book NOT brooke
Brooke Vespoli is an expert at blurring the line between beautiful and grotesque. Through her pop-star alter ego book NOT brooke, the singer-songwriter constructs an immersive universe full of lush, sometimes uncanny soundscapes. On book NOT brooke’s forthcoming debut album Dancer First, out March 13, that once-hazy world finally comes sharply into view — glittering, strange and perfectly absurd.
For the past few years, the cellist by training has been making waves in the Nashville music scene in several ways. She has a hand in a heap of different projects, from rocking stages as the bassist in shoegaze-adjacent trio Baby Wave to backing Annie DiRusso on bass, cello and keys for DiRusso’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert.
For the past few months, the musical multitasker has focused more of her time on book NOT brooke. Through book, the Ohio native expresses a side of herself that doesn’t come out in her other work, promoting her projects with bizarre visuals that tread a thin line — sometimes it’s hard to tell whether laughter or a bit of unease is the right response.
“I love how that gray area feels for me,” Vespoli says. “And what it does to align me to accept all aspects of my humanity, rather than internalizing too many super cut-and-dried standards onto myself.”
Dancer First has been a long time coming from Vespoli. It’s her first full-length album after nearly six years of releasing solo music. In the months leading up to her time in the studio, Vespoli decided to put her instrumental virtuosity on the backburner. She aimed to bring the “dancing” aspect of her Dancer First mindset to the forefront, simply running tracks so she could practice singing and moving onstage.
“The Dancer First journey actually started as my Instagram bio before it was my album name,” she says. “It just felt like this thing that I identified with. I wanted to be dancing at shows.”
While recording, Vespoli experienced a songwriting process that was gradual and then all at once. Though she began recording in early 2025, a few songs that made it onto the final release had been churning in her mind for more than two years. Most of the songs, however, organically fell into line in the latter half of the year.
“It feels like a concept first,” says Vespoli, “and then all of these songs just kept falling into the bucket, and it just made sense.”
She describes the album as beginning with a “genreless abstract.” There’s a rainbow array of sounds throughout the record, with gnarly industrial focal points on songs like “Ugly California.” Meanwhile, other tracks such as “Nobody Dances Anymore” feature fast-paced twinkling synth sounds. Though Dancer First is stylistically eclectic, Vespoli emphasizes that every song fits under one definitive category: “dance-forward, innovatively simple pop.”
“I really love when you can look at or listen to something and not be exactly certain what decade it was made in,” she notes.
Much of the album’s instrumentation was inspired by Nashville’s DIY music scene. Becoming part of the local alternative culture exercised a new part of her brain, sparking experiments with her production and a deep dive into the avant-garde.
“I’ve gotten to take this unexpected and really positive journey,” says Vespoli. “It’s helped me to really feel pulled deeper into performance art and dance, and arranging primarily with synths or using electronic drums. You know, just everything that doesn’t feel like the first thing that you reach for in a band context.”
As the year unfolds, Vespoli aims to play as much as she can across her multiple projects, with book NOT brooke and Baby Wave at the top of her dance card. She aims to fully crack open the visual world of Dancer First with more video productions, while also promoting a forthcoming Baby Wave album that’s in the final mixing process and will most likely hit racks in late summer.
To celebrate Dancer First, Vespoli will sing the new album in full during her album release dance party at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on Friday. Abstract indie-pop artist Henry J. Star and Nashville home-recording ace Iven are also slated to share the stage, while DJ sets from Sarah Goldstein and Spuddy will round out the evening. Covers, choreo and costume changes are to be expected at the party, as well as a fun cello moment.
“If nothing else, you can expect a spectacle.”
