Braden Bales Has Been Feeling ‘a Bit Like a Nomad’.

Written by Sammy Wrogé

Braden Bales is a singer/songwriter who moved from his home in Ontario, Canada at the age of 21 to live out of his car in Los Angeles and pursue his music career.

It was not long until the power of TikTok and Braden’s consistency allowed him to turn his life experiences into music and release his viral song, “Chronically Cautious”. The song now has over 20 million streams across platforms and now has him based in Nashville where he is signed with Geffen Records. “Pick Me Up” was Braden’s first release with Geffen Records and he has since released his debut EP, Nomad.

“The journey of making the EP was really just daily writing songs and discovering how I feel,” says Braden when talking about the emotional journey of his EP. Braden shared that his song — and all his songs — are purely how he is feeling. The songs on the EP are about different subjects, but hold the same raw feeling inside or insecurity and feeling of being a nomad.

However, Braden was not always vulnerable in his songs. He mentions how at the start of his music career, he would lie to himself in his songs, but as it got easier to be honest with himself, he learned that the more you do it, the easier it is to be vulnerable. Braden shares his bold vulnerability in his music and allows himself to be inspired through the singer/songwriter genre by focusing on the current feeling he has when writing. He also says watching people express themselves has always been interesting for him.

It is no surprise that Braden is a huge TikTok advocate when it comes to promoting music based on what it has done for him.

“TikTok is super helpful to musicians because artists are able to express themselves 1) in more way than we used to be able to and 2) more frequently,” says Braden when asking how he feels TikTok is both helping and hurting artist’s careers.

He notes that it can be hard when there are days you do not feel like expressing yourself, but ultimately TikTok has helped Braden be less affected by looking at numbers as an artist and instead reach new audiences and dial into his people and build a community around his music. A community of people who are also at a stage in their life where they do not have a house and are being a Nomad.

Connect with Braden Bales: Instagram