While we’ve been lapping up the generous summer sun, much of the Northern Hemisphere has been reeling at the hands of a savage winter. The US East Coast was struck by a lengthy stretch of frightfully low temperatures and stultifying blizzards, causing climate experts to underline impending devastation, while self-styled commentators pronounced it the roughest winter since time began. New York local and funk-soul renaissance man Charles Bradley was there, living through this bitterly cold season. But at 66 years old, Bradley’s a fighter, who’s not prone to fits of despair.
“They tell you on the news, ‘If you don’t have to go out, don’t go out,’” he says. “But you know, I have too many chores that I have to do, cold or no cold. I can’t control nature. That is just how it is, and this planet don’t have to do what I want it to do. I just got to learn how to deal with it and live with it. It could be worse.’”
Fortitude has long been Bradley’s greatest ally. The good-natured soul man endured a long road of struggle and setbacks before his otherworldly voice finally showed up on an album. As depicted in the 2012 documentary Soul Of America, Bradley was born in Florida and had an unstable childhood, moving around the US to live with various family members, before leaving home at 14 to fend for himself.
“I think back to the days that I was living in the streets – living out in the snow and going all through the changes – and I survived all of that,” he says. “I think that the snow that we having nowadays is nothing compared to back in the ’60s. I remember when the snow used to be right up to my waist. You got to learn to survive in the snow and how to get through. And that’s what I learned about life; I learned how to survive.”
It’s been a hard-knock journey alright, but Bradley’s love of music has always been secure. However, it was several decades before his undeniable vocal talent began reaping concrete benefits. Things started to take shape in the late ’90s, when Bradley scored a regular gig impersonating James Brown (a role he pulls off with preeminent ease). Then in the early years of this millennium, he made himself known to Gabriel Roth at Daptone Records, who soon offered him a contract.
“It always has been my dream,” Bradley says. “I just never closed my dreams. I always prayed and asked God for a chance. Now that I’m out here and I’m meeting a lot of people, it’s making me open up to people. I’d closed up; I’d been through so much I just didn’t trust nobody.”
Once he’d recognised the magnitude of Bradley’s talent, Roth introduced the singer to guitarist and producer Tom Brenneck (The Budos Band, The Menahan Street Band). Over the course of the noughties, Bradley and Brenneck cooked up a series of singles, which culminated in the release of Bradley’s debut album No Time For Dreaming in 2011. “Me and Tom write together and Tommy has his ways and I have my ways,” he says. “Some things we don’t agree with, some things we do agree with, and sometimes I just have to say, ‘OK, I’ll do it the way he wants.’ So I just go his way and try to find the emphasis and deepness of me to give it to him the way he want it.”
In spite of these slight sacrifices, Bradley’s union with Brenneck remains strong. In fact, they’re currently at work on album number three. This time around, Bradley is looking to push his artistic capacity further than before.
“I want to create my own style,” he says. “I’m getting it now, don’t get me wrong; I’m getting some of the things that I want. But my dynamics – I want a bass that can rock my soul, I want a lead that can steal me totally. I want you to be able to get into it too.”
Bradley’s long road to the top has clearly filled him with a pronounced determination, which has nothing to do with gaining celebrity or selling records. Rather, having been granted the opportunity to express himself in front of a mass audience, he endeavours to exercise the full breadth of his emotive propensity.
“I wanted to be able to reach everybody,” he says. “I want to leave a little touch to everybody. This is my goal now at my age. I have no time to waste. I want to be able to give out the quality that I always want to give out, and the only way I can give it out is as deep as I need. I’ve been through trials and tribulations, so the deeper my music will come out.
“You might say right now, ‘Charles Bradley, I want a T-bone steak.’ And I would say, ‘No, I’m going to cut you a piece of rump, and I’m going to put all the flavour that you want on it.’ You’re not getting a T-bone steak; what you’re getting is a rump with my beautiful flavour and all of the things you like on it, so it’s not going to be what you really asking for. I want to give you the best, OK? You give me this and I put the flavour to it, you’ll like it, it tastes good. But I want to give you better.”
Charles Bradley performs atBluesfest 2015 atTyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Byron Bay,Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6. He also supportsAlabama Shakes at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday April 2
