Braden Bales is not afraid to blur the lines between. In fact, heโs a big fan of this practice. Through his raw honesty and unfiltered presence shared with his nearly half a million followers online, Bales has cultivated a relationship with his fans that feels personal and real. Whether itโs through his emotionally charged lyrics or social media presence, heโs determined to build a genuine connection with his audience.
21-year-old singer-songwriter Bales first had a brush of viral success with โCHRONICALLY CAUTIOUS,โ which now carries more than 44 million streams on Spotify alone. Though the single was successful all on its own, a viral boost from TikTok influencer Elyse Myers duetting the track launched Bales further into the spotlight. From his debut EP Nomad, featuring “CHRONICALLY CAUTIOUS” to his latest singles “ASHED US OUT” and “CINNAMON TWISTS,” Bales makes connection the cornerstone of his art. For him, music is a means of sharing his life in real-time with his fans, reminding them that theyโre not alone in their struggles.
Being open and transparent isnโt just a part of Balesโ personality โ itโs a key element of his art. The Nashvilleโbased (but not for long) singer-songwriter lives by a simple truth: the more vulnerable he is, the stronger the connection with his listeners becomes. “Transparency in my life lets my music speak for itself more,” Bales says, emphasizing the significance of openness in his creative process. โIโve never really been a private person, Iโm an open book. I like that people can watch me do things [on social media] and then hear those songs come out a couple months later and get used to that rhythm of things happening.โ
Videos on social media of Bales in his car with his CPAP machine and laptop amidst the guitar cases and a comforter, singing the lyrics to โCHRONICALLY CAUTIOUS,โ conveys both anxiety and a fear of the future. These raw moments, shared so casually, make his followers feel like theyโre part of his journey. โWe all go through different versions of the same things,โ Bales says before rephrasing a quote he heard from an interview with Seth Rogen. โIn order to make something a lot of people will love, you need to make something thatโs relatable to everyone.โ By digging into the specifics of his life, he creates a sense of universality in his work.
After feeling stagnant in Nashville earlier this year, a restorative trip back home to Canada and a month-long stint in Los Angeles got him out of a funk. โIt was so clear to me that [LA is] the place that I needed to be,โ he says. Feeling stuck in a routine, and not quite completely unhappy but relatively uninspired, he says he, โdrove to LA and slept in my car and tried to really just give myself space from the world to figure out what I was feeling and why I felt like I wasn’t operating at the best level that I could.โ This willingness to shake up his life in search of new creative energy goes to show how deeply he values his connection to his art โ and by extension, to his fans.
Finding a true connection with like-minded artists is something Bales has struggled with in the Nashville scene.Somewhat serendipitously, heโs managed to score a spot in a house full of other musicians ahead of his upcoming move to LA. โIt’s rare to find artists who are really crushing the content side in Nashville and it felt like sometimes I was the only one doing it the way I was doing it,โ he says.ย He says that after his time spent in LA, he discovered more ways to create content to promote his songs, and has found fellow artists equally as excited to do the same.
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As Bales gears up to support for Games We Playโs upcoming Sheโs The Girl tour, he says heโs excited to collaborate with fellow artists, particularly while creating engaging content such as a recent video for tour in a Dennyโs Diner. These moments of collaboration โ onstage, online and behind the scenes โ are what strengthen the connection he feels with others in the industry. โThat was one of the most fun videos Iโve shot with another artist because it was so off the cuff and good vibes,โ he says of his natural chemistry with Emmyn Calleiro of Games We Play. In cities across the Northeast and Canada, Bales’ tour promises to be an authentic and unforgettable experience, fueled by the genuine connections heโs built through his music and online presence. โItโs gonna be a really fun tour when weโre all together in November because the vibes are just great.โ
Bales says that treating each day on tour as any other day and treating the performances as running an errand or grabbing a coffee actually lessens his nerves and performance anxiety. He says that Irish singer-songwriter Cian Ducrot, who opened for Ed Sheeran in 2023, described that Sheeran intentionally had no pre-show ritual. โThe more that you put a routine around a show and you have a ritual or a specific thing that you do, it gives you opportunities to mess up that ritual and then feel mentally like you’re not prepared for it,โ Bales says, loosely quoting Ducrot. โThe more that you put pressure on that moment of being on stage, whether you’re drinking before or you’re tying your shoes a certain way, the more you build your own anticipation, the more nervous you’re going to be.โ
The only semi-ritualistic thing that Bales does to prepare is taking four deep breaths.ย โIf I do it quickly and I take those breaths as I’m walking from the green room to the stage, then I don’t even feel like I have any time to realize that I’m going on stage until I’m just there and I’m in front of people,โ he says. His onstage โscript,โ so to speak, is nonexistent, and he says he prefers to talk about the songs and the stories behind them in the moment, creating a natural and inviting space for fans to connect with him in real-time. โIt lets me have it be a little bit different every night if I don’t have it strictly planned.โ
As Bales connects with his audience through stage and his online presence, he continues to embrace authenticity in every corner of his career. โYou think that you’re the only person that has thought of something or gone through something and then you go and see how many comments and likes go with [what youโve posted],โ he says. โThat is something that brings me a lot of peace to know that I’m not alone in that.โ
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