Brooke Eden has weathered her fair share of storms, but these days, it’s nothing but blue skies ahead. Her new song “No Shade” reflects a turning point for the Florida native, both professionally and personally.
“I’m so excited for this new music, and I am … I’m just in a very happy place in my life right now,” Eden says in a phone call a few days before the Friday (Feb. 5) release of her first new song since 2017. She’s triumphed over heartbreak and met her “soulmate,” solved a health issue and found a sound that melds her love of country music, 1960s and ’70s soul and pop, with an assist from producer Jesse Frasure.
“There were so many little moments … that led me to where I am now,” Eden reflects, but notes, “I really think the moment that I realized ‘I’m gonna get to record music again, and it’s gonna be music that I love,’ that was really my ‘on switch’ again for being so enthusiastic about this industry and my career …
“It was everything kind of coming together at once: my personal journey, my musical journey and the timing of these songs,” she adds. “I think that that was kind of the ‘lightbulb moment’ that, yeah, this is all gonna work out.”
“No Shade” is the first of three new songs coming from Eden in 2021, but it was actually the last of the trio to be written. She co-wrote the track with Steven Lee Olsen and Brandon Day just three days before she went into the studio.
“It’s the beginning of my story, of me finding myself and kind of pulling myself out of a dark place,” Eden explains. “Whether it’s a bad breakup or depression or the year 2020, whatever you’re personally going through, it’s [about] you seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and kind of coming into your own again, and finding yourself again after you don’t know who you are …
“It was kind of the beginning of my realizing that there was light at the end of the tunnel in my life, and I just thought that was a really important way to start this group of songs … especially after last year,” she continues, “to show people there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.”
“No Shade,” Eden reveals, leads into a song called “Sunroof,” which compares finding new love to that feeling you get when you’re finally able to open your car’s sunroof after a long winter. “Got No Choice” concludes the trilogy; it’s about how, when you find the right person, you’re simply drawn to them.
“I’ve been writing constantly for the last three years, so we definitely have more music that we want to put out,” Eden says, though there’s no timeframe on additional songs. “Right now, we’re just seeing how these songs do and making sure that everyone likes it.”
Throughout the recording process, Eden shares, Frasure proved himself to be a musical kindred spirit. They’d previously worked together on 2017’s “Act Like You Don’t,” and when Eden described the sound she was after to him, he was all in.
“He’s from Detroit, so he’s got that kind of Motown soul, the roots of that,” she says of Frasure. “I can literally say, ‘I’m feeling this,’ and he would be able to put it into music.”
Each of Eden’s new songs has an accompanying music video, which together tell a story cohesive story. She and her team went to her Florida hometown to film the clips; in fact, the owner of Tiki 52 in Tequesta, where Eden played weekly while she saved up money to move to Nashville, “kind of gave us the keys to the castle,” the singer says, allowing them to use the bar as a set.
With a hint of astonishment in her voice, Eden recounts how she and her friends — including director Ford Fairchild — used to sit around backyard bonfires and dream up what these visuals might look like. She calls the experience a full-circle moment, especially because her girlfriend, Hilary Hoover, is part of the videos’ tale, too.
“I never would have casted anyone else,” Eden says, “obviously.”
Who Else Is Releasing New Music in 2021?