Dylan Brady

With a series of singles released over the course of 2019 — highlighted by “I Hate California” and “Boyfriend”– Dylan Brady was positioned as a teenage country heartthrob. Possessing a sweet, tremulous voice, Brady didn’t abandon his roots in mainstream pop music but rather added mellower elements of modern country, many adopted from his mentor, Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts.
Not to be confused with Dylan Brady of the St. Louis-based experimental-pop duo 100 gecs, the Long Island native Dylan Brady was born on October 29, 1998. Initially, Dylan made music with his twin brother Cody, performing as the Brady Brothers while they were in their early teens. While he was a freshman in high school, Dylan was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome and he soon became a Youth Ambassador for the Tourette Association of America. This sparked a commitment to activism, but the exposure also helped nudge the Brady Brothers onto the national scene, including an opening slot for Meghan Trainor in 2014.
Dylan went solo in 2015, appearing at the WimBash Festival held by Living Colour’s Doug Wimbish. The next year, he was a camp counselor at Zac Brown Band’s Camp Southern Ground, earning a slot opening for ZBB at a camp benefit concert. Notably, he also signed an artist development deal with Joe Don Rooney that year. Moving to Nashville, Brady enrolled at Belmont University and began collaborating with Rooney, releasing the single “Shifting Gears” in 2018. It was quickly followed by “Fallin’” a few months later.
Brady signed with Records LLC, a subsidiary of Sony Music run by Barry Weiss, in early 2019. His first single for the label was “Over Us,” which appeared in early summer. “I Hate California” followed a few months later, with “Boyfriend” wrapping up the year. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine