Brooke Eden is a quick rising name in the world of country music. However, her success is not an accident or really even sudden. Brooke has been working hard and carefully planning so that when her time came she would be prepared. It has paid off as she is taking each level of success she has reached so far with poise and built on them to reach the next level.
Growing up in Loxahatchee, Florida, fashion and music were a huge part of Brooke’s life from the moment she was born with her mom dressing mannequins for store windows and her dad playing in a local country band. Sitting in with her father’s band played a huge part in making music her life’s passion. “I started signing with him when I was 5. And the community just really embraced me as an artist as a really young girl. I opened up for Alan Jackson when I was 13 and Brooks & Dunn following that. I just kind of become obsessed with music.”
When Brooke was 18 she auditioned for American Idol and made it to Hollywood Week. She says that at the time she was “completely unprepared” but that the experience was an important learning one for her that gave her many lessons that helped drive her to the success she has today. “I realized no matter what I had to go through I still wanted to do it and number two: I realized I had to be working a whole hell of a lot harder than I was if I wanted to succeed,” Brooke said. After being eliminated from the show she returned to Gainesville, FL to finish getting her degree in Marketing. She never, however, even considered that marketing was something she could fall back on if music didn’t work out, but rather marketing was something that could help her music career. She explained, “I chose marketing so I could work on my brand as an artist. It was always my goal (to go into music). I wanted to go to Belmont University but my dad was like “honey that’s real expensive” and University of Florida was almost free because of Florida Bright Futures Scholarship. If you do well in high school in Florida, you pretty much get to go to college for free so that’s kinda why that happened. But I’m a proud Gator. Then I was like if I’m gonna be in college I better be learning about branding and imaging and stuff.”
In that regard her debut single ‘Daddy’s Money’ is very autobiographical. In addition to his gig in the band, her father worked as a carpenter before heading to the clubs and bars to play at night. Brooke credits her father with teaching her to be such a hard worker. She describes the song as being about “coming from nothing and dreaming of everything.” I’m a big fan of when artists use their debut singles to introduce who they are to the music world, and Brooke really nailed that sentiment with that one.
Brooke’s current single ‘Act Like You Don’t’ has been taking off over the past month or so and already has over 10 million plays on Spotify. Brooke wrote the song with Jesse Frasure and Cary Barlowe to help her get through a breakup. Her ex would constantly be reaching out to her and she finally got to the point where she said, “I can’t do that right now and you can’t do that right now. So, if you ever loved me I need you to act like you don’t.” She took the title to her cowriters who immediately were like, ‘we’ve totally been there, let’s write it.’ The outcome is a powerful song that shows off not only incredible songwriting, but also Brooke’s amazing vocal range.
It’s getting to be hard to miss Brooke’s catchy music. It has been used in several TV shows, including the Today Show and is featured in the new movie Logan. Brooke says that this is something she takes a lot of pride in. “Music really is everywhere so I want my music everywhere. Taylor Swift, she has her music everywhere so it’s like it’s a really cool thing.” Besides Taylor, another role model to Eden is Dolly Parton “I aspire to be like Dolly Parton because she’s such an incredible businesswoman and also such a genuine human. And she writes her own music. I just think to look up to someone like that I feel so blessed to have her to look up to. I grew up as a huge fan of Shania Twain (Brooke does an amazing cover of Shania’s song, ‘Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under’ during her show), the Dixie Chicks, and Leann Rimes and Gretchen Wilson, but as far as a whole career to really look at, I really look up to Dolly Parton.” She added that maybe someday we can look forward to visiting Brooke Eden Land. She might have been joking, but given her drive and focus on branding and business, who knows!?
It was a pleasure talking with Brooke. If by some chance you haven’t heard her music, be sure to! Brooke’s EP, titled ‘Welcome To The Weekend,‘ is now available on iTunes.
Main Photo: Joseph Llanes.