Hello world! This is songwriter extraordinare Brooke Masterson, coming at you live with some inside scoop about my third album, "In Love."

This album is available on Youtube and Spotify right now, and probably Apple Music and iTunes too! I hope you check it out.

Click this link to listen on Youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFbLnALg_DQ&list=OLAK5uy_nCHhs8E_DzADTaDcCfpIau-WIGU66eM18

I'd prefer it if you listened to the songs in order, and I know that will for sure happen on Youtube.

Now I will tell you some stuff about my songwriting process, my hopes for this album, and info about each song!

What does your song writing process look like?

I typically write the lyrics and the tune of the song first, then if I feel like it, I match music with it! My first album, "Leap of Faith" has the most instrumentals out of my three albums, with my second album, "falling" having a good mix of both acapella (no music in the background) and instrumentals (music in the background).

This is less common, but sometimes I just hear music in my head. A melody. A full on orchestra. And then I create an instrumental song OR a song with lyrics out of that idea.

It's really sad I can't figure out how to put all these instrumental melodies and symphonies into my Garageband music without taking hours to figure out, so for now, I make my instrumentals/background music into simple piano melodies, violins, and beats. Someday in the future, I hope to do a full-on instrumental album. That would be amazing.

What do you hope people get out of your "... In Love" album?

All of my albums include the major parts of my testimony, so I hope my listeners enjoy learning more about the last two years of my life. This album is about my last year in college and a bit of my time in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2019. I hope they hear lyrics they identify with. I hope they hear how God has worked with me in my life and has really influenced my songwriting. I especially hope my Christian gal pals really enjoy the songs "Saved by a Lady" and "Devil, Be Gone!" because I think there's a real lack of Christian songs that are about the topics I explore in those songs. Listen and let me know what you think, friends!

Why is the album 99% acapella?

Why is there no music in this album, you ask? There's a lot of symbolism behind that decision, but the main reason is I just like the songs better without music right now. I think the most heartbreaking song on the album is the song, "in silence," and since silence was a huge part of my time and testimony these last two years, I thought this would be the perfect album to do acapella.

If any artist out there wants to collaborate with me and add their own instrumentals to my already complete lyrics and melodies, talk to me! I'm totally open to doing another version of this album with background music. I just wanted its first (maybe only) release to be an acapella album.

But for anyone who knows me personally, I sing all the time in the shower, jingles to my friends on the phone, and on the sidewalks in any neighborhood I live in. I wanted people to hear me without music so they could imagine (or remember) times when I'm singing without background music in real life. I wanted the album to feel like I'm singing these songs as a fun "around the campfire, eating s'mores, about to have a sleepover, testimony sharing time" vibe. I wanted the silence to help make it more intimate and raw.

Tell us about the songs!

Will do!

1) The Tower is all about me making a huge metaphor out of my dating fast. My dating fast was between sophomore and junior year of college because I really needed to undo some bad habits and sins before I would feel comfortable with even the idea of dating someone. Here's some helpful explanations to the symbols I used in the song and what they mean to me:

Princess = me, I'm a daughter of the King of the Universe, God Almighty

The King (Father) = God, the Almighty Holy One, King of the Universe, Our Father

The Tower = I imagined my location during my dating fast like Rapunzel's location in the Disney movie Tangled. I imagined my heart was in a place FAR away from any potential suitors and only accessible to God and friends, who helped me train in secret to be a better-version-of-myself. The Tower itself is a metaphor for my dating fast. I needed it and loved it, but I also knew I shouldn't stay there forever.

2) Rise is all about my hopes and dreams about dating and marriage coming back after a long and hard dating fast. It's about me being open to love.

3) Here I Am, Again. What an amazing prayer. I like how it's a new take about returning to the Father, and I love how it incorporates a new love I have for Mary, the Mother of God (She's the lovely lady dressed in blue). I also love how it's a throwback to the song "Here I Am", a song I had in the album "falling" about the Eucharist.

4) Humming in California is all about how I fell in love with this great guy, and the romantic part of our story started in California. Fun fact: I actually straight up BELTED the words "I fell in love with ya" in the kitchen at the church my friends and I stayed at during that California trip. No one was around to hear me, thank goodness, or my poor little ears would have blushed a firehouse brick red!

5) Extra, Extra, Read All About It is one of the songs I find hilarious and catchy in this album. I was really impressed by Taylor Swift's "Reputation" album at the time. I loved how she reflected on people's comments about her relationships. People's comments shouldn't matter, especially if they are from people outside of your circle of trusted friends, but sometimes ... you just can't help but wonder, "What do people think of my relationship?" I had fun making this song up based on that question.

6) Now I Get It. I really love this song, which is good because it took me a long time to write it. Chronologically speaking, this is the last song I wrote for this album. It's all about understanding from your personal experiences how and why other girls were crazy in love during their relationships... cuz now you're crazy and simply in love, too. Great song. Simple and sweet.

7) Better Take Care is about the feeling that something is off, and things might not work out forever like you thought. It's slow and tense, yet full of love and consideration, too.

8) Saved by a Lady is NOT a story about an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. It's a true story about when I felt super anxious during Homecoming at my college and a beautiful video about Mary, the Mother of God by Fulton Sheen calmed all of my fears, anxieties, and worries. This song also shows my belief about how real spiritual attacks are, and how much the Holy Trinity and Momma Mary (my nickname for Mary, Mother of God) can help us with them!

9) In Silence. The only way I could record this song perfectly was when I had the dialogue introduction before it. I seriously couldn't get through a good recording of the song until I talked a bit about what I was feeling about the song before hand. I left the dialogue before the song as a risky and bold artistic choice. It's a song about grief, so be prepared for that.

10) Bop (Wrong). I love so many of the songs on this album, but God really did hand me this song and that's why it's basically my favorite one. I was visiting my brother at Mizzou when I heard this song in a dream. When I woke up, I immediately wrote the lyrics down, recorded the song on my phone, and knew I had been given a great song to describe my own thoughts, current feelings, and regrets. Thank you God for this song!

Fun fact: It's the only song with any instrumentals (beats) and major harmony in the background.

11) (I Knew). This song is in parenthesis because it's symbolic! I'm letting you in on some secrets during this song. Guess they aren't so secret anymore (winky face).

I truly believe that God doesn't create normal love stories. He creates adventurous love stories that help two people grow in holiness. I know that was what I had with my first relationship, and I'm still learning and growing in holiness by reflecting on it after the fact. Sure, I knew it wouldn't last forever when it started, but that doesn't mean I didn't love him. I did. Wholeheartedly.

12) Get Lost in Me is about the flaws that people (including myself) have in a relationship. It's a reminder that I should not want my boyfriend to make his life about me. I didn't suffer from this temptation or thought too much in the relationship, but it was there, so I decided it was a good topic to write about. A good Christian relationship is centered on God and how two people can give themselves in sacrificial love to one another like Jesus Christ loves His Bride, the Church. This song is a reminder of this truth.

13) Be Honest. It's a creative song about moving on, yet missing an ex at the same time. It also talks about how sometimes, people joke to cope with stuff. I love that line. It's one of my favorites lines in the album.

14) Devil, Be Gone!

BYE, DEMON BOI! DEVIL, GET OUT OF HERE! Holy Spirit, come instead!

This song is about refusing to let the Devil convince you that a relationship that was God-approved was bad for you. Maybe parts of it wasn't great, but nobody is perfect. Mistakes are a part of life! This song is about refusing to let yourself or the Devil make an enemy out of your ex in your mind! Only the Devil is your true, unchanging enemy. Don't let him drag you or your ex through the mud. Rebuke his lies in the name of Jesus Christ (and ask for Momma Mary's help if you need some extra assistance to get those lies out of your head).

I love this song because I needed to sing it to myself a lot. I wrote it in an English night class instead of paying attention (oops, but I was a senior and doing well in class, it's okay).

15) I Wanna Go is about leaving behind my college town and looking forward to my future outside of it. I LOVED college, but I outgrew it. I needed a change of scenery to help me heal and become more like myself than ever before. Washington, D.C. was a great place to go for me, and trust me, I wanted to go with God alone. Singleness is great, y'all, if that's the season of life God has placed you in. The struggles are real sometimes, but the blessings outnumber them.

Any final words?

I'm going to share my lyric scrapbook soon! Stay tuned!

These feelings and stories are two years old! Please remember that!

Let me know if you like anything I wrote or have follow-up questions! I love that kind of stuff!