on her social media!
Photo credit: Cameron Powell