One-of-a-kind vocalists don’t come around too often. The type of singer whose vocal identity is so distinct and powerful that their voice is an instrument and can be recognised after a single note. Brooke Combe possesses one such voice, her tone so rich and decadent it could have been pulled from a 1950s Motown record. But it is approximately 3519 miles from Detroit to the Midlothian town of Dalkeith where Combe was raised and discovered her love of soul music.

She later moved to Liverpool and, after a series of online cover videos came to people’s attention, Island Records signed her at the tender age of 20. After the 2023 release of critically acclaimed mixtape Black Is The New Gold (which led to a SAY Award nomination and many high-profile supporting slots, including with one of her biggest inspirations, Michael Kiwanuka), Combe parted ways with the major label and released her debut album this year with Modern Sky. 

Dancing At The Edge Of The World maintains her nostalgic soul and killer pop hooks but is more refined. Songs are crafted to perfection, punctuated with tasteful disco strings, hammering piano and lavish vocal stacks. There’s still a rawness, perhaps because the whole record was recorded live to tape. ‘We had three takes per song and that was it,’ recalls Combe. ‘I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that the band would nail their parts. But I was like “what about me though? Can I do this?” It showed me a more serious side of things; we did have to just focus and get our heads in the game.’ 

Now aged 25, Combe’s point of view in her songwriting and storytelling has noticeably matured. ‘I think the mixtape was very much made by little naive Brooke. I wrote a lot of those songs when I was 16 and going through things I thought were adult experiences. Now my feelings have gone a lot deeper.’ Following an opening ‘Prelude’, the album’s first track ‘This Town’ playfully dissects her experience of growing up in a Scottish town of 14,000 people. ‘Being from a small town, if you do something good you get ripped. You do something bad you get ripped. It’s so easy to be anxious about how people are reacting or thinking about you. I just think I dinnae gie a fuck. I really do not care.’ 

Standout tracks such as ‘The Last Time’ and ‘Pieces’ concern themselves with love and heartbreak, and while she has been quoted as saying that this isn’t a ‘break-up’ album per se, those tracks were written about the disintegration of her father’s last marriage. ‘Maybe I should clarify that it’s not my break-up album,’ she giggles. ‘I was like a fly-on-the-wall in someone else’s relationship.’ Dancing At The Edge Of The World’s 11 songs were mostly co-written by Combe and her long-term guitarist (and partner) Danny Murphy. ‘This album is our album,’ she insists. ‘I know it’s my name, but it’s the first album he’s fully had this much sway on as well.’

While the majority of it was written from inside her dad’s house, Combe also wrote a handful of songs in LA where she worked with producers and songwriters Jamie Hartman (Lewis Capaldi, Rag‘N’Bone Man), Michael ‘Mikey Shoes’ Shuman (bassist in Queens Of The Stone Age) and Paul Butler (The Bees). That visit birthed songs such as ‘L.M.T.F.A’, ‘Guilt’ and ‘Lanewood Pines’, the latter being the name of an apartment complex Combe and Murphy were staying in. ‘We wrote that within 20 minutes before going to meet Paul. Danny had the chords straight away; I got a tiny keyboard up on my phone and heard that little riff in my head. Then the full melody and the words were just coming out. It was mad.’

This Stateside trip plus a more local visit to Brighton to write with Iain Archer (Snow Patrol, Jake Bugg) proved productive and fruitful, but that wasn’t always Combe’s experience of songwriting speed dating. ‘Because I went with Danny this time, it did put a whole new spin on it for me. When I was with Island Records, I went down to London for songwriting sessions and I hated it. I was on my own as a 20, 21-year-old female in a room with these middle-aged men trying to write about my heartbreak. I learned then that major labels want to shape you. Unless you’ve got a massive following, they’ll take that opportunity to say “this is our puppet”. That’s when I knew it wouldn’t work for me... could you imagine me on stage in a leotard or something? It’s just no’ who I am.’ 

That wardrobe choice would certainly feel out of place here, backstage at Assai Records in Glasgow, where she’s about to perform an acoustic set to an intimate crowd of fans in celebration of her album launch. This show marks the halfway point of an in-store tour, something Combe has been looking forward to after several months off with a vocal nodule diagnosis. ‘I had my throat looked at and it makes sense now why I’ve been struggling for so long. But this in-store tour has been good to get back into using the muscles. I’ve been off dairy, chocolate, spicy food, acidic food, and doing hour-long warm-ups every day. This warm-up guy is probably going to be on my fucking Spotify Wrapped.’

That strict vocal routine is doing its job with Combe’s short set executed flawlessly; the room simply belongs to her while she recounts introductory stories behind each track. ‘I don’t usually really talk about what my songs are about,’ she tells me afterwards, ‘but going into this year, I was just like “you know what? I’ve created this amazing album that I’m proud of.”’ But what does Combe’s dad think about her sharing his break-up story on stage? ‘I didn’t tell him or ask him permission as such, I actually just waited for him to hear it to see if he would put two and two together. He was more happy about it than annoyed. Now that enough time has passed since these situations happened, I think I’ve come to terms with it. I’ve understood that it’s my story as well. I’ve lived through it also and I’m allowed to talk about how it’s made me feel. It’s given me a platform to figure out how I might tell these stories on the big tour as well.’ 

She’s referring to a wider UK headline run taking place throughout April and culminating in Glasgow at the iconic Barrowland Ballroom, a stage that holds particular weight for Combe. ‘I made a venues bucket list about a year ago and Barrowlands was on there. I’m buzzing! I’m not even really nervous, I just want to have fun. It doesn’t need to be pressure; it just needs to be everyone that I love and everyone who loves the tunes being in one room together and letting go of everything for a while.’

Brooke Combe tours the UK until August 2025; Dancing At The Edge Of The World is out now on Modern Sky.