Bradley Gunn Raver, an enthusiastic, care-free, sober dancing machine, has made it his life’s mission to dance whenever, wherever and as much as possible for all the world to see. Frequently broadcasting his dancing debuts via online videos, Bradley is clearly, living unabashedly by Mark Twain’s quote “dance like nobody’s watching”.
Hailing from Bristol in the UK, Bradley has become quite the celebrity recently starring in a short documentary courtesy of Aspect and Foxleaf Media, having a BBC Three feature on him as part of the ‘Amazing Humans’ series and with some of his own videos going viral in the process. He has become famous for leaving his fellow ravers awestruck with his abundant and amiable, positively radiating energy, all without an ounce of mind-altering substances.
Bradley has managed to capture the attention of many international electronic music events promoters who have flown him out to Berlin, Andorra, and Portugal for events this year, and has more planned in the calendar to places such as San Francisco. Clearly, this millennial is redefining what it means to be a raver in the 21st century and has broken his own personal record of dancing for more than 24 hours. With a very busy rave schedule and working as a software developer Monday-Friday too, Brad managed to fit us in to chat about his passion for music and raving.
EG: Welcome Bradley, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy dancing schedule to talk to us. I think your unabashed approach to raves is phenomenal, inspirational and infectious! Can you tell us how you became interested in electronic music and dancing sober for lengthy periods of time?
Bradley Gunn Raver: Thanks to you. When I was younger, I always enjoyed listening and dancing to music, however I had no sense of direction as to what music I liked the most and had a very limited scope of musical taste. It was when I was in my later teens, that some of my friends at school were playing types of music that I had never experienced or heard before. I found the repetitiveness structure of the tracks and the sounds of the synths that were so different to anything else so addictive. Once I first attended an event where these sounds were being played, the experience was just so much more engaging and intense, which at first led me to go back every month, then became twice a month until it happened to end up to be every single weekend of the year. I usually gain interest on one particular thing at a time, and the longer I am interested the deeper the interest level becomes to the point it is now life and takes financial priority in the monthly paycheck from work.
EG: You have gained the attention of many promoters and well-known DJs such as Seth Troxler and Monika Kruse, can you share one of your most memorable raving highlights with us?
Bradley Gunn Raver: One of my most memorable moments raving was at South West Four festival 2016 in London where I got the dancing video with the security. It was 11 am, just as the doors opened, I made my way over to the main stage and began dancing. Shortly after, two security made their way over and asked if they could get a video dancing with me, I said “Sure, let’s do it”. It was amazing to see how much happiness just a small thing like that could bring to people around the world. The video was also featured on many other pages including The Lad Bible and Mixmag.
EG: We watched your documentary and were moved by your humble and secure personality, you clearly give zero f***ks when it comes to dancing freely at a rave. What’s the secret to your marathon movements, how do you keep from running on empty at an event?
Bradley Gunn Raver: I wouldn’t say I have any secrets to what I do, I just have a lot of focus power to what I am interested in and that drives mental stimulation which in turn drives physical energy levels to rise. When you truly find where you are most happy, you can go for as long as you like doing whatever it is you’re doing.
“It’s always hard to define a favorite when you have so much love for a lot of genres and artists”
EG: What would you say is your favorite electronic music genre to dance to? Who would you say is your favorite artist? Favorite event?
Bradley Gunn Raver: Right now, my heart is currently hovering over the techno realm, however I still have a lot of love for all the other genres too. Its always hard to define a favorite when you have so much love for a lot of genres and artists. My favorite event however, is Junction 2 which is an event hosted in Boston Manor Park under the M4 motorway in London.
EG: What obstacles have you had to face, in terms of dancing at raves sober?
Bradley Gunn Raver: When I first started raving sober, I found the amount of self-consciousness a bit overwhelming, but as time moved on, I found that I didn’t need to be concerned about how I was perceived by other people, because I would look like that either way if I was aware of my how I looked or not. The opinions of other people can’t be controlled, so therefore being concerned about them would cause a problem I could not resolve unless I stopped expressing myself the way I wanted to; which to me is not the solution to finding happiness. I concentrated on the positive outcomes of what I could control, and spread happiness and positivity via those methods. It then just so happens, to be yourself and refusing to be anything else in a positive manner, the “obstacles” start disappearing.
EG: Could you see yourself as becoming a professional rave dancer who pro-motes sobriety whilst doing so?
Bradley Gunn Raver: I like to use the term “spreading awareness” instead of full on promoting. There are a lot of people from many different backgrounds in the rave world which is one of the biggest factors to making it is what it is. I am just one person out of many people, so I make my voice heard, but I respect other people’s views and therefore I only spread awareness with positivity.
EG: It’s a well-known fact that music serves to heal and soothe us on so many levels, both emotionally and physically. How and in what ways, has music helped you?
Bradley Gunn Raver: Music has helped me in all sides of life’s journey such as increased confidence in every day and more complex situations, social skills have increased dramatically and the ability to control my own mental way of processing on a level that I don’t think other solutions can match.
“I am just one person out of many people, so I make my voice heard, but I respect other people’s views and therefore I only spread awareness with positivity”
EG: What does your family think about your ability to dance for such lengthy periods of time?
Bradley Gunn Raver: I have always been the one that has defined my interests and what my path through life will be, and my family has supported that. Whether it be for professional or non-professional business. I would say that my family are happy with what I do, because I am happy doing what I do.
EG: What other unique aspects or qualities about yourself would you like to share with us?
Bradley Gunn Raver: I now live by the message “Love life and rave” which means exactly how it reads.
To love life, I rave. When I rave, I love life.
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