For over a decade Brooke Candy has been dazzling and shocking the world with her grimy, erotic, and boppy tunes, videos, and looks. She's toured with Charli XCX, CupcakKe, and Lizzo and collaborated with everybody who's anybody.
This past Summer she released her latest LP, CANDYLAND, proving her lasting relevance with songs like "Das Still Me" and "Block." Her follow-up album, SPIRAL, was released on October 4th. Go check them both out.
Brooke dropped by the Fashion Brand karate dojo warehouse emporium to bless us with a fashion shoot not too long ago. In between the snapping of shots we peppered her with questions. Here's the result of that:
FBC: It seems like you've paved the way for a lot of what's happening in alter-na-pop these days.
Somebody told me, "You walked so that Eartheater could run." That's like a nice thing to say, but also it's a diss because that means I'm still "walking." "I taught her how to run." But what do I get out of that? I'm seeing all the girls doing stuff I did five years ago.
People with huge budgets and big labels behind them can buy anyone because everyone is a hooker. They can buy anyone and they can get anything they want. They can get your creative team. They can get the outfit that you made for yourself and thought about for six months and put it on a giant stage for 100,000 people to see. Who's going to know that I did it first?
And then those people are making money from ideas that me and my friends came up with for fun and they're making bank. And we're all broke.
Candyland and Spiral are like a two-part album. But what's the dynamic between them? Like, are they like sisters? Are they evolutions ofeach other?
Totally. They're like distant cousins, almost third cousins. They're distant relatives that are completely different characters, but were started at the same time.
So I recorded a lot of music to go on the first album, but I had a lot of songs left over. Now I'm doing sessions every day to try to beat what I made before. Candyland was three years of feeling like, "I don't even know what I'm doing. I just want to make music and see what happens." And I think Spiral is me trying to perfect the voice and the character and do it in a way where I feel like I don't need to make another album for a minute because I'm so happy with what I made.
I think that what happens when I decide to make something is that I become what I'm trying to convey with the body of work.
When I made Candyland, I was really composed, sober, and trying really hard. So if I'm going to make an album called Spiral then I'm going to be actually spiraling the whole time and the music is going to reflect that.
Have you ever had issues with creative block?
You know, I've had creative block for like my whole life until I made Sexorcism. And even then I was still creatively blocked because Ashnikko wrote most of that album. So now I'm actually writing all my own music and the creative block is finally gone. It took me until I was 33, 34.
I'm on fire. I feel I need to make as much as I can while I'm in this headspace because it could go away and then I might never have it again.
Do you have any tips for getting past creative block?
I'm currently in a creative block. Well, like, is it a visual creative block or is it musical?
Are they different?
Yeah, because music is collaborative. There's like five people in the room. And you have to be on everybody's Wavelength.
Well, what about people who are like, "I have the ideas, but I'm blocked in enacting those Ideas?"
I mean, that's really, really, really, really hard. If you want the tea, the reason why I pushed through with any of my ideas, even when they were so bad, was because I was high.
Not to be like a drug promoter, but you feel invincible and like you can do anything in the world.
When you're high all of your ideas feel like the most brilliant ideas in the world, even though they're awful and you sound tone deaf and the video is trash. You're going to be able to get people to believe that it's the shit.
If you can't use drugs to get there, you just have to trick yourself. Once you've gotten older and you've experienced life, you can't be as delusional though.
It's actually good to hate what you make. My two driving forces are hating everything I do and thinking that it sucks and I want to do it better and then take revenge against everybody that never believed in me.
That's really helpful, actually.
All I want to do is prove that I'm a musician because I know for a fact so many people think I'm not one. They're like, "You're always naked online. You're not a real musician."
And so my drive is to show them all. I'm going to be in the studio for the next two years. And then I'm going to make at least one song that blows all you pieces of shit away.
What's your least favorite interview question?
Lately, it's been a lot of them. I dislike being asked what my favorite song is. I dislike being asked about drama or if I've been hanging out with other pop stars. I find that to be very annoying because it's not reality.
It always makes me feel embarrassed as well because, yeah, I made a few songs with Charli, but we're not partying every night, you know. She's working
I also don't love to be asked about old music. And I don't know. I actually really don't care. I like all questions. I changed my answer to that. I like when you talk to me. So that's my new answer.
