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Brady started singing professionally at 24 after dropping out of a Journalism degree and landing squarely in a pop, funk, rock cover band in her hometown of Brisbane, Australia. She spent the next 8 years honing her vocal chops at the helm of "Jezabel", gigging 3 to 5 nights a week while juggling a hectic modelling career and first-time motherhood at 25. At 27 she made the reserve cast list for the Australian production of the Broadway smash hit  musical RENT after she attended a nationwide audition of thousands which ended in a series of callbacks putting Brady's relatively raw singing abilities to the test as well as her dancing and acting skills. 

 

Writing has always been an intrinsic part of her creative identity but she didn’t commit to original music full time until she was in her early 30s when she started writing and playing with Brisbane guitarist Nigel Kerr. 

 

The pair independently released their debut folk/roots album "Peace by Peace" in 2005 and toured the USA with it soon after while Brady was pregnant with her 2nd child. Two more independent releases followed ("Somewhere Sunshine" in 2008 and "In Case of Falling" in 2014 which was crowdfunded through Pozible), as did another baby and a move to her current home of Katoomba in the picturesque Blue Mountains National Park west of Sydney.

 

After a decade of playing festivals, private house concerts and shows all over Australia as well as a short-lived indie record deal, Brady & Kerr parted ways which for Rachael heralded a departure from the folk/pop/roots sound  of the previous decade altogether and signalled a move  towards new sonic landscapes. From 2017 to 2020 she reinvented herself in the rockabilly tradition & formed Rachael Brady & The Moonshine Special. At the end of 2020 she disbanded that project to start work on her 4th album "Bears, Witches and Wolves" which she is (as of Feb 2023) currently working on with Blue Mountains ARIA and Golden Guitar award winning producer and multi-instrumentalist Josh Schuberth (Shane Nicholson, JoshPyke).

The album signals a clear departure from any previous offerings and finds her exploring a significantly darker, cinematic Americana soundscape. Evident also is the vocal maturity Brady has cultivated in the 6 years since her previous releases. 

 

Tracks are being released as they're recorded, single by single. On completion Bears, Witches & Wolves will see a limited vinyl run. Stay up to date with all the releases on Spotify 

 

In 2022 three songs from the as yet completed album placed across 4 categories of the International Songwriting Competition semi finals with Trainwreck going through to the finals  in the Americana category alongside 14 others out of 21,000 overall entries, ultimately garnering an honourable mention.

 

Her creative obsessions are many & varied but chief among them is the nebulous art of marrying lyrics to rhythm and melody. In addition to being a songwriter she also possesses a strikingly beautiful & versatile voice which has allowed her to sing (and write) across multiple genres with an array of collaborators. And like her voice, a voice that sings its scars and imperfections, a voice that speaks to the mess, depth, heartache, jubilation & ultimately, the beauty of the human story, so too do the songs she writes.

 

She maintains a grounded life connected to nature and music while happily juggling interests like spiritual development, home-schooling & language study (Brady speaks Japanese & French and is learning Spanish); she also works as a professional face painter.

Music has always been - and continues to be - a means to process what’s happening for her on a personal level.  First and foremost she considers herself a storyteller and to that end, songs are the vehicle by which she tells not just her own story but the human story.

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In 2022 Brady signed an exclusive 2 year modelling contract with Sydney agency Silverfox Management – returning to well-trodden ground with new eyes as a “mature-aged” model. Having recently turned 51, Brady sees herself as an advocate for age-positivity, a burgeoning movement that seeks to promote a more diverse, inclusive & realistic generational representation in media and advertising, redefining what it means to “grow old”.

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ON LIVING IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS ...

I moved to the Blue Mountains in July 2008 just 2 weeks after my third and last baby was born. We packed up the car and drove from Brisbane to Mt Victoria with two kids, two dogs and our belongings. We left the cat with my mother because she started freaking out as we drove away. (The cat, not my mum).

 

We rented a house just off the highway in Mt York Road. It was ghosty and cold up there and we felt somewhat removed from the rest of the Blue Mountains community but I was raising two toddlers and didn't care much to socialise anyway.

 

After 9 months in Mt Vic we moved to Katoomba where we bought a place of our own - a half wild, half cultivated acre chock full of peach and fig trees, a sprawling grapevine, kangaroos, possums, snakes. I knew the moment I set foot on the place it was home. And it has been now for 14 years.

 

We've lived and loved on this land, surrounded by scribbly gums and blue tongues, kookaburras and yellow-tailed black cockatoos. We've raised and educated our kids here. It's become a  space for breathwork, women's circles, meditation sittings and drum-making workshops. There's a certain kind of magic in the land and in the trees. I can't imagine living anywhere else. This small corner of the world is home.

 

I'm deeply impacted by the nature around me. It provides solace, contemplation, reflection, grounding and beauty - so much beauty. I love the ruggedness of the mountains, the seasons, how the weather changes and is for the most part completely unpredictable. I love that we never put our winter woolies away. I love that it can be the middle of summer and you might still need a fire at night to keep the chill at bay. I love that it feels removed from the city. I love that I can step out my front door and see all kinds of birds and other wildlife hanging out, schooling their babies, foraging, going about their business like I wasn't even there.

 

My forthcoming album Bears, Witches and Wolves has a song on it called "My Beloved Mountain" because that's what this place is to me. I can't see myself living anywhere else. I'm a cloud-dwelling, stream-walking, forest-loving, tree-hugging mountain mama.

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