First a confession, I didn’t watch the first series of The Piano. I’d heard good things, and the idea of presenter Claudia Winkleman teaming up with pianist Lang Lang and pop star Mika was appealing, but I had gone off so-called ‘TV talent shows’…
Then I caught a few episodes of Series Two and understood why I should have given it a go before. It was obvious, really; I love piano music, I love a good story and I cry at the drop of a hat. And I did cry, a lot. One lovely ‘contestant’ (for want of a better word) was living with dementia, the music he composed bringing his love for his wife back to beautiful life.
Then there was Brad Kella, a young and seriously talented pianist with dreams of composing film music. His style was certainly cinematic, and he wore his heart well and truly on his sleeve; in fact he drenched the piano keys with it. In the final he dedicated his piece ‘Eve & Frank’ to the foster parents who had made such a difference to his troubled young life, and they were in the audience. Of course, I was a hot mess of tears and hoped he’d win. And he did.
That heartfelt musical tribute features on Brad’s debut album, Phoebe’s Melody which is coming out in June. Recorded in one great big session, with Brad on the piano and a string ensemble in support, the music is born of the composer-pianist’s raw talent. He doesn’t read music and doesn’t write it either; music seems to come to him as naturally as breath, though, and it pours out of him.
To say the last year has been a rollercoaster is an understatement. Brad has taken to the stage at The Purcell Room and Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, and he’s just embarked on a UK tour in support of Take That’s Gary Barlow. But it’s just the beginning for an artist who seems oh-so ready to show the world what he can do.
I sat down with Brad Kella to chat about life after his big win, what it’s like to own a Steinway and how music has made him the man he is today (with help from Eve and Frank).
How does it feel to have an album coming out?
It’s the most surreal feeling in the world, really. I worked so hard towards it, as well, after winning The Piano; I dived straight into it with the label. We recorded it in one of the best studios in the world, worked with the best string arranger in the world, Rosie Danvers and it still doesn’t seem real that I’ve got an album coming out, with my name on the front of it!
I guess you feel the same about the whole experience so far…
Yeah, definitely. Even today, we’ve just landed in the Isle of Man for our first show on the Gary Barlow tour. I feel like I’m on some big journey that doesn’t seem to be ending, and my feet haven’t touched the ground yet at all.
How long did you have to sit on the news of your win before it was on TV?!
I’d say it was about two and a half to three months… It was so difficult not to tell anyone. We had the family there on the final day, but it was just so weird knowing I’d achieved something so big but couldn’t tell anyone around me what had happened. That was one of the hardest things about the whole thing.
Your way of composing and playing is very instinctual, improvised even. What’s your process? Are you able to remember the things that work and sound good for the next time you sit and play?
I’ve got an insane muscle memory, so I can play something once and remember it. I still remember the pieces I learned when I was 14, starting out on the piano; I’ve just got a massive storage of music inside me, like a hard drive inside my head. The way I go about composing is I just make things up on the spot, but I record everything I improvise; the parts that I think are nice or have a distinctive sound, I just try and build around that and get a structure.
And the recording session for the album was something like eight hours. Did you go into that armed with lots of ideas, pre-recorded?
Yeah, so when we recorded the album I’d never been in a studio like that in my entire life. The string players went in with piles of sheet music and I played the entire eight hours from memory, the whole album off of the top of my head.
When I make up a piece of music, I genuinely fall in love it, that’s why I create it and that’s why I’m so passionate about it. It sounds perfect to me, the melody and the chords and stuff. So I went in there not knowing what to expect with the string players, but Rosie has this way of working with me where she can keep up, and I can keep up with her and find a perfect balance.
Had you shared some things with her beforehand, then, to get started with?
I sent her just piano demos, that was it. Some of them were slightly different than what they are on the album, because on the day Rosie gave me some hints about what might sound better. But she went in there with demos and nothing else and the arrangements were written purely out of her heart. I think she was very passionate with the music; she’s used to doing pop music – she’s worked with Kanye West, Beyoncé and Coldplay, people like that, so it’s all been very ‘pop’ and four chords. When she got on with me I think it gave her the chance to do what she’s studied her whole life, which is classical music and more scales. It’s just a completely different sound she’s working with and I think it brought something out with her as well; it’s so nice to hear.
Your music really seems to pour out from the heart; do your life experiences fuel your music?
Honestly I wouldn’t have the album without the journey to go with it. Every piece is a chapter of what I went through, and the final piece is called ‘Triumph’ and that’s just about how it felt after going through such a s*** life, but then coming out the end of it. I always try to keep positive in the negative circumstance and I feel like I’ve been blessed, because I’ve always tried to keep a solid head on my shoulders.
The most important thing for me about creating music, and this album, was that people can sit back and reflect on their own lives, and bring out emotions that they haven’t felt in a while. I love making people happy through my own music; when I play and see other people smile it just pushes me so much harder to play better.
When did you first sit at a piano for the first time?
It was in my high school; it was an old honky-tonk chapel piano and it got locked away in one of the old practice rooms – they didn’t focus on music so much at my school, or any of the arts. But I remember hearing my music teacher play for the first time; I’d never been around a piano or heard it being played. I remember that emotion just getting poured over me. I ran home that day to my foster parents and begging them for some sort of piano, because I wanted to feel that emotion again.
About two months went by with me, of a lunchtime, not hanging out with my friends anymore and going to play this old piano. Eve and Frank got me a small Yamaha, with a DJ button, and I played it for a week and got to a high level really quickly. I was able to replicate Chopin and Beethoven after listening a couple of times and realised that wasn’t normal. I realised my ears were picking up sound a lot quicker than I thought, and was able to engage with the piano at such a high level so quickly.
Eve came up the stairs one day and I was playing Beethoven’s Für Elise but she thought it was a pre-recording on the keyboard! She got a phonecall two weeks later from the teacher at school saying I was picking up piano a lot quicker, they’d never seen anything like it before and they thought they should get me a bigger piano, because I would excel with having a full size piano. There was a government scheme where they paid half for this electric upright and Eva and Frank paid the other half. I locked myself away for months in my bedroom and it was my life for years…
Did you ever have any lessons at all?
No. My teacher at high school was a Grade 8 piano player, but he realised that putting a piece of music in front of me just wasn’t the way forward. I didn’t listen in maths, I didn’t listen in English and most of the time I’d just walk out of the classroom and wandered about; I hated school and was probably really badly behaved. But when it came to music class, that was the one time I’d be still in my chair and so involved; I was eager to learn everything I could about music.
The music teacher just pushed my ear to a whole new level; I didn’t understand what classical music was, I didn’t know who Mozart or Beethoven were, or Rachmaninov. I didn’t have a clue who they were, so he showed me all this new music that I just fell in love with.
He introduced me to film music as well, and that was a gamechanger for me, once I discovered Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. There was so much emotion in those pieces; they are made to set a scene, an image, and that’s what I did inside my head. So watching these films and seeing how music brought the scene to life, and how it wouldn’t be the same without it, just made me want to chase it.
Who are your musical heroes then, apart from Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer?
I love Yann Tiersen who did the film Amelie; I fell in love that music right away. And John Williams; his music… he has a certain way of writing a melody that just sticks in your head. This is part of the reason why I know them now, it’s because the melodies are so prominent. I just completely fell in love with film music and got enchanted by it all to be honest.
So does that mean there’s a future for you as a film composer down the track?
Definitely; I’ve been speaking to a few really amazing people and having some unbelievable conversations, which I can’t say anything about yet. But there’s definitely something down the line and I can’t wait.
You won a piano as part of your prize for winning the show, right?
Yes, Lang Lang gifted me a Steinway & Sons upright piano from the showroom in London. It’s got a polished ebony finish and gold embedded inside… and it was one of the best moments of my life. I’d always had this keyboard – I left Eve and Frank’s when I was 17 and I was homeless for a while, with my girlfriend and my daughter, and I used to make money on the streets playing public pianos. The day I got the audition for The Piano was the same day I got told that the council had got us a flat, so it was the most magical day ever. I remember moving the keyboard over from Eve and Frank’s, just this small keyboard that I’d practice on. Then coming back from The Piano and seeing it still sat there, this electric thing, and two weeks later I got my own house with a Steinway in the corner; it was the most bizarre feeling in the world.
What’s it like to compose at, and play, a piano like that now? It must feel so different…
Honestly, the Steinway is the Rolls-Royce of the piano world, if you’re going to make a comparison. There is no greater feel than a Steinway piano, it has something about it; they build them completely differently to any other piano manufacturer in the world; they age the wood for years, and it’s all carved by hand. You can’t explain how it feels, but I feel like the piano sings back to me; when I’m hitting a note I can feel it go up my wrist, up elbow and straight inside me. It’s the most bizarre feeling in the world, because I’ve played hundreds of pianos, but the Steinway is the most unbelievable.
The sound of a piano like that must also provide extra inspiration when you’re sitting and composing?
Definitely. It has made me want to compose twice as much and play twice as much, and I’m happy with the final product ten times as much. I can’t wait to go home every day and sit down and play the piano; it’s a massive part of me now and even if I had the chance to go and get a grand piano now, I don’t think I’d do it, because that piano is a part of my story. I want to build a legacy on that piano; I want to take it round; I’ve got plans for big shows and I want that piano to be a part of them in some way and I want to leave it with a legacy that my kids can continue with.
When you sit down to the piano do you have a routine or warm up?
I just go straight into it to be honestly; I don’t do scales, because I’ve never been taught them, but I just play some nice big chords and see where it leads me. It’s completely improvised, so I take myself on an hour-long journey.
Brad Kella’s debut album ‘Phoebe’s Melody’ is out on Modern Sky UK on 6 June and the latest series of The Piano (featuring new judge Jon Batiste) has just started on Channel 4 – Sundays at 9pm, in the UK
