The 2018 Toyota Star Maker winner Brad Cox is wasting no time getting his new music out there.
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On Friday, he released his moving new single Lake House from his upcoming self-titled debut album which will drop on May 4.
“Lake House is about a woman I met and never saw again,” Brad said.
A video for the single was also released on Friday.
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Born and raised in Jindabyne NSW, 22-year-old Brad still has strong connections to the community where he grew up.
“Mum and dad are there, all the family’s there,” he said. “I went to Jindabyne Central School - one school, small town, little class, it’s a good place.”
It was in the Snowy Mountains community that he played he first live shows after he plunged himself into music from the age of 13. He started listening to and writing country music at 15.
Soon he was playing gigs at The Banjo Paterson Inn, singing covers of classic Aussie pub rock songs, but a few short years later, it is his own style of music that has seen him fast become one of the rising stars of Australian country music.
Brad is influenced by artists who challenge country music with the inspiration for his writing coming from personal experiences or from those around him.
The new album has spent a long time in Brad’s head; a long time as demos on his phone, and a long time in the hands of producer Matt Fell.
“I’m glad I took my time with this record and I am so proud of what it has grown into. Each song has its very own unique sound, and is very much me,” Fell said.
Husband and wife duo Adam Eckersley and Brooke McClymont were judges in the Star Maker final where Brad triumphed in January, and both spoke very highly of the emerging artist.
“It was a tough job but we loved Brad Cox, he was awesome,” Eckersley said about the judging process, last month.
“I think he performed great, and I think he’s going to do really well.”
“He’s got a great personality,” McClymont added, “I think that was half his charm as well. You could tell a lot of people gravitated towards him and just had a real like for the guy, and then when he sang it was like ‘yay, this is cool’.”
Brad is about to join Eckersley and McClymont on a leg of their five-month Highway Sky Tour.
They will travel through western NSW as well as South Australia and Western Australia from late May and throughout June.
“He’s pretty genuine, he’s going to make a career out of it one way or another, he’s been travelling around and doing it already, so (the Star Maker win) is just going to help him get along,” Eckersley said.
