Emmavie - What's a Diamond To a Baby (EP) + Interview
Credit: Colleen
Emmavie got a whole EP for youuuuuu! and you and you
Emmavie is back with her latest EP ‘What's a Diamond To a Baby’. The triple threat producer, singer-songwriter and DJ is one of the most recognised producers in the UK. Always expressing the most complex parts of herself through making music. This EP is a different side of her sultry, sassy and unapologetic and yes we are all here for it.
When we found out about new music on the horizon, I just had to reach out to find out some more. Catching up with Emmavie was like catching up with a pal you haven’t seen in a hot sec, down to earth, warm and wonderful.
It was sunny day I was sitting in my bedroom phone in hand ready to speak to this absolute firecracker of a being. It was the day after England lost to Italy and straight from the offset before we started the interview we spoke about the camaraderie, the backlash and new covid rules.
What are some of the problems you have faced making and releasing your music during covid?
“Umm well some of the problems umm I’m trying to think specifically with this EP. I can’t say most, okay there have been problems but I can’t put them down to the quarantine. Only because I have a studio set up at home, so my music is always happening all of the time and if anything it actually helped me to focus knowing that I couldn’t go anywhere else. Well before the quarantine I actually maybe was running away from the responsibility of like having to finish songs. I chimed in “oh yeah procrastinating we’ve all been there love”. Emmavie, “You know what I mean, sometimes the pressure is just too much and like I can’t make a second verse come out or like I just can’t finish a song that I’ve been sitting on for ages. Then also waking up and seeing my studio all of the time creates a very unique pressure as well, because I have many more opportunities to let myself down. By not switching on my computer and not finishing something or some days I sit in front of the computer and have a loop going for like an hour, two hours and nothing will come. Then I’ll just feel guilty because without having the studio there I think you feel more inspired. You know you have to book somewhere, you have to travel somewhere and have 4 hours to get something done and it’s only gonna happen once in two weeks or something like that. That’s gonna give you some motivation to get things done, whereas when you wake up everyday at 3 am to go to the toilet and I see my studio and I'm like GAAA! I should really use that. So like I think the quarantine made me get serious about the fact that like I am, is a blessing to be able to do that because I know a lot of people got or were put in a position where they couldn’t go to the studio anymore and they had no idea how to engineer themselves. They have no idea how to produce their own music, yeah maybe people could send stuff to them but then they couldn’t go and record for a year. So I think I had a wake up call cos I was reintroduced or what’s the word the flame was re-ignited. Especially with producing because I found that the first, I think it was something like the first two months of quarantine. I made a beat or at least something almost every single day. Definitely in the first month of quarantine it was my challenge, I made a new beat everyday and I think that was more beats than I made in a year. Prior, but because the year prior I was travelling and going around so much. So I think because all those opportunities also fell out the window. I was just like well I’ve been so busy and I was going to go to different places and I’m gonna go do these shows. Which all got cancelled so I was like I have to use this time to make sure I have a catch up if anything. Catch up with the time that I’ve lost and the time that I’ve thrown away and use it make more music. Then that’s how this EP got wrapped up quickly and then like I’ve got so much more music I think at the moment I’m sitting on like easily 3 albums worth of music”. I injected with “daaaaam”. “Maybe more than that 3 album worth of music I would actually put out and then like 100s of like beats, demos and ideas stuff that I’d give to other people. So in terms of getting music done the quarantine, the only thing in quarantine that happened that slowed me down in terms of actually making the music was just times where I’d burn out. Because then I’d made 4 beats in a row and I'd be like, is this the beat I made last week, did I just remake it and stuff like that because I was just only making music. But the quarantine just had more of an impact on my live life and social life cause obviously we didn’t see anyone in real life or any other friends and stuff. Family members for a really long time and I’m just not the best at texting people it’s like I don’t mean to not be in touch but me and my phone just have and have always have had a weird relationship. I’m just one of those people who I won’t text but if we get on the phone we’ll talk for 6hrs. You know what I mean so I won’t think to send a hey how you doing text message, but if I get a call we’ll catch up about life and figure out the meaning of life as things like that. Just need to learn, but I need to get better at giving people err hey how you doing, thinking of you sort of message”. I then mentioned “I’m the opposite definitely a texter and I like talking people face to face but when the phone rings I’m like oh no no no no *we both giggle*. Who's that and I think I should answer it, I’m gonna answer it, I’ll answer it and then I go to answer it and it stops ringing and I’m like oh no, oh well, never mind they’ll call back later” *we both giggle*.
We went off on a tangent talking about the internal struggles of covid and music. Also comparing having a studio to a gym membership. Having all intentions of going and then you don’t or going to the gym and you go ham and you get addicted to it. Those things can exist at the same time, it comes in waves, Emmavie describes. “Where like you realise what you have and how much you like it but then there are those periods of time where you fall off, for like a week and then you can’t get back on the hamster wheel again. I think a studio set up in your room can be like that at times.”
Did you start any new hobbies during lockdown?
“Um new hobbies let me think there's nothing that I feel has been particularly new I feel like I just solidified the things that I felt like I should have been doing a bit more of. I mean I always cook, that's my main thing, like I’ve always loved cooking as much as I love music and like that’s my thing. I’m vegan as well so I was like now that I’m home I’m gonna make sure I’m gonna make breakfast lunch and dinner, not every night but most of the week. Actually cook food fresh have a good like intentional diet so I was doing that. At one point I was like I’m gonna make everything that I see that I like on a cooking show and figure out you know I was baking things in an air fryer that I got like literally creating new recipes. Literally was doing everything I could think of or imagine to do with food over the last year. That was something that I think took over most of my like thinking other than making and working on the project and then yeah a bit for working out but yeah like I said the gym thing, it was home workouts. I have a like a love and hate relationship with working out I wanna be fit but I hate exercising *giggles*I think that’s everyone relationship with it”. I then suggested to her maybe she could give Hip Hop Tabata a go because it incorporates dance and exercise together. As exercising can feel like a chore and when I did that it made it quite fun, I use a video by Keaira LaShae in case anyone else is interested which is on YouTube. Emmavie is gonna give it a go so give it a go too and tag us if you dig it.
What’s your proudest moment to date as an artist?
“Ooo I actually have to think about that, I’m trying to think of something that will spark a specific memory. The two that jump up in my mind, I don’t know whether I would describe it as a proud moment maybe more of a significant moment to really solidify within myself like how real this music thing is for me. How real some of the incredible opportunities can come out of making tunes in my bedroom can be. Two years ago I went to the playlist retreat which is a camp, it’s a retreat of writing, networking. It’s a huge retreat that is put on by Jazzy Jeff and he invites it’s something like 120 artists, producers, DJs a lot of them like legends. People that I thought I would never meet in my whole entire life like Questlove was there, Terrence Martin, and some of the newer people like Mac Ayres, Devin Morrison, Tiffany Gouché and the list is so and Redman from Wu-Tang. Especially from the neo-soul and jazz world all of the legends that produce Carvin Haggins that produced Musiq Soulchild albums. The list is ongoing and when I came home it’s only when did my research and I realised who the other people that sat at the table at lunch with were. So it’s like I was there for a week at Jeff’s house doing this camp where we were all making music together and we were eating, telling stories and partying. Whilst I was there I was just in complete disbelief because I was one of two people from the UK that were there in Philadelphia. He like flew me out, and there was a programme of things to do like massages, you know you get like infused foods like cannabis infused foods. There was a caterer that came that made these hors derves that where all infused with cannabis and then we all had this massive jam. So it’s like being high sitting next to someone who I’ve listened to for the last 10 years and being like is this person actually talking to me right now. Yeah it was like a week of that of unbelievable, it felt like an awakening because I was like you actually need to believe that it’s your music that got you there. It literally was, there was a show that I did in 2018 with a guy called Dane Johnson who is Jazzy Jeff’s MC when they go on tour around the world. He stopped in London, I just have great friends, he stopped in London to do a show in Miranda which is Ace Hotel before it all shutdown. He was doing his own night during one of those stop off nights that he was doing before the European tour that Jazzy Jeff was on. My friend I believe it was Sean, he’d interviewed Jeff so I believe that had a good relationship and Dane before they’d come back to London this time. Then Dane was like I wanna put on this show who shall I put on? Sean said I have to put on Emmavie, so I ended up headlining this show randomly like it was so last minute as well. Headlining this show that Dane was putting on in Miranda and Jazzy Jeff turned up and he was stood in the front row the whole time I was performing *gasps* so we just ended up having this fantastic relationship, like we just hit it off straight away. About 5 or 6 months later he comes back to London to do Electric Brixton he did a shop there in 2019 I think it was April. There was like 8 of us squeezed into his dressing room, obviously he had all of his people and I was knocking on the door like heeey *we both giggle* in front of like a million people. Then we were sat on the couch like catching up again and I had done my research and I knew that he does this thing called The Playlist Retreat.
I’m friends with Masego and Masego has been for 5 years and so I was like oh The Playlist Retreat what’s happening this year? He was like Em don’t worry you're already in and I was like what, no are you serious? You’re coming. So it was like 6 months of knowing him and after that conversation maybe 3 weeks after that I got an email from his manager saying, yeah we are booking you flights to come out to Philadelphia you’re gonna be part of The Playlist Retreat family. I was just like I can’t believe this is real and now after that I have like 120 new friends, there’s a group chat in which I get text messages and everyone’s texting like literally my heroes all in this group chat Whatsapp. For 2 years literally non-stop because there’s always a question that somebody has. So it’s like all of us staying in touch and yeah I feel like that’s my proudest, well it’s not one moment I feel like it’s a proudest series of events. That I can remember that comes up at the forefront of my mind. I then said “Oh wow that’s so beautiful you must look at your phone and be like omg so and so is messaging me”
Credit: Colleen
“Look seriously there’s an engineer in there his name is Young Guru and he mixes and masters Beyonce and Jay-Z music *gasps*. He is so determined to school the next generation of producers and engineers. He’s more reachable and more accessible, you’d think a person like that. I mean Beyonce and Jay-Z are at the top of his list but everyone you can imagine, this guy has got so many Grammys under his belt it’s ridiculous. Actually when I think about it when Grammy time came around last summer in the group chat it was a day of congratulations @ on your Grammy win. I was like am I the only person in this group that didn’t get a Grammy, that’s literally what it was. Like hey we just got nominated for 4 Grammys on this person’s album for this. I was like wait I forget that these lot are actively involved in everything we see happening right now. Like I can’t even name everyone right now it will come to me after but yeah it’s like when Grammy season comes around then I’m reminded because all of them, if not nominated then they’ve won. It’s a crazy group to be apart of, you just don’t know what to do with yourself. The ethos of it is everyone is here because everyone has something equally as important to contribute so there’s no person that is more famous or more important. It’s just like you get there and everyone is here to collaborate, everybody is here wanting to everybody. So it feels like an equal playing field and you just get to see who these heroes are like who they are on a level, what that experience is like to sit down and write music with them, ask advice and share ideas. In the beginning I was just overwhelmed and a bit intimidated but then everyone started telling jokes and was like oh you’re actually rude. Robert Glasper I would have thought because he does such jazzy jazz I would have thought he would have been not pompous but you know posh. No no he is country, he is tells filthy jokes *both laugh* the most inappropriate jokes and wears jeans that are way too big. You know what I mean like proper south and I was just like wow okay it’s like my image of people really changed, because I was like ah actually you’re really talented but on a human level you're so human and so the place that you're from. As opposed to this celebrity, hollywood version I had in my head which would be like unapproachable. He was normal, very funny and very rude”. *both laugh*
What was the best concert/gig you’ve ever attended and where was it?
“Ooo because I’ve seen so many for every different day I would say something different, maybe I’ll say a top 3. This is in no particular order the first one that comes up is Omar at the Jazz refreshed festival that happened in South Bank Centre. That was free, because I remember walking in. I remember Alfa Mist played and a few other people. Omar’s set was ridiculous I’ve always known him to be a neo-soul legend but I didn’t realise that as a live performer he’s one of the best ever. That was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Then I would say Hiatus Kaiyote and that was at Islington Assembly Hall, that show see Hiatus Kaiyote... I came out of it like why do I do music? That’s what proper music looks like, I can’t do that what and I will never be able to do that because it’s like 4 people but they play like there an orchestra or something, it’s ridiculous. That show blew my mind that show is up there, I would go to that show every night of the week if I could only go to one show ever for the rest of my life it definitely would be that one. It’s a toss up now because I’ve seen Erykah Badu twice, I’ve seen Justin Timberlake twice. My favourite album is ‘Justified’ by Justin Timberlake because it’s a Neptunes produced album and that sound actually at the core of why I make music. So I’ve seen him perform at a secret Brits Afterparty show. I remember we had to queue for so long because he was coming from the Brits because the Brits had to finish first and then the show started. Again I feel that it was a big event but a free show and I literally fainted when he did *laughs* he did Take It From Here I believe, no it was Rock Your Body which is even more embarrassing. I was literally like I think I’m gonna faint and before I knew it I saw nothing, yeah so I got a bit carried away *fits of giggles*. That’s my favourite album from 2001, but I’ve seen so many people I feel like after this I’m going to remember about 10 other shows. Those are the ones I remember because of certain things so yeah those are my top 3”.
Credit: Colleen
I then spoke about my Hiatus Kaiyote gig experience at the Old Market back in 2016 and how Jordan Rakei was supporting. Emmavie “They make music on like an alien level, it’s like even just her what she does vocally Nai Palm how the ideas that she has. It feels like they’ve gone into the future they’ve had a billion years of musical practice ahead of us and then come back in time and then they're just showing off. That’s what it feels like, okay you don’t even have to do it this good”.
What is the album or song you would say you have listened to the most recently?
I will say this was stuck in my head when I'd seen a singer called BINA. perform *gasps* do you know BINA.? I said “Love her we actually had her perform for our lock-in series, where we were letting artists take over our IG account and they were doing 30 minute sets. We did have her play, ooo she was so good, she’s great”. Emmavie “Aww great, I’m gonna say Summer Breeze by BINA. because after I had seen her perform she was opening for an artist whose name I can’t remember right now but she’s from America. BINA. for me felt like she stole the show and for an opening act her vibe is like she what’s the word”. I start singing, I live out a duffel bag in the back of an Uber. Both of us “Yaaas exactly”. Emmavie “She’s just wavy, I believe her, I believe everything she’s writing, I believe the way she approaches music it feels real”. I start singing again. I clearly can’t help myself, “I’m on my way to hades in the back of the black Mercedes”. Emmavie “Yes see, yes you know, we listen to the same type of music okay. I’d say BINA. I could think of loads of others, I’ve been listening to Green Tea Peng quite a bit as well. BINA. is the person who I felt like oh I’m excited again to meet new artists, like I’m always excited to meet new artists. She actually made my ears prick up so yeah BINA. I said, aww she’s gonna, gassed she is gonna be gassed” *both giggle*.
Name 3 people you would love to work with and why?
“The first one for me is very easy a singer called Ayeisha Raquel, I believe she is based in South London I hope I’m getting that correct. Reason being a singer she has an unbelievable voice I can’t even like. I heard her on a mixtape that had a whole bunch of UK artists it was only on Soundcloud called The Loosies Project. Did you ever hear about The Loosies Projects? It was made up of two mixtapes and effectively it was made up of songs that all of them had done in sessions together and just turned it into two albums. It was genius idea so I first heard her voice there, I was like who in the hell is this? She’s only got about 3 songs out and maybe actually only one of them is hers and she’s just featuring on other peoples songs otherwise. Her voice is insane, so I have got a session with her but I’ve been wanting to work with her for at least about the last year. I would say another person I’d say Pharrell/ The Neptunes because that’s my ultimate and I say that all of the time. That’s my goal in this music thing is to be able to work with The Neptunes on a track. To be honest they are working with reasonable new artists they produce quite a bit for Snoh Aalegra and stuff like that *ahh Snoh* yeah I think she just dropped an album. I said “Oh she did I’ve listened to that already, I was wasting no time *both laugh*”. Emmavie “I’ve wanted to, this weekend has just been a bit of a mad one that’s like my to do to listen to the new Snoh album, I’m excited for it. Another person ahh there’s always too many I am gonna say for the third one, I wanna say like 10. They are a singer-songwriter called India Ambré I believe she’s from LA has writing on ah whose album? I only learnt this afterwards you know when you find someone who put out their own album, but in the last few years they’ve also written for big artists. I found her music first and then I saw her tweeting about being in the studio with certain people and being Grammy nominated. This is because of writing she’s done on other peoples albums, I was like oh and she seems super young to me to have done that already. Her albums are so sick, her writing and her approach to music is really dope and clearly she’s on the cusp or on the way to being somebody quite significant in the music industry. So that’s someone I listen to a lot for inspiration right now.
Read the rest of Emmavie’s interview in our print mag. We have two covers to choose from Green Tea Peng and NAO or why not get both.
I had the pleasure of attending Emmavie's listening party with insane DJs Glade Marie, Complexion and DJ Pineapplez, it was a whole vibe. I also got the chance to see her headline show DT Soul was on the keys and talkbox, Hurcs on bass and Kieran Guy on drums and the rest of the band were amazing, she bought out Kojey Radical and the crowd went wild.
If you haven’t listened to 'What's a Diamond to A Baby' it’s available to stream, download and buy now.
