Returning from a self-imposed break last year with a trilogy of summer songs, Brooke Eden was happy, healthy and eager to re-establish herself as one of the brightest rising artists in Country music. Since then Eden has been involved in many projects promoting LGBTQ+ issues and has played a myriad of shows and events, including this year’s CMAFest. She has also stepped back into the circle at the Opry and is now ready to release new EP ‘Choosing You’ on July 29th. We were thrilled to grab some time with her to talk all about it.
Great to speak to you today. Thank you for your time.
Thank you for speaking to me.
It’s a busy time for you with new music on the way but before we talk about ‘Choosing You’ let’s talk about two huge things from last month. Firstly, how was you CMAFest? We saw you sing the national anthem at the Riverfront stage!
That’s great! Oh man, CMAFest is always like a family re-union. You meet so many people out on the road and they are all in Nashville for that one week of the year! It’s always so good to catch up and see other artists that you love and respect as well.
I like to get my shows done and then hop around and see my friends too.
You played the Opry just before CMAFest. What was that like? Do you still get nervous?
I got to play ‘Left You For Me’, my new song, there just before CMAFest. We debuted it there on the day it came out, June 3rd.
I do still get nervous stepping into that circle every time! (laughing) It’s funny because I feel like I don’t really get nerves almost anywhere else. I think this was about my twentieth time playing the Opry. The Opry band are like my family now and there is definitely a comfort with them for me but getting to play the Opry and singing in the circle will always bring down that kind of respect that should make you feel a little nervous.
Your new EP ‘Choosing You’ comes out on July 29th. Is the title about loving another person or choosing to love yourself?
Isn’t that the question? (laughing) So, two of the songs on the EP are self-empowerment songs and are about self-love and the other three are love songs about somebody else.
When I was deciding on what to call this EP it was interesting because the theme of self love had come through quite strongly but so was the theme of choosing a partner that allows you to love them and yourself at the same time too. I looked at my fiancé and realised that choosing her was indirectly me also choosing to love me too, so there’s the title! It felt like that title encompassed the entire project and not just one or two songs.
The three songs and videos you released last year I know you saw very much as a summer-themed trilogy. How are these new songs different?
This project has more depth, I would say. I was much more comfortable with who I am writing these songs, there’s a little more depth at play now. There is still sunshine and hope and joy in these songs but I would say there’s a little less sunshine and a little more grit on ‘Choosing You’.
Tell me about the inspiration behind ‘Left You For Me’.
The song is about leaving a bad situation so that you can become the most authentic, best version of yourself. For me, the song is about leaving my family’s expectations of who they thought I was going to be behind. As soon as I stepped hard into who I was and who I am my family understood but there was a while before that where they wanted me to be a certain person and I just wasn’t her, I tried but I knew that I needed to choose myself in the end to find happiness.
The first step in choosing yourself is leaving behind that toxic energy that you know is just not you. ‘Left You For Me’ feels like the first step in this new chapter in my life.
You must have had some lovely messages from woman, and maybe from men too, about the self-empowerment nature of ‘Left You For Me’?
Oh my gosh, yes, I have! It’s been so cool to see on TikTok and Instagram. I had somebody message me to say that the song had been the catalyst for them in leaving an abusive relationship. To be a part of that for somebody life’s makes me very emotional.
It’s been amazing for me to see how this song relates to different people. For me, it was about my family’s expectations of me but for a lot of other people the song has resonated in terms of bad relationships or drugs and alcohol. Good songwriting enables people to put their own stories and experiences onto what you have written and we seem to have hit on that with ‘Left You For Me’.
Let’s talk about the other songs on ‘Choosing You’. I’ll say the title and you give me a one sentence rundown of the song!
‘Knock’: This is my big sister song. It’s from the perspective of someone who has gone through something and they are passing their wisdom on to someone else.
‘Comeback Love’: This is about a sassy woman who thinks she is too independent to love anyone else and then love hits her right, smack-dab, in the face!
‘Heartless’: This song is about the first time you fall in love and you think that you are broken. You think there’s something wrong until you fall in love and realise that you are not ‘heartless’.
‘Off the Ground’: This song has ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ vibes! It’s about being in a room with a thousand people but only seeing that one person that you are there with, wrapped up in your own world.
Where will the EP land sonically?
I was raised on 90s Country but I am also a huge fan of 60s and 70s Soul and Motown. I wanted to try and find a way to mesh those two different sounds together. There is a lot of steel guitar on this project and it’s all held together by the music that has influenced me throughout my lifetime.
You’ve also been working with the Recording Industry Association (RIAA) on the ‘Music Matters’ project. Tell me a little more about that?
I feel like that music is a common thread in everybody’s life. It is the language of everyone. You don’t have to understand what music is saying for it to make you feel something. Music has been such a force for good in my life, it’s helped me heal and and I wanted to pass that experience on to young kids, to people in hospital, people that are dealing with something in their lives.
We want music to be a force for healing and to help people overcome difficulties in their lives. So far it’s been a really cool partnership. I’ve spoken to congressman David Cicilline in Washington DC, who is the head of the Equality caucus. It’s amazing to hear what they are doing in DC to try and create equality for everyone – did you know the LGBTQIA+ community is still the only community in America that it is still legal to discriminate against?
I just did a girls camp here in Nashville where I got to talk to girls aged 8 to 14 about music and about being the captain of your own ship, which was really cool. They had so many insightful questions and so the ‘Music Matters’ project is a way for all of us to unify and to heal. It’s important to me. A passion and what I love – music has saved me in so many ways I want to give that back to people.
Have you been heartened by Nashville and the industry’s reaction to you and other LGBTQIA+ artists in the past few years?
Yeah. We are in this new space in Country music right now. It’s a space I really, really love and there is a lot of Country music around that I love too. It’s been a while since I could really say that I think. It’s great to not only put new music out there right now, but to be able to put new music out there as who I really am has been empowering. It has created a completely different experience for me and I feel very supported by Nashville and the gatekeepers here, supported by the fans too, I should say, who have been awesome. I excited to release new music and let them have lots more in the future too!
Brooke Eden’s ‘Choosing You’ EP is out on all platforms on Friday July 29th
