Chris Braide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chris Braide (born 6 February 1973 in Cheshire) is a British singer, songwriter, record producer and music publisher. He has written songs for a variety of artists including Beverley Knight, Glenn Tilbrook (of Squeeze), Will Young , Gareth Gates, Lisa Stansfield, Kylie Minogue, Simon Webbe, Jesse McCartney and Brian Kennedy. He wrote S Club 7's hit singles "Have You Ever" and "Say Goodbye" with long time friend and writing partner Cathy Dennis.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Braide started to learn the piano aged 7, sparking his interest in writing and performing music. At 17, he inked his first publishing deal with Zomba Music and was signed to Polydor Records aged 18. It was during this period that Braide worked with producer Thomas Dolby on the song "Funny Five Minutes".
In 1993, Braide spent six weeks in Italy recording tracks with Mick Hucknall and Gota Yashiki, who were then looking for new artists to produce. Hucknall was played several demo tapes by Polydor A&R man Paul Morgan, but it was Braide's that attracted his attention. Although the resultant album was never released, tracks were re-recorded for a later album produced by Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics).
[edit] Songwriting
Braide has achieved considerable success as a songwriter at home and in the US. He co-wrote "This Is the Night" recorded by Clay Aiken (from American Idol), which entered the Billboard Top 100 in June 2003. The single was RIAA certified platinum on July 15, 2003. Debuting at #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot 100 Single Sales Chart, it was the fastest-selling single since Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" and the best-selling single of 2003. It was the first CD single to go platinum since 2002, when Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance" sold a million copies after being released for over a year. The single also topped the charts in New Zealand, where it was certified platinum, and went six times platinum in Canada.
Braide also wrote "Anything is Possible", a number one single for Pop Idol winner Will Young in the UK. In March 2002, this became the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history, selling 403,027 copies on its day of release (1,108,659 copies in its first week). It went on to sell over 1.7 million copies, and in the official list of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK issued later that year, it was 11th. The song was also featured as a B-side on the debut single by Gareth Gates, which itself went on to sell over 1.4 million singles in the UK, making "Anything is Possible" one of the most successful pop songs of recent times.
Braide co-wrote the debut single for Arista recording artist Diana DeGarmo. "Dreams" debuted at #2 in record sales and went #1 on the Billboard US Singles Sales Chart on September 17, 2005.
In the same year, Disney artist Jesse McCartney released his debut album Beautiful Soul. It featured a Chris Braide/Desmond Child/Andreas Carlsson song "Because You Live", which was also the title song of the Disney film The Princess Diaries. Jesse McCartney's album has since gone on to sell over 1.5 million copies and has achieved platinum status. The song also featured on The Princess Diaries soundtrack album, which has sold over 1 million copies.
Recent writing collaborations include Take That's Gary Barlow, Brian McFadden, Journey South, Atlantic Records act The click 5, various tracks for Nikola Bedingfield including the iTunes single of the week "Don't Talk About This Love" and yhe title song of US reality TV show Nemesis Rising. Braide has also been working on the debut album by Mercury Records artist David Jordan. The pair co-wrote two songs, "Only Living Soul" and "Fight The World". The album is currently being produced by Trevor Horn.
[edit] Awards
In 2003 the song "Anything is possible" earned Braide an Ivor Novello Award. In 2004 Chris received an ASCAP award for the song "invisible" which was among the most performed singles in the US. In 2005 Chris was awarded another ASCAP for the same song "Invisible" for most performed work on American radio. He is one of few British songwriters of late to reach multi platinum sales in the United States. In a 2005 article for GQ magazine , Chris was among the most successful and influential men in the music business under 40 years of age.
[edit] As a recording artist
In 1996 Braide signed a solo deal with Dave Stewart's label Anxious Records. The label released the hit single "If I Hadn't Got You" followed a year later by the album, Life in a Minor Key. The single was released in the US by Atlantic Records and a performance video was shot in Times Square.
The album was recorded in New York at the lengendary Electric Lady Studios and co-produced by Braide and Stewart. The second single taken from Life was "Heavenly Rain" featuring a member of Alisha's Attic on backing vocals. The single was accompanied by a video which was shot in New Orleans.
2005 finally saw Chris producing another set of songs, this time with Dean Johnson under the name of Malmo. Their album, The Upside, received positive reviews and was released as a digital download, but the duo was short lived and disbanded a year later when Braide became lead vocalist and keyboardist in a new supergroup with Trevor Horn, Lol Crème and Steve Lipson called The Producers.
[edit] Publishing Company
Braide recently set up Untouchable Songs Ltd., a publishing company with Andy Graham (ex-EMI, Zomba). The pair have signed writers Jez Ashurst who co wrote the hit song "Sooner or Later" for Duncan James, as well as songs for Brian McFadden and The click 5, and Caroline Lost who has found success writing music for movie soundtracks.
Untouchable Songs also publish guitar band Farrah, who recently opened for Hanson and are currently touring the far east to promote their new single "Fear of Flying". In a 2005 radio interview, Braide said about Untouchable Songs, "I really wanted to give other people who I thought were brilliant a chance, I mean one of our writers Jez Ashurst is fantastic and has already produced a great catalogue of songs. I'm also working with Andy Graham who signed Cathy Dennis to EMI back in the 80's so together we know what we're talking about".
[edit] 2007 and The Producers
He is currently in Sarm West Studios with Trevor Horn, Steve Lipson, Lol Créme and ex-Del Amitri/Faithless drummer Ash Soan recording a new album as The Producers. The band started out playing cover versions of each others hits for fun but an album of new material was unavoidable and is now due for release summer 2007.
The Producers played their first show at Camden Barfly in November 2006 to a sold-out audience and were joined on stage by Will Young for two songs and New Mercury signing David Jordan. In February 2007 they are due to play live at the Oscars after-show party in Los Angeles.
[edit] External links
| Squeeze |
|---|
| Chris Difford • Glenn Tilbrook |
| Former members: Paul Gunn • Harry Kakoulli • Jools Holland • Gilson Lavis • John Bentley • Paul Carrack • Don Snow • Chris Holland • Keith Wilkinson • Andy Metcalfe • Matt Irving • Pete Thomas • Kevin Wilkinson • Ashley Soan • Hilaire Penda • Chris Braide |
| Management and Producers: Miles Copeland III • John Cale • John Wood • Roger Bechirian • Elvis Costello • Dave Edmunds • Nick Lowe • Phil McDonald • Laurie Latham• Eric "ET" Thorngren • Steve Forward • Tony Berg • Peter Smith |
| Discography |
| EPs: Packet of Three |
| Studio Albums: U.K. Squeeze • Cool for Cats • Argybargy • East Side Story • Sweets from a Stranger • Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti • Babylon and On • Frank • Play • Some Fantastic Place • Ridiculous • Domino |
| Singles: See here |
| Related articles |
| New Wave music • Difford & Tilbrook • A&M Records • Reprise Records • Ark 21 Records • IRS Records • Quixotic Records |
