Emmi is a rapidly blossoming talent.
The Australian born pop artist has been lauded by none other than Taylor Swift, with her beautifully creative vision containing something rather special.
New cut 'Talk To Me' is online now, and Clash is already enraptured – a divine tale of empowerment, and shrugging off the prejudice of the everyday.
She explains: "'Talk To Me' is about that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you know mistruths are being spread about you. It’s about the pain of not having your side of the story heard or, worse still, asked for."
"To be seen and heard is a basic human desire I think we all share, and when you feel misunderstood, or you feel you don't have a voice, it can be a very lonely experience indeed. I wanted my song to be a companion for anyone feeling that. Whether they be the subject of high school gossip chains, or on a wider scale, a victim of deep routed prejudice."
Check it out now.
Emmi is a highly creative individual, and combines music with a love of visual arts. She notes:
"For every song I write, I like to handwrite the lyrics and do a little sketch of what was in my head at the time. Then I pop them in an envelope together and stick it in a box under my bed with the others. I don’t know why. Perhaps I just feel the need to turn the music into something physical. Something I can hold and touch. Then I feel it’s complete."
Clash has gained access to the sketches that lie behind 'Talk To Me' – check them out below.
This more of a logo than a song sketch. I was sat in a cafe in Soho when I doodled it. I was watching this incredibly well groomed business man walking by when a big gust of wind blew him sidewise and turned his umbrella inside out. Everyone in the cafe stopped to watch the clumsy struggle that followed. And when he was finally on his way again, umbrella back the right way up, I looked around and realised that everyone in the room was either smiling or cheering for him.
Why? Because we saw ourselves in him in that moment. Because in one gust of wind, he became wholly relatable and oh so human, and we all love to be reminded we’re not the only ones.
And it got me thinking….one day I hope my music does for people what that man just did for me in that moment. Show people themselves. So I drew me with an umbrella turned inside out. Which is basically how I feel… most of the time.
This sketch was for my first single ‘My Kinda Swag’. Contrary to what you might think, the song is a love letter to the good people in the world. It's a celebration of substance.
The word ‘swag’ was once defined as the possessions of value on your person, so I had some fun playing with that in the lyric, listing the qualities of true worth in the people I loved most and describing them as if they were designer handbags or big brand trainers.
“I dig the design of your soul…” This sketch depicts the many parts that make up a person. The way their mind works, the cogs, the mazes, their routes, their branches, their fruit and most importantly their heart.
This was another sketch for my song 'You Said You Loved Me'. The girl in the song talks about her man taking another woman to the same “place we go” making the same promises he once made to her, and that place is what I drew here.
Perhaps I watched far too much Little House on the Prairie growing up, but I imagined if there was a place young lovers go to proclaim their affections, it would have to be a tree on a hill with a view and a swing. Right? With their initials carved into the trunk. Obvs.
For this one I basically drew a village. Everyone’s lights are off in every house. Except for one bedroom window. Where the two lovers in the song are fighting till the early hours. We’ve all been there.
This one didn’t go in the box under my bed. I sent it to Taylor with a thank you note, when she tweeted about the song.
With this drawing, I guess I wanted to depict the feeling of loneliness that comes with feeling like you don’t have a voice. The people in the outer circle are whispering words about the character alone in the middle. They are all wearing headphones, as if to drown out the truth.
On the surface, the characters are all black and white, as if to depict the black and white way in which the world so often categorises people or events at first glance. Good. Bad. Right. Wrong. But the heart is a colourful tapestry that can’t be understood and analysed so simply.
The truth is always a confusing and uninviting mix of good, bad, and all the colours in between. Hence the rainbow heart of the character in the middle.
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