Words: George Gray, Photos: Sharmeen Chaudhary
Graham Bright is a fast emerging talent with features from Pigeons and Planes and Have Ya Heard and vocals as smooth as his footballing touch. His powerfully introspective new EP ‘An Album in My Darkness’ dropped in February and is already catching ears. Yet our chat began with one topic, Graham’s love for football.
Parallels between football and musicians are plentiful, but perhaps run under the radar, from Cissé’s eye-catching DJ sets to Serge Pizzorno’s promising academy days. Graham’s no different. Whether sprinting for a ball or pouring every ounce of his heart into a performance, he’s leaving it all out there.
As a child it was this love for football that drove him, collages of favourite players George Weah, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o lining his walls, not band posters. Music was always there though, even if it took a backseat at first. His journey started with piano, “I loved learning by ear, not just sheet music” and it came pretty naturally, “I genuinely feel like I came to earth with music in me”.
This love only grew through his sister. “God said you’re designated back-up singer and gave me that ability to harmonise every time we sang for our family”. Chris Brown duets lighting up the front room, “what black kid didn’t wanna be Chris Brown” he jokes.
Trips to matches with his dad and DJ uncle then fused the two passions together. “He used to burn CDs of whatever was popping and we just spun it on the way to games”, visualising his flair to a soundtrack of afrobeats. “It’d make me lock in, imagining myself in a Djemba Djemba highlight reel”, he laughs, “those are some of my earliest memories”.
It’s hardly surprising now that he’d love a feature on a fifa soundtrack, “FLAME/DOWNFALL would be a no brainer, kinda reminds me of that Cautious Clay FIFA 20 vibe”. “BLAME IT ON THE SUN could maybe sneak into FIFA Street too”. His love for both is palpable, but it’s part of a wider mentality, searching for music in all aspects of life.
Graham explained this approach has evolved with time, “when I was young I was just a sponge, consciously drawing from my passions to make a song that’d fit a specific landscape like FIFA 09.” The aim initially specific, but as of late a move from Maryland to New York has shook things up.
“Now I’m constantly trying to listen to new music and find inspo all around me”, whether it’s watching the world go by from his window or soundtracking the chaos of the New York Metro, Graham tries to let the music come to him. “WRESTLING WITH GOD came to me after half an hour of just looking out the window and self-reflecting”.
It’s almost hard for Graham to get through showers, films or even beloved football games without being hit by divine inspiration. “During the euros last summer, something in a game sparked some music in me, I had to strike while the iron was hot and leave mid game”, a tough sacrifice he jokes.
For Graham, it’s all part of a wider journey of spirituality, parallel to his musical career that kicked off in 2014. A career ending football injury left Graham suffering, but that was when religion became a saviour alongside his music.
“I started in 2014, but by the grace of god I didn’t drop until 2015, my homie Rayman refused to record me at first, but he did me a solid”. “I believe Jesus has been walking with me every step of the day, cause I met Rayman first day of Kindergarten, what’s the odds of that”.
Graham admits at the time it felt normal, but now looking back he realises it was music that brought him together with others. “I was in a rap group with my good friends, like Pablo and Matt, who are still collaborators now”, he tells us pride written across his face, “every time I look back at stuff that was dope I realise music was always intertwined”.
What sparked the work in his music was his footballing past, “it was the muscle of turning up” in his own words. “There’s something about training in soccer that jumpstarts my mind for music, like ok let’s go, let’s put hours in and get back to the fundamentals”.
It also mirrors the devotion he’s put in with religion, “experimenting” with different forms of spirituality and taking time in his darkness to rediscover its importance to him. “I was just being sifted with God leaving the purest bits of me”.
It starts with taking the metaphysical and abstract as divine inspiration. “Jesus gave this to us, I pray before every session and leave it to him”. He then follows that “tugging of the heat” and through meditation allows an internal picture to be painted in his brain. “For me it’s a vision unfolding before me – I just follow it.
However, songwriting remains a goal for the New York based artist. “It might be hard on myself but it’s just like practicing a part of my game like volleys” he jokes, but it’s for good reason.
The album tells his story, from the isolation and purging of negative thoughts to peace, with a deep relationship with God at its heart. “ I felt like a shell of myself, spending hours on end on who I was until that darkness transitioned to light”.
The last song on the album symbolises it all. “If you listen to the lyrics you realise Can’t Keep U In My Bed’s not just a valentine’s love-song but a love letter to God”.
Whether accidental or predetermined, the resulting album is an odyssey of Graham’s work both in music and religion. “I was down bad at the start of the project, now I just try and remember to stay humble when life ain’t whooping me”.
In terms of the future, he’s clear, “God’s got bigger ideas for me than myself, I’m just trying to show up every day and get to it, when God gives me opportunity and I got the capacity I’ll flow with it.”
Listen to An Album in My Darkness HERE!
