Meet celeb interviewer turned DJ Brooke Evers
Brooke Evers is the future. She is a bikini model, social media master, former celebrity interviewer, and a current DJ (she headlines Light nightclub today), and she’s a smart, funny party girl.
So I asked Evers (an Australian based in Los Angeles) for her insights into the goal young Americans care about most (according to polls): How to get famous.
Before we began, she drank a double espresso. She always does that before interviews.
“I’m ready to go!” she said enthusiastically, as overly caffeinated, amazingly friendly Aussies tend to be.
Evers studied journalism and interviewed stars such as Flo Rida, for the men’s magazine Zoo Weekly. So she knows the biggest media secret of all: The more she tells me, the more I can write about her.
“I used to have to interview so many people, and I was so over it when they wouldn’t give me anything, you know?” she said. (I do.)
Evers’ job was to ask celebrities crazy questions about scandalous topics, which racked her nerves, but she did it.
“If Russell Brand was in the news for having sex with a chicken, that would be the first question,” she joked.
A lot of celebrities immediately ended their interviews with her when she asked those questions, but she knew readers wanted to know what those celebrities thought about other celebrities.
“People don’t want to read the same (old news). They want to read something different and weird,” she said. “It was a very good lesson to learn.”
Evers then transitioned to DJing, after having worked in nightclubs in Australia, where she saw Kaskade, Tommy Trash and other DJ-producers before they became pop stars in America.
She told me the mainstreaming of DJ and dance-music culture isn’t just due to the music, obviously, but it’s also because of great branding and technology.
Example: “Steve Aoki loves throwing a cake” at fans during shows, she pointed out. “It’s an amazing gimmick. (And) I’m sure Steve Aoki has a cake deal. He must have a cake deal by now.”
People attach themselves so much to celebrities’ personas and social media accounts that even stars’ T-shirts can eclipse their artistry on occasion.
For instance, at every show, Evers gives away Evers-branded tank tops to fans.
“They’re like, ‘Oh, do you have any shirts?! Do you have any shirts?’! I’m like, ‘Do you even come to see me, or do you come for free merch?’ ” she said and laughed.
Meanwhile, clubs are more interested in her social media prowess.
“I do jobs now, and they ask, ‘How many followers do you have?’ before even asking me anything else, before asking me my age or where I’m from.”
That’s why other celebrities hire social media experts to post on their behalf.
“I know DJs who don’t even touch social media, because they either don’t understand it, or they can’t be bothered,” Evers said.
And like any self-respecting, self-actualized, self-brander, Evers uses different portals for different purposes.
“Instagram is more like candid, everyday (posts): ‘Hey I’m in a gym!’ ‘I’m at the leaning tower of Pisa!’ Facebook is more info, like, ‘I’m playing here or I’m playing there.’ ” (You can find her @Brookeevers in all of her social media homes.)
If you missed seeing Evers recently at Surrender and the Palms, and if you miss seeing her today at Light, you can see her headline the opening day of Encore Beach Club’s new season on March 6, where fans will follow her usual branding hashtag, #IPartiedWithBrookeEvers.
“It all just comes from hard work,” she assures us all. “Last year, I warmed up for a (expletive) load of DJs. Now that they’ve met me, and see how I work, and promote and help the club, I think it makes a big difference.”
Now if Aoki and Kaskade can put out their own bikini calendars, they can catch up to Brooke Evers.
Contact Doug Elfman at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
