The Sit Down with Brooke Eden
Early in 2021 we were treated to long overdue new music from Brooke Eden with a trio of new tracks: “No Shade”, “Sunroof” and “Got No Choice” which all reflected light, hope and happiness. Since then, Brooke has got engaged and has recently released “Left You For Me” (available HERE) as her first new music in just under eighteen months which acts as a teaser for her forthcoming “Choosing You” EP which will drop on July 29th (Pre-save HERE). It had been a little while since we last caught up with Brooke, so Jamie recently hung out with her over Zoom to get the lowdown on the new project and what she has been up to.
So, I think when we last spoke was around about a year and a half ago between you putting out “Sunroof” and “Got No Choice” but right now we’ve got new things on the way. I absolutely love the first track to drop by the way, when it got sent over, I was like Erm Hello! This is pretty cool!
“Hello! This is pretty cool! Awh, that’s so nice. I’m really excited about all five of the songs and I feel like it’s my favourite work and just the most authentic me that I’ve ever put out.”
Let’s start with “Left You For Me” which is the song that is already out there and what people would have heard by the time that we get this piece out. You wrote the track with Kyle Schlienger and our buddy Jon Stone, so how did the song come to life and what was the inspiration behind it?
“What’s so interesting about “Left You For Me” is that usually, like ninety five percent of the time, my songwriting process is that I will come up with an idea and a hook, then take them into a write. “Left You For Me” was in the five percent of the time where nobody had a hook, we had this feeling where we all were going through situations where we were leaving parts of us behind so that we could become better versions of ourselves. It was a different scenario for all of us, but we were all very much on the same page. The first lyric that we came up with was the first line of the chorus “Didn’t think I could be this good without you” and this was the feeling that we were invoking with a better off without you kind of feel but being a celebration of it. It’s a celebration of leaving something behind and we didn’t have the hook of the song, we didn’t have Left You For Me until we wrote the entire chorus. Finally, I said is it like I didn’t leave you for somebody else, I left you for me? That’s where we landed. One of my co-writers had just gone through a breakup, one was going through some career changes and for me I had grown up in a family where I was very much a people pleaser. Very much what does everyone else want from me, need from me or what would make everyone else happy? You know, all of these kinds of things where you’re almost living for everyone else rather than yourself. My family had a very much straight down the middle expectation for me and how to live my life which for me wasn’t what I wanted from my life so for me it was like leaving these expectations behind so that I could live my own expectations for my own life. We were all going through parts of our lives where we were leaving something behind, so it just happened that we wrote this song kind of in hour of that and to celebrate that change. It can be really hard to change something that has been maybe all that you have ever known and now leaving that then forming your own life, own opinions and own expectations. It’s been really cool to hear everyone’s stories and how everyone else’s story kind of goes into this song.”
So, I think when we last spoke was around about a year and a half ago between you putting out “Sunroof” and “Got No Choice” but right now we’ve got new things on the way. I absolutely love the first track to drop by the way, when it got sent over, I was like Erm Hello! This is pretty cool!
“Hello! This is pretty cool! Awh, that’s so nice. I’m really excited about all five of the songs and I feel like it’s my favourite work and just the most authentic me that I’ve ever put out.”
Let’s start with “Left You For Me” which is the song that is already out there and what people would have heard by the time that we get this piece out. You wrote the track with Kyle Schlienger and our buddy Jon Stone, so how did the song come to life and what was the inspiration behind it?
“What’s so interesting about “Left You For Me” is that usually, like ninety five percent of the time, my songwriting process is that I will come up with an idea and a hook, then take them into a write. “Left You For Me” was in the five percent of the time where nobody had a hook, we had this feeling where we all were going through situations where we were leaving parts of us behind so that we could become better versions of ourselves. It was a different scenario for all of us, but we were all very much on the same page. The first lyric that we came up with was the first line of the chorus “Didn’t think I could be this good without you” and this was the feeling that we were invoking with a better off without you kind of feel but being a celebration of it. It’s a celebration of leaving something behind and we didn’t have the hook of the song, we didn’t have Left You For Me until we wrote the entire chorus. Finally, I said is it like I didn’t leave you for somebody else, I left you for me? That’s where we landed. One of my co-writers had just gone through a breakup, one was going through some career changes and for me I had grown up in a family where I was very much a people pleaser. Very much what does everyone else want from me, need from me or what would make everyone else happy? You know, all of these kinds of things where you’re almost living for everyone else rather than yourself. My family had a very much straight down the middle expectation for me and how to live my life which for me wasn’t what I wanted from my life so for me it was like leaving these expectations behind so that I could live my own expectations for my own life. We were all going through parts of our lives where we were leaving something behind, so it just happened that we wrote this song kind of in hour of that and to celebrate that change. It can be really hard to change something that has been maybe all that you have ever known and now leaving that then forming your own life, own opinions and own expectations. It’s been really cool to hear everyone’s stories and how everyone else’s story kind of goes into this song.”
Looking at the whole project of “Choosing You” moving on from when we last caught up where you had the three tracks as kind of a trilogy as you’d called it and you weren’t entirely sure where they would lead into. Obviously, those three songs are not part of this project so were all five of those tracks written post those and by the new Brooke?
“Yes, there definitely is a thread that keeps all of these songs together and these five songs are definitely a project of their own and kind of the aftermath of me finding myself and just really deep songs. They are really real to me and there are some fun ones on there too. “Comeback Love” is one of the songs that I have so much fun listening to it, I want to make a line dance to it and it’s about a sassy independent woman who doesn’t think that she has time to be in a relationship with anybody until she meets the love of her life and all of a sudden, she she’s that you’ve got that kind of love that makes me want to come back. It’s very seventies soul influenced and that’s kind of a common thread throughout this which keeps everything together is that I grew up on nineties country, but I also love seventies soul, so we have merged these sounds together. That’s the common thread between the thrilogy, thrilogy ha ha. The TRILOGY of last year and the EP of this year.”
“Yes, there definitely is a thread that keeps all of these songs together and these five songs are definitely a project of their own and kind of the aftermath of me finding myself and just really deep songs. They are really real to me and there are some fun ones on there too. “Comeback Love” is one of the songs that I have so much fun listening to it, I want to make a line dance to it and it’s about a sassy independent woman who doesn’t think that she has time to be in a relationship with anybody until she meets the love of her life and all of a sudden, she she’s that you’ve got that kind of love that makes me want to come back. It’s very seventies soul influenced and that’s kind of a common thread throughout this which keeps everything together is that I grew up on nineties country, but I also love seventies soul, so we have merged these sounds together. That’s the common thread between the thrilogy, thrilogy ha ha. The TRILOGY of last year and the EP of this year.”
I’m just really looking forward to hearing the whole thing. I think “Left You For Me” sounds so distinctly you and really builds the excitement for what we are going to hear from this EP in like two weeks’ time!
“Yes, it’s going to be here before we know it on July 29th. It’s called “Choosing You” and I spent so much of my life pleasing other people, during the time of writing this was the first time that I really started choosing myself. There are two self-empowering songs that are about choosing yourself but there are three love songs on this EP that are about choosing someone else. Choosing that person that is going to help you become the best version of yourself but also lets you choose yourself too. I feel that the first part of choosing yourself is leaving behind old toxic parts of yourself that don’t belong anymore so that’s why “Left You For Me” was such a important first to lead in.”
OK. Here’s the big thing from our perspective over here, it’s now six and a half years since you came to see us. I know so many people say how they miss being over here and want to come back and see us then with the EP about to drop things will be quite busy for you through the back end of this year but is heading back here something that is definitely a key priority?
“Oh yeah. It is truly at the top of the list and it is absolutely a priority to get to the UK. Y’all have been so supportive of me and my music over there. I know C2C was back in 2016 which was the last time that I was there, but it truly is such a cherished memory for me, and everybody says it, but I am just so excited to get back. There is just like a relationship with the fans in the UK that is unprecedented, it’s a really special connection I think.”
Have you definitely felt the love, warmth and support over the last couple of years specifically from us over here? From what I have seen in the way that people are supportive over here towards the LGBTQ+ community just showed at it’s fullest when Brothers Osborne toured here recently and when TJ was on stage trying to thank the fans for the love and support that he has received, it was a full on five minutes of cheering that he couldn’t even get out what he was trying to say. It must feel so free that you can just be you and that people accept you for who you are?
“I had chills with you talking about TJ, it feels like the most obvious thing that everyone should be able to be who they are but for so long we really weren’t and really cautioned to be who we were. When I came out, yeah, I was definitely nervous but also was at this point in my self-love where I knew that even if people didn’t accept me, this was still who I was. To be able to be exactly who I am and be loved, supported and accepted definitely gives me hope. It gives me hope for our future and our kids but there is still so much legislation in the United States. The LGBTQ+ community is the only marginalised community where it is still legal to discriminate against in the United States of America. It is just so crazy that it is legal for taxpaying American citizens to be discriminated against because of who we love, it’s so crazy but it’s true so I think that it is important to state that, it’s important to know that and it’s important to change that. I think the only way to change that is by being a representative, by being visible and by being who you are. By staying in the closet, you are just following the oppressor and I did do that for five and a half years by staying in the closet because I was so afraid. I’m just so happy to be on the other side and to be loved for exactly who I am.”
“Yes, it’s going to be here before we know it on July 29th. It’s called “Choosing You” and I spent so much of my life pleasing other people, during the time of writing this was the first time that I really started choosing myself. There are two self-empowering songs that are about choosing yourself but there are three love songs on this EP that are about choosing someone else. Choosing that person that is going to help you become the best version of yourself but also lets you choose yourself too. I feel that the first part of choosing yourself is leaving behind old toxic parts of yourself that don’t belong anymore so that’s why “Left You For Me” was such a important first to lead in.”
OK. Here’s the big thing from our perspective over here, it’s now six and a half years since you came to see us. I know so many people say how they miss being over here and want to come back and see us then with the EP about to drop things will be quite busy for you through the back end of this year but is heading back here something that is definitely a key priority?
“Oh yeah. It is truly at the top of the list and it is absolutely a priority to get to the UK. Y’all have been so supportive of me and my music over there. I know C2C was back in 2016 which was the last time that I was there, but it truly is such a cherished memory for me, and everybody says it, but I am just so excited to get back. There is just like a relationship with the fans in the UK that is unprecedented, it’s a really special connection I think.”
Have you definitely felt the love, warmth and support over the last couple of years specifically from us over here? From what I have seen in the way that people are supportive over here towards the LGBTQ+ community just showed at it’s fullest when Brothers Osborne toured here recently and when TJ was on stage trying to thank the fans for the love and support that he has received, it was a full on five minutes of cheering that he couldn’t even get out what he was trying to say. It must feel so free that you can just be you and that people accept you for who you are?
“I had chills with you talking about TJ, it feels like the most obvious thing that everyone should be able to be who they are but for so long we really weren’t and really cautioned to be who we were. When I came out, yeah, I was definitely nervous but also was at this point in my self-love where I knew that even if people didn’t accept me, this was still who I was. To be able to be exactly who I am and be loved, supported and accepted definitely gives me hope. It gives me hope for our future and our kids but there is still so much legislation in the United States. The LGBTQ+ community is the only marginalised community where it is still legal to discriminate against in the United States of America. It is just so crazy that it is legal for taxpaying American citizens to be discriminated against because of who we love, it’s so crazy but it’s true so I think that it is important to state that, it’s important to know that and it’s important to change that. I think the only way to change that is by being a representative, by being visible and by being who you are. By staying in the closet, you are just following the oppressor and I did do that for five and a half years by staying in the closet because I was so afraid. I’m just so happy to be on the other side and to be loved for exactly who I am.”
I think that is the thing now, we all really hope, and it probably won’t within our lifetime with just the way that the world is but that there will become a time where there isn’t a stigma, people don’t have to come out as such in society because like you say people are just being themselves. We all want to live in that society where people just can be themselves and can be free but even talking about being an ally, which a lot of us are, we shouldn’t need to say that because everyone should be an ally.
“Yes totally, everyone should be an ally but unfortunately not everyone is an ally, so it is important to know who those allies are for the LGBTQ+ community. If there is a kid that wants to come out but doesn’t know who to come out to, who is that safe person. Saying that you are an ally is important because it is important to know who to trust. It is definitely high time that everyone should be able to be themselves, we’re losing so much as a world and society by not allowing people to be exactly who they are and all of the assets that the queer community has to offer. We are not tapping into so much of our potential as a worldly community by putting the queers in a corner, you know. There is so much to give and that’s everyone, not just in the queer community. Every single person has something that they should be giving to the world and by closeting yourself or by not being who you are, you don’t get to give that, so it is so important to be your authentic self. I know sometimes it is hard and I know that sometimes it’s scary, but you have to do it when it feels safe to you and when it feels right to you, if there is anything that I learnt it was that. But, gosh it is just so much better on this side of things and to just get to live completely authentically as yourself is to me the only way to truly live your life.”
“Yes totally, everyone should be an ally but unfortunately not everyone is an ally, so it is important to know who those allies are for the LGBTQ+ community. If there is a kid that wants to come out but doesn’t know who to come out to, who is that safe person. Saying that you are an ally is important because it is important to know who to trust. It is definitely high time that everyone should be able to be themselves, we’re losing so much as a world and society by not allowing people to be exactly who they are and all of the assets that the queer community has to offer. We are not tapping into so much of our potential as a worldly community by putting the queers in a corner, you know. There is so much to give and that’s everyone, not just in the queer community. Every single person has something that they should be giving to the world and by closeting yourself or by not being who you are, you don’t get to give that, so it is so important to be your authentic self. I know sometimes it is hard and I know that sometimes it’s scary, but you have to do it when it feels safe to you and when it feels right to you, if there is anything that I learnt it was that. But, gosh it is just so much better on this side of things and to just get to live completely authentically as yourself is to me the only way to truly live your life.”
It is so nice to hear how happy you are and the way you radiate hope and positivity as you always do. Everyone is going to love this EP and fingers crossed you can come and see us again soon because we miss you!
“I AM COMING!”
Do it Girl!
“I Know, I’m coming so y’all just get your horses ready!”
The new EP “Choosing You” from Brooke Eden will be released on July 29th and you can Pre-save HERE whilst her most recent track “Left You For Me” is out now (HERE). You can find all Brooke’s upcoming tour dates on her WEBSITE and keep up to date with her socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK TWITTER FACEBOOK
“I AM COMING!”
Do it Girl!
“I Know, I’m coming so y’all just get your horses ready!”
The new EP “Choosing You” from Brooke Eden will be released on July 29th and you can Pre-save HERE whilst her most recent track “Left You For Me” is out now (HERE). You can find all Brooke’s upcoming tour dates on her WEBSITE and keep up to date with her socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK TWITTER FACEBOOK