Meet The Soulful Pop Emerging Artist CONRAD
CONRAD is an emerging artist that is hustling his way to music stardom. As a child, the singer-songwriter referred to his family for musical inspiration. Between playing on his great uncle’s grand piano and singing Frank Sinatra tunes with his grandad, CONRAD was inadvertently honing in on his artistic craft. Fast forward to today, and his music influence spans between various genres and sounds – which can be heard in his new single ‘Blue Blooded’. With impressive vocals, relatability and hustle mentality, CONRAD’s upward trajectory is far from over.
We got the chance to chat with CONRAD about everything from what inspired him to pursue music, future EP release, and so much more…
Who inspired you to pursue music?
I think that there are a few things throughout my life that led me towards pursuing music properly. My great uncle was a talented pianist, and he had a big grand piano in his house, which we’d both play on. My grandad LOVED Frank Sinatra and would get me to sing that all the time, he actually bought me a book of lyrics which came with a backing track for each of the songs. Then I remember going to see Coldplay at the Etihad in Manchester in 2012, and the whole thing blew me away… It was around the same time I’d played my first proper gig at a local festival, and I was just like, yeah, I need to give this a proper go. So after that, I just started playing all over the place, sometimes 2 or 3 bars in 1 day while I was at Uni. Then when I finished Uni, I moved to London to get more exposure and focus on music.
Is there an album that helped shape you as an artist?
The Weeknd – Beauty Behind The Madness. It gave me my first love of crazy soul vocals over a real urban / bass-driven production.
Your single ‘Blue Blooded’ is an absolute banger! Who inspired the making of this track?
Thanks, I’m glad you think so – I’ve been really buzzed to get this out. Well, if you mean musically, I think at the time I was listening to a lot of Gallant, John Legend, The Weeknd, and loads of other darker soul/pop.
The concept came from a period in my relationship where we spent some time apart, and in fact, for some of it, I was away in LA. Being on such different time zones made the space between us feel even more vast… You’re waiting until night time for it to become their daytime, it’s a weird paradox where your worlds are kind of upside down. That much distance can make the pull between you feel even stronger, especially if you’re not speaking very much either.
How would you describe your sound?
Vocal driven, soulful pop with big beats, big choruses, and hopefully something you can sing along to.
Will you be releasing an EP soon?
Yes! And I am so gassed. All being well, we’re looking to release my debut EP in spring 2020.
What was the creative process during the making of your debut EP?
To be honest, initially, there wasn’t a real plan to make an EP. I was just doing so many sessions with loads of producers and co-writers seeing what worked and trying to find my sound. Then I did a few sessions with a producer called Paul Whalley, and we just clicked, the very first session we wrote Blue Blooded, and I knew we were onto something special. We did another session a month or so later and wrote another huge song… From then, I started putting together the full story I wanted to tell across a body of work rather than just individual song concepts. The songs started to come together, the sound was exactly what I wanted it to be, and now I have an EP ready to be released into the world. Roll on 2020!
Are there any lessons during the making of this record that you’ll use for future EPs and albums?
Spending the time to really nail down your ideas and concepts before you go into a session so then you can focus on the song, rather than getting into a session unprepared and wasting time at the beginning of the session trying to come up with ideas from scratch. Also, not putting too much pressure on yourself if a session isn’t necessarily going the right way, the stress only makes it harder to come up with great ideas… Easier said than done, though!
With 2020 around the corner, what are you looking forward to the most?
I think either my next headline show at Omeara (March 20th) – probably my favourite venue in London. Or the festival season!! I’ve always loved going to festivals, and it’s been a massive goal for me to want to play at them. This year it’s looking like I’ll finally get the opportunities to play at more than just a couple.
Make sure to check out CONRAD fantastic new single ‘Blue Blooded’ below!
