brookelen Shares “omen,” a Witch-Rock Anthem of Queerness and Self-Actualization Ahead of New EP
Los Angeles-based indie rock musician brookelen has released “omen,” a heavy, witch-rock anthem that frames self-actualization as something you follow, not something you wait for. The single arrives with a symbolic music video featuring Jessicka Addams of Jack Off Jill and Scarling, and it serves as the latest preview of brookelen’s third EP, dark side of the sun, due out October 23 via Soliloquy Records and available to pre-save now.
brookelen says the song took shape after she learned that an ex-boyfriend had recently gotten engaged, a moment that sharpened the track’s emotional edge and sense of resolve. “‘Omen’ is my witch-rocky anthem for following warning, prophetic signs that all lead back to self-actualization, independence, queerness, and embracing myself,” she shares.
The video expands that idea into a visual language of power, release, and transformation. Shot at Addams’ gothic tower home on the east side of Los Angeles, the clip leans into layered imagery and recurring symbols. “Jessicka really resonated with this song, reclaiming power, being a witch, choosing your own (albeit badass) path,” brookelen says. “The music video is filled with omens (the color red, cats, rabbits, creepy dolls, a wedding dress). Ultimately, Jessicka destroys the wedding dress (cuts me out of it) and frees me.”
That wedding dress becomes a central metaphor, echoing the song’s origin point while turning it into something larger than a breakup narrative. In the context of “omen,” the dress reads as a symbol of expectation and attachment, something to be cut away so the artist can step forward on her own terms.
The forthcoming EP’s title, dark side of the sun, signals the project’s thematic direction. brookelen describes it as an intentional contradiction, using the sun not as an astronomical reference but as a metaphor for what remains unseen beneath brightness: ego, secrecy, trauma, shame, doubt, and love lost. Across the record, she explores religious trauma, queerness, sexuality, and independence through recurring imagery drawn from angels and demons, Genesis, mythology, omens, and Icarus. The songs lean into contradiction, asking what happens when faith collides with freedom, when grief turns into transformation, and when vulnerability becomes strength.
Musically, dark side of the sun blends indie rock with orchestral arrangements, post-rock textures, and moments of folk intimacy. The EP was recorded live, a choice that preserves breath and fracture as part of the performance, keeping emotion at the center rather than polishing it away. brookelen says, “‘dark side of the sun’ is about looking directly at the parts of ourselves we'd rather keep hidden. It's about discovering that healing isn't becoming someone new, it's finally allowing yourself to be fully seen.” The EP was engineered by Claire Morrison (GOON), with additional production and mixing by Pearce Gronek (Exum, Hudson Freeman, Miya Folick, Paper Lady).
“omen” follows earlier material from the EP’s rollout, including the first single “hide,” which brookelen cites as influenced by Alice In Chains and Hole. She describes it as her “exorcism song,” adding, “It’s about rooting out the pain, calling it out of hiding. demons don’t like light. This song is for shining a light on your demons.”
brookelen’s path to this point has been shaped by movement and reinvention. She considers Virginia home, where she first picked up the violin, and later relocated to Los Angeles in search of collaborators and creative community. Her debut EP time to go centered on the painful necessity of closing chapters, while going, going, gone expanded into themes of sobriety, domestic violence, and mental health, pairing walls of guitar feedback with sweeping orchestration. With dark side of the sun, she pushes further into both sound and self-expression, positioning the new EP as her rawest and most unflinching work yet.
Click here to listen to "Omen" and watch the music video below.
