BROCKHOFF – Front Row
“Front Row”, the fifth single of BROCKHOFF’s debut album Easy Peeler (out June 5 via [PIAS] Recordings Germany), is a gentle, embracing pop-rock song about being in the spotlight on stage while searching the crowd for one face — and one face only.
Writing songs and performing them in a bedroom is one thing; putting yourself out there, performing for a room full of strangers — or even scarier, people you love — is something else entirely. “If I ever saw you in the front row / My fingers trembling / Oh I might never finish this song”.
BROCKHOFF shares: “To me, Front Row is a song full of excitement and fear, both feelings I experience a lot while being on tour. It’s about this childhood daydream of mine, capturing a romantic story of someone you’re singing your song about actually showing up in the crowd. It almost feels like a theatrical song to me. Writing it I was picturing my favorite movie scenes from my childhood gems – like Miley performing “The Climb“ in Hannah Montana the movie or Demi Lovato performing “This Is Me“ in Camp Rock. As a kid I was obsessed with those kind of movies and watched these scenes over and over again. Wallowing in it was so endlessly exciting, I had no idea how scary this would actually be now that I find myself on stages performing my own songs.“
Growing up taking piano lessons, BROCKHOFF taught herself guitar and began writing songs as a teenager. Encouraged by the strong female leads who dominated TV screens in the late 2000s — Hannah Montana, Camp Rock — her younger self began to believe that these things were possible: being a girl with a band, turning her inside out through songs. She started playing small gigs at local bars. Later, she discovered female alternative-rock artists such as Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail, and Phoebe Bridgers, who inspired her to lean into the guitar-driven sound that would define her signature BROCKHOFF style.
“It has always been the best thing ever for me: making music on my own, writing poems or song lyrics and melodies, singing them in my room, imagining me performing them on every possible stage in this universe. It can be so scary for me to do the same thing in an actual room full of people, strangers or even worse people I know so well, like maybe even people I write songs about. With ‘Front Row’ I always feel a bit like 13 again, romanticizing this whole experience of touring and playing live, it’s a fun and exciting song to me.
One thing humans and clementines — those odd little fruits that can’t decide whether they want to be tangerines or oranges — have in common: you never know what you’ll get. Will their hard shell block you out? Will you have to peel them piece by piece to get closer to their core? Or will they turn out to be an easy peeler — one that opens immediately, lets you in, and doesn’t hide what’s inside? On her debut album Easy Peeler, BROCKHOFF proves herself to be the latter.
Arriving on the scene in early 2022, Lina Brockhoff — known as BROCKHOFF — quickly established herself as one of indie rock’s most beloved newcomers. Her debut EP Sharks, featuring the anti-party anthem of the same name, introduced her as a songwriter who can fuse introspective storytelling with roaring guitar rock — without compromise. On the 2023 follow-up I’ve Stopped Getting Chills for a While Now, BROCKHOFF showcased even more confident production, scoring her life as a twenty-something through expansive indie rock and soft-spoken pop. Easy Peeler is the ambitious culmination of BROCKHOFF’s musical coming-of-age journey — one she has shared openly with her audience over the past few years.
Written between 2020 and 2023 and recorded over two weeks last year, the album presents itself as a slow-grown, carefully crafted project that blends ’90s guitar rock with exuberant pop arrangements. It also addresses the insecurities that accompanied its creation. While working on Easy Peeler, BROCKHOFF wrestled with the idea of putting herself out there as an artist — feeling uncomfortable in her own skin and within the fast-paced, often unforgiving music industry. She even considered giving up the childhood dream she had spent years chasing, just when it seemed closer than ever. Ultimately, BROCKHOFF did what distinguishes her as a storyteller: she found comfort in her own sensitivity, transforming it into the confident songs that would become her debut album.
Throughout her early career, BROCKHOFF has played multiple support tours in Europe for artists such as Giant Rooks, Alice Merton, Von Wegen Lisbeth, and Paolo Nutini — the latter being her biggest shows to date. She’s performed at Brighton’s The Great Escape, Berlin’s Tempelhof Sounds, and other prestigious festivals including Reeperbahn, Eurosonic, Southside, Haldern Pop and Dockville. Her songs have received radio play in Germany as well as in the UK, US and Canada. Over just a few years, BROCKHOFF has evolved into a commanding live performer, fronting a full-scale rock band and drawing international crowds. To date, she has played more than 120 live shows. BROCKHOFF has found her place on the main stage — and there’s no doubt this is exactly where she belongs. After all, who else could have written these songs if not an easy peeler, just like her?
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