Greatest Hits Volume One - The Singles

Sympathy

Bradley Newman Brookwood was born on June 23, 1991. Bradley loves to sing, play piano and write songs and He also loves to dance. Growing up Bradley has always loved to sing. He started singing at age three and playing piano at age twelve. Whenever Bradley encounters someone who is amazed at his level of artistry and musicianship, he is often asked how he does it. So how does he do it? "I do everything by ear because I trained my ear to listen to every sound and try to hum along with the pitch of the sound. A lot of people ask me how I sing and play songs without looking at lyrics or music sheets, and I just simply say that I do it all by ear and I memorize them." And that's not all. When he was fourteen years old, he started to test his musical abilities by writing songs.
Bradley has often said on many occasions that writing and singing songs is something very important to him. "If I get the opportunity to sing in front of a record executive, I want them to notice that I'm a young talent and full of energy, but I also want to be taken seriously as an artist." Bradley says that he likes pop, rock, R&B and Soul music because it reflects his personality, and when he writes songs he wants people to notice the same thing as well. Even though Bradley took a break from songwriting, he continued to heavily perform and expose himself to any and every audience that he possibly could, performing in many talent shows and receiving standing ovations from the audience.
A lot of Bradley's lyrical content is autobiographical, as he believes those are the best songs you could ever do. When asked about some topics he likes to write and sing about, Bradley often opens up about criticism and adversities that he's faced and obstacles he's had to overcome in life, particularly with regard to abuse he endured during his childhood and youth, as well as his sexuality. "It's really kind of tough to be LGBTQ because a lot of people in America and some parts of the world think of LGBTQ people as sinful and abominations to God, which I find to be absolutely appalling. Everyone should be allowed to be whoever they want to be, and they should love whoever it is they love, as love is such a precious thing. We need more love in this world." When asked about how he feels about the LGBTQ movement, he said: "I believe that we've gotten better. We've progressed significantly from a decade ago where it was still very much a taboo subject to talk about. But I always believe we could do better and we could improve and push forward, and one of my goals is to break down the walls for LGBTQ people. I want to make it acceptable for a guy to sing songs about a guy, or a girl to sing songs about a girl. LGBTQ people are people too. Despite what others say, we really don't let that sort of thing define us. We go through happy times and sad times and heartbreaks and people who lie and cheat just like those who are not LGBTQ."
On being asked about his sexuality and labels, Bradley also had these thoughts: "I'm gay and of course I'm very proud of it, but I don't let it define me. I don't think of my being gay as a label, it simply is what it is. When I was younger I kind of had an estranged relationship with God because I was bullied and abused during my childhood and youth by several people as a result of my being visually disabled, so I held a strong resentment towards him. But lately I’ve surrounded myself with people who have helped me rediscover my faith and God most certainly knows I'm gay, and I know he loves me. I'm sure God is lining up his angels and he's looking for the right one to send my way, and I'm sure when that special man comes to me the time will be perfect and everything will be just wonderful." Bradley hopes to get a recording contract in the near future, and he's working very hard at launching his music career.

Sympathy

Goo Goo Dolls