SPILL FEATURE: HOPE AND LOOKING UP – A CONVERSATION WITH CAROLINE MARIE BROOKS

HOPE AND LOOKING UP

A CONVERSATION WITH CAROLINE MARIE BROOKS

Caroline Marie Brooks, for the last 20 years, has been and continues to be one third of the Good Lovelies. A trio who have established themselves as a premier folk band. However, as much as she loves being part of that band, she has also a solo career in between projects by the Good Lovelies. Light & Matter is her second full length studio album, following 2021’s Everything at the Same Time. She will also be debuting her album in a big way, with three record launch parties, the first being on October 22, 2026 at 918 Bathurst in Toronto, followed by shows in Huntsville (October 23), Greenbank Folk Society (November 7) and Dundas (November 8). All the information can be found on her website.

I had the opportunity to speak with Brooks about the show and the new album via Zoom. The new album, Light & Matter was recorded in Nova Scotia, which proved interesting and somewhat inspirational to Brooks.

“The only way I can explain this record is a little bit of coincidence and a little bit of serendipity. I am very busy with the Good Lovelies. It is a project I love, and it has been the main focus for me for the last, well coming up on 20 years, this December. I had a collection of songs that I had been working on, and they were sort of forcefully coming to the surface. Around the same time, I was thinking about making another solo album because that was coming up to five years ago. All these songs were happening, and my friend Joshua Van Tassel, who is an incredible producer and percussionist, messaged me and said I want to make your next solo record. It was kind of serendipity that these things fell into line. I bit the bullet and I brought Dean Drouillard and Josh Dean, and I made this record in about five days.”

Five Days! That is an incredibly short amount of time to record an album in today’s world of recorded music.

“Most was recorded live off the floor and then added a few elements. There are not a lot of musicians on the record, other than Christine Bougie and a guest vocal by Colin Carbonera, but it was a very quick process. We made the record in April, and it is being released in October. It was this desire to…basically I am at a point in my life and ‘why wait?’. It is kind of my life’s vibe right now, ‘I just want to do it, do things I love and put it out in the world.’ It is a real “why not” kind of record.”

PURCHASE LIGHT AND MATTER VIA BANDCAMP

Brooks recorded in Nova Scotia for a very practical reason.

“Well, Josh [Dean] lives out East now. It is an incredible recording space. We decided to remove ourselves from the chaos of our lives. If I made this in Toronto, I would be going home to my family every night and getting out of the zone. It was a really insular kind of experience and the atmosphere is beautiful. We are right on the LaHave River. The visions of tracking guitar and looking out and seeing the branches outside the window, it was a really beautiful experience. A lot of the songs were already written and inspired by nature.”

Although Brooks admits music is enjoyed by a very large group, she often writes for herself.

“Almost all my songwriting is very personal, ultimately songwriting for me is translating the personal into a more universal feeling,” said Brooks, “so even if I am singing about a specific person and use their name in the song, I think there is room for us to find reflection in ourselves. I don’t always write with the intention of the listener. Songwriting is a very personal and very vulnerable act. Feist was talking about this. You write a song and release it and it is no longer yours. You can have your own interpretation of it. I could say I wrote this song for this, this and this, but people will say it means this and that to me, and that is a very special experience for a songwriter.”

One song on the new album is about poet Mary Oliver, a writer Brooks admires.

“I went to Banff Centre of the Arts a couple of years ago, and I was able to spend some time in a little cabin for a couple of weeks by myself. I had been reading a lot of Mary Oliver poetry. I was working through this collection of essays, and one of the parts of the book that stood out for me is what she was talking about, I’m paraphrasing, as humans we observe beauty and we have inclination to express the beauty and she says butterflies are like writing poetry about their own beauty and that song struck me on many levels. It was something I call a ‘flow song’ or a ‘song gift’ because it came out, almost in its entirety in the first writing. It is a love song to Mary Oliver and a love song to her writing. She is trying to communicate the magic in the absolutely mundane or ordinary. I love that.”

Another song that was highlighted during our conversation was “The Pool,” a brilliant song that, in Brooks’ words, “almost didn’t make it on the album.” Thankfully Josh insisted that the song made the album. “It is a very relatable song,” agreed Brooks. “That feeling of just being completely overwhelmed.”  The song also features the only time there is a guest vocalist, Alberta’s Colin Carbonera. “Colin does a beautiful job,” agreed Brooks.

“I hope they feel two things. One is a sense of hopefulness, because I feel right now, we are in this ‘doom spiral’ and I am so hopeful, and I hope that comes across in the music. I also hope that it reminds people to look up. Be aware of how magical it is to live on this planet. When I say this planet, I am referring to everyone around us. These are the two feelings I hope people walk with.

Caroline Marie Brooks Links

Good Lovelies Links

Photo Credit: Jen Squires