Brisbane-born piano man Bradley McCaw is bringing the golden era of ’70s soft rock and yacht rock into the present.

His forthcoming second album, Last Stop Till California, was recorded live at the legendary Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, bringing McCaw together with some of the musicians who helped define the sound that first inspired him.

Known as “Brisbane’s Billy Joel” (The Courier-Mail), McCaw’s career is also a story of belief, persistence and an unlikely journey from a school music room in Brisbane to recording at Capitol Studios.

Raised by a single mother of four, McCaw discovered music during a difficult childhood. His mother’s support gave him the freedom to explore singing and begin writing lyrics and songs while still at school.

He came to music relatively late. With no formal background got his first job to pay for singing lessons and began teaching himself piano on an upright tucked inside his school music room. He learnt by listening to records, gradually working his way through the songs of the great piano men.

Within two years, music had changed the direction of his life.

A phone call through his singing teacher led to an audition for internationally acclaimed vocal group The Ten Tenors. McCaw won a place in the group and suddenly found himself performing around the world, including an appearance at the MCG for the AFL Grand Final.

But while touring, he was filling notebooks with songs of his own.

Eventually McCaw stepped away from classical music and entered the International Cabaret Showcase, hoping simply to find an audience for his writing. He won the competition, with the major prize taking him to New York for his own performance on 42nd Street.

The show sold out.

It launched a cabaret career that would take McCaw to festivals around Australia and eventually to more than 60 headline performances aboard luxury cruise ships around the world.

But the notebooks of songs remained.

McCaw eventually sent an email to legendary guitarist and producer Louie Shelton, whose credits include The Jackson 5, Lionel Richie and John Lennon, hoping to make the kind of record that had made him fall in love with music in the first place.

That email began a creative relationship spanning more than a decade.

Together they made McCaw’s debut album, Worried Minds, a record steeped in the craftsmanship, musicianship and warmth of classic ’70s and ’80s songwriting while remaining distinctly McCaw’s own.

The album brought together an extraordinary cast of musicians, including bassist Nathan East and Australian jazz icon James Morrison, with sessions taking place at studios including Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and Studios 301 in Australia.

His breakout single Someone Like You, featuring Paulini, reached the iTunes Top 10, received national airplay and generated more than three million views on Facebook. His recording of I Want You Back later found a home on Spotify’s Yacht Rock Revival playlist, connecting McCaw’s music with a worldwide resurgence of interest in the sound that had inspired him from the beginning.

The extraordinary decade-long journey behind his first record also became the subject of McCaw’s documentary podcast Making Worried Minds, featuring conversations with the musicians and collaborators who helped make it happen, including Louie Shelton, Nathan East and James Morrison.

McCaw also hosts the weekly interview podcast Ramble City, a series of conversations with artists, musicians, sportspeople and other fascinating people from around the world.

In 2026, another thread of his musical life came full circle when he debuted 52nd Street: The Music of Billy Joel to sold-out Australian audiences. More than a tribute show, the production intertwines Joel’s songs with moments from McCaw’s own journey — the music he once taught himself at a school piano now forming the soundtrack to the career that followed.

And now McCaw is returning to where so much of the story has been leading.

His second album, Last Stop Till California, takes him deeper into the world of sophisticated ’70s soft rock, piano-driven songwriting and West Coast studio musicianship. Recorded live at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles with an extraordinary band of musicians, the album represents another step toward the sound McCaw has been chasing since he first sat down at that school piano.

After years spent travelling the world, writing songs, building shows and making records with some of his musical heroes, Bradley McCaw is still searching for the perfect song.

Only now, he knows exactly what he wants it to sound like.

Reviews:

“ONE OF THE BEST PERFORMERS I’VE EVER SEEN” THE SCOOP (AUS)

“PHENOMENAL FRONTMAN… A VIRTUOSO… BRILLIANT ENTERTAINER.” INDAILY (AUS)

“BRISBANE’S OWN BILLY JOEL” THE COURIER MAIL (AUS)

“OLD SCHOOL ARTIST THAT IS FUSING THAT LEGENDARY SOUND - WHICH IS SUCH A WELCOME HUG ON OUR BATTERED HEARTS.” ANR FACTORY (UK)

“CAPTURES AN OLD SCHOOL SOUND FOR THE MODERN WAY OF LIFE” musicmetaphors

“A MUSICAL WORLD UNLIKE ANYTHING ELSE. HYPNOTICALLY SOULFUL AND EXQUISITELY CATCHY.” HASTAG MAGAZINE (USA)

“AN EXTRAORDINARY LISTENING EXPERIENCE… A SONIC JOURNEY LIKE NO OTHER… REMARKABLE MUSICAL ADVENTURE. ” TOP SHELF MUSIC MAGAZINE (USA)