This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:08] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the theater and pop music podcast.

[0:12] Richie Grasso: I'm Jeff.

[0:13] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie.

[0:15] Jeff Malone: And today's special guest is pop singer Bradley Kim.

[0:20] Richie Grasso: Just to give our listeners more details on who you are, Bradley. Bradley is a singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington.

[0:28] Jeff Malone: Bradley just released his new EP, Starting Over.

[0:32] Richie Grasso: And a fun fact about Bradley is he discovered his passion for music in his late teenage years from a creative promposal.

[0:42] Jeff Malone: Yay. Welcome, Bradley, to Half Hour Podcast.

[0:45] Bradley Kim: Thank you for having me.

[0:46] Richie Grasso: Yay. So this feels like a great first question to start us off with. Bradley, if you could just let us know a little bit more about yourself, who you are, and how you got started in the music industry from this promposal. I kind of want to hear about that and then becoming a singer-songwriter. So let's hear a little bit about you.

[1:02] Bradley Kim: Yeah. So I grew up in Athlete. I played like every sport imaginable. Um, and basically my entire childhood was geared towards playing college football or any college sport really. So I ended up playing college football. But um, when I was in high school, I was running track with my friend Kristen, who wanted me to go to prom with her. I was a junior, she's a senior, and you know, it's always guys ask girls, which is kind of funny, obviously, because everybody knows I'm gay. Um, so she wanted me to ask her to prom. And so she did vocal jazz, she played the piano, she did a lot of different things involved in music. And so I was thinking, what's a creative way I could ask her? And so I picked up our family ukulele.

I taught myself to play ukulele, and I sang her "Count on Me" by Bruno Mars. I was god-awful. But I just I loved the process so much of just learning how to play an instrument and singing and whatever. So I created this little Instagram account where I posted covers all the time, and I have since deleted it because it was all garbage.

[2:00] Richie Grasso: Oh no, now we can't come and check it out.

[2:04] Bradley Kim: The video of the promposal is still on my Twitter. You can actually find it.

[2:09] Jeff Malone: Okay.

[2:10] Bradley Kim: But that basically launched my passion for music, and so I met one of my best friends when I went to college. We used to sing in the stairwell all the time. We would start writing songs together, and then my junior, I think in between my sophomore and junior year over the summer, we wrote our first song together that we actually produced and released on Spotify in 2019. And so since then, ever since I released that song, I started taking music more and more seriously until I got a few cool shows and got to open for some pretty cool people, and since then I kind of have decided this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

[2:44] Richie Grasso: That's amazing. So going back to it a little bit, you started playing this instrument when you were a senior in high school for this promposal.

[2:53] Bradley Kim: Yeah, I had not done anything musically at all before that.

[2:57] Richie Grasso: That's cool.

[2:58] Jeff Malone: That is very cool. Where did you go to college? And did they have like a music department when you were there, or you were just doing it for fun?

[3:05] Bradley Kim: I just did it for fun. So I went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. So a military academy where I played football, and I spent every single living second that I wasn't doing military academic or football stuff just singing in the stairwell with my friend Caleb.

[3:19] Richie Grasso: I love that.

[3:20] Bradley Kim: Sounds super nerdy, but you know, when you have a passion for something, that's like the way you gotta do it, right?

[3:25] Jeff Malone: Absolutely. Um, what is it like being a new artist right now in the industry? And how do you feel like the process is going for you?

[3:34] Bradley Kim: I think it's a mixed bag for sure. Um, it's definitely exciting having all of these platforms like TikTok, Instagram, um, because really any day, any one video, any one song could blow up and it could change your life forever. So it's cool to know that. But at the same time, when there are so many different people doing all of this stuff and so many more things that you're supposed to be doing, and as an artist who doesn't have like this huge team at my disposal, um, it can be a little overwhelming to both write music, um, find shows, like schedule all that stuff, make content, handle my own publishing, handle X, Y, and Z, you name it. So it can be a little overwhelming, but it definitely is exciting in this day and age, especially as a gay artist, because um I love that these DSPs are finally creating like gay playlists and pride playlists and stuff like that, and they're showing a bunch of love to the LGBTQ community.

Um, and it's definitely my music has taken definitely a weird turn, not turn, but I started off writing just not really caring about what I was writing about, and now I'm definitely geared towards being I'm very gay, I'm gonna say he, him, his boy on all of my songs intentionally now because I didn't have that growing up.

[4:51] Richie Grasso: So I love that you're bringing this up because I've actually had a few conversations with some artists from TikTok that are kind of all struggling with the same thing and saying, like, where do LGBTQ plus artists fit in the pop music industry? Because sometimes when we look at these playlists, it's like, oh, they're just pop icons that are getting like programmed or curated into the playlist, and how do we get more queer artists actually in these playlists that are for us, right?

[5:24] Bradley Kim: Absolutely, and just so you know, we're both gay too. So I'm sure you assume that, but I'm sure just so everyone knows that's out of the back, but you know.

[5:36] Richie Grasso: But we do talk about that sometimes because where is that space for these artists, you know? And how do you feel like do you feel like the DSPs are working with you at all in terms of getting curated there, or do you feel like it's more like micro influencers putting you into the playlist?

[5:54] Bradley Kim: Um, it's hard to say. Like I haven't been in any of those curated playlists. So, um, from my personal experience, I haven't seen the fruits of the labor that people have put forth before.

[6:07] Richie Grasso: Right.

[6:07] Bradley Kim: Um, so it's kind of hard for me to speak on that, but I would say to the latter half of your question that that could be a thing, the micro influencers.

[6:17] Jeff Malone: Yeah, totally. And speaking of your music, we listened to Starting Over, your new EP. We really love the songs. Um, we have personal favorites. Mine is "Like You Did" acoustic.

[6:30] Bradley Kim: Okay.

[6:30] Jeff Malone: I love it.

[6:32] Bradley Kim: I do, I love that because I love that just like vocal and guitar, and I really listen for I come from a theater background, so I'm always really listening for like tone and like just like the vocal. I'm just so it's just when it's just the vocal and the guitar, I love, and I love the lyric. I just that was a really nice way to end it too, yeah.

[6:51] Richie Grasso: And um, Jeff's favorite is "Apartment 414," right?

[6:54] Jeff Malone: That is a fan favorite. That is my favorite. I actually put that in the box.

[6:59] Bradley Kim: I saw that.

[7:00] Jeff Malone: I saw that on your TikTok.

[7:01] Bradley Kim: I did put that in our TikTok and I said, I like this. This is fun.

[7:05] Richie Grasso: Uh, the question we have is do you feel like fans are resonating with this music and this EP in particular?

[7:11] Bradley Kim: Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think I make very sad music.

[7:17] Richie Grasso: It's okay.

[7:17] Bradley Kim: So this was no surprise to anybody, but this was very existential. This was very personal to me. And I think that's something that I haven't done before. Um, I've obviously here and there written a few songs that are a little more personal to me, but this entire EP was just literally about my it was originally about a breakup and then it turned into like the whole gay dating experience, topped up with 20, the most personal and vulnerable song I've ever written about how I didn't think I was gonna live past 20. Um, I think people really appreciate authenticity, and so that's the most feedback I've gotten is that they love the songwriting and they could definitely feel the genuine emotion from me and from my songs, and that is kind of the baseline of how I want to go moving forward. I'm not always gonna write super existential, super sad songs, but I think coming from a place of authenticity is the best thing that people have been giving me feedback on.

[8:13] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I really hear it too in how you're writing the songs. I always listen for the writing, especially as do you hook us in in the beginning or are you telling us the story? And like I feel like I know you from your music. So and we don't really have a lot of artists in our space that are writing more authentic music in this way, the singer-songwriter style from the, you know, gay male perspective. So it's cool to hear that.

[8:41] Jeff Malone: Um, what's also cool that I saw you opened for Dermot Kennedy's during his 2021 Better Days tour. What was this like for you? Because I've listened to his music. I like it. It's fun.

[8:53] Bradley Kim: It was probably the craziest 48 hours of my life. Not it's up there. So what happened was he, and I don't know how much you follow him, but on his tours, he likes to give back to local communities. So um, his whole shtick is like he didn't make it big until somebody gave him a shot because he was just um playing local restaurants, he was just playing out on the streets, busking, uh whatever. And it wasn't until somebody gave him a shot that he was able to blow up like he did. And so now that he's made it, made it, um, he has decided that he's gonna give back. And so he posted on his Instagram, hey, like I these are the tour dates, these are the cities I'm going to submit um five of your songs and a video of you singing live or whatever.

And so I submitted an application, whatever, sent in all my videos, like I want to say maybe three to four weeks to a month in advance. And I had just moved to Warner Robins, Georgia, where I was stationed for my first D station after I graduated. And I was just playing Xbox in a uh in my hotel room in like my boyfriend was in the other room, uh my boyfriend at the time. Um and I had just like paused the game, just randomly checked my email, got an email from Dermot's tour manager, hey, you're gonna open tomorrow in Indianapolis. And I was like, Wow, it's 5:30 p.m. and I'm about to. So I dropped a bunch of money to go fly to Indianapolis that night, got there. Luckily, like my boyfriend at the time, he had a house in Indianapolis because that's where he's from.

So we got to just stay at his house and then flew there, got in super late at like 2 a.m. Um, woke up, had breakfast, and I didn't even have a set list in mind. I hadn't prepared anything. And so I spent the entire day preparing a set list and figuring all of that out. Um, and then got to the uh I think it's all like the White River Amphitheater. I got there, they just let me in. They didn't ask my name or anything. I was like, hey, I'm opening for Dermot. They're like, okay. So I was like, okay, so really anybody could have made it backstage at this point. Not nobody really said anything to me. I got to the backstage, and it wasn't until I like I legitimately was I was like 70% convinced that this was just a prank until I saw my name on the door, and I was like, oh my gosh, wow.

Um, and I was super nervous as soon as I found out, but then as soon as I did my sound check, it was awesome, and I felt really great. I got to meet uh Bishop Briggs, um, who I didn't know was Bishop Briggs at the time. She's like, hi, I'm Sarah, and I'm like, oh my gosh, you're the cutest thing. And I watched her do her sound check and she started singing um like her shut my own thing, right? Like that song, and I was like, And he was like, Wait, oh incredible. I got to meet her, got to meet Dermot, and it was just the most exciting experience of my life, and like that is always the moment that I point to where I think um if there was a deciding factor on when I knew that music was for me and that I was gonna do it for the rest of my life, it's that moment.

[12:01] Richie Grasso: That's such a cool story that and how it happened and how fast you got there where you're like you're doing one thing and you're just playing a game, and like what a turning point in your career there, because now you're like, wow, I did this, and what's next?

[12:17] Bradley Kim: Yeah, it was a huge whirlwind. And that was actually the first time I'd ever played one of the songs that I had written for a crowd for anybody when I performed. I don't I had always done like covers in the past, and that was the very first show I played original music at.

[12:29] Jeff Malone: Wow.

[12:29] Bradley Kim: And to hear them singing it back to me was just, yeah, oh my gosh, what a moment.

[12:33] Richie Grasso: Of course.

[12:34] Jeff Malone: I almost cried on stage.

[12:35] Bradley Kim: Oh yes.

[12:37] Richie Grasso: Oh my god, I love it. I love those stories.

[12:40] Jeff Malone: Have you played any shows in New York City yet?

[12:42] Bradley Kim: I haven't.

[12:43] Richie Grasso: But I wouldn't. We're New York based, so let us know when you're in New York.

[12:46] Bradley Kim: Well come on down.

[12:48] Richie Grasso: I would love to.

[12:49] Bradley Kim: Yeah.

[12:50] Jeff Malone: That's awesome.

[12:52] Richie Grasso: That'd be cool. Very, very cool. Um, so question next question for you. As a member of the LGBTQ plus community, uh, what do you feel was the hardest part of taking the leap to coming out? And how do you feel that is reflected in your music today?

[13:07] Bradley Kim: Um, I think, um, and I just watched the I don't know if you guys watched Ted Lasso.

[13:14] Richie Grasso: Oh no, but I should.

[13:15] Bradley Kim: Yeah, okay. So they had this episode where one of the players on the soccer team, and I'm gonna make this kind of analogous to my football coming out because that was originally how I came out. It was in a sports space rather than a music space. And so this episode had like took you through Colin's journey of like all the anguish he went through, and obviously you guys don't understand because you're obviously, you know, you're gay as well. Um, but he said something at the end of the episode when one of his teammates was upset with him for not telling him in the first place. It was I was 99% certain that you guys were gonna be okay with it, but that one percent terrified me. And so I think that was the hardest part for me is I in the back of my mind knew that all my friends and family weren't gonna they were gonna be okay with it and they weren't gonna care. But like the even just the tiniest possibility that they weren't gonna be okay, terrified me enough to keeping it a secret for 19 years or however long I did.

[14:10] Bradley Kim: And uh I had originally came out to my family when I was 18, and like I think I think it was just my family and like two of my closest friends in high school that then knew before I went to the academy, and then I'd slowly told people as I got close to them while I was at the academy.

[14:27] Bradley Kim: Um but I would say that is that is the biggest thing was uh you don't know how people are gonna react, especially in a sports space, uh, where it tends to be very hyper masculine, especially in the football space.

[14:39] Richie Grasso: Yep, yeah.

[14:40] Bradley Kim: Um which is honestly the reason why I came out because I didn't have a whole lot of role models and people to look up to while I was playing football.

[14:49] Bradley Kim: Uh I didn't think I was gonna be able to to fit in, and so I almost didn't go play football because I didn't think it was for me because I had never seen somebody do it before.

[14:57] Jeff Malone: Wow. Do you feel like no matter what, you still wanted to play football, even in high school through the Air Force and whatnot, or do you feel like it was just something you had to do?

[15:12] Bradley Kim: Um, a combination. I actually talked about that in therapy, did I? Um I uh I loved football, it was my favorite sport growing up for sure. Um I was good at it, and I I think I used it as a ticket to get myself a free education. Um I don't regret playing.

[15:28] Bradley Kim: Uh I definitely did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It became a job and I got injured, it took a toll on my body. Um so I think I kind of pressured myself into needing to play because I needed in my mind, I was like, I have this platform, I am in this position where I could help a lot of people, and so I think maybe I I uh I did more for that purpose rather than I just want to play football at the end of the day.

[15:57] Richie Grasso: So sure, sure, and of course too, like I I feel like there's probably plenty of people out there that do actually love playing sports, especially in the gay community.

[16:07] Bradley Kim: Yeah, no, I play gay flag football now. Like I just got back from the Chicago tournament.

[16:11] Richie Grasso: Oh nice.

[16:12] Bradley Kim: We see it all the time, even in the city, we're like, oh, there's like a kickball and dodgeball, softball, all of that, you know, sure for fun.

[16:21] Richie Grasso: Um, but I'm always curious because sometimes like when we grow up in these households that are like, you need to play sports or you need to do this, you know.

[16:29] Bradley Kim: It's you know, and also with music, can you be doing both? Because I feel like sometimes I feel like people look at you as soon as you're doing anything in the arts, but you also play sports, like uh, what are you doing?

[16:41] Richie Grasso: Yeah, yeah.

[16:42] Bradley Kim: My uh my daily schedule, especially the academies, because you also had military obligations as well, is I would you know, I'd be up by I don't know, 5:30, 6 a.m. every morning for morning formation. I'd go to breakfast, I'd have classes from 7 to 11:30.

[16:56] Bradley Kim: We'd march to lunch, have lunch, maybe another military obligation for about an hour, and then I'd basically be down at football from like one o'clock to seven o'clock.

[17:04] Richie Grasso: Oh my gosh.

[17:05] Bradley Kim: We'd eat dinner down there after practice. I'd get back up to my room 7:30, 8-ish, and then I'd start homework.

[17:09] Richie Grasso: Oh my god, what a day.

[17:11] Bradley Kim: Yeah, and then if I didn't finish, if I didn't have any homework where I finished like before 11 o'clock, I'd be out in the stairwell singing with Caleb.

[17:17] Richie Grasso: Wow, yeah.

[17:17] Bradley Kim: Wow. He made it work no matter what, right?

[17:19] Richie Grasso: Yeah, that's awesome. That is awesome.

[17:22] Richie Grasso: Um, so another LGBTQ plus question for you here.

[17:26] Bradley Kim: Uh Cardemont's other over.

[17:28] Richie Grasso: You can't ask me that anymore.

[17:30] Bradley Kim: No, we have to keep it going.

[17:31] Richie Grasso: Yes, we're going to do it. It has to continue after pride.

[17:34] Bradley Kim: We're not allowed to be gay anymore.

[17:36] Richie Grasso: Only for those 30 days in June.

[17:37] Bradley Kim: Yeah, so next June. That's what we're always like, no, we have to keep it going, right?

[17:41] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[17:42] Richie Grasso: Right. Always have to keep it getting.

[17:45] Richie Grasso: But how do you feel like the industry is receiving LGBTQ artists right now, especially with some like big names like Sam Smith or Kim Petrus, who were kind of really getting welcomed. Do you think, you know, the industry's kind of taken too long to, you know, kind of make them the stars that they are?

[18:06] Bradley Kim: I would say so. Um I don't know. I think I think a lot of people tend to follow the trends of society.

[18:15] Bradley Kim: And so as it becomes more accepted, then they're like, oh, it's okay to start promoting them now because even winning a Grammy and oh, this is satanic or this, and it's like, oh, come on.

[18:29] Richie Grasso: Um, but do you feel like who are some of your actual big inspirations for your music? And you know, like what are some names? What are some big songs that um I uh my all my favorite artist is Chelsea Cutler.

[18:45] Bradley Kim: A bye queen. I think I need to look into that.

[18:49] Richie Grasso: She's New York based too.

[18:51] Bradley Kim: Oh, we're gonna add her to the list. I love her.

[18:54] Bradley Kim: Um I actually got to see her for the first time in April. April of last year in Colorado. Um she's one of my favorite Zachary Noel's one of my favorite, like sonically wise.

[19:04] Bradley Kim: Um I think as I've transitioned my music in the past few months, I think Jordy is one of the the biggest people I look up to.

[19:12] Richie Grasso: Okay.

[19:12] Bradley Kim: As far as get inspiration from. I always uh I I started calling myself Asian Jordy. Off-brand Asian Jordy.

[19:20] Richie Grasso: Nice, nice.

[19:21] Richie Grasso: No, that's actually funny you said Jordy, because when I was listening um to your EP, I was like, they could actually have like a duet together.

[19:28] Bradley Kim: Oh my god. I would love that.

[19:29] Richie Grasso: Yeah. I think your voices would blend like really well together.

[19:33] Richie Grasso: And I love Jordy's music. He's like a bop.

[19:36] Bradley Kim: So good. One of my songs, Internet Boy, was uh I was in a writing room with uh it was six of us.

[19:44] Bradley Kim: Um and at the top of the page and we were writing, it's called Internet Boy. The the top of the page, the little memo that we wrote was uh what would Jordy do? That was what we were keeping in our in the back of our minds.

[19:55] Richie Grasso: Here's the question to Jordi. What would Jordy do?

[19:57] Bradley Kim: What would Jordy do? Exactly.

[20:01] Richie Grasso: Oh love it, love it.

[20:03] Richie Grasso: Um as a new artist, um, where do you see your career in five years and do you want to embrace a more pop star lifestyle?

[20:12] Bradley Kim: Oh um that's a good question. So I am uh obligated to the military for the next three years.

[20:18] Bradley Kim: Got it, which uh is uh is a bit of a struggle sometimes when I when I when I think I could take things to another level, but I have to kind of wait and put the brakes on till after that.

[20:30] Bradley Kim: So my hope is that uh I can continue to just grow an audience. Um this next song that I'm about to release has been gaining a lot of traction.

[20:41] Bradley Kim: So I'm hoping that as I continue to release music and build a bigger portfolio for myself, uh both music for myself and songs I've written for other people, that I could potentially get a uh either a uh what's it called uh pub deal, like a publishing deal, so I can songwrite for people um or work with sync to get my songs into shows or whatever to sustain a living.

[21:05] Bradley Kim: And then once I can get that, then I can actually, you know, pour more money and more resources into music.

[21:11] Bradley Kim: And I would absolutely love to live the pop star lifestyle. I'm trying to convince myself that I need to start being delusional.

[21:19] Bradley Kim: Because like my entire life, I've just been like, or my entire career, I've been like, I just I will be happy doing music at whatever way, shape, or form it presents itself so long as I can sustain myself.

[21:29] Bradley Kim: But I uh I'm trying to adopt the delusional mindset. It is a work in progress, but uh do you do you feel like you want to stay independent or would you love to be on a label?

[21:43] Bradley Kim: I don't speak in uh absolutes. So I would be open to whatever I think is best for me at the time.

[21:49] Bradley Kim: And obviously, you can only make the best call with all the information you have up front at the time.

[21:53] Richie Grasso: Right.

[21:54] Bradley Kim: Um I don't think I would a hundred percent say either way. I think I would love to be independent if I can.

[22:01] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[22:02] Bradley Kim: But I do know that labels have resources and abilities that uh extend a little bit farther than I can as an individual.

[22:07] Richie Grasso: So then you can do the big photo shoots and the music videos.

[22:12] Bradley Kim: Yes. I'm not happy to use my little iPhone camera.

[22:18] Richie Grasso: And and and to kind of piggyback on what something you said earlier, another question and follow-up question was um, are you currently working on new music, or what's up next that you're allowed to announce now?

[22:27] Bradley Kim: Oh, I am working on so much music. I I I have a folder in my notes that's just all of my unreleased demos and and songs and stuff like that.

[22:35] Bradley Kim: In the past, what is it, July? I moved here in February, at the end of February.

[22:40] Bradley Kim: I have written and had let's see 15 demos since I moved here in in February, and I love all pretty much all of them more than any song that I have released thus far.

[22:54] Richie Grasso: Wow.

[22:55] Bradley Kim: So I am super excited to put all of them out. Um it's just a matter of finishing up those demos, doing all of the promo.

[23:01] Bradley Kim: But literally I could stop making music for the rest of the year and I'd still have all my releases lined up for next year in 2025.

[23:08] Richie Grasso: Oh my gosh.

[23:09] Bradley Kim: I could be putting out a full album.

[23:11] Richie Grasso: I could, but I I've been telling myself like I'm not gonna put on an album until I'm maybe signed to a label.

[23:18] Bradley Kim: Oh my god, push behind me and tour. Because as an independent artist, you want to release singles because each single you release on the spot on Spotify or whatever is just one opportunity you get to get placed playlisted and to get pushed.

[23:31] Bradley Kim: Whereas if you release an EP, you can only push one of those songs.

[23:36] Richie Grasso: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[23:37] Richie Grasso: Okay. Are you a bigger fan of releasing singles or do you like the whole thing behind a concept of an album?

[23:44] Bradley Kim: I like the artistry behind an album and an EP, but as far as marketing, and as far as um just playing the game, I like releasing singles more.

[23:54] Richie Grasso: Such a different day, right? Like 15 years ago, everyone would have been like, release singles, right?

[24:01] Bradley Kim: Yeah.

[24:02] Richie Grasso: Yeah. Or 20 years ago. I don't know, dating myself now.

[24:06] Bradley Kim: But uh Okay, we're getting close to the end here, but I we like to do a final question on all of our podcast interview episodes, and it's a little bit more of a fun question.

[24:20] Richie Grasso: Um but what is the fun behind the scenes moment or memory from making the starting over EP that you want to share with the fans?

[24:33] Bradley Kim: I know it's on the spot. So I wish I could give you a fun one.

[24:41] Bradley Kim: I'm gonna think, hold on. You have a fun one. A lot of a lot of this the behind the scenes stuff is not that fun because it was a very sad EP.

[24:50] Richie Grasso: Oh, okay.

[24:51] Bradley Kim: Um, I think I'm making me think. I'm just going through song by song. Starting over with my friend Ryan, and it was on Zoom.

[25:04] Bradley Kim: Um, that was like pretty sad. Oh, it's okay if there wasn't any funny moments for something sad, you know.

[25:13] Bradley Kim: Uh there might be. I mean, my life is pretty much a comedy and a tragedy combined.

[25:17] Richie Grasso: Funny, funny recording moment.

[25:20] Bradley Kim: Um I think uh I guess the the I think the thing that was probably the funniest was when I wrote uh Men on the Moon with my friend Caleb.

[25:29] Bradley Kim: I was in I had traveled to his house. He lives in uh it's like middle California.

[25:37] Bradley Kim: It's kind of in between Sacramento. Or no, it's in between it's like an hour and a half or two hours north of Santa Barbara. Sorry.

[25:44] Richie Grasso: Okay.

[25:45] Bradley Kim: Um we had started writing it. I walked into his house. I knew I was gonna write one of the songs off the EP, and I saw a mandolin, and I was like, oh, we're writing a mandolin song.

[25:54] Bradley Kim: I didn't know how to write, I didn't know how to play the mandolin, but uh, I knew I was gonna write a mandolin song, and we had come up with like the song in like 15 minutes, like the verse and pre and chorus, and then we got stuck on what we're gonna do for the second verse and like the post chorus, and we argued about it for probably like we had an idea in mind, and I was like, oh no, I don't like that.

[25:54] Bradley Kim: We argued about it for like eight hours, came back the next day, argued about it for like three hours, and then we ended up just using the same one that I had originally started with.

[26:20] Richie Grasso: Wow.

[26:21] Bradley Kim: Like after after like 24 hours of going back and forth and trying to come up with different ideas. I almost just scrapped the song.

[26:28] Bradley Kim: And then I ended up using the original idea. I was like, I like came back to it. It wasn't even like a okay, let's use the original idea. I had like come up with it like it was a new idea.

[26:36] Bradley Kim: And then I listened to our old voice memos. I'm like, this was the same idea that I had originally came up with.

[26:40] Richie Grasso: Oh my gosh.

[26:41] Bradley Kim: And that's on being a songwriter.

[26:43] Richie Grasso: There we go. Love it.

[26:45] Richie Grasso: That one is pain in the ass. Well, unfortunately, we have to wrap up our time.

[26:51] Bradley Kim: We're already out of time. I can't believe I could sit here hours and chat, you know.

[26:55] Richie Grasso: I know.

[26:56] Bradley Kim: Um this is great. But um we that's all we have for time for today.

[27:00] Richie Grasso: But thank you all so much for listening.

[27:02] Richie Grasso: And I know Jeff has a final question.

[27:04] Jeff Malone: Yes, we hope you enjoyed our conversation with Bradley today. Uh Bradley, if our listeners would like to learn more about your work, where should they follow you?

[27:12] Bradley Kim: Um, Instagram, TikTok. I don't really use Twitter that much. Um, but my my usernames are the same on all of them.

[27:18] Bradley Kim: Bradley K Kim.

[27:21] Bradley Kim: Um, and then I'm on Spotify, Apple Music, um, any streaming platform, just look up Bradley Kim and stream it.

[27:27] Richie Grasso: Stream it all.

[27:28] Bradley Kim: Stream it.

[27:30] Richie Grasso: Yes. Rack to it. Stream it.

[27:32] Bradley Kim: Yes.

[27:33] Richie Grasso: And to all our listeners, if you have any suggestions on future episodes, um, we'd love to hear from you. You can also connect with us on our Instagram and TikTok at half hour podcast.

[27:44] Richie Grasso: So thanks so much for joining us today, Bradley. We can just see where your career goes next.

[27:51] Bradley Kim: Yes, for sure. This was really great.

[27:53] Richie Grasso: So getting ready to sign off. I'm Jeff.

[27:56] Jeff Malone: And I'm Richie saying ta-ta for now.

[27:59] Richie Grasso: Bye.

[28:00] Bradley Kim: Bye.