Originally from Florida, Brooke Eden first got into music through accompanying her dad to performances as a drummer in a country band before going on to perform at local festivals as a teenager.
After making it to Hollywood week on season 7, she self-released her debut single ‘American Dreamin” in 2015 and has since gone to release a further three EPs as well as performing alongside artists like Tim McGraw, Kane Brown and Keith Urban. She’s also become a fierce champion of LGBT+ representation in country music, particularly through her latest EP ‘Outlaw Love’ – released this June and the follow up to 2022’s ‘Choosing You’ – which charts the relationship between her and her wife Hillary Hoover who she married last year (with their wedding officiated by none other than country music legend Trisha Yearwood!).
I recently spoke to Brooke about the EP, making her debut on the Today Show in the US, her plans for the rest of the year and more – including her upcoming trip to the UK to perform at Song Suffragettes in Country Music Week…
Last time you spoke to us was about a year ago when ‘Choosing You’ came out – what have you been up to since then?
Oh man, so much. I got married. Yeah, I have been writing new music and released new music and yeah, life is happening fast right now.
Speaking of new music, it’s been almost two months now since ‘Outlaw Love’ was released. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah, the outlaw love EP is a very first hand experience for me. It goes from the beginning of my relationship with my wife with a song called ‘Whispering’ where there was a lot of gossip around town, and everyone was talk talk talking and whispering about us and just like holding your head up high and being like, “Well, somebody’s gonna whisper, so let’s do it together”, you know. And then it ends with our first dance song for our wedding that I wrote specifically for our wedding. So it really goes through the whole journey of where I started in this fearful place of other people are telling my story, to a very fearless place with our first dance and standing there in front of all of our family and friends and getting to share this moment together.
Was that storytelling and having a narrative to this project something you set out to do beforehand? Or did it evolve that way through the process of making the EP and putting it together?
Yeah, for me, it evolved. I mean, here’s the thing, I just write so much about what’s actually going on in my life, that it tends to end up writing a story whether I tried to or not. So, yeah, this one kind of developed as I was writing different parts of my story. I started to realise, “oh, yeah, this is also kind of chronological”. It tells the story of our relationship from beginning to our wedding. So, yeah, it just kind of happened that way.
Did you always know it was going to be those four songs on the EP as well? Or was it quite a difficult process to get it down to that?
Yeah. So what’s so wild about this EP specifically is that we wrote ‘Outlaw Love’ four days before we went into the studio. So the EP is all centred around that song, ‘Outlaw Love’, because it truly tells the all encompassing story of what this EP is about and what it says. Which is, I’m going to be who I’m going to be, and I’m going to stand up for what I believe in, and who I love and who I am. And sometimes that’s going to make me an outlaw, but I’m okay with that. And just standing up for who you are. And so when we wrote ‘Outlaw Love’, it was just such a standout song for me and for my team. And so for me, I knew. I was like “this has to be the title of the EP”, and it all came together from there. So it’s really interesting, because like I said, it was only a few days before we went into the studio, but it really held up his hand and said, you know, “this is what it’s all about”. So it was really cool how it came together at the last minute like that.
You’ve talked about this EP being really personal and about standing up for who you are and what you believe in. Was that something that was particularly key to you with this project?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. I feel like even in my coming out EP, which was in 2021, I still was careful about pronoun usage and all of those things. And two years later down the road, I’m so much more comfortable in my skin. I see it as almost a responsibility to be that we’re representation in country music and be a part of this road forward. And so for me, it was really important to not just say it but say it loudly and without any holding back.
Do you feel that shift to a more personal perspective has been key to how your music’s evolved over your career?
Oh, absolutely. You know, in the beginning of my career, when I was putting out music, I was still using he/him pronouns when talking about somebody that I was in a relationship with. And talking about it that way with people like you and radio and fans, everyone, you’re taught to just talk about it that way. And it’s really hard. That’s really hard to be writing about one thing, and then talk about it in another way. It’s almost like you’re kind of living this double life, and you don’t know where you’re allowed to be yourself. And for me, it was really important to create a space where everyone could be themselves. And for me, it was like, if you want to create a place where others can be theirselves, then you have to be yourself. And you have to create that example. And so, yeah, it was really important for me, in this EP, specifically, to show my comfort in my own skin, and to show this unapologetic love.
Is there anything you’ve learned from this particular project that you’re going to take forward into whatever you do next musically?
Yeah. I mean, I think that for me, once you get here, and you get to this place of complete honesty and complete freedom with your words and expression, it’s really hard to go back. So yeah, I think I’ll definitely take this real place of of honesty and just writing and singing about what’s actually going on in my life. And not being afraid of anything, nothing harnessing that freedom back.
How have you found the reaction from fans to the EP? Have there been any songs they’ve responded to in maybe a way you weren’t expecting or anything like that?
I think that the thing that’s gotten me is just the how quickly people are using the songs for their weddings, like dancing to ‘All My Life’ or ‘Outlaw Love’ for their first dances. And it happened within a week of releasing this music, people were already using it in their weddings. And for me, I know what that’s like, because I just got married. And my wife and I were looking through song after song after song, of songs that could be our first dance. And it was always having to change the pronouns in our heads. And I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to have to think about that at our wedding. And so I was like, “I’m just gonna write an EP for us, for people in my community, who, we’ve grown up on heterosexual country music our whole lives and just replace the pronouns.” And so I just kind of switched it on its head. And I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna do pronouns that I would use and then straight people can switch that in their heads, if they want to.” And so, yeah, I think that that’s what has shocked me the most is just seeing people really grasp on to the songs and see how many people have similar stories to mine.
I also saw you made your debut on ‘The Today Show’ recently – was that a big moment for you?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. The Today Show is something that my mom always had on in the mornings, when I was getting ready for school. And Jenna and Hoda [the presenters], they’re just love, they’re just like the happiest, most loving people. And what was really cool for me specifically was, Hoda has been playing my music on the Today Show as like her song of the day or whatever, since 2014. When I had a song called ‘American Dreamin”, she played that, she played one of my songs called ‘Act Like You Don’t’, but I was never on the show. It was always like, “Oh, listen to this new song that I found or heard or whatever”, which was so cool. And so when I got into the studio at the Today Show, you get in really early and you do an early soundcheck, and you’re there all morning, just getting ready for the performance. And in between one of the commercial breaks Hoda came over to me and she was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m such a fan” and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I’m such a fan of yours, but also you’ve been playing my songs since 2014.” She said, “I know, ‘American Dreamin””, and and she was talking about it. And I was just like, “This is so surreal, to get to play the Today Show and have a real conversation with her”. It’s just like a true dream come true.
You’re coming to the UK in October to play at Song Suffragettes in London. What can people expect from that show?
I mean, I’m so excited for that show. The Song Suffragettes here in the States has been such a great platform for female voices, and females coming to town and having a place to share their songs and their perspective on life and country music and all those things. And so to get to bring that to the UK… I got to do C2C in 2016, which feels like a whole lifetime ago. But I just love the fans in the UK so much, I feel like they listen differently than fans in the States. And, God, I just loved playing in London so much. And I’m so excited to get back and have this fusion of voices. There’s two London based country artists and two America based country artists coming together for this night. And I’m just really, really excited to get back and be a part of that night.
Are there any songs you’re particularly enjoying playing live at the moment?
I really, really love playing ‘Outlaw Love’. Just because getting to see people singing it back and knowing that they have their own version of this song and what it means to them has been really, really cool to get to watch from stage. Kind of this perspective of getting to look out and the audience is looking at me, but I’m looking at the audience, and seeing that this song means something to them as well.
What’s still on the bucket list for you in terms of places you’d like to perform, people you’d like to work with and so on?
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m just scratching the surface here. I would love to get to play in Europe more, which I’m getting to do this year. And I’m hoping that it’s going to continue in that direction. But I mean, I would love to work with Chris Stapleton, I feel like our voices would really meld well together. And just music in general. It’s not just country music for me. I grew up on an iPod, so I grew up with all genres of music. And I think that there are different parts of each type of music in all music. There are different instruments that you use but it’s all music, and it’s all this way of communicating to people through sound and words. And it’s a such a beautiful thing. And so yeah, I mean, I would love to collaborate within and without the genre of country music.
What’s the song you wish you could have written?
Oh my goodness. [pause as Brooke thinks] You know, one of my favourite songs is ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’. Miranda Lambert sang it, but Kacey Musgraves and Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark wrote that song. But to me, it tells such a real story. And it’s just one of my favourite songs in the world.
What does the rest of the year look like for you?
Yeah, so I actually head to Germany this week for shows in Germany as well. And then I come back to the States, I have a few shows here in the States. One specifically is called Out Loud Music Fest. And it’s in September in Nashville, which I’m super excited about. London and then writing to create more music and hopefully turn this EP into an album.
Can you give us any hints about that at all yet? Will it be similar to the EP in terms of sound?
Yeah, so just further telling the story and telling different parts of this journey that I’ve been on. So yeah, it would have a similar sound for sure. And it would all kind of go together to create a full body of work.
And lastly – have you got any plans to come back to the UK after Song Suffragettes? Maybe a tour or anything like that?
I would love to. There’s no definite plans yet. But yeah, we have some things brewing.
Brooke Eden’s latest EP, ‘Outlaw Love’, is out now on This Is Hit/BBR Music Group.
See Brooke live in the UK as part of Song Suffragettes in Country Music Week 2023 at Bush Hall, London on Saturday 21st October – tickets now on sale here.
