Dean Brady strikes a dazzling first impression. The Brisbane-born singer-songwriter’s debut single Falling is a gorgeous, elegantly wounded R&B song, capturing all the heartbroken showmanship of the Motown era while nodding to the bass-heavy, off-kilter beats of modern producers like Kaytranada and Anderson .Paak.
Photo credit: Zac Bayly
Showcasing a fully-formed star at the earliest stage in his genesis, it’s a warm, unprecedented arrival for the young musician, a display of supreme confidence in a genre that rewards exactly this kind of renegade boldness.
Written and produced with Jerome and Jacob Farah, Falling is a unique beast as far as debut singles go – it’s wonderfully fleet-footed while still being nakedly emotional, a surprising fusion of arena-sized ambition with lyrics that, in the hands of someone less bold, may be secreted away in a diary somewhere. The song’s spine is its hip-hop influence, the sinewy bassline and rattling beats that take this from pure revivalism into an entirely new realm.
Brady will launch the single at Northcote Social Club on Wednesday 15 February with special guests JUNGAJI, The Deans of Soul, Ney Ney and Lowani (DJ Set).
Filmed in Melbourne and directed by ON3 Studio and Hassan Hadi, the official video deftly captures Brady’s raucous, rabble-rousing energy and the clash of old-soul sophistication with a sense of rebellion.
“This video is an authentic window into the energy and culture around Dean and ON3. It's just the beginning of many experiences to come and we're excited to see where this beautifully young talented soul goes” co-founder of ON3 Kishnel Chand explains. “We had originally connected with Dean in 2020 and had lost contact with him when his account was hacked on instagram. we were thinking of how to get back in touch with Dean, our good friend Jerome Farah had booked a session eager to work on this new project he was hyped about … To our surprise it was, Dean... everything had come full circle.”
Brady recently performed to rapturous audiences at BIGSOUND and Valley Fiesta, and will take the stage at St Kilda Festival on Saturday 18 February.
Descended from the Gugu Yalanji and Birrigubba people and the Matabele Zimbabwean people, Brady was born into a musical household: his parents were both members of the legendary “outback Motown” group Banawurun, and he grew up hearing their band practise in the living room and listening to his mother singing old soul songs as she cooked dinner. Performance, perhaps, is in his DNA – you can certainly hear his comfort in the spotlight on Falling, which feels as lived-in and well-fitting as a vintage leather jacket.
'Falling' Cover Art
As a child, Brady would perform Michael Jackson songs for friends and family, obsessing over the pop icon’s moves and sound, and even at a young age was tracing a lineage of soul singers that, eventually, would all be woven into his own musical DNA: Stevie, Marvin, Frank Sinatra, Usher. Going to a Justin Bieber concert at a formative age flicked a switch in him – he realised the massive scale of music, the spectacular power of being able to put on a grand show. After that, he was a goner, willing to fully invest in a fantasy of one day being on those kinds of stages.
That ambition, as well as that love of music both classic and contemporary, has filtered into Falling. It’s maximalist and unbothered all at once, tapping into a multi-generational vision of classic music that feels fresh, vibrant and above all, fun.
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