Brooke Palsson coming home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/04/2014 (4382 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s taken over half a year, but Brooke Palsson’s EP The Willow will be released April 26 in her hometown of Winnipeg.

“We were able to do an early release on iTunes and so far there has been a lot of positive response,” Palsson, 20, said. “I had a show back in December that went exceptionally well and it was a really amazing time.

“I didn’t have the CDs at the time, so now I’m really excited to get them to the audience who are coming to my shows.”

She and producer Keith Macpherson, of Keith and Renée, completed the pop/roots/folk EP last summer.

The actress /singer also had the opportunity of a lifetime as she was accepted into the Canadian Film Centre Actors Conservatory, of which Kiefer Sutherland is the founding chair.

The conservatory only accepts eight blooming actors a year so the Whyte Ridge native was shocked when she was accepted. The training in Toronto lasted six months and helped her not only in acting but the business aspect of the entertainment industry.

“For me that’s one of the greatest things I learned at the program,” Palsson said. “How to steer my career, how to cross promote myself as both an actor and a musician, how to use that to my advantage.”

Palsson said since her singing career has started to take off, she’s been asked often whether she will still act.

“They seem to think for some reason that my focus will be taken off acting and just put on music,” Palsson said. “But for me, the two worlds can really meet and I think that my career can only be more promising and stable if I’m doing both.”

Palsson wrote six of eight songs that are on the EP, while I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry was written by Hank Williams, and Come Back was written by Palsson, Chris Burke-Gaffney, and Macpherson. Palsson said all her songs circulate around her first love.

“This person that I knew in high school who really spoke to me and really had a big impact in my life,” Palsson said, adding he doesn’t know the whole album is about him. “Two songs he has heard, he knew, and we talked about them, but they were two songs that actually didn’t make the album.”

Palsson said cutting songs wasn’t that hard for her.

“You think it would be, but they are songs that I can always revisit,” Palsson said. “Even some of the songs on the album if I end up making a full-length album I’ll want to revisit. Two songs in particular are The Willow and Travelling Soul.”

As for the future, Palsson wants more — more acting, more singing, and more albums.

“Even as far as my sound goes, I think it’s going to take a bit of a turn,” Palsson said. “I think my music is already kind of folky, but I’d really like to keep a little bit of that aspect and that element, but I’d really like to venture into the soul scene a bit more.”

Palsson will touch down in Winnipeg just after Easter, in time for the release party on April 26.
The Park Theatre (698 Osborne St.) will be hosting the event starting at 8 p.m. with special guest Ila Barker. Tickets at $20 at the door.

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