We had the pleasure of interviewing Emme, and here’s what she had to say:
Q: In what way(s) do you think “Ugly Tears” is different from your previous releases?
EMME: “Ugly Tears” has a very different sound than my Earthquake/Avalanche releases. It has more of a commercial pop/rock feel, rather than the bedroom/singer-songwriter pop I’m used to releasing. I feel like it’s the sound I’ve always wanted to achieve with my music, and it really puts into perspective the amount of growth and development my sound has gone through over the years. It’s also the first of my releases that will have its own music video. It feels like a big step for me and my career.
Q: What was your songwriting process for this song?
EMME: I wrote Ugly Tears about the fears or excuses we sometimes have when we let someone see our true selves. It’s almost like a warning song – like this is what you’re gonna get if you get any closer, haha. The songwriting process for this song was fairly smooth. I remember having the hook “I cry ugly” in my head for quite a while before I finally sat down with it, and once I did, all the pieces felt like they fell into place on their own. I wrote it on my own at the piano and then finished the final tweaks as I started recording the demo.
Q: Did you self-produce this song?
EMME: For the first time ever, no. This song was produced by my partner Brenden Hiebert, otherwise known by his artist name, Approaching Jupiter. It was a team effort getting this song to where it is now, but he took on the bulk of it. It was actually such a learning experience for me to have to let go of complete control when it comes to my music. Sometimes, as an independent artist, it’s just easier to do everything yourself, and I feel like I needed to learn the beauty of collaboration and letting someone else just do their thing. And clearly, he absolutely killed it, and I have never been more excited about the production of a song before.
Q: What’s your favorite song at the moment?
EMME: I’m a huge Lights fan, have been since I was ten, and she is just the absolute queen of stripped-down albums. Recently she just released “dEd,” the stripped-down version of her album “PEP” and I have had the whole thing on repeat for
weeks.
Q: What did you enjoy the most about self-producing your debut album Avalanche, which you released last year? Were there any stressful parts?
EMME: The beauty of self-producing is complete creative freedom. Avalanche just felt like my chance to explore – explore my songwriting, and my sound as an artist, and challenge myself in areas I never had before. Avalanche is a two-part album, with the first half being stripped-down acoustic versions of the songs off my EP, Earthquake, and so the whole album was written and produced to tie into this theme of feeling like a “natural disaster.” The most stressful part was figuring out how to make a two-part album feel cohesive and bridge the gap between the raw acoustics and the electro-pop songs. It was a huge project and a lot of work but by far the most rewarding and fulfilling project I’ve undertaken.
Q: What projects are you currently working on?
EMME: Right now, I’m in the thick of writing and recording album 2, of which Ugly Tears is the first single off it. I took a little break after Avalanche to focus on myself and figure out where I wanted to take my music next, but it feels so good to be back in the swing of things and I can’t wait to see where Ugly Tears and this new project takes me.
Interviewed by Zoey King
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