Biography
Named after her accordion-playing grandfather, whose musical gifts she inherited, Deryk serves as the introspective electronic-pop outlet for London-born, Auckland-based songwriter Madeline Bradley. Around 2015 she adopted the Deryk moniker and began collaborating with producer Justyn Pilbrow to translate her internal sonic vision into recorded form. Late in 2020, Universal New Zealand released her debut EP, WOMb, whose restrained yet hazy atmosphere recalls the work of Lorde and James Blake.
Bradley entered the world in 1996 and passed her earliest years in London and other areas of southern England, where she received an ADHD diagnosis. At eight she relocated with her family to the coastal Napier suburb of Taradale. While attending Napier Girls’ School she channeled an existing passion for short fiction into songwriting, her pieces revealing a depth of emotion shaped by repeated listening to 1970s soul vocalists. After entering several song competitions, her composition “That Feeling” appeared—credited under her given name—on the 2013 Lion Foundation compilation.
She spent the following year enrolled in a design program in Wellington before deciding to place music at the center of her ambitions. The decision prompted a move to Auckland, where she immersed herself in production techniques and enrolled at the city’s SAE campus. A reinterpretation of Spooky Black’s 2014 recording “Without You” earned modest online notice and drew the attention of Simon Banks, previously manager for KT Tunstall, who offered to represent her. Although she accepted, the ensuing years of work with assorted co-writers and producers left her still searching for a signature sound. An introduction to Pilbrow, freshly back from Los Angeles, proved decisive; together they recorded from May 2019 through the following January, shaping the material that would form her first EP. Lead single “Call You Out” preceded the October 2020 arrival of WOMb.
Bradley entered the world in 1996 and passed her earliest years in London and other areas of southern England, where she received an ADHD diagnosis. At eight she relocated with her family to the coastal Napier suburb of Taradale. While attending Napier Girls’ School she channeled an existing passion for short fiction into songwriting, her pieces revealing a depth of emotion shaped by repeated listening to 1970s soul vocalists. After entering several song competitions, her composition “That Feeling” appeared—credited under her given name—on the 2013 Lion Foundation compilation.
She spent the following year enrolled in a design program in Wellington before deciding to place music at the center of her ambitions. The decision prompted a move to Auckland, where she immersed herself in production techniques and enrolled at the city’s SAE campus. A reinterpretation of Spooky Black’s 2014 recording “Without You” earned modest online notice and drew the attention of Simon Banks, previously manager for KT Tunstall, who offered to represent her. Although she accepted, the ensuing years of work with assorted co-writers and producers left her still searching for a signature sound. An introduction to Pilbrow, freshly back from Los Angeles, proved decisive; together they recorded from May 2019 through the following January, shaping the material that would form her first EP. Lead single “Call You Out” preceded the October 2020 arrival of WOMb.
Singles
