Music
Learn how globe-trotting has influenced the former anti-folk artist and check out an exclusive mix.
Emmy The Great – real name Emma-Lee Moss – has lived a nomadic life since releasing her last solo album, Virtue, in 2011. The Hong Kong-born Londoner hopped from one continent to another, escaping, touring, visiting, living and writing the lush and dreamily nocturnal R&B-inflected songs on her new EP S (Bella Union) and the album that’s set to follow. Seeing so much of the world inspired Emmy, once a self-styled anti-folk artist, to take some unexpected creative turns, so we asked her what she learned along the way. Listen to an exclusive mix while you hot-foot it around the world with her.
Yokohama I started writing in a hotel in Yokohama while touring Japan. It was really hot, like 35 degrees, but the hotel was attached to an underground mall so you didn’t have to be outside. It felt like living in the future – partly because Japanese structures are so uniquely modern and packed with stuff you didn’t know existed, and partly because it was so hot we couldn’t be outside. It probably started me off writing songs that are set either now or in the future.
Hong Kong My parents moved back to Hong Kong a few years ago and I visited them after the Japan tour and for Christmas last year. It anchored my childhood memories of living there, and made me address that part of myself. I found myself watching more Chinese films and at one point I played a show where I sang songs in Cantonese, Mandarin and English.
Berlin I was still touring my second album, Virtue, while writing S and the material that will come after it. At one point I was in Berlin supporting an artist and the inter-band relationship was deteriorating quite badly. I spent a day walking around Berlin listening to David Bowie and thinking about the city and the sense of freedom it gives. Berlin is a city of solace. It has a lot of culture there to cushion you when things feel bad. It was a great place to feel lonely in.
Watch the video for Swimming Pool, taken from the new EP S, in the player below.
Salt Lake City I went to Salt Lake City during Sundance to promote my involvement with the film, Austenland. Jerusha Hess, the film’s writer and director, is Utah-born, and, like many other Utah residents, is Mormon. I hung out with a lot of amazing people and learned a lot about Mormonism, which hasn’t directly impacted my songwriting, but it was cool to meet people with different upbringings and yet know that we shared jokes and experiences. The landscape blew my mind. It reminded me that no matter how much life I live, I’ve still got more to see.
Los Angeles In 2013, I moved to LA and entered a whole new world. It was extraordinary to go from London – a city where I knew every street – to a place where I was going somewhere new every day. I love LA because it’s so wildly beautiful and abundant, but also because it’s brutal. I remember the first time I went to a party and literally not one person spoke to me, because they didn’t know if I was worth speaking to. I know that’s technically a bad situation, but I found it fascinating.
London I came back to London to finalise the production and mix. In London, we’re well practised in finding romance in gloomy situations – we strip things of decoration and still find a way of making them beautiful. I need London and its cynicism to keep my musical decisions sane. It’s where imagination is key, and the people here are crazy creative and true originals. I just hope artists can still afford to live here in years to come.
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