How did we get to the edge of the world? Brooke Combe in interview  

Daniel Brown on 18 February 2025

For an artist, finding their sound can be as difficult a task as any, but through returning to her roots, embracing her authenticity and having an innate ability for contemporary soul songwriting, Brooke Combe has irrefutably defined herself as a must hear. Ahead of the release of her debut album, Dancing At The Edge Of The World, I chatted with Combe to delve deeper into the album’s meaning, her songwriting process and just how we got to the edge of the world in the first place.  

Immediately the apocalyptic title grabs you and pulls you in, with the story of its origin mimicking the authenticity Combe displays across the album.  

“There was a book that my producer James Skelly was reading about Marilyn Monroe’s life, and someone described Marilyn as so beautiful, she seemed like she was dancing on the edge of the world. James brought that to me, and I thought “at” was better and pretty fitting for what I was going through at Island Records because I finally felt free, and the chains were gone, giving me full artistic freedom. So yeah, it just felt very fitting for that time. It’s quite beautiful.”  

The shedding of skin is evident from the prelude to the final note of the title track closer, but this newfound Brooke Combe is not so newfound for Combe herself.  

“It’s been recorded for a year now. We did it last January so I’m just desperate for people to hear it, have their opinions on it and I’ve already got album two on the brain now.”  

Looking to the future is where Combe thrives, with the final single for the album ‘This Town’ being an anthem for small town dreamers who just can’t be contained. An infectious guitar riff and painfully genuine lyricism play their parts in a contemporary soul masterpiece, which channels the voice of Dalkeith’s finest.  

“For a few years my manager was asking me to try and write a song about home and he wanted it to have Scottish characteristics or something personal like a street name near mine and I was struggling with that, it just didn’t feel right at the time. Then when the album was almost finished, we still needed more types of tunes. My producer gave me some chords, I didn’t love them, but there were a few chords in the progression that I thought could work, so I started messing about and noodling on that. Then, I got on my girls group chat going, “Right girls what do you think about the boys from Dalkeith” and they came back with, “spice boys, still living with their mum, sun beds” and things like that and I basically just put it all together and it just worked.”  

As glowing as these character references are for the men of Dalkeith, comfort can be found by them in knowing they’re immortalised in as catchy a song as you can find. The track is indebted to Combe’s time in Dalkeith, a debt repaid by Combe returning to the streets of her hometown to film the single’s music video.  

“It was bittersweet. I’m proud to be Scottish and I’m proud to be from where I’m from. I think being from a small town shapes you in a lot of ways and gives you a lot of different ambitions that maybe somebody in a city might not have. I also don’t want the people where I’m from thinking that I hate them, so we were trying to find that balance and I think we smashed that. It was very low budget and felt small town.”  

Combe’s pride in her roots is apparent, both in her words in this interview and the authenticity she lets shine in her music. Whilst her passions and drive led her to make that jump out of Scotland, her music remains a constant irrespective of geography.  

[In response to ‘is your songwriting affected by your location?’] “I’ll be honest, I think not really. I’m pretty much somebody who just goes for what they’re feeling in the moment. I like being at home [Dalkeith] because there’s a lot more space i.e. field, forestry, reservoirs, the lot. So, I like having my downtime to give me the headspace to think about what kind of songs I want to write. The last project was very circumstantial the way I wrote that in terms of it being about what my dad was going through and seeing him go through struggles. I think it will be interesting this year as I’m hoping to buy a house in Liverpool so it will be interesting to see how my circumstances play into that.”  

The emotional principles Combe has used to craft her sound are cultivated both in isolation with her guitar and collaboration in the studio, allowing her to balance both emotionally deep lyrics and incredibly groovy melodies. When asked on the role of both, she had this to say:  

“I think musically its quite 50-50, actually maybe not 50-50, maybe 60-40, but it is the music which gives it that soul and funkiness. We recorded it as a live band like how all my favourite old bands from Motown did it so that creates the sound. On top of that, I think with the songwriting, specifically on songs like ‘This Town’, I tried to write it more souly with the groove and lyrics, whereas with a song like ‘Dancing At The Edge Of The World’ I wouldn’t necessarily say the melody or lyrics [are funky]- but you can put them into soul. It’s more the track that comes with it being sort of cinematic.”  

This sonic prowess has helped craft a variety of tunes across the album all with their own edge, however there is one which Combe is particularly eager to give to the masses.  

“The song is called ‘Butterfly’. It goes into escapism; the good, the bad, the ugly, plus it was a completely different writing style for me. My vocals don’t sound like me basically, I’m using a lot more of my top voice, my falsetto, so I’m really really excited for people to hear it.”  

Whilst the album is a brilliant trip down the avenue that is modern soul, Combe refuses to be defined by her production alone, boasting a stellar knack for live performance. This ability has already led her to play some of Leeds’ biggest stages such as Leeds Festival in 2022, O2 academy and her personal favourite, a sold-out Brudenell.  

“On the tour, we had to reschedule that show, as when we first got there and set up my agents said they didn’t want me to sing out of fear I’d mess up my voice [due to strains she had at the time] and so we had to cancel. So, we rescheduled and came back and that left us in the old room on this tiny stage, but it was class. The fans and the crowd were just great.”  

Combe returns to Leeds in April to play Project House on her Dancing At The Edge Of The World tour and her debut album of the same name comes out January 31st. 

Written by Dan Brown

Frazey Ford plays Brudenell: cool country for an icy evening

GryphonEditorAdm on 3 December 2021

As she strides on-stage, Frazey Ford nonchalantly places her glass of red wine on the speaker positioned next to her and leans over her guitar into the mic. “We’re gonna play some songs,” she says. “That’s how this goes.”

It’s a cool start to an icy night. Many of the crowd, as Ford acknowledges, have faced treacherous roads and slippery pavement to get to the thrice-rearranged gig tonight. After an 18-month wait, both anticipation and expectations are high. Just as well then that the country singer more than exceeds the bar set for her.

The Canadian songstress first garnered acclaim as a founding member of the alt-folk band The Be Good Tanyas  and saw much success throughout the noughties (including headlining the Royal Albert Hall in 2006) before striking out on her own in 2010. Since then, much of her solo work has paired confessional storytelling with soul-tinged Americana to create a catalog that is laidback, comforting yet somehow melancholic.  

Ambling through her setlist, Ford creates a space that feels relaxed and intimate, although there is still a sense that each song is born from a considered place of raw emotion. Switching out her acoustic to sit at her keyboard, her vocals simmer over the soulful grooves of her back band during ‘Azad’, a song dedicated to and named after Ford’s sister. What’s interesting though is that new tracks like these pack as much of a punch as old favourites like empowering breakup anthem ‘Done’ and ‘September Fields’, a lament on life’s purpose marinated in a bouncy swing of interplaying guitars.

The show draws to a close as Ford returns to the keyboard for ‘U Kin B The Sun’, the title track of her most recent album. Through both her honeyed vocals and sweet repartie with the crowd, the singer crafts story after story to begin to weave a picture of her innermost thoughts and feelings. However, Frazey Ford’s biggest strength is being warm enough to draw her audience in while retaining a coolness that keeps us gasping for more.

Remembering Sam Cooke, the King of Soul

Benjamin Forrest on 9 December 2020

Sam Cooke was undeniably one of the most well-known and influential artists in mid-20th Century America. Rising to fame singing in the gospel group The Soul Stirrers in the early 1950’s before starting an incredibly successful solo career in 1957, Cooke is often hailed as the ‘King of Soul’. Cooke’s success laid the way for soul legends such as Aretha Franklin, Al Green and Marvin Gaye (among countless others) and the influence of Cooke cannot be underestimated within the general history of popular music. His beauteous, effortlessly emotive touched the lives of millions and remains popular to this day, with artists such as Beyoncé covering his work. 

Enjoying much commercial success in the late 50’s, with singles such as ‘You Send Me’, ‘I’ll Come Running Back to You’ and ‘Wonderful World’ gaining a lot of traction in the charts, as Cooke moved into the 1960’s the rise of the Civil Rights Movement inevitably had an influence on Cooke’s work. His greatest work ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ became an anthem for the Civil Rights movement  and was performed for the first and only time of the Tonight Show in February 1964. The song expresses a melancholic hopefulness regarding African American rights, rather than expressing outright anger as many songs of the time did. 

Whilst this politicisation of his music  lost him the support of many white listeners, the issue of Civil Rights was something Cooke was unable to ignore any longer. The events of Little Rock in 1957, the 1961 Freedom Rides, 1963 March on Washington, among other vital events on the timeline of the Civil Rights movement, had caused many African American musicians to become politicised within their music – perhaps most notably Nina Simone and ‘Mississippi Goddamn’ (released 1964). Music as a form of political protest was not a new idea, especially within the issue of Civil Rights, Billie Holiday released ‘Strange Fruit’ in 1939 which was not only an amazing song but also perhaps the first time protest music had been popular since the marching songs of the Civil War. 

The legacy of ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ lives on – the song has been covered by a plethora of legendary artists including Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Lizzo and Beyoncé. The lyrics were even referenced by President Barack Obama after his victory in the 2008 Presidential Election. 

December 11th, 2020 marks 56 years since Cooke’s death, which is still viewed by many as a great injustice. Cooke was shot to death in a sleazy Los Angeles motel by hotel manager and pimp, Bertha Franklin, after an alleged altercation with a 22-year-old woman, Elisa Boyer,  who was later found out to have a record of prostitution. After just a 2-hour inquest into his death, it was ruled justifiable and Franklin was not charged. Whether Cooke had attacked or been violent with either Franklin or Boyer we will never know, but either way you spin it, it is evident that Cooke’s death was not of much note to the LAPD. As boxing icon, and personal friend of Cooke, Muhammed Ali said “If Cooke had been Frank Sinatra, The Beatles or Ricky Nelson the FBI would be investigating…and that woman would be sent to prison”. The facts that Franklin had a record for pimping, and Boyer had been arrested for prostitution were not even known by the LAPD at the time, because they simply did not bother to check – the entire case was open and shut within 2 hours, showing to many that the LAPD simply did not care. Justice was not served. Cooke, in their eyes, was just another dead black man. Furthermore, these attitudes seemingly have not changed within America: Run DMC’s Jam Master Jay, Tupac, and the Notorious B.I.G. were all murdered and none of their murders have ever been solved, largely due to a lack of effort to solve them. These injustices are indicative of the extent of racism within the United States; it does not matter who you are, or how successful you have become, you are just another dead black man to the Police and the courts. 

Nevertheless, Sam Cooke’s spirit lives on through his music, which sounds just as good today as it would have done 60 years ago, the soulfulness of Cooke’s music transcends time and his voice will never grow old. Rightfully hailed as the King of Soul, Cooke still acts as a beacon of hope for anybody and everybody still determined that “a change gonna come”.