Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Robert Bradley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Robert, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Everyone has crazy stuff happen to them, but often small business owners and creatives, artists and others who are doing something off the beaten path are often hit with things (positive or negative) that are so out there, so unpredictable and unexpected. Can you share a crazy story from your journey?
I’m not sure if this particular story counts as my craziest story ever as a musician but it’s certainly the craziest of the last year. In the spring one of my musical acts, Megatronix was performing a show with Magic Sword and Dance With the Dead in Baltimore, and was asked to headline the Neotropilis Cyberpunk Festival in the Mojave Desert the day after.
To make this possible we had to perform on both coasts in 24 hours, including a set at 11pm Pacific Time in the middle of this stunning Blade Runner styled city erected in the desert shortly after landing in LA. We had just enough time after a two and a half hour drive from the airport to unload, get our gear set up and perform while being filmed in HD as temperatures began to plummet dramatically. During this time my teaching business had a huge surge in clients signing up nearly doubling my roster of students from the month before. Of course, I am always happy to meet and work with new students, but it was certainly an interesting adjustment making sure each and every student got ample attention and direction, not only that but once I got back home to teach around 40 lessons from Tuesday to Thursday, my other main project, Thrillkiller was scheduled to open for Steel Panther at Maryland Live that Friday.
In general 2022 has been a very fortunate year for my music, but it certainly has been an exciting challenging managing everything. Currently, I landed the lead villain role in an upcoming Kaiju themed rock opera with the Baltimore Rock Opera Society featuring Thrillkiller as the backing band alongside members of their company, so who knows? Maybe Mojave might just get topped when the show starts this November!
Robert, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a self employed vocal coach with over a decade of award winning experience in the field as a teacher, performer, actor, and writer working with students ranging from novices to industry professionals. I perform and write in the bands Thrillkiller, Megatronix, and as a solo pop artist under the name Power Rob. I have extensive experience in a multitude of genres ranging from classical, to pop, to heavy metal and many more as a session singer and a live vocalist. My style of technique combines six years of training under several coaches in different disciplines mixing their teachings with my own independent studying as well as my own experiences professionally.
Watching a student light up when they are able to handle a song they otherwise struggled with, or explore a part of their voice they never explored before really makes my day, I try to be a coach I would have liked to have worked with in the past, focusing on practical applications and positive reinforcement.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Seeing others appreciate your work, having a packed house of people singing along to something you wrote in your apartment during a challenging period in your life is one of the greatest feelings I’ve experienced as an artist.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
There’s a handful but one of my favorite stories is probably Convergence Maximus 2014.
PNC Bank reached out to the Baltimore Rock Opera Society(BROS) to put together a fusion event with the Concert Artists of Baltimore(CAB) featuring the top songs from prior rock operas the BROS staged over the years. They asked me to reprise the lead character from their 2012 power metal, opera, Valhella for the finale, working with a symphony and opera choir was not something I expected to be doing as a rock singer when I first got into the field, so it was an exciting challenge that I happily jumped at.
I filled in for one of the singers during the event, and during rehearsals, that song went off without a hitch, however when we got to the finale, something didn’t quite sound tight and we only had a few seconds of the song to practice before everyone packed up and left.
So here I was, backstage decked out holding a laser guitar sword(named the Grundlehammer), sweating bullets before this finale that we never ran completely with a sea of people watching, unsure of my cue, unsure if we’d nail the song on time, and I won’t be getting another shot.
I managed to feel out the cue to make it up on the stage, get on the mic, find the pocket rhythmically, and we nail the song. Shortly after the composer for the BROS, Zack asks me “how did you find the pocket”, I’m still amped up, covered in confetti, “I guess I’ve had bumpy nights with my band…I gotta do this three more times(the show had 3 scheduled performances), I’ll be in the back.” The show was a success, and we went on to bring it back in 2016 during Baltimore’s Light City event which was a total treat.
This is a story I share with my students about keeping a cool head under intimidating scenarios, I look back on how it was handled when I’m faced with an event that I’m uneasy about. The CAB and BROS worked together seamlessly, it was a great pleasure working with them in such an epic production.
Contact Info:
- Website: RobBradley.net
- Instagram: PowerRobMusic
- Facebook: PowerRobMusic
- Twitter: PowerRobMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PowerRobMusic
Image Credits
Shane Gardner Selvinia Selene