The first thing you should know about Brontë Fall's hit song "Invited to the Party" is that Brontë Fall isn't an actual person — it's the musical project of singer/songwriter Teri Bracken O'Brien.

Teri came up with the name by combining the surname of England's famous literary Brontë sisters with the title of an Emily Brontë poem called "Fall, leaves, fall." 

"It started as a band with my really good friend from music school. And so I was like, 'Oh, I'm just part of the band. I write, I play violin, but I'm not the center,'" she tells ABC Audio, adding that she likes to "hide behind a band."

But after her friend dropped out, Teri says, "I was so in love with what we had started and the songs we started writing and the whole vibe of it that I was like, 'I can't let this go by the wayside. I'm gonna be the front person.'"

She became an independent artist and, following the release of her 2024 album, Not Done Yet, reached a personal milestone that inspired her breakthrough hit.

"I was nominated for a Hollywood Independent Music Award last year," she says. "And I know awards are, like, 'Oh, giving awards for art is dumb,' like, 'everybody's a winner' — but the recognition honestly felt so good. I felt like I was finally an actual player in the music industry."

"I didn't win, but I was just talking to my guitar teacher about how great it felt. And she's like, 'Teri, you were invited to the party,'" she adds. "And I was like, 'Yes, I was.' You know? And I just felt like I had to celebrate it."

Celebrating that kind of success also inspired Teri's new Brontë Fall single, "Main Character Energy," out now.

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