The Centre Is The Place: Clash Meets Brad Stank
"You’ve never done anything in the past and you’ll never do anything in the future..."
It’s Wednesday, May 27th and I’m talking to Brad Stank who’s debut album, ‘Kinky Om’, drops in about a week. And yet he’s surprisingly calm about it. Considering the difficult emotions the album addresses and the fact it’s being released in the midst of a global lockdown, there’s a relaxed air about Brad Stank AKA Bradley Mullins.
But this is indicative of the spirituality central to his album. Informing his lyrics and permeating his general outlook, there’s a lot more to this exciting new artist than meets the eye.
The point is though, he’s not that new at all. In fact, the first time I heard Brad Stank’s music was two years ago now, following the release of his single, ‘Pond Weed.’ When I heard he was releasing new music, I must admit I thought it was going to be more of the same. Some more charming easy-going bedroom pop. But I was wrong.
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‘Kinky Visitation’, his first single off the album, set the tone for a series of releases that were more complex and considered than what had come before. The mixture of wistful lyricisms and soaring guitar lines were a wonderful three and a half minute respite, an excuse to take a breath and drink in your own thoughts. The whole album follows in the same pattern: tongue in cheek but with an undercurrent of subtle seriousness throughout.
This more contemplative sound is partly the product of his tumultuous 2019 – in which he suffered the loss of close friend’s Her’s, the suicide of a college friend and a break-up – but it also has a lot to do with how he has reacted to these traumas. Buddhism and spirituality in general are ever present themes in Kinky Om, acting as guides for Mullins as he navigates the present.
“The definite start of it all was reading Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, it’s still probably my favourite ever book,” Mullins explains, “I’ve read a lot of Kerouac and obviously he was big Catholic guy as well and the way he linked the two got me interested in other forms of religion.”
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After further reading and self-examination, however, Mullins found himself in a deep consideration of wider philosophical questions. “I got on this vibe that all religions are essentially the same, trying to say the same thing, but veiled differently with different symbols and words. And I recently realised that this is called ‘Omism’ and obviously the album is called 'Kinky Om'. But then there was this guy called Jiddu Krishnamurti who says ‘don’t follow any kind of specific religion or affiliation just look inside – the rest is all not necessary.’”
“That kind of reminds me of mindfulness and meditation,” I say.
“Yeah, for sure,” Mullins replies. “I’ve been reading a book called The Sound of Now by Eckhart Tolle and what he says is that it’s all about being present. He basically says that you’ve never done anything in the past and you’ll never do anything in the future, it’s all about the now. Thinking about anything else is pointless.”
While this sense of spirituality and presence is ruminated upon throughout the album, at no point is it more central than in ‘Breathing Like A Baby.’ From Ryshon Jones’s opening line of “the centre is the place,” to the theme of meditation, to the sample of Krishnamurti himself speaking to close the track, at no other point is the spirit of the album better summed up than here.
The feature of US rapper Ryshon Jones is also an allusion to a genre that has been incredibly important to Mullins. “I’m really into hip hop and rap and it’s something I listen to more than I do indie music, to be honest,” he elucidates. “You know when you get your end of year Spotify – Spotify wrapped – well my Top 10 was the whole Earl Sweatshirt Some Rap Songs album. That was basically all I listened to for a year,” he says half laughing.
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While including rap may sound like an ill-fit when paired with indie pop, Mullins’s and Jones’s collaboration was anything but. “I had the beat for [‘Breathing Like A Baby’] but I didn’t know how to run it into a song with a verse and chorus and stuff. So I just sent it to Ryshon who got back – he lives in Philadelphia so it was all online, but we’ve been following each other online for quite a while and always said we’d end up doing something – and yeah it was super easy. I sent him the beat and he sent me back three verses a week later and it fit perfectly. it was minimal effort from me.”
Speaking on the influence of R&B in general, he admits that, “it doesn’t really influence the sound too much, apart from those R&B / early Noughties rap hits, but I guess there’s an attitude or like a mental thing I take into my sound.” Nonetheless, it’s the challenge of melding two previously unrelated genres that he relishes the most. “Probably every album I ever do will have some sort of rap on it,” Mullins says, leaving the door open to what sort of evolution he will come up with next.
There’s a lot that Mullins has had to process in a year. His Brad Stank persona was initially a way for him to write songs about his then-girlfriend. Since then his music has morphed into something that encompasses so much more. Taking a lead from the spiritual leaders he has spent so much time studying, 'Kinky Om' is truly representative of Bradley Mullins’ present. Where he might be going next doesn’t seem to be of much concern to him right now.
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'Kinky Om' is out now.
Words: *Ben Miles*
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