CHRIS BRAIDE
Songwriter. Producer. Artist.
Chris Braide is a British songwriter, producer and recording artist whose work has helped define the sound of contemporary pop. A multi-platinum, two-time Grammy-nominated, Ivor Novello, ASCAP and BMI award-winning writer, his catalogue includes some of the most recognisable records of the past three decades.
His songs and productions have reached audiences around the world, with multiple UK and US No. 1 hits and billions of streams.
Braide has written and produced for artists including Beyoncé, Sia, Lana Del Rey, David Guetta, Chaka Khan and Marc Almond, working across pop, electronic music, alternative rock and film. His collaborators have included Hans Zimmer, Diplo and some of the most distinctive voices in modern music.
His longstanding creative partnership with Sia produced a remarkable body of work, including contributions to the Billboard No. 1 albums 1000 Forms of Fear and This Is Acting. Among their collaborations is “Unstoppable,” a song that has grown into one of the defining pop anthems of its generation, accumulating billions of streams and achieving an extraordinary life across radio, film, television and popular culture.
Other notable works include David Guetta's “She Wolf (Falling to Pieces)” and “Flames,” Lana Del Rey's “Million Dollar Man,” and “Out There,” written with Sia and co-produced with Hans Zimmer for the BBC's Seven Worlds, One Planet.
But Braide has always been as interested in making records as writing songs.
Beginning his career in the era of analogue tape, large-format SSL consoles and traditional recording studios, he developed an instinctive approach to production rooted in musicianship, arrangement and performance. His work combines classic songwriting with an enduring curiosity about sound, technology and the possibilities of the studio.
Alongside his work for other artists, Braide has maintained a parallel career as a singer, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist. His collaboration with Yes keyboardist Geoff Downes, Downes Braide Association (DBA), has produced a series of acclaimed progressive rock albums, reflecting a musical identity that has never been confined to a single genre.
In recent years, Braide has increasingly focused on the freedom of making records on his own terms.
He is the founder of Magical Thinker Records, an independent label dedicated to his own recordings, collaborations and archive, and Magical Thinking Studios, his private recording and production facility in the English countryside.
Working from a state-of-the-art studio within a 400-year-old Cotswolds manor, Braide continues to write, record, produce and mix, bringing every stage of the creative process together in one place.
For all the international hits and industry recognition, his approach remains remarkably straightforward: an instinct for melody, an obsession with sound and a lifelong fascination with what happens when a song becomes a record.
Independent by choice. A record maker by instinct.
CHRIS BRAIDE
Magical Thinker Records / Magical Thinking Studios