Emma Bradley shares new song, ‘This Is What Dreams Are Made Of’

There’s maybe nothing I love more than seeing song credits that list the same person’s name three times over: Written by Emma Bradley, performed by Emma Bradley, and produced by Emma Bradley. It says, to make what we’re hearing utterly undiluted, the process requires undivided creative control. It’s exactly how she wanted it, with no compromising and no outsider opinions to knock her off course.

“I never would have done that when I was on my label. Like, I literally never, ever, ever would have done that,” Bradley told Far Out back in April during a conversation about leaving her label, firing her management and deciding to go it alone, allowing herself to release things like ‘Emma’s Theme’, a fully instrumental track.

From then on, Bradley’s independence levelled up through her honing of her production skills, sharing Winona’s World and launching her power as a producer, as well as a singer and composer.

“It’s been so empowering to be like, ‘OK, I actually can run this ship myself and listen solely to what I want to do and what I think is right for me,” Bradley said, and ‘This Is What Dreams Are Made Of’ feels like a testament to that. Executed swiftly during a period of sickness where the artist was trapped inside and in her head, it’s a track that has clearly been carefully crafted but not overthought to a detrimental degree.

Spiralling through different sections, from slow, luxurious, orchestral moments that sound exactly like daydreams, into an indie-pop centre to get the heart rate bouncing up, it’s the sort of track that an outsider producer might have doubted, wondering how the pieces fit together. But for Bradley in the driving seat, it makes sense because it’s made by her mind, about her mind.

And for anyone else prone to getting lost in fantasies and maladaptive daydreams, it makes sense too. In fact, it sounds dreamily familiar.

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