Brooke Svanes: My identity has been shaped by my ancestry, music, fashion, and spirituality

Your creative path moves fluidly between music,, writing, and now fashion modeling. How do these disciplines inform one another when you’re building your sense of identity as an artist? I think when there’s more to build from, it allows for more transformation. It’s like taking each experience and adding it to the next. Bringing all the consciousness I’ve collected from and making it fit into a cohesive narrative, becoming that narrative inside and out, conveying it by wearing whatever I feel like wearing. My identity has been shaped by my ancestry, music, fashion and spirituality.

Having started in bands at a young age, how did growing up within the music scene shape your relationship with self-expression and visibility? I always used music as a measure of identity and I was inspired by glam metal, grunge, indie rock, pop punk and the revival of bands like The Who. I always drew from those genres and had many transformations. The commonality of it all was art. Transcendence. Reaching higher dimensions by way of sound and resonance. And expressing that in whatever medium.

There’s often a raw emotional honesty in punk, grunge, and hard rock. How do those musical roots surface in the way you inhabit fashion or approach visual storytelling? I really like incorporating grunge and punk rock with designer clothes. Like wearing Versace, Michael Kors, Maison D’Amelie, Vince Camutto or Calvin Klein with ripped jeans, a beanie and Dr martens.

You’re currently working on a book of poetry. What themes or inner questions are guiding that writing, and how does poetry allow you to articulate things other mediums can’t? Irony, paradox and time are central to my writing. In both fashion and writing I get to be clever. Both serve as a catharsis. Both pull from my past and present. I guess I just really like words and ideas. But I get to spill my guts when I write, no matter how cloaked my story is. Oh the irony…

Horror films and documentaries may seem like opposites, yet both confront truth in different ways. What draws you to these genres, and how do they influence your creative outlook? I grew up a horror movie junkie. I’m drawn to suspense, and tragedy really. Alternately I also just love learning, and like to know the story behind it all. I could watch biographies all day long. “Models who kill” or like “The dark side of Kendall Jenner?” Sign me up. I guess I’m influenced by what I relate to and I do relate to a lot of celebs and the adversity they’ve faced as well as their talent. Creatively I’m inspired by a number of them like Charlize Theron, Shawnee Smith, Kendall Jenner, Angelina Jolie, Amanda Bynes, Keith Moon, Eva Green, Bella Hadid, as well as writers like Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

French vintage art and glam metal occupy very different visual worlds. What connects them for you on an aesthetic or emotional level? Well I am a quarter French so I am connected to their blase and nonchalance invariably. Glam metal was my escape as a child so there’s substance there. Aesthetically I am drawn to a kind of “flashy nonchalance.” Again I appreciate paradox, dichotomy and irony in any medium. I’m very much a contradiction myself.

Psychology and sociology appear among your interests. How does an understanding of human behavior shape the characters you portray—on camera, on stage, or on the page? I’ve played “crazy, awkward, creepy, real” and having studied psychology rigorously in college I drew from a number of case studies to exact it. I didn’t want it to seem like acting so I played a normal (albeit deranged) person. I was also trying to convey the struggles someone like her would endure, in a very normal non-theatrical kind of way. We won best horror film at the NYC horror film fest so we did something right. As far as my writing goes, that’s for you to analyze. I’m very Plath meets Dickinson. An example of my work is “I am resigned to higher dimensions” and “I don’t scream. I cut through you with dead air.” so to say there is indubitably implicit suffering, genius, madness and tragedy at such a high vibration or wave length.

My poetry is very cryptic and clever. I’m calling my book “Dusted by the light” by Brooke Svanes.

You’ve described dabbling in the occult. Is that curiosity more symbolic, spiritual, or psychological for you—and how does it weave into your creative practice? It’s spiritual. I like manipulating energy. I wear moonstone and black tourmaline everyday as well as other gems for a multitude of reasons like Emerald, Amber and Lapis Lazuli. I have the triple moon goddess tattooed on my wrist. I use incense, herbs and oils to heal, protect and project.

As someone transitioning more deeply into fashion modeling, how do you balance being a canvas for a designer’s vision with maintaining your own artistic voice? By being authentic and ironic as well as open and agreeable.

Acting, music, and modeling all require vulnerability in different ways. Which form has challenged you the most, and why? Being vulnerable has always been a challenge for me so I learned how to fake it; I fake it so much it seems real. I’m really quite impenetrable.

Satire is one of your stated interests. In an industry that often takes itself very seriously, how important is humor or irony in your work? How important is irony? Very. My fashion sense is ironic, it really portrays who I am. I maintain authenticity that way. Although I appreciate dark and dry humor I don’t see it being relevant in any of my work.

Looking ahead, how do you envision the different strands of your creativity converging—music, poetry, fashion, performance—into the next chapter of your career? I envision my book being published after I relocate to LA within the next year. I also see myself on the covers of major fashion magazines, and more billboards. I was on a billboard in Times Square for Fashion Republic and am scheduled to be on one in West Hollywood for Coral Avenue this month too. My dream is to be on the cover of Vogue, Elle, Madame Figaro, and Marie Claire. I imagined I would be a Chanelle, Versace or Calvin Klein model. I aim to be in horror movies after I relocate and I see my upcoming book selling millions;).

Photographer: Baruch Santana @baruchsantana

Model: Brooke Svanes @brookesvanes