GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Bradley Sinclair.
It's a name that has national recognition now after landing a spot on season 20 of The Voice. However, this up-and-coming musician living in Nashville hasn't lost touch with his West Michigan roots.
"You kind of miss the cold weather sometimes, which I know may sound really crazy," Sinclair joked.
He said he's happy to be back home for the holidays. Back where it all began. Back where he realized his true dream.
"Music is my happy place. It keeps me sane. At one point, I did wrestle a lot, going back and forth if I was going to do music of just get a job and go to college," he said. "I worked at Apple a while back. I also did a little corporate stuff in sales. I just kind of realized I don't want to spend my life like working at something that's not going to make me happy. That's what music does for me."
During his time as a student at Rockford High School, Sinclair was very involved in the music scene, joining the choir, performing in musicals and singing with acapella groups.
"I've always had a knack for music since, like, middle school," he said. "(That's) when I first started in choir and doing the talent shows, but I never really went all in for it until after high school started writing my own music and recording and releasing.”
All that work clearly paid off when Sinclair was selected to be on season 20 of The Voice, which premiered in March 2021.
He explained how "excruciating" the audition process was in order to make it onto the show.
"Starting from like the very beginning, (there's a) big cattle call where you show up to a big city," he explained. "There's thousands of people, and you get to sing for a producer for 30 seconds, 15 seconds. Then there's 12 of you in the room, and they say, 'You and you stay. Everybody else, sorry. Thanks for coming.' Then you go to the next round, and you do an interview at that same one. Then you leave and you find out if you make it through. Then you do another performance with actual backing tracks, or with an instrument, and more interviews until finally, they give you the call. 'Hey, we want to bring you to Los Angeles.'"
That was actually the second time Sinclair had been through the interview process. The first time happened when he was 15 years old.
"I didn't go all the way through the audition process because one of the callbacks that they have you do was the same weekend as my brother's wedding," he said. "So my mom made me skip the audition, but I'm glad it all worked out.”
Sinclair was thankful for his time on the voice, learning from top names in the industry like Nick Jonas.
He's excited to be back in West Michigan to see family for the holidays but to also perform a show at The Midtown, which is sold out.
"Did not expect it to sell out as soon as it did," he said. "This is my second year back at the Midtown, formerly known as the Listening Room. It's an amazing space for jazz shows, which is what our show tonight. It just has amazing quality sound. So, it's really cool seeing the support in my hometown community and friends and my family and being there to show up for me is awesome."
Thursday's sold-out show is at 7:30 p.m. If you couldn't snag a ticket in time, you can catch his next performance there on January 26th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available now. General admission is $20.