Only 19, Holly Brook is already a veteran singer-songwriter.

When Linkin Park decided to sign their first act to their new label, Machine Shop Recordings, the commercial rap-rock group known for megahits like “One Step Closer” went in an unexpected direction. Instead of offering a deal to a like-minded band, guitarist Brad Delson inked a contract with Holly Brook, a 19-year-old piano-playing songwriter who grew up in Wisconsin.

Brook is now getting ready to reap the rewards of years of work—she has been performing since she was 6—to start off this year. The singer-songwriter’s voice will probably be heard across the nation in the near future when Fort Minor, a rap-based side project of Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, releases a song titled “Where’d You Go” as a single.

On the rap number, which is about a relationship gone south, Brook sings the chorus in a way that recalls Dido’s vocal turn on the Eminem hit “Stan.”

Brook says that her vocal contribution took only half an hour to record in the studio. “That was really, really fun,” she says of the experience.

Waiting to see how the single does, her record company will then release her debut album, the 11-song Like Blood Like Honey, early this year. The CD is a mix of piano ballads and more fleshed-out pop numbers. The first song, “Giving It Up For You,” is a Trojan horse pop song that sneaks dark subject matter into a tune with a catchy chorus. It begins with Brook singing “I’m young and cynical/ It’s not my only crime/ I’ve been stealing all your cigarettes,” over radio-ready acoustic guitar. Later, the young vocalist sings: “I take a lot of medicine/ I don’t really need/ I was drinking at 11/ getting high at 17.”

The album also features Brook’s soaring vocals giving added meaning to stark confessional ballads. On “What I Wouldn’t Give,” where the young musician’s piano playing is augmented by strings, Brook sings, “What I wouldn’t give/ just to forget.” Another ballad, “Curious,” finds the singer addressing humanity’s quest for knowledge with the question: “I’m so damn curious to know/ and there are too many unanswered questions/ that we hold onto.”

Meanwhile, there are some rock and folk elements to the release. “Wanted” features a rock drum beat paired with downbeat lyrics about “painted eyes and empty streets” while the title track finds the artist singing over a sole acoustic guitar.

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When most kids her age were learning to share, Brook was performing with her mother in a band called Generations.

During a phone interview from Hanover, Vermont, the young singer-songwriter recalls the first song she wrote, at 7, a tune titled “The Song of the Whales,” which she played at a piano recital. A year and a half later, she wrote her first song with lyrics, titled “The Same Sky,” about missing her father while on vacation in Hawaii.

She says that while performing the tune at a music convention, Pete Seeger asked her for a copy of the song.

By 15, Brook had released three albums with her mother. With money from playing shows with Generations and the sale of the CDs, the young musician purchased a baby grand piano.

In 2003, Brook moved to Los Angeles and started working with producer Jon Ingoldsby, who has worked with Madonna and Elton John. Eventually, the manager of Linkin Park got ahold of a demo of Brook’s songs. “They offered me a deal within a month of meeting them,” she says.

Brook admits that at the time she did not know too much about Linkin Park. “I was never into rock music,” she says.

Brook says she grew up listening to her mother’s Joni Mitchell albums. “She’s a poet,” Brook says of Mitchell. “Her lyrics are incredibly deep and her chords are too. They stir me up.”

Brook has more goals in mind for the future. She admits that some day she would love to start an artist-friendly record label and score some films.

Holly Brook plays at Monterey Live, 414 Alvarado St. in Monterey, Monday at 7:30pm. $8/advance; $10/at the door. 375-5483.