Last year's winner
Brad Kella shares what he's been up to since The Piano
Ruth Roxanne Board
- Pete Paphides
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Fiddling with the zip of his grey hoodie, Brad Kella sits in his front room, recounting the call he got from America’s Got Talent after his first appearance on The Piano. “They wanted to fly me over to tell my story,” he says, “but the funny thing is that when I was 17, I had already tried to get on Britain’s Got Talent and I got knocked back. Basically, if I wasn’t playing the piano with one hand and juggling with the other, they weren’t going to accept me.” There’s no hint of rancour in the way he tells the story; more mild confusion at the idea that, to some people, the sight of someone playing a beautiful piece of music on the piano isn’t enough.
Subsequent events justify his confusion. Since becoming the breakout star of series two of The Piano, life for the 23-year-old Liverpudlian has been a series of doors opening to increasingly spectacular opportunities. Next month, after completing an arena tour where he supports headliner Gary Barlow, he releases his album Phoebe’s Melody. Named after his two daughters, Phoebe and Melody, the record is made up of original pieces, many inspired by the struggles that he has faced. The one constant throughout it is the instrument that landed in his life six years after he and his twin, Aron, were fostered by Frank and Evelyn Kilmartin.
Understandably, there are details concerning his mother’s situation (she died when Brad was a teenager) and “the rough council estate” where he grew up that he’d rather not revisit. In a sense, he doesn’t need to. The dispatches of devastation that make up his songs Shelter and Reverie of Isolation tell their own story. When Kella details the period leading up to the day The Piano contacted him (based on a YouTube video he’d made), the details sketch out a bleaker picture than anything that was in the show.
Aged 17, he moved out of his foster parents’ house to live at the house of his girlfriend Abbie’s grandmother. But with Abbie expecting their first child and no available room, the pair were forced to declare themselves homeless. They would spend their days with their newborn, Phoebe, in cafés with pianos where Kella would busk for their next meal, and every evening they’d carry their possessions from one hostel to another.
Writing the score for a film about me would be amazing
“The objective was to get money, obviously, so I’d play things like Purple Rain by Prince, but instead of the guitar in that, I’d add a massive piano solo in there. Boogie-woogie also drew people’s attention – and The Simpsons’ theme.” On the day he received the call from Channel 4, Kella also received one from Liverpool Council “saying they’d found a hotel room for us, a box room with one bed in there, and we basically cracked on”.
By the time the wider world knew his story, every major record company had beaten a path to Kella’s door. But Kella duly declined all their overtures, opting instead to sign with Modern Sky, a Liverpool label. He’s happier in his hometown. “It’s nice to see new places,” says Kella, not entirely convincingly. “But everything I need is here.” In his life, the one obsession that precedes even that of the piano is his beloved Liverpool F.C. The newly crowned Premiership champions have honoured Kella’s success by extending an open invitation to their Legends Lounge. In return, Kella has already composed a piece for the club called Home to Me.
I ask him, could he take it further – compose individual pieces of music for each player? What ensues is, frankly, incredible. As soon as I mention a name, it’s as if a waveform appears before Kella’s eyes. All he has to do is hit ‘play’. “Mo Salah? You’d do a bit where he’s tearing down the wing, he shoots, and at that point the music stops – and when the ball hits the back of the net, it starts again. Virgil van Dijk? Compact, solid. Bold chords. I’d use the bottom half of the piano, so immediately he’s at the bottom of our team at the back in defence.”
The Piano series two winner, Brad Kella. Rob Parfitt
With lifelong ambitions being ticked off at a mind-boggling velocity, what’s next? Well, since Kella was 12, Sam Raimi’s trilogy of Spider-Man films propelled him into an obsession with the scores of film composer Danny Elfman – which feels appropriate, given that he talks about the acquisition of his first keyboard after his mother’s death as though that was his superhero origin story.
Of course, that’s exactly what it is. And it doesn’t stop with music. Lately, fellow Merseysider Stephen Graham has been speaking with him about the possibility of collaborating on a project. “Stephen grew up on a council estate up the road from me, and he totally gets me,” says Kella.
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So does this mean that there’s a Brad Kella biopic coming down the pipes? “What an amazing thing it would be, right? To be able to say I’ve written the score for a film about me – someone whose life’s ambition was to write film scores.”
Authors
Pete Paphides
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