MEDIUM - INTERVIEW

Rising Music Star Brooke Josephson On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

As a part of our series about rising music stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Brooke Josephson.

Actress/singer/songwriter Brooke Josephson returns with a new release, SHOWIN’ UP, due out on February 25th. Known for her catchy pop tunes and her often tongue-in-cheek take on domestic life, SHOWIN’ UP continues Josephson’s artistic journey inspired by her experiences as a full-time mother trying to balance personal and professional lives, as so many mothers do. Although the writing and recording process began before the pandemic, Josephson put the finishing touches on the EP this year with so much of the album’s life-affirming content taking on a deeper meaning.

Los Angeles-based actress/singer/songwriter and full-time mother Brooke Josephson was raised in small-town Warsaw, IN. As a young adult, Josephson followed her dream to New York City to become an actress and has appeared in such high-profile shows as ABC’s long-running soap opera, “All My Children,” FOX’s hit series, “Bones” as well as the major motion pictures, “Enchanted” (Disney) and “Life As We Know It” (Warner Brothers). Leaving the business to begin her family and raise her two children, Josephson soon returned to the creative arts earning a Master’s certificate in songwriting from the esteemed Berklee School Of Music. In 2013, she released her first EP, LIVE AND LET LIVE. The SEXY N’ DOMESTICATED EP followed in 2018. Of SEXY N’ DOMESTICATED, AXS raved, “It’s a female-empowered, five-song album that showcases the beautiful songstress’ knack for combining catchy grooves with hook-laden melodies and introspective storytelling”.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up? Thanks so much for the opportunity to be part of Authority Magazine’s Interview Series!

So, I grew up on a 105-acre farm in Warsaw, Indiana with three brothers. As soon as we were old enough to run a lawnmower, we each had our own sections of the property to mow and help bail hay during the summer, pull weeds in my mom’s garden and flower beds, you name it, our parents were passionate about instilling a strong work ethic in us and were very involved at church. My mom says I was born singing and I got my start singing at church and for the school programs when I was about five years old. It just flowed from me and I felt at home on stage. It made me happy to see how happy it made those listening when I shared my voice in song and my mom fully embraced my passion for music early on. She bought an old upright piano at a garage sale for $200 and found a local piano teacher where I took weekly lessons. I vividly remember learning the middle C quickly because the ivory key had chipped off and had the rough-dried glue across the key so my thumb always knew where to find it. When I was about thirteen, our youth pastor’s wife had her bachelor’s in vocal performance, so I started taking voice lessons from her. She really prepared me for not only the songs I sang in church and for the school musicals but auditioning for college. I also played basketball and ran cross country and track in school and there came a point where I had to decide between music and sports. I remember my basketball coach stopping me in the hallway to tell me I was making a big mistake quitting basketball because I was a “natural point guard” and had a future ahead of me. I appreciated his belief in me, but I just couldn’t give up music. So, I went all in prepping for college auditions. Thankfully all of my hard work paid off since my Father believed that once I turned eighteen I was on my own, and I wound up earning a full scholarship in vocal performance at a private liberal arts college where I performed Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall in New York City with the choir my freshmen year and toured with an all-girls contemporary Christian singing group, Agape, that had the opportunity to perform in Ireland my junior year, as well as the school musicals, that then lead to the opportunity for me to be cast as a core company member at the Round Barn Theatre for a season right out of school. Most of the company was from New York City so it was a natural transition for me to then make the move to New York at the end of the season.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

In terms of songwriting, my voice teacher in college, Victoria Garrett, who had graduated from Manhattan School of Music and sung with Domingo at the San Francisco Opera after college, took me out for coffee at the Borders bookstore near campus and handed me a wrapped book. When I opened it, she smiled and told me she believed I was more than a singer, that I was a songwriter deep down and thought Sheila Davis’s workbook, Successful Lyric Writing could be a nice place to start. I carried it with me to NY and have it on the shelf in my studio today. I enjoyed working through it, but once I moved to NY I was so busy hustling between waitressing, auditioning, and booking gigs, that I wasn’t able to focus on songwriting as much as I had hoped. It really wasn’t until I did a show of covers in LA and so many people approached me afterward raving about the songs and thought I had written them. I had to explain that “Living Proof” was a Springsteen song, “Diamond in the Rough” was actually by Shawn Colvin and that’s when my husband came up and said, “you were born to write.” So, I went back to school for two years full time and got my master's certificate in songwriting from Berklee College of Music and have been all in since. Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career? One of my closest friends knows Chris Martin and shared my song, Rainbow with him and told me he was singing along with it in his house and said to tell me “Congratulations…it’s quite good.” The screams that came from kiddos after hearing that were priceless.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

So, I actually didn’t take up guitar until after my Live and Let Live release. I fell down the rabbit hole and really leaned into the Nile Rodgers guitar sound on Sexy N’ Domesticated. But when it came time to perform live for the EP release concert, I was so hyped on adrenaline I grabbed my guitar for the second song in the set and forgot that I had placed a pick between the strings on the neck pre-show and pulled a pick from my pocket out of habit and started rockin’ out, which sounded like shit. A photographer actually caught the moment, so I hung the pic in my studio as a reminder of how much I’ve grown.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

In addition to the Showin’ Up release and rehearsing for the release show at the Whisky a go on Saturday, February 26th, I am playing the voice of a fairy in a Disney feature, which is actually a dream come true. I took tons of voiceover classes when I first moved to LA and was part of a voiceover group for a few years. I had booked radio commercials through that group and loved the work, so it’s been fun being able to record the ADR from my home studio after dropping my kids off at school. I also will be playing the role of Alice in the feature NOBODY’S HOME that is filming in the Catskills in March. We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry.

Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

I am very passionate about diversity which you can see in how I produced the Rainbow music video with my Director and longtime friend, Michelle Bossy who is a Mexican American Filmmaker. Even though I was raised in a rural, mostly white, conservative Christian town, I became very sensitive to the importance of seeing and celebrating all of humanity as soon as I moved to New York City and joined the sea of diversity not only at auditions but just the day to day influence of other cultures. I lived in Harlem for about six years and fell in love with the sounds of hip-hop pumping from speakers my neighbors had in their windows. There is also this electrifying energy in Manhattan that is buzzing with opportunity. The smells of cuisines from all over the world, mixed with the signature Bronx, Brooklyn, and New Jersey accents in between pedestrians speaking multiple languages was beautiful to me. Whether I was on the subway or walking the streets, it was like a colorful tapestry of human beings hustling in a concrete jungle. I love how Lin-Manuel Miranda defied the traditional Musical Theatre structure and created a diverse masterpiece with Hamilton. My daughter is obsessed with it and knows every word and performs it in our house with such a deep passion you see that she connects with the humanity of the story. I have witnessed so many in our son and daughter’s generation led by the voice of Amanda Gorman, asking America to heal the wounds of its dark history. I believe film, television, fashion and all of the arts quite frankly, demand diversity. I chose to move beyond the worldview I was born into but for someone who hasn’t, a film or television show has the power of exposing and educating them to see the world in a broader light.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

“F Less than” I struggled when I first moved to New York City going to auditions in my early twenties. I was up against performers who had Musical Theatre Conservatory degrees and it was cutthroat. My boyfriend at the time had graduated from the Hart Conservatory and his circle of friends all graduated from big Musical Theatre Schools and several took pleasure in reminding the “small-town girl” that I hadn’t. I started to feel inferior and struggled with this “less than” complex, but also didn’t know how to turn off the drive to put myself out there. As I started booking leading roles, some of our “friends” turned on me and eventually that social circle dissolved as most of them quit the business altogether. Some because they couldn’t handle hearing “no” more than “yes,” and others didn’t have the patience to wait tables or temp to pay the bills between gigs. I wasted so much energy at the beginning letting their degrees and cutting words mess with my head. It reared its ugly head again after I became a mother. I remember getting off the phone with our accountant feeling ashamed that my earnings took a nose dive the year I was pregnant. This sent me into a tailspin that I was somehow “less than” my husband because I didn’t earn as much during previous years simply due to motherhood. I wish I could give my younger self a hug and scream “less than?!?! You put your career on hold to bring a human being into the world. F less than!” Jean size does not define you. When I first moved to Los Angeles and started going to auditions most of the girls up for the same roles as me were coat hanger skinny. I have always been avid about my health and working out but I was in my twenties and felt the pressure to literally waste away to make it. I got sucked into getting by all day on only coffee and double-dipping at the gym. Close friends became concerned but I couldn’t hear it at the time. I was getting compliments and castings. Couldn’t my friends just be happy for me? Of course not, because “success” was literally killing me. It wasn’t until I became very sick after my daughter was born and was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease, an autoimmune disease of the thyroid, that I could embrace loving the body I was given and the importance of taking care of it. I also felt an obligation to raise my daughter by example…beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and it’s more fun to love the skin I’m in. Beware of dream stealers. As an artist, it’s important to have a safe support system. I’m a very trusting person and want to see the best in people, so I have had to learn the hard way from getting burnt by those with ego-driven agendas and ulterior motives, that people need to earn the right into my heart and creative soul. The hardest part has been saying goodbye to what could have been and not beating myself up for not seeing their intentions sooner. If you love it, that’s all that matters. I will forever remember the moment I shared my song, Burning Journals at a writer’s conference and a former A&R executive stopped me mid-song in front of everyone bellowing, “Stop stop stop! Who says Burning Journals? NO ONE. Write something someone would actually say.” It got me so fired up that I went to my car and wrote the song No for an Answer. I’ve lost track of how many people have sent me emails thanking me for both songs. And the best is when I shared my song The Lesson with someone I admire in the business and they initially told me they hated it, then recently heard it on the prerelease of my Showin’ Up EP and couldn’t stop raving about how great it was. Same song, they were just in a different headspace and totally forgot what they said. Go figure. Know the difference between grind and grit. I was reading Brene Brown’s book, Atlas of the Heart, and was blown away by her defining the difference between grind and grit. Grit is having the balls to walk away from something no longer serving you whereas grinding away at something out of fear of leaving is just keeping us from all we’re meant to be. I would have had that on my bathroom mirror as a daily reminder to evaluate if I was grinding away at a job or relationship or if it was grit driving me to stick it out. I let too many mentors overstay their welcome when I was just starting out.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I have a tendency to overcommit and then burnout because I’ve said yes too many times. A friend of mine told me, “just because you could do everything, doesn’t mean you should do everything.” So I’m learning to not only take a break to refuel by doing yoga, meditating and writing but also bringing on help for projects or passing when I simply don’t have time to take it on.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

You never know what your idea can trigger. :-) I’m a total empath, as are my daughter and son. It’s both a blessing and a curse to compassionately feel and see the needs of the rising homeless crisis, the economic, racial, gender, health and educational inequality in America. I can’t solve all of the world’s or America’s problems but I can start small with an issue that has personally affected my family and that’s creating a platform that empowers teens and parents with tools to use social media for good. The internet was born when I was in high school and my parents wouldn’t let me have an aol messenger account, which I’m actually grateful for because I witnessed more drama at school over who wrote what about who the night before and I was too busy living in the present. I didn’t have a cell phone and managed to make it to college without one. Cut to, I’m navigating raising a teenage girl where everyone has a cell phone and she’s been bullied on social media where her school got involved and used the incident as a teaching opportunity for the entire grade. I actually wasn’t even upset with the student that made a bad choice because she clearly hadn’t been given guidance on using social media to spread kindness. Many parents are under an increased amount of stress with work and it’s very easy to let a device become a babysitter where teens' brains haven’t developed yet to process the negative sides of social media and texting. The Wall Street Journal did an incredible investigative piece specifically on Tiktok’s algorithm and how it targets users, specifically the most vulnerable, our kids. I really believe it takes a village to support the next generation and we owe it to them to have our lawmakers reign in the power the social media platforms have on manipulating and controlling teenagers' identities, mental and emotional well-being and self-worth. My daughter is living proof of how children can make a positive difference in people’s lives on social media. She has been a Jr Ambassador for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles since she was seven years old and came up with the concept of providing children too sick to have visitors a weekly storytime where Shira shares a book a week on her website www.shirasstorycorner.com. She has also been able to raise over $15,000 per year from direct donations and the sales of the children’s books she’s written each year and donates all of the proceeds to the CHLA Literally Healing Program that provides patients with free books. The internet has the power to make a difference if we give this generation the tools for good. None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

This is so true. I don’t have a single story other than giving thanks to key people who have been in my corner along the way. My first voice teacher, Tammie Huntington. My College Voice teacher, Victoria Garrett not only encouraged me to be a songwriter, but introduced me to the late Broadway Producer, Buryl Red, and Tony Award-Winning Composer Jeanine Tesori, that I assisted during the run of the Tony Award-Winning Broadway Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Caroline or Change. To my acting coach, Julie Garfield, daughter of the late John Garfield, for prepping me for auditions that led to all of my TV and Film credits in NY to ultimately meeting my husband, Barry Josephson and moving to Los Angeles, where he has been incredibly supportive of my work as an actress, musician as well as partner and Father to our kids and introduced me Tony Berg and my guitar teacher Shawn Fleming who demystified the guitar and introduced me to my band’s lead guitarist, Chris Nordlinger and Tim Pierce, who played on the Showin’ Up EP.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I love Dolly Parton quotes. One of my favorites is, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” As grateful as I was to earn a vocal performance scholarship at a Private Christian Liberal Arts College, I found all the politics in the name of Jesus and people “feeling called” to tell me I shouldn’t wear makeup or a blouse that showed my collar bones or telling me that God “gave you the gift of music to only glorify Him by singing in church,” exhausting. The way I’ve always seen it, God’s love is bigger than church or religion and I’m doing just fine following the voice I was given instead of letting others dictate who I’m supposed to be for them.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

That’s tough, there are so many people I would love to have a private breakfast with and hear their stories. But if I had to pick one person it would be Dolly Parton. I read her book, Songteller over the holidays last year and even though I learned so much from reading her book, which felt like a porthole to just pick up the pages and get “lost in Dolly,” I would love to sit with her and hear more stories. She and I have a similar background of growing up in church, and my mom’s side of the family are straight from the Appalachians where my Grandpa Jackson lied about his age to join the army just so he could have food and shoes. I’m grateful for inheriting my Grandpa Jackson’s generous spirit. He came from nothing but a house with dirt floors and still gave like a king. He made sure each of his grandkids got the toy they wanted at Christmas and gave a crisp Ben Franklin to every Grandchild over the age of 15 even when he only made a living selling cattle at the sale barn. Grandma Jackson used to play Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Jonny Cash on her radio in the kitchen when we would come over to pick strawberries and make jam. She would hum along with Dolly and even though I didn’t pursue country music, it’s in my roots and I can’t think of any performer that has shown more unconditional love for others and herself with such flair and self-deprecating sense of humor than Dolly Parton. I also don’t know of a woman who has written as many songs. I did a cover of her song, “PMS Blues” live, that just proves her point that you can write a song about anything. I’d also love to learn the secret to how she plays guitar with her gorgeous fingernails.

How can our readers follow you online?

I am on Facebook and Instagram @brookejosephsonmusic and on Twitter @thebrookles “Brookles” (rhymes with bubbles) was the nickname my mom gave me as a kid and it stuck.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!