British singer/songwriter Brooke Bentham combines hazy, sprawling indie rock with direct, poetic lyrics on her debut album, 2020's Everyday Nothing. Bentham was born and brought up in South Shields, a small former shipbuilding town on Tyneside in the north-east of England, near Newcastle. She started making music in her teens; influenced by the likes of Mazzy Star, Angel Olsen, and Joanna Newsom, she learned guitar and banjo, took singing lessons, and started to perform at open-mike nights, where she met and befriended fellow local Sam Fender. After school, she moved to London, studying popular music at Goldsmiths' College. There she began recording, first making an impact in 2017 with the single "Oliver"; the EPs The Room Swayed and This Rapture followed, both in an indie folk style. Festival appearances and a record deal ensued, but, following graduation, with anticipation high for her debut album, Bentham developed writer's block. Unable to create anything for two years, she took two part-time jobs to make ends meet and sank into depression. Eventually, however, she overcame her slump; inspired by poetry (particularly Sylvia Plath) and trashy romance novels, she started to write songs that found the beauty and darkness in the minutiae of everyday life. Eventually she began recording her debut album with producer and former Coral guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones. With a hazy indie rock sound inspired by '90s acts like Pavement, Yo La Tengo, and Eric's Trip, the album, Everyday Nothing, was released early in 2020 by AllPoints Music. ~ John D. Buchanan