NXTSTYLE’s 2020 New Music Guide: EMM

Singer, songwriter, and producer EMM has been on our radar for a few years as she’s always evolving and offering something new. Check out our interview below as EMM share’s her thoughts on life, the industry and her music in a preview from our video coverage!

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An interview with EMM

 
“My Friend”

I wrote “My Friend” alone in my bedroom in probably like 2016 or 2017. I think I hadn’t written a song for like seven or eight months which for me is a super long time. I had been really crushed by the business I had all this shitty stuff happening I was just in a really bad place and finally I was able to write this one song on the guitar. It just flowed out in like 10 or 15 minutes I cut a really quick demo. I had a horrible cold I sounded nasty in the demo but yeah I just cut it in my house and forgot about it and when I got together with Taylor and we started really getting into his writing zone toward the end of 2017. We were writing a ton and he’s like ‘do you have any songs that that we should finish’ and I started going through my demos just in the last couple years. Stuff that I never really finished and I came across ‘My Friend’ and I was like ‘this is a nice song.’ It was so genuine and honest and I was in so much pain when I wrote it and I felt like it was worth honoring that moment that I was in when I wrote it.

“Twin Flame”

‘Twin Flame’ was super fun to make. I made it with Zoe Fisher and Taylor Wills Bach. I write and produce on all of my music I’m incredibly passionate about that and I’m passionate about women making music and being behind the keyboard and behind the computer and behind the pen and making sure that women’s voices and stories are being told so I am crazy stubborn that I have to write and produce on all my music.”

“Twin Flame” is dope though because it’s really cinematic which is my favorite kind of music ever I love cinematic pop I was raised by classical musicians so I always gravitate towards really cinematic songs and sounds so I think the thing I’m the most proud of in ‘Twin Flame’ is probably the verses and the verse melodies. I think they sound like really operatic and interesting and the song is called “Twin Flame” because it’s about someone that understands you really really well even if they’re not the best person for you. Maybe they’re not super unhealthy of a person for you to be with but that might be the right person for your growth and I think everyone’s been in those like really toxic passionate relationships that have major rollercoasters or you’re like ‘this probably isn’t very good for me but it is interesting and passionate’ so I just wanted to write something about what that’s like.

I make music for the purpose of trying to reach people and trying to bless people and remind people how powerful they are and that they’re capable of overcoming things and that they’re not alone and that it’s okay to go through different challenges like mental health challenges. It’s okay to feel like you’re not good enough. To be like a reminder that you are a superhero even if you feel like garbage. Even if you feel like the weakest person in the world, you’re not alone, you’re enough. You’re powerful, you’re brave, you’re strong, and you can do anything and you don’t have to fit into a box you don’t have to be like everybody else you don’t have to be what people tell you you have to be.

Growing up I noticed that if people really see you shine their first instinct is to try to tear you down or try to shut down your dreams or tell you that you have to be smaller and I think especially for women like we’re constantly told to just literally and figuratively shrink like be quieter and be skinnier and be less and you’re either too much or you’re not enough and I just think especially in music we see this all the time. Of course like you have to be super hot and articulate but you can’t have an opinion and you have to sound like one thing and you have to have the big hit song that sounds like this girl and make sure that you’re not too left and you’re not too right but don’t be too boring. I think that you should be able to be exactly who you are and know that that’s enough and you should be able to sing your ass off to your music and make whatever song is inspiring you in that moment and expand.

2020 is going to be great! I have a single dropping every single week in January and the first week in February which is great. I’m really excited that my mixtape ‘Ruby’ is coming out which is gonna be crazy and then I have another mixtape coming out called ‘Sapphire’ and that’s gonna be sick. I’m also working on an album and I have some really cool videos coming up.

Obviously my show is very important to me so I’m working on my show all the time so that when I tour in 2020 I have a super interesting amazing show and I’m really excited to perform.

I love the new Coldplay album. My favorite song on there is “Arabesque” which is like this super left incredible song that reminds me of how “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” by The Temptations and then it has these horns at the end I like remind me of thriller a little bit and it changes language…It’s just so interesting and they just didn’t follow any rules and they didn’t box themselves in with that song at all.

 

Music is invisible and it’s spiritual and it’s powerful. And sound is like the source of all creation and I think that it’s a superpower and it can be a weapon and it can heal people and I don’t underestimate the power of music and I don’t forget to appreciate that power. If you get to make music full-time you are one of the luckiest human beings on earth and I’m so thankful that I get to be a part of this thing that’s so much bigger and more powerful than I am and I feel like I just get to be like a conduit for this incredible feeling. It’s my way of life, who I am, but when I create I don’t feel present I feel like I disappear and my brain turns off and I go in to this meditative state. It’s like experiencing a higher power and my hope and intention when I create is that I can use that to share powerful messages and remind people of shit that matters and hopefully alleviate some suffering in the world. That would be fantastic if I could do that

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