Brooke Josephson and the art of perfect timing
Over the course of her life, Brooke Josephson has proven equally dangerous as a singer/songwriter and actor, but talk to her for a few minutes and it’s clear that her favorite gig is mom. That’s not an easy job no matter how you slice it, so when you add in that she’s just released a new EP, Sexy N’ Domesticated, and is open to a return to acting for the right project, she’s had to pull off quite the juggling act as she and her husband, Barry, raise their two children.
But Josephson had a good example to follow in her mom.
“She raised four kids on her own and didn’t have help,” said the proud daughter. “And she was running a company. I asked her, ‘How did you do it?’”
The response was that while it wasn’t easy, there were no cell phones, email, 24/7 access to someone and expectations were different. Josephson, who didn’t see the dawn of the internet age until high school, has to deal with different issues.
“My daughter is in second grade, and we talked about the things kids talk about on the school bus,” she laughs, knowing what’s coming next — every parent’s nightmare. “There are topics that I didn’t think we would touch on yet. It is scary.”
But with those lines of communication open, Josephson has her daughter on the right track, and the second grader has even become a junior ambassador for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, coming up with a program where she makes videos of herself reading books for children in the hospital who can’t take visitors.
That’s powerful and positive, and also a sign that it’s a new world out there, one that Josephson addresses on Sexy N’ Domesticated, even though she started writing it before the events of the last year.
“I’ve written these songs over the last four years and it’s interesting, the shift that’s been happening with women speaking up and having a voice now,” she said. “I went to the Women’s March in January and this movement is happening and I had no idea as I was writing that any of these events would unfold as they have over the last year. I was writing coming from my own reality and I was hoping to empower women, and then this just started happening, so it’s exciting, especially being the mom of a daughter, for her to see this is the world she’s growing up in, that women can speak up for themselves and be both sexy and domesticated.”
Josephson also touches on cyberbullying on “Horrified,” yet while there are serious topics broached, she approaches them in a way where she’s not preaching, saying “Do this,” “Do that.” Instead, she’s telling a story with the kind of wit that keeps people engaged and listening.
“I think you have to have a sense of humor,” said the Indiana native. “You can’t take yourself too seriously and you can’t take life too seriously. I grew up in the Midwest and grew up in church, and things are more effective if you’re not preaching at people. I don’t want to get preached at.”
What she does want is to keep making music. As for acting, she doesn’t have a problem with going back to that either.
“There are projects that I’ve had presented to me, even in the time that I was working on this record, but I had a lot on my plate,” Josephson said. “If it’s the right kind of role, I would totally be open to it, but I will say that it has been incredibly rewarding doing my own music over the last few years and really taking the time and not rushing it and also being present for my kids at the same time, because it’s just going by so fast. I don’t regret the pace that I’ve gone at. But I’m open to working in acting and not just choosing one thing and staying to just that.”
But what would she choose if she had to…a slot opening up for the Rolling Stones or an acting gig working with Robert De Niro?
She doesn’t hesitate in her response.
“Oh, the Rolling Stones,” she laughs. “Come on. Nothing against DeNiro, but the Stones are the Stones.
For more information on Brooke Josephson, click here
