Adult contemporary music artist, Brooke Josephson!
Where did you grow up? I grew up in small town Warsaw, Indiana, where my parents raised us on a diet of church and censorship where we couldn’t listen to "secular music.” I vividly remember hearing it for the first time at a friend’s eighth birthday party where I left the cake cutting in the kitchen to slip down to their basement where I could hear this incredible song coming from their record player. I laid down on their orange shag carpeting, just pulling the needle back on the vinyl record until I had the song, “Material Girl” by Madonna, memorized before my mom picked me up. I later was able to get my pop music fix while riding the school bus and friend’s would make me mix-tapes or burn CDs for me to listen to what they were listening to that I would keep in my locker and listen to between classes at school and when my basketball team would be traveling for away games. Then when I got my drivers license, I would listen to the local “secular music station” U93 out of South Bend where I fell in love with Nirvana, Alanis Morisette, Sheryl Crow and Annie Lennox. I was always careful to switch the station back to a christian radio station before I got home. Then I was heavy into musical theatre in college and hip-hop when I moved to New York City where I heard a ton living in Harlem.
What inspired you to get into music? My mom says I was born singing. I sang doing chores, getting ready for the day, you name it. But I really started singing in front of people at church at age six and sang solos for all of the programs at my Christian school, that later grew into leading roles for the high school musicals, church band, national anthems at high school games, and weddings. My mom bought an old upright piano at a garage sale for $200, where I learned to play piano from a local teacher my mom found when I was six years old, then my mom was willing to invest in voice lessons with a local voice teacher when I was 13, who prepared me for college auditions that earned me a full ride vocal performance scholarship at a Liberal Arts College in Northern Indiana. My exposure in the select choir, musicals and being the lead singer in a Contemporary Christian Group, Agape, that toured for the college, gained exposure and interest from the RoundBarn Theater Company that cast me as a principal core company member right out of college, where most of the cast had been hired from their NYC auditions. This opened doors for me to move to New York City where I worked in Theatre and TV booking roles on “All My Children,” “Bones,” Disney’s “Enchanted” (where I met my husband), NBC’s “Good Girls” and other shows. I later earned my Masters in Songwriting from Berklee College of Music.
Do you write and produce music? I write all of my music and most recently took the reigns of producing my latest EP, Showin’ Up, that started production at Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Studio in Nashville just before the pandemic lockdown. I resumed production after I was fully vaccinated in 2021 at East West Studios in Hollywood. The EP features drummer, Seth Rausch (Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Little Big Town), Guitarist Tim Pierce (Goo Goo Dolls, Michael Jackson), Strings by Kristin Wilkinson (OneRepublic, Brandi Carlile) and final mixes and masters by Oscar and Grammy Winning Engineer Brendan Dekora.
On my previous EP, Sexy N’ Domesticated, I took an open minded, stylistic detour with former Geffen Records A&R executive and veteran record producer Tony Berg to create a sassy, tongue and cheek, new-wave flavored romp designed to empower women who have to balance their personal lives while being busy moms, working full time. Sexy N’ Domesticated received the Best Performer Award by American Tracks Music Awards, and received Best Video from Los Angeles CineFest, Western NY Film, Art, and Music Event (FAME), International Independent Film Awards and others.
What is a recording session like for you? The music gods have blessed me with a premiere engineer, Chris Kahn who shares similar ears for sound production, so it makes the sessions run smoother since we have a solid shorthand. I normally start with drums, bass, and guitar, then do any guitar overdubs in separate sessions and save the vocals for last. Then pass the sessions over to Brendan Dekora to mix and master. On piano ballads I lay down the piano in one session, then strings and always vocals last. But I always record the original demos in my home studio where I record all of the parts then send them to my studio musicians with the charts to then record in the studio where the magic happens.
Have you had any good acting jobs lately? Yes, I actually booked a role on NBC’s GoodGirls, right before the lock-down and was cast as an animated fairy in Disney’s DISENCHANTED to be released during the holidays of 2022.
What is your local music scene like right now in Warsaw? To be honest, I’m not as connected to the music scene in my hometown. I’ve primarily focused on the indie scene where I live in Los Angeles. I played regularly at Whiskey a Go Go, Hotel Cafe, The Mint, The Peppermint Club, House of Blues Anaheim prior to the lockdown. Even when the clubs started to reopen, I was hesitant to do any live shows until both of my children were fully vaccinated because it wasn’t worth it to me to jeopardize their health by exposing myself to a potential breakthrough infection. So now that they are vaccinated, my first show of 2022 will be kicking off my Showin’ Up EP release at Whiskey a Go Go, Saturday February 26th, 2022.
Do you write and collaborate with other artists? I’ve mainly focused on my own music since it’s been enough on my plate juggling parenting my kiddos during the early years. I’m open to collaboration as they are growing up and become more independent which opens up my schedule a little bit.
What other music genres do you enjoy dabbling in? I love blues, when I sing “Love Me Like a Man” by Bonnie Raitt at my live shows, fans come up after the show and tell me that I apparently "come alive” and that even though they love my other styles of music where I have dabbled into a hybrid pop/hip-hop rapping on Sexy N’ Domesticated that they just love when I sing a 12 bar blues song.
Tell us more about your latest project. I’m really excited to finally release my upcoming EP, Showin' Up, that I started shortly before the pandemic. It was tough when everything came to a screeching halt and I went from producing a new EP with live shows and music videos slated to promote the release in 2020, and suddenly everything was shutdown and I became a full time mom/teacher next to my six year old son doing Kindergarten via Zoom, and helping our daughter struggle mentally and emotionally through a school year online and not seeing any of her friends in person. Thankfully we remained healthy and grew closer as a family through such a difficult time globally. The interesting part about the songs being released later than I had planned is that each of them took on a broader meaning lyrically than the inspiration behind the songs prior to a global pandemic. "Showin’ Up" was actually written as a response to my favorite songwriter/producer Dan Wilson’s challenge to songwriters that follow him on social media to write a song to open your live shows. So I thought about how I’ve been “showin’ up” since I was a child singing in church all the way through college, to NYC, then to Los Angeles and how all the choices I made along the way brought me to where I am. Then as I watched the healthcare and essential workers that literally held the world together by showing up everyday during the pandemic it was humbling that the song, among others on the EP, all took on a deeper meaning.
What can we expect from you in the future? The title track single will release January 14th along with a really creative stop motion video by Canadian Stop Motion Animator, Laura Zizek. Then the full EP will be released February 25th, followed by my live show at Whiskey a Go Go, Saturday February 26th. I will be doing a ticket giveaway on my socials that kicks off the first Monday of 2022 on January 3rd, where fans can submit a cover song request for the live show and if their name is drawn, receive free tickets at will call, and meet and greet after. To participate, just follow my socials @brookejosephsonmusic