On the Rise
Brooke Combe

“Soul used to be massive in Britain but it just sort of fizzled out with all the legends,” she says, adding that she’s happy to be one of the artists bringing it back into the mainstream. “I quite like it because you stand out a bit more than the 50,000 indie bands that are out there. People are getting more involved and excited about soul as a genre again.”

Combe’s 2023 mixtape Black is the New Gold was her first solid venture into releasing entirely soul-infused songs. Personal and thought-provoking, the eight-song set explored oppression and ideas of typical femininity through the lens of a tender homage to her Black roots – a theme she has stepped away from with her upcoming debut album proper, Dancing at the Edge of the World.

“This album has been written from someone else’s perspective,” she explains. “It's less about me and what I'm going through, and more about what somebody else, who I love, has been going through.” Writing in this different way has given her “a totally different frame of mind,” she says. “To be honest, I'm quite happy in my life at the minute, so I'm glad it wasn't a heartbreak album again.”

The recording, too, was done in a completely different way to Black is the New Gold. This time she worked with a live band in the studio and recorded to tape, allowing themselves just three takes for each song. “We only had two or three full weeks to do the album, so time was really of the essence,” she says. “For a while we were also hemming and hawing on getting strings for the record. They’re quite expensive, but for my first sort-of-debut album, I wouldn't have had it any other way.”

In terms of the sound itself, Brooke wanted Dancing at the Edge of the World to sound like an old-school soul record, akin to the work Michael Kiwanuka and Leon Bridges are famed for. Working once again with producer James Skelly of The Coral – well known for their love of vintage analogue sounds – Combe’s ambition is evident from the get-go with “This Town”, a vibrant look at her teen years living in the small Scottish town of Dalkeith, a short drive southeast of Edinburgh, and wanting to escape.

“There's not much going on where I'm from,” she explains. “As far as a small town goes, it's just your local pub, you've got your group of mates, and you do the same thing all the time. Sometimes we’d go to the city centre, to Edinburgh itself, but it's not got that great of a musical presence. If I was from Glasgow, I’d probably be saying something completely different.”

At the other end of the record sits the funk and soul-drenched title track, a song that Combe wrote about staying true to herself and overcoming self-doubt after parting ways with Island Records. The name is borrowed from a book of essays by Ursula K. LeGuin, which Skelly was reading at the time, but it wasn’t always going to be the title of the album. As Combe explains, “We released [that song] before I’d named the album. I was talking to James and we were trying to think of album titles and I was just like, ‘Should we just call it Dancing at the Edge of the World?’ He said he’d wanted to suggest it but didn’t want to just tell me that. He wanted me to think of it for myself.”

Another mooted title was “Butterfly”, after the Tame Impala meets Sgt Pepper psychedelia album track that Combe says she’s most excited for fans to hear. “To not give too much away, it’s about the good sides of escapism but also the bad sides too,” she explains. “Vocally, it sounds nothing like I've ever done before. It’s still got that modern soul to it, but the atmosphere was created by my guitarist Danny [Murphy]. He went wild on this and really created this atmospheric, trippy space. It’s still hard to put my finger on.”

Another standout moment, “Lanewood Pines” feels the furthest from the indie-veering sound of Combe’s earlier releases, and celebrates youth, love, and fun as opposed to the darker, pleading themes veined through Black is the New Gold. Written in less than 20 minutes, together with Murphy, the song is named after the apartment complex where the two were staying while in Los Angeles for songwriting sessions after performing at SXSW in 2023.

“One of the producers phoned us one day and said, ‘Would you mind coming to the studio a little bit later today?” says Combe, explaining how they used the extra time to write something new for the session. “I remember it so clearly! Danny was sitting on the couch and started playing these chords and I heard this melody, so I pulled up a little keyboard on my phone and tried to find it. Once I’d figured that out, the words came to me instantly. It reminded me of that feeling when you've had a boss night out and you're with somebody you love, and then you part ways and you're just lying in your bed, buzzing about the night, and you just want to speak to them on the phone about it.”

It was Murphy who suggested that they replace a lyric in the song with the reference to Lanewood Pines. “I thought it sounded a bit random but it fit perfectly and I’m really glad we named it that,” she says, adding that it reminds her of something Nintendo might name one of their Mario Kart tracks.

Dancing at the Edge of the World feels like a massive step forward in confidence for Combe, and she attributes that partly to her experience of touring with Miles Kane, who she describes as “really charismatic and a good frontman.” “My confidence was through the roof afterwards,” she says. Her indie roots haven’t been completely discarded though. Last year, she featured on Courteneers’ melodic album opener “Sweet Surrender” after receiving a last-minute call from Skelly who was producing the record. “I just said ‘I’ll be there in 10 minutes,’ and it was very in-and-out,” she says. “Honestly, I was done within 30 minutes.”

She’s also a fan of rising Liverpool indie-pop band Keyside, who featured on the playlist of songs she’d listen to during the making of Dancing at the Edge of the World. Other artists in the mix were Michael Kiwanuka and Raye (“she’s smashing it”), The Beatles, and Sabrina Carpenter. “People probably wouldn’t think that I’d be really into her, but I can’t deny it. She’s just too catchy!”

Perhaps it’s not so surprising. Combe has a similarly irresistible charm, it seems, and it’s that fizzing energy that she’s bringing with her into 2025 and to the rollout of Dancing at the Edge of the World. “We're going full throttle,” she says. “So tell your mates, tell your grandparents, tell your aunties and uncles, the lot.”