WHEN musician Dee Bradbery packed up her life in Ipswich and moved to Scotland, she didn’t just change hemispheres – she dismantled everything familiar.
“I probably didn’t recognise what a big life upheaval moving internationally would be,” she said.
“Even just figuring out new currency, bus routes, trains – all of it takes a lot more energy than you expect.”
For Bradbery, who records and performs under the moniker Wild Eyed Wonder, the transition forced an unexpected pause on her own music.
The creative momentum she’d built in Queensland, supported by a close-knit arts community and years of familiarity, had to be temporarily shelved while she relearned the basics of daily life.
“It changed the game,” she said.
“When you’re under the pump trying to sort utility bills and find your feet, it’s hard to create from a place of curiosity or play.”
Moving to Glasgow meant starting from scratch – no built-in networks, no shortcuts.
The emotional highs felt higher, the lows were deeper, and with that Bradbery began to reconnect with the parts of music-making that first drew her in.
Drumming – her first instrument – became central again.
“I’ve had more opportunities to do session drumming here,” she said.
“I loved focusing on being part of a band rather than carrying everything solo.”
That shift has filtered directly into her latest release: a three-track EP working with local producer Sarah Johnson, within which Bradbery leaned into texture, restraint, and atmosphere.
“I wanted the soundscape to help tell the story,” she said.
“I want the songs to be a place people can disappear into.”
Scotland’s music scene, she said, is both overwhelming and isolating.
Bradbery learnt recently while gigging in Edinburgh that there were eight thousand gigs each week in that city, yet few pathways into community or collaboration.
“In Ipswich, there’s such a strong sense of development – workshops, networking, people holding doors open for each other,” she said.
“Here, it’s more like: dive in and good luck.”
In the coming months, Bradbery will once again embrace uncertainty, preparing to leave her Glasgow accommodation and travelling across the UK and Europe – the Mediterainean, Italy, Iceland – without a fixed address.
Mid-year, she’ll return briefly home to Australia to perform with Roller Coaster, a large-scale community music and skating production heading to Darwin Festival.
She’ll also fit in solo Wild Eyed Wonder shows.
Looking further ahead, her hopes are grounded: a small headline tour, more rooms filled with listeners, and more opportunities to perform original work.
And what does she hope remains at the end of it all as her life message?
“Loved people well,” she said without hesitation.
It’s a simple sentiment, but one that echoes through her music: thoughtful, spacious, and quietly human — an invitation to slow down, breathe, and listen.
