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BIOGRAPHY
Music
has always been a part of Chris Braide's life. Coming from a
musical family, Chris was destined to become the phenomenal
singer/songwriter he is today.
He began playing piano and guitar around age 7 and writing his own
material soon after. With the help of his older brother, Tony, Chris
became a self-taught musician and inspiring songwriter by his late
teens.
It
was on a suggestion of a friend that Chris began sending demo tapes of
his material to some of his favorite well known artists. Before long,
He began getting advice from some of England's hottest artist, such as
Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of the band Squeeze who took an
interest in Chris' potential. So much so that they asked him to
sing backing vocals on a few of their albums. (Some Fantastic Place and
Ridiculous). So, with the approval of his parents, young Chris was on his
way to London to begin the music career he had always dreamed of.
At
the age of 17 his parents signed his first publishing deal with Zomba
Music and signed with Polydor Records a year later. He released
his debut single, "A Funny Five Minutes" which was produced by Thomas
Dolby of "She Blinded Me With Science" fame. Word of Chris'
talents was getting out around London when he met Simply Red frontman,
Mick Hucknall who had heard some of his work and wanted to produce his
debut album.
So
he along with Hucknall and drummer Gota Yashiki were off to Italy to
begin work on tracks for the debut album. But somehow things got
side-tracked and the album ended up being shelved by Polydor. A
single did emerge from all the hard work of Hucknall,Yashiki and
Braide. Chris' second single, "Surrender" which was a re-release of his
first single, "A Funny Five Minutes" with the track listing being
rearranged and the titled track being omitted to add in the new song.
Chris
soon left Polydor to pursue other options and met up with Eurythmic's
music man, Dave Stewart , who was in awe of his amazing vocals and was
once quoted as saying Chris was one of the best vocalist he had worked
with since his days with partner Annie Lennox in the Eurythmics.
Stewart signed him to his inde lable, Anxious Records and began work on
his second album attempt which soon became The debut , "Life in a Minor Key".
Chris
produced the album with Stewart's help and had several singles and
videos released in England and managed to produce a transatlantic
single with " If I Hadn't Got You" after signed to Atlantic Records.
This
also landed Chris several writing opportunities. While moving
towards his big break, he would write for other artists and ended
up writing with good friend, Cathy Dennis, who he met while singing backing
vocals for Squeeze. He co-wrote "Run Like A River" for Cathy's
third album, "Am I the Kinda Girl" and there, the collaboration
of Braide/Dennis was born. They have achieved a great deal of
success with their collaboration including number one singles,
'"Have You Ever" and " Say Goodbye" for the group SClub7, and
"After Dark" for pop diva Kylie Minouge.
But
it was the writing of the hit single, " Anything is Possible" for Pop
Idol winner, Will Young that brought fourth major success for the
writing team which also landed them in the writer's seat of
American Idol. "Anything is Possible" became the fastest-selling
debut single in UK chart history, selling 403,027 copies in it's first
day of release and 1,108,659 copies in it''s first week!.
The single went on to sell over 1.7 million copies., landing it
at number 11 of the all-time best selling singles in the UK for 2002,
out selling Elton John's " Candle in the Wind tribute to Princess Diana.
Since
then, Chris has written number one singles for Diana DeGarmo
(Dreams) and Clay Aiken (This Is The Night)with additional songs on
both artist's debut albums. Chris also co-wrote Clay Aiken's hit,
"Invisible" which went on to become one of the most performed songs on
American radio. All this has gotten his work noticed even more
and has allowed him to write for such popular artists as, Spice Girl's
Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham, He has also written for
Beverley Knight, Blue's Duncan James and Simon Webbe, and the comeback
album of good friend and pop sensation, Rick Astley., "Keep it Turned
On."
Chris is
currently working with THE PRODUCERS, a group which consists of
himself, The Buggles Trevor Horn, !0cc's Lol Cream, Producer
& guitarist Stephen Lipson and Del Amitri/Squeeze drummer,
Ash Soan. The group will
release their debut album in the coming months and will play Royal
Albert Hall in May. Which has been a dream of Chris' for some time
now. Meanwhile Chris has
recently relased his long awaited second album, "You Can't Be Friends
WIth Everyone." availaible on I-Tunes April 2008. Stay close for
updates.
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