Pool Of Sound - Brad Kella

 

Growing up initially in Bootle, a problematic family situation led to Brad and his twin brother being placed into foster care at the age of seven in 2008. He used to roam the streets 'causing mayhem' before he and his twin brother Aron were taken in by foster parents Ev and Frank. They were supposed to stay for one night but were there for 12 years. His foster parents, Frank and Evelyn took him and his twin brother Aron in, when they were aged seven. Brad says. "Growing up, we had no routine. I never went to school. I’d roam the streets all day until about 11pm, causing mayhem. I was always fascinated with music. Even as a little boy, watching films with my mum, I'd be drawn to the sound effects from the TV. Then later, when I went to high school, I heard a teacher playing the piano, and I remember thinking how amazing it was that someone could do that. It was like something in me clicked." After seeing that teacher play piano, he went home and asked his foster parents if he could have a piano, which just seemed like a pipe dream. At first they got him a keyboard, and he picked it up really quickly. Then with help from a music fund for children in the care system and Ev chipping in the difference, they bought a better electric piano for him. After that, things progressed quickly. With him and his twin brother on their own quite a bit as their foster parents were quite elderly, he'd just spend hours on hours playing. "They'd go to bed at about half ten, then I'd just plug my headphones in and play, sometimes until four in the morning, even when I was in school the next day. I had no training, no lessons. But it's like there’s this muscle memory from somewhere I can’t explain. Straight away I was composing my own songs." 

Even then, it wasn’t plain sailing. Frustrated at his formal education, Brad walked out of every one of his GCSE exams, and subsequently, an application for a scholarship at the prestigious Liverpool School Of Performing Arts (LIPA) was rejected. But his high school persevered on his behalf, and Brad was given a shot at qualifying in exceptional circumstances, after which, he performed one of the only perfect auditions in the school’s history. A steady period followed at LIPA, but changes in the order of fate meant that his world was again turned upside down, after turning eighteen, when the death of his mother led to a spiral in which he was effectively homeless for a period. Brad and his long-time girlfriend drifted around Liverpool. By chance, while busking on the streets to make money for his young family, he was filmed playing one of the public pianos in Liverpool One shopping centre. The video went viral, pricking the ears of the producers of a new, classical music-based talent show on Channel 4 called The Piano. Somehow, they found him and urged him to audition. ‘I just applied for the show, expecting nothing to come of it. I went into the Manchester audition wearing a tracksuit… not looking like a piano player at all. But they were blown away, they said. I played one of my own songs. Everyone was advising me not to, because other contestants were playing classical standards, and it was a risk. But Lang Lang and Mika, the judges, they loved it, (indeed his first piano lesson was from Lang Lang). I won the Liverpool heat, then the Manchester heat in a big concert hall, and then, unbelievably, the whole show. Brad performed an original piece in the finale of The Piano called 'Eve and Frank', dedicated to the love his foster parents showed him. The performance had some members of the audience in tears and since then his life has completely changed. The original performance was released to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and other streaming sites and it was also announced that he had signed a recording contract with the Liverpool based label Modern Sky. 

Brad moved the entire audience with his debut at the Royal Albert Hall

He can’t read music and doesn't like looking at the keyboard really as it unsettles him and the music just comes from inside. "I don’t know if it’s a God-given gift, but I get literally lost in music. I could express my emotions through the piano, which helped massively with my mental health. It just makes no sense how I can do what I can do. I can't read music and I can't write music! The piano has changed my life completely. I've always manifested everything. I've always believed that good things are going to happen. My end goal is to be a film composer. I want to work with some of the best film composers in the world and I want to compose huge film scores. I believe one day I will be able to achieve it. It's just hard work, dedication and manifestation." Brad, will soon release his debut album and discussing what it was like to make it, he said: "They sent me down to RAK Studios in London to record an album of all his own music. Some of the best string players in the world were there, reading through pages of manuscript, but I managed to get through the whole session – eight hours – just remembering it off the top of my head, because I can’t read music. I was 13 when I first saw a piano, now I’m 23, so I feel like I was born to do it." He is now looking forward to Friday the 29th of November when he is playing to a sold out concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

There are fewer stories more heartfelt and inspiring in music than Brad's. Though only at the beginning of a promising career, there have been enough peaks and troughs that would discourage the most hardened artists who now lives in Fazakerley with his partner and two children.