For over a decade Darrin Bradbury has traveled the country, singing for whoever will listen, finding new things to muse about along the way and writing about them. During his journey he has become a better singer and a better instrumentalist, and his final stop (so far) on the trail, East Nashville, is where he built the reputation and the relationships that helped him land a deal on ANTI-Records, the indie label that is home to everyone from Kate Bush to Tom Waits.
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On his new album, Talking Dogs & Atom Bombs, Bradbury, who has called himself a “folk satirist,” offers up wry observations about everyday life on 11 tracks that can be perceived as both dark and life-affirming, depending on the ear and taste of the listener. Reached by phone, Bradbury shows concern about coherently articulating his responses to American Songwriter’s interview questions. Having just returned to Tennessee from a trip to his onetime home of Charlottesville, Virginia, he half-jokes, “I’ve been on an eight-hour drive today so it’s all questionable.”
Produced by the Milk Carton Kids’ Kenneth Pattengale, Talking Dogs & Atom Bombs features guest appearances from singer Margo Price and labelmate Jeremy Ivey (who also happen to be married collaborators). “Jeremy was involved from the get-go,” he says, “and Jeremy and Margo and me have been friends for a good number of years now. Margo really did right by me when she was blowing up, being a really supportive friend. She’s one of the most stand-up, principled people I’ve ever met, always encouraging. Just a forever source of wisdom and advice. Amazing people. While they were getting all famous, they were still always looking out for their buddy.”
While Bradbury has been compared to just about every Americana-ish singer-songwriter on the planet, from John Prine to Conor Oberst, he has no purist attitudes about his style of artistic expression or about the state of today’s commercial music. “I just came back to Nashville from visiting Charlottesville, and I didn’t have any CDs or an aux cable so I listened to the radio,” he says. “And man, I just want to say this, that everybody who complains about ‘pop country’ and ‘pop this’ and ‘pop that’ — I think that music is fun, and silly, and I had much more of a blast listening to some of the stuff that was on the Billboard Top 30 than I had listening to the serious stuff. Like that Miranda Lambert song ‘It All Comes Out in the Wash,’ that’s a great song!”
For musicians who think they need to have a high-priced guitar before they can go out and play in public, Bradbury is a prime example of an artist who professes just the opposite. “I play a nylon-string guitar that I bought in a pawn shop in Charlottesville,” he says, “when I was down on my luck with a hundred dollars left in my pocket. Any song that anyone knows and likes of mine was written on that guitar. So I figured I should keep playing it. I went through a brief period of getting all gearhead about stuff, but it just wasn’t my bag. And I like the wide neck because I have big hands. The Gibsons and Martins just sound beautiful, but the nylon string works great for me.”
“I actually sit down the past couple years and write primarily on the piano,” he continues. “I don’t play particularly well, but it’s kind of like a song typewriter, kinda like banging out basic chords, and you just talk to yourself until you find something interesting to say. I kind of write from that perspective. If I can make something come out of my head that’s interesting to me, and that’s maybe a different take on stuff that we experience every day, if I can make myself chuckle a little bit through that, with an idea or a thought, it’s great. You’re not really writing then, you’re just kind of following an idea. Then you think about what is the next logical conclusion for the song.”
Bradbury has opened for the best of the best, including Robert Earl Keen, Billy Joe Shaver, and Ray Wylie Hubbard, and there’s a lot more roadwork in his future. “I’m opening for John Moreland, that’s in …October? I’m starting to get to the point where I just go where they tell me. We’ll be hitting it hard with the new record. It’s been a really rewarding experience to go out in front of a bunch of strangers and see if you can pull it off, and then watch these super-talented people do their shows every night and learn something from it.”
No matter what direction his career takes, Bradbury says he’s grateful to have made it this far. “I’ve been living by this thing that’s like, wherever this train is bound is fine, you know? I’ve been lucky enough and so much more fortunate than most people who try to make it in the music industry. I try to play every show remembering that, and being happy with however it turns out.”
