The Golden Years of a Rising Star

We're all here to live our best life and Milwaukee's very own singer/songwriter Bravo is the epitome of living life to its fullest.

His music career took off immediately after he released his very first project Bravo Blvd. back in January to then leaving university in May 2018.

Not looking back, he has had an astonishing career so far with several sold out shows and international appearances on a grand tour in Europe with artists Lucien Parker and DJay Mando.

Bravo wants to continue to tell his story through his music and with his recent release of his EP Golden, he has only told a bit of his 22-year-old life so far.

-FaceTime Interview transcription provided below-

Shakirah: Hello Bravo! Thank you so much for setting aside time to do this interview with me.

Bravo: Yeah, no problem.

Shakirah: So let's get right in to it. I noticed on Spotify that you have over 20,000 monthly listeners. How does that make you feel?

Bravo: It feels good. I use to get excited over 1,000 plays on SoundCloud. I think one of the biggest things that I’ve learned is being able to maximum what I do with whatever platform that I have. Being able to keep that mindset instead of looking at people who have 10 million plays and being like, “man I wish I had 10 million plays.” How am I influencing the people I have the platform to influence right now? You can compare yourself to people all day long. “Oh my voice isn’t as good as John Legend’s, I can’t play piano like John Legend, I can’t play guitar like John Meyer.” It’s about maximizing my skill set and what I do with that and how it affects the people that I have the platform to impact.

I’m excited because a year ago, I had no music on Spotify and to see it grow like it has just so naturally excites me a lot because I think it’s a good sign that I’m going in the right direction and that people are gravitating to my stuff, which brings me joy, so that’s why I do it. It’s been really cool to see things play out. I’m really excited to see where things can go in the next year.

Shakirah: I see you’ve been working hard in that one year by dropping not one, but two amazing EPs. So tell me how did you come up with your stage name, Bravo? Who is the person Bravo?

Bravo: So my [stage] name use to be my initials, N.C., my real name is Nick Coleman and when I decided to take music seriously about a year and a half ago, two years ago, I was like, I need a more original name. I had a criteria where I wanted it to be short, very easy to remember, no one has it and it would sound good being chanted in the crowd. Bravo was the first thing that popped in my mind and I was just like “aight, let’s roll with it.” It just kind of stuck and I think it goes well with my brand and nobody has it and it’s really just stuck, it’s like a good nickname almost.

Shakirah: But who is the person Bravo? Tell me about him.

Bravo: A very normal dude. He tries to be optimistic like we all do, still struggles with the same things that everybody else struggles with, [but] tries to be constructive about them. He is energetic, fun, and is consumed by shining his light to the world and what that looks like. I take so much joy in that, sitting down and thinking, how can I be of service to people? At the end of the day, what it’s about is, how can I be a service to other people that makes their lives better, that makes listening to my music a routine, and they can buy into who I am and not just listen to my music? That gives me the creative freedom to do a lot more and I have a lot of things that I want to do that I don’t have the platform to do yet. Like I was saying, how can I maximize the platform that I have now? I’m for the people, for the youth. Something that is important to me is tapping into every motion and that’s something that I’m getting more into because I’m use to just making happy music. I really want to get into more of who I am as a person and be able to talk about somethings that are important to me.

Shakirah: Well when you put it like that, what are some things that are important to you?

Bravo: I’ve already made songs about this but mental health to me . . . that’s something I’m very outward about and I think a lot of artists are starting to be more [too], which is really refreshing. I think being able to be in touch with your emotions, kind of be content with them, even if they’re not good emotions but to be able to be conscious of them and accept them. I think when people get on deconstructive paths in life, it’s because they are denying an emotion that they feel.

Shakirah: Wow, you learned a lot from your psychology classes I see.

Bravo: I’ve always been super into that kind of thing, but yeah. It just manifests itself into other ways. I’ve always went through this myself. This may sound corny but being able to put words to feelings that people have, including myself, that make you sit with your emotions, whatever that looks like. That’s what music is for me. When I listen to music, it makes me feel something. When I hear a song that I like, I listen to it a hundred times. I’m like, what do I like about this? How does it make me feel? As much music that I'll ever make, I want it to be true to how I feel, otherwise I will not put it out because it won’t make anyone else feel something.

Shakirah: That's real. I think it's so important to be in tune with your whole self.

Bravo: Yeah, and that was a really big tangent from the question.

Shakirah: And I'm not complaining about your tangent. I'm here to learn all about you for your fans. So what artists do you listen to frequently?

*Bravo opens up his Spotify*

Bravo: Any artist that is able to be vulnerable, tell stories about themselves, and use their skill set in their own way inspires me. I really like Jeremy Zucker. Mar E. Bassy is one of my favorite artists too. Shawn Mendes snaps. So I have two sides, I have this playlist that’s balance-y, a little more day time stuff and then I have this “Easy on the Ears" playlist that’s like Alina Baraz, H.E.R., and Miguel. It’s always hard because I listen to so much music.

Shakirah: YES. I love Miguel. Back in college I would have Miguel Mondays where I would only play Miguel on my speakers throughout my apartment. So I noticed that your EPs are categorized in different genres. Are you trying to be in more than one genre or just feeling things out?

Bravo: Honestly I thought about genre probably once in the time I make music. I just make music that I feel and I enjoy. Categorizing my music is the last thing that I do. When I send my music to my distributor I’m like, “What does this fall under?” you know. I think it’s more the energy that you get from the music that determines the genre. It’s just getting so blurred these days that it’s hard to even classify it. My goal is to have my music appeal to as many people as possible. I don’t really curse in my music. I make it really friendly to every demographic. So I guess that’s why it falls under just pop music.

On Golden, it seems like I probably have a girlfriend.

Shakirah: It does seem like you have a serious girlfriend, but I'm guessing that you don't. So you’ve had relationships in the past and on Golden you are singing about those past relationships, correct?

Bravo: It really depends. Sometimes I’m talking about a whole relationship and sometimes it can just be an encounter. Like for Closer, that entire song is about one encounter with a girl. It really depends. Sometimes it can be a moment where I really have to go write about this. But sometimes I step back and ask how am I feeling? How can I put this in a song? Inspiration comes from a million different places. For Golden it was mostly relationships, interactions, or conversations that I’ve had with people.

Shakirah: So do these special people know that a particular song of yours is about them?

Bravo: None of them know.

Shakirah: Will you keep it that way? Bravo: I don’t know. *smiles* I think I might start telling them. But it’s kind of fun though because no one knows but people still enjoy the music, which is cool.

Shakirah: You're right. Your music bops. It has all the feels. So what type of environment do you need to be in in order to create?

Bravo: That’s a good question. I like being alone unless I’m in the studio with a producer. But when I’m alone it’s usually just me and the piano.

Shakirah: How did you come up with the name Golden for your EP anyway?

Bravo: It really came from the feelings I got from the songs as a whole. Also the fact that it’s kind of catered to young people and it feels really youthful. I think we’re all in our golden years but we don’t really realize that because we’re all stuck on the day-to-day routine. A phrase that has stuck with me is “Everything is golden.” Breathe deep, love more, everything is golden. That’s helped me a lot personally and I think a good summary of the EP is that all this stuff is going on but everything will be OK.

Shakirah: OK, I can rock with that. So out of all the songs you have released, which one is your favorite and why?

Bravo: So how I operate is, when I make a song that I like, I listen to it hundreds and hundreds of times. I think it’s the most recent song that I like the most. So Closer was the last song that I made. I made it like two weeks before the EP came out. And it’s always the most recent song because it’s the most fresh. At some point, each song that I made was my favorite song.

Shakirah: Out of all the songs you have released, which one would you use to serenade your future lover?

Bravo: *thinks really hard* Probably Closer.

Shakirah: Ok, another winner!

Bravo: Yeah, I’m just an extremely hopeful romantic and I think love is what drives everything. When you love what you do, it gives you energy like you never had. When you love a person, it’s a feeling that’s not mistakable. It just intrigues me. I’m just a lover boy, I’m super outward about people that I love whether it’s my friends or whatever. Yeah, I noticed that that’s the theme of my music.

Shakirah: Ok lover boy, what is your ideal first date?

Bravo: I think something where we have space to talk. The first two or three dates should cover ground where you have space to talk enough, you have space to do something fun, and you also have one on one time. I think those are all important. For the first date, definitely some good one on one time. I think dinner is always just a good first date. It’s a good amount of time to spend with a person and it’s pretty intimate one on one conversation.

Shakirah: So you describe yourself as a lover boy, have you ever gotten your heart broken?

Bravo: No. Well, I haven’t but I’ve went through things that have broken my heart but I haven’t necessarily had my heart broken. If that makes sense.

Shakirah: Like situations have?

Bravo: Yes, situations have broken my heart, but I’ve never gotten my heart broken by a person.

Shakirah: Have you ever been in love before?

Bravo: I haven’t, no.

Shakirah: Oh I’m surprised. Well I think your time is coming!

Bravo: Lol you would think. Well, that’s probably why I sing about love so much.

Shakirah: True! So are you actively looking to get signed or do you wish to remain independent?

Bravo: Um, I don’t know. I honestly haven’t thought much about it. Right now I have everything I need to develop myself in an organic way to really just keep leveling up by myself. And I know where I’m going, I have a team of photographers, a graphic designer, and a marketing manager. I don’t need to sign away anything because what we can do with what we have is amazing. And at some point it might make sense to sign if I still have my creative freedom and am able to do all the things that I want to do, but I think a lot of people’s goal is to get signed. My goal is not to get signed, but to stay true to myself and reach as many people as possible. It just depends what the best route is.

Shakirah: I always tell people that the path you're on now, is the path that you're meant to be on. So looking at your emoji keyboard, which emoji would describe your music?

Bravo: So my top two emojis are: the yellow heart and the yellow swirly star. I think both describe me and my music.

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Photography: Bryce Gildner

Graphics: ScotifyStudios, HenHeins

Tags: #Bravo #BravoBlvd #Golden #Milwaukee #MusicLover #GiftedMagazine #WatchList #Spotify #Soundcloud #PopMusic

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