That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Brad Kella

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Brad Kella (the winner of Season 2 of 'The Piano') joins Gaby for a chat about joy and music and laughter. Brad talks about how he first came to the piano, what it means to him to play and how much his life has changed since winning the show. Remember you can watch all of our episodes on our YouTube channel - where you can also follow and subscribe, AND see our bonus nugget of joy each Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brad Keller, welcome to your first ever podcast. Thank you for having me. No, honestly, it is such a pleasure to chat to you again because you came on my radio show and you totally melted my heart for all the right reasons because your passion, your love and your kindness shine through, not just your music, but you. That's what you're about.

Oh, thank you so much. I try to be nice. I do. I really do. You do so much work for charity as well. I was looking at all the stuff that you've done. since you burst onto the scene so beautifully in the piano

and ever since then you've just, you've had a baby you've had another bit because you've got two girls, Phoebe and melody you've got an album coming out very, very soon you've obviously signed your record deal

you've been on TV shows you've been on radio shows and you've worked for charities and it's incredible does this all quite feel real since the piano. To be completely honest, I feel like I'm still in foreign territory

with everything going on. I've said the past two months I've come to terms of things a bit more and I'm starting to get used to the whole lifestyle that I'm living. And I'm just so grateful for it all. It's been such an amazing experience and truly life-changing.

Can we go back to the beginning? Because you're very, very honest and very open about your childhood. And you weren't in school. No. You were running around the streets until 11 o'clock at night. So what was life like then before you got taken into foster care? So I grew up in a place called Bach Road and Baibuil.

And honestly, that street in general, it was absolute mayhem. There was constantly stuff going on that shouldn't have been going on. And a lot of the kids in that street were just wild. We were all just wild children running around. And I think back now to where I am now and how it was there, and it doesn't make sense to me at all that I've come so far because it was just, yeah, it wasn't easy living that way. Did you know when you were living that way

that it wasn't like other people's lives, or was it just that's what you knew? No, that's all I knew. So obviously I got in, put in foster care when it was seven. So it was so young when I was living, how I was living, and I didn't understand that it, yet it was a bit hectic. When I moved into Evan Frank's, my foster parents, that's when I started realizing that this is how a normal life is.

Like, this is what a normal house looks like. And this is how, like, going off, like, family meals, going on holidays. That was stuff that I'd never, ever done before. Did it unsettle you that it was like that? Or did you embrace it? Or did you think, ah, I don't know what, this isn't right? So I was so scared because, obviously, once you get took away from your parents, like,

so I remember getting took away from your mum. And it was, like, the most bizarre feeling because I just, I thought I was going to wake up the next day and she was going to be there. And then the next day and the next day and the next day and I continued to just can live in with Evan Frank. And at the start, I was really, really, really scared because I didn't know what was around the corner. I didn't know whether I was going to stay with Evan Frank. I'll get moved somewhere else and I just didn't know where I was going to be next. So I had this constant, constant fear, I think, but I was just so blessed I got put in in the care placement with me, twin brother,

because we went through everything together and it just made it that little bit easy. Yeah, definitely. Evan Frank are remarkable, aren't me? They're superhuman. I always say they really are what they've done for me. And not just me, but lots of other children that they've fostered is unbelievable. And obviously, when I had the opportunity to go on the show on Channel 4, I had to give them the voice that they needed because they deserve recognition for what they're doing. It's not easy taking on a random child and making them feel that everything's going to be okay

and bringing them into their family. the way they made me feel a part of their family is like you can't, words can't actually describe that. And I'm forever thankful for them till the day I die, I think, definitely. They are remarkable people and they, but also you have to realize how remarkable you are because you were open to that, you know, that you were open to their love and their kindness. And you took it and you obviously give it back. I can tell. I mean, you're one of the kindest people I think I've ever met in my life. So where did then the music?

Music started. I'd say the music started because, so I went to primary school in Butyl still because Evan Frank used to drive us every day, back up to Butal to keep us in the same area, just so we weren't so separated from everything so quickly. But then when we went to high school, we went to a local high school near Evan Franks. So I was like the new kid in school. I felt so out of place. I wasn't from that area.

I didn't know anyone at all. And when I got in there, everyone knew each other right away in the first year of high school. And I just felt like that new kid. And I was just kind of struggled to fit in. Of course. I think once people find out in the school as well, that I was in foster care, that I just got looked at, like, so differently than everyone else.

Oh, no, I'm so sorry. I know it's something that I just had to deal with, but I did deal with it really, really well. And I remember one day, I think it was in year eight. Prior to this, I had no interest in music at all. My mum used to love listening to music. I used to love listening to music with my mum. But that was far as it went in terms of music.

What sort of music was it, So my mum was absolutely obsessant Michael Jackson. Oh, right, okay. Yeah, I then began to fall in love with him as well. And I remember in, it was year eight, I walked down the music corridor in my high school, and there was a guy called Andrew Pecha Morris. He was the music teacher in the high school.

And I remember hearing the sound of a piano, but I'd never seen or heard the piano in person in my life. And I opened the door, and he was playing a piece of Rachmaninoff, which is really, really difficult piano. I remember just getting enchanted in it. I was like, wow, like how, how can he do that?

It was the first thing in years that took my mind off my own thoughts. It just made my own fort shut down, the past shut down, and I was just completely in the moment of him playing. So the first thing I done is I couldn't wait for the school bell to ring so that I could rush home to Evan Frank

and ask them to get me a piano. So you didn't play it? No. You just heard it? Yeah, yeah. And I begged Evan Frank, please, I need the piano. I just wanted to feel that feeling again

and again and again. And Christmas coming. around about two months later and I woke up to a small keyboard, a Yamaha keyboard. Honestly, the best day of my life, it was so, I just, I remember being, like, I was so grateful that they'd listen to me and got me and I used to lock myself in my room for hours and hours and hours separate myself away from everyone and just play. So you literally just sat at the keyboard and played? Yeah, I already had music inside my own mind and melodies that, because I used to single a

I'm in my mind to calm myself down. And then it's like my voice then went to my hands on the piano and it allowed me to just elaborate on what was going on inside here. So nobody had given you any lessons. You hadn't looked at any lessons. No.

You just knew what to do. I always feel like it was God-given. It makes no sense. I feel like someone up there was with me and obviously I tried to be happy and helpful towards other people even when I was going through a hard time. And I feel like,

gifted me back with a talent that I can then begin to make people happy. And yeah, so then I practiced and practiced that they never had no lessons. What did Frank and Ev say about your playing? Did they find this remarkable? I mean, it is remarkable. No, definitely. I remember Ev coming up to stairs like a week after me having a piano. And I could, I mean, the first piece of late was fair to least by Beethoven.

And your first piece? Yeah, so that was the first piano piece of that ever play. That you learnt not by reading music? No, just you still listen to it on. It was a, at the time, he had a Blackberry phone. Like, they were the things then. And I used to sit there with it next to me yet and then try and figure out what it was by sound.

And then I picked it up so, so, so quickly. And it got to the point where I didn't understand how I was doing what I was doing. And then Evan Frank clocked on really quickly that it weren't normal. They didn't ever, like, tell me because he didn't want to scare me in a sense. But I remember the music teacher pulled Evan Frank into high school

and was like, what he's doing on the piano isn't normal for how long he's been playing it and I think we need to invest in them in a better piano so they get a natural feeling because the keyboard I had was this big So it was only... It's only... A few couple of feet? Yeah, like half the size of a normal piano.

So then the school, they had like a thing for a budget for foster kids where they can put a certain amount of money towards something that could benefit them and then Evan Frank added the extra bit of money on to get me a better electric piano which is still have at home.

and I remember just getting lost in that piano for years. And even with the P7 Frank that I recorded, well played in the final of the show. Oh, so beautiful. I recorded that years prior to the show. It was an improvisation. How old were you when you wrote that? About 17 or 16. Wow.

But I'd only started playing when I was 14. But the depth of that. It's your story. I think I said to you when I met you before and you played for me, that that that piece of music is your story in music. I mean, you could hear the sadness. You could hear the fear. You could hear the beauty of Frank and Ev coming.

You could feel their warmth all through that piece of music. I mean, it's a remarkable piece of music. And you was 17, and you'd been playing for three years, and you wrote that. Yeah, I still remember the exact day I made that piece because I had a really hard day in school. And they came home, and I used to click to recall. button and just play what I felt. And then obviously I showed me to Wimbrother

Arden it because it was just, it just resonated with me really quickly. I was like, that just sounds so gorgeous. And then Arryn was like shocked at it. And yeah, ever since then I just, I worked on it and worked on it to get it where it was on the day

of the final and I was just so happy how it turned out it really was. And did they know you were going to play it? No. So their tears were genuine. I mean, that was extraordinary. They genuinely, because obviously people say, oh, it's on the TV, it's all scripted.

They did not know a thing until they sat down and had to sit and heard that piece of music. I wanted it to be as natural as possible. And yeah, it's just, their reaction meant the world to me. Like, obviously, doing all this amazing stuff, playing big shows. That's amazing, but I would rather the natural things in life, which is seeing their reaction of me doing them proud. That means more to me than anything in the world. I dropped my whole career now just to see their smile one more time that night.

I really would. And I genuinely mean that. You're an incredible soul. That's the first time in all of these that somebody's completely flawed me. I feel bad now. Evan Frank, I hope I get to meet Evan Frank. I really do. Going for the piano, was that your decision?

How did all of that come about? So I remember the season prior was Lucy, who won the series. And I watched it and it was like, I'd love to do something like that. Oh, you did? So you watched it. never had the confidence to do it and then I remember about eight, nine months later

I was scrolling through my Instagram page and I seen like that they were searching for people but never applied and then I woke up one morning with a DM off the production team like a message off the production team of the piano saying that we love your content because I was putting videos up and me playing on the streets

because at that time I was homeless me and I'd be living in a hostel with our daughter and I used to play in a public piano to earn money for us over a day And it was a really big struggle for us at that time. So can we just go back, sorry, to, you know, the fact that you were living homeless. I didn't know if you were happy to talk about all of that, but you are. And then we'll get back to the DM from the producer, I promise.

I don't think anybody realizes, because everybody knows about your foster care and Frank and Ev, but people don't realize about you two and having a baby and living on the street. So I left Evan Franklin of 17 to move in with Abby. Your girlfriend. Yeah, I never really moved out. I'd be honest, my behaviour just got really messed up. I lost my mum and it sent me overboard. I was just coming in late every night

and just completely being disrespectful towards Evan Frank. And when I left them, I had nowhere to go. And me and Abby were in a nans for a small time. And then a nans house was overcrowder than Abby. I just had Phoebe. And there was no room for us. And you were both very young? Yeah, we were 18, 18.

and so then we got made homeless and I remember the first night we were on the street to like half ten ringing the council to try and get us somewhere to stay. With your baby? Yeah, I live like Phoebe who's like two, no like one and a half two at the time and we got to call like half 11

like we still on the streets at that time with the baby at half 11 and he put us into like a hostel thing and it was I hated it, we were in a box room for months and the only way I could go and get money was to go and play the public pianos that were around town in the summer,

which was so blessed for. I used to get good money off it because I just used to get stopped quite a bit. And a guy called Carl Norman one day come across me and recorded the video. And it went, not viral, but I got a couple of thousands views. And then the producers...

So that's... Back to the DM. Yeah, back to the DM. The producers seen that video and said, would you like to come and apply for the show? And at the start, I was so reluctant to do it. I just thought I'd never fit into that criteria

of a piano player. Because most kids have been brought up with a piano in the house. The whole lives had lessons from a young age and developed a love for the piano at a very young age where I was the complete opposite. And I just took a massive risk in myself. And I travelled up to Manchester. There was all the cameras there and stuff

for the initial audition before we went to the train station episodes. And Ted Hill, he was one of the main producers there. I think I just stopped them in his tracks. He didn't understand it because I just turned up. in my track suit and I was just a scruffy lad from Liverpool basically and I told them my story and how I need to give back to Evan Frank. I'd let them down. I can't live with myself anymore for how I've let them down and this is my time to say thank you for everything you've done for me and I'm so sorry for being an idiot because I genuinely do regret it all and ever since then my life changed

after going for that audition definitely. And how's your relationship with Frank and Ev? Really, really good. They're getting on now, and it makes me so sad. They're not really in the best of health a lot of the time, but they still smile every day, and that's just Evan Frank. The smiles, like... And Phoebe and Melody know them. Yeah, yeah, Phoebe and Melody both know them.

Phoebe loves them. I don't know, I just... Every time I see Evan Frank now, it gives me a weird feeling inside my stomach after the show. In what way? Because, obviously, I let them down in a massive way. a really massive light and they done a lot for me, treated me like I needed to be treated, bought me anything I needed, took me on amazing holidays, always made sure it was okay.

And I felt like I threw all that back in their face for the last year of living with them, being a complete idiot and let me mental health get the best of me. So, once I went on the show and done the piano, I know I'd made them proud and, but I still always live with that regretive... You can't live with regret. I know, I know it's... It's one of them things I do try and overcome it day by day, but I just genuinely just regret how I did treat them and our...

I know it's really a tough thing to hear, but if you hadn't gone through all of that, you wouldn't be where I am. You wouldn't be where you are. And I think a lot of people say, oh, you know, I regret this, I regret that. You can't, you just think of those things and you have to let that go.

I know it's easier said and done. A lot of people, you know, they say, well, I can't, I can't. They know how much you love them. I mean, it's a deep love for them. We saw it all on the show and you're in touch with them and that your baby girls love them, as you say, and they're in your life and just make the most of every single day.

And I get that from you that you really appreciate being here and being alive. No, definitely, definitely. I love life, I really do. Sometimes I sit there. And when you deep think about life, it's quite scary. It really, really is a scary thing. But if you don't make the most of every day, then what even is life, I think. Because you've been so dark.

I mean, you've been in the worst time. Yeah. And now these are sunny times. Yeah, definitely. And you look back on what you've been through. And what's so lovely is it, I get the feeling that you don't have any bitterness towards those times. And the horrible things you went through. And some of the people at school weren't very nice to you.

Let's be honest. So you had all of those things as well. You were homeless. you were in foster, all of those things. And yeah, I understand your regret. Let's hope you can get rid of that eventually. But there's no bitterness about what you've been through. You really do love life.

No, definitely. I did go through a hard time before my first daughter, and as soon as I had my first daughter, that was it. I think when you have kids, you can't spend so much time thinking about yourself when you know that you are a role model for this gorgeous young daughter that's relying on you for their every need.

and it's not I want I need her to look up to me when she gets to a certain age and know that I tried my utter best to give her a life that I never had like that means more to me in the world than anything like I need for my daughters to... I might know this successor I'm having now it might only last a certain amount of time

I might not be in the limelight like I am forever and this short period that I've got it's so important for me to... for my daughters to understand that I'm doing it for them and they can look back and I've tried my other best for them. Do you ever have those moments where you just think, wow, just as simple as that?

I presume you've got your own piano now. Yeah. You've got your two baby girls. You've got your partner. You've got an album coming out. You were genuinely one of the loveliest people. Do you ever sit there and just go, Oh, good God.

How did that happen? Definitely. It happens so quickly as well. because I went from playing in the train station with Claudia Wincomen to then playing in front of thousands, to then playing in the Royal Arbich Hall. But a few months before the piano was homeless. So in the space of a year,

I've went from on the street to Liverpool to the Royal Arbich Hall in London to a sold-out audience and playing with an orchestra. It happens so quickly. And it's a lot to take in for me personally, but I do definitely have their moments where I'm just like, how has this happened? Especially when I'm on my own.

It's when I've got a long time with my own thoughts. Yeah. I still can't come to grasps with how have I got to where I have got. How am I playing in the Royal Abbey Hall? Because you're you. Because you are a good person and because you're unbelievably talented. That's the answer to that. No, thank you so much.

No, well, it's totally true. I mean, you're also very outspoken about mental health and I think it's really important. And you're 23, yeah. And I think not enough young men. Actually, young people don't talk about. mental health issues and you're very, very open about all of that. So you're going to be helping people.

Are you aware of responsibility is a bit of a heavy word, I suppose, but are you aware that you're helping people with that as well? I hope that there is some people out there that do listen, especially like there's a stigma with men when they don't speak about their emotions and stuff because it's a masculine thing men need to be moncho and their providers in a way and they are there to look after everyone in a way where I feel like that's just so untrue. men have emotions and

if you look at the suicides rates and stuff like that, the majority are men and it's because do you let that struggle burn deep inside their own head and never want to speak about it because do you feel like they're going to get judged in a certain way and I feel like it's when

2025 at the time men can be open, speak about their emotions if you're struggling or you're scared or you're anxious about a certain situation or a certain thing that's going on in your life, just speak to someone doesn't make you less of a man to cry doesn't make you less of a man

to have emotions that are hurting at all I feel like it makes you more of a man to be willing to talk about it that's a proper man to be in touch with your emotions and be willing to talk about it I think that defines what a man is a man's not defined by keeping everything

aside them and putting this fake persona on when deep down you're really really hurting because that was me at one point and the best thing I ever done was relieve it all out of me and speak to people and I feel so much better for it now. I work a lot in young people and loneliness

and there's a lot of young people who are unbelievably lonely and they don't talk about it and I want everybody to break that taboo and say it. I'm lonely, I'm scared, I'm frightened and young men find that very difficult to say. Loneliness is a crazy thing because you could be surrounded with so many people yet still feel lonely. Some people just think loneliness is when you've got no one

but I feel loneliness is when you haven't got yourself. You can be surrounded with loads of, the people or your family or your friends but still have this loneliness inside you. So yeah, loneliness is a scary, crazy thing. But the only way I feel you can you can escape from it is speaking about it. You need to just be open and talk to people about it. Because then you are not then alone with your thoughts. You're sharing your thoughts and be lonely with someone else in a way.

Absolutely. A total, total sense. There are a few people that I'm very lucky I've been doing this job about a thousand million years. And there are very few people that honestly, when I walk away from meeting them, I think they're going to change the world. And I actually really do mean that about you. Without a doubt, you're going to change the world. And please carry on doing what you do because you're truly remarkable. You're one of the genuinely most remarkable people I've ever met.

No, if that's honestly, means that to me. I really mean it. So what's this album? How do you explain your album? album. So you tell me because you're so wonderful with words. So my album is a journey through my life up until this moment now. The last piece on the album is what I can tell you is called Triumph, which says a lot about the beginning of the album. It's about me hardships, how I've struggled, how I isolated myself, to now being in a position where I'm doing something I love. And each piece

resembles a certain segment of my story. And honestly, I'm not just saying it because it's my music because I'm never bitter about it, but this album is absolutely gorgeous and it came out in a manner which I still can't believe when I listen to it, that that is my music. I created that music. It's such a proud feeling and I just can't wait for it to come out. I think with my music people can go in a deep fourth and reflect on their own circumstances while listening to it because people interpret music their own way and I can't wait for the feedback and hopefully I can help people mentally just with music alone. That's what I would love to do

and this album's definitely going to do that. So for you, obviously more albums, more live shows and your baby girls, but what would you like to do? I mean, I've seen all the work that you did with charities as well, but what would you, what's your sort of, do you have any vision of what you'd like to do

and who you'd like to help? Apart from more albums. One of the things I'd love to do is start off my own foundation, but also I've built a few different buildings where kids are in the care system or adopt or adopted children can come in and it's a safe place for them to talk. And we do it through music because I think music just helps everyone. I think music's a medicine in a massive sense. And I'd look for me own place where children can come in. We'd have people who've already been in the care system and experience what it's like. So they can sort of

understand what the kids are talking about and stuff like that. And yeah, I just love, I'd love, just, I can just already picture like the building, what it would look like, the people working there, and how we could possibly help thousands of children mentally go into the future more positively. You know what? I think it will happen with somebody like you behind it. Brad, honestly, thank you. This is called Reasons to Be Joyful, and you are absolutely a reason to be, joyful and you totally spread the joy and you spread the love and you spread the kindness. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Welcome you on.