Daily Inspiration: Meet Dennis Bradley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dennis Bradley

Hi Dennis, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started out playing music in elementary school and really got serious about it in high school in the 1980s. I played professionally from 1991 to 1995 but then took a break from performing and started again after I retired and moved to Colorado in 2020. Our band, Mimic, started out in April of 2022 when Darrin (our singer) and I left another band. He recruited our bassist, Rob, and we found our drummer, Jim, on a musician’s website. Darrin and Rob had played in a band together years ago, and Rob and Jim had played in a different band together after that.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s very difficult to break into the music scene in Colorado Springs, and the Colorado Front Range as a whole. There are a lot of bands and solo artists, so competition can be very stiff for the choice gigs. Some venues also stay in their comfort zones and continuously hire the same musical acts without giving other musicians or bands a chance. These same venues are usually totally unresponsive to communication, too – via phone call, email, social media message, or even a visit in-person. It’s taken 3 years to get where we are today, with some venues having been loyal to us since day one. However, those other venues – they won’t give us the time of day, no matter how much of a following we build or how good our reputation is. We were nominated for best local band in the Colorado Springs Gazette’s “Best of the Springs” poll this year, but there’s still some venues and owners that won’t return our calls. That can be very frustrating.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
You have to break yourself out from the pack when it comes to playing other artists’ music, which is what we do. There are a lot of cover bands in our area, and many of them play similar genres. We try to stick to classic rock from the 1960s through the 1990s and play only the hits that most people would recognize. When we discuss song choices, we always ask ourselves whether they are danceable, if people will sing along to them, and if our demographic would recognize them. As a musician, it’s easy to get wrapped up in playing music that the band may enjoy playing, but that the crowd may not identify with. If you want to continue to get gigs, you have to avoid that trap. We’ve also been told that Mimic is an appropriate name for our band, because we can often pull off a cover that sounds very similar to the original. That’s a huge compliment whenever we hear that. So, we pride ourselves on staying as close to the original as possible, and selecting songs that people want to hear, not just songs that we want to play. I think that really helps set us apart from some of our peers.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Being a musician has changed radically since the guys in the band all started playing live music back in the 1980s. Social media and streaming services have really taken over. It’s gotten to the point where if you don’t have a strong following on social media, venues won’t hire you. It’s also frustrating that we were getting paid the same amount of money for gigs in the 1980s that we are now – it’s as if venues, owners, and booking agents are trapped in time and don’t want to compensate musicians for their work. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of that will change in the future. Musicians will still get undercut on compensation, venues will continue to use metrics like number of followers on a social media platform to judge a musician’s talent, and there will always be someone on Instagram or Tik Tok who will appear to be a prodigy or virtuoso. But with social media, you can try countless times to get the perfect take. In live music, you get one chance. One thing that I think that will continue is the growing need for bands like us, who are playing songs from artists who are no longer performing live, or who aren’t even with us anymore. Keeping previous decades of music alive is up to cover and tribute artists once the original artists are done performing live, done touring, or pass on.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.MimicRocks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mimicrocks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MimicRocks
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MimicRocks

Image Credits
Erin Kiemele