Features EMA

There seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment of us talking to bands whilst they’re on the move, or just back from a long trip. EMA - formerly of cult duo Gowns, alongside Ezra Buchla - is on the brink of releasing her debut solo album, ‘Past Life Martyred Saints’ (due 9th May), and when we caught up with her she’d just got back from a heap of live dates in the states, including a few much-hyped spots at SXSW.

Hello EMA, how are you? What’ve you been up to today?
Oof! I’ve been in the car for like the past five days for some shows. It’s actually been pretty fun! Lots of joking around, listening to weird music, making up comedy routines about ‘space mexicans’ (which is basically just making fun of crazy US border control conspiracy theorists). No major band drama—so far, so good!

You’ve been kicking around in other musical guises for the past few years. How does what you’re doing now under EMA differ from what you were doing with Gowns?
Well, I chose the EMA moniker so that it could be really flexible. I use it for writing, performance and video. The main difference between EMA and GOWNS is that for this I work solo or have multiple collaborators, whereas GOWNS was essentially just me and Ezra Buchla.

Are you the sort to jump from project to project, always needing something new to work on?
Definitely. Even when it seemed like maybe I was taking a break from music I was doing tons of weird shit: curating spoken word performances and multimedia events, writing a piece for VICE, performing a joke exorcism, doing lots of musical one-offs.

You moved to LA when you were 18 - is that when you started making music?
I actually had a coupla crazy high school bands, Mannhayter and Swamp Pussy. They were super rad! But also kind of confusing to people. I think they would have fit in perfectly at the Smell, but not so much in SoDak.

What would you be doing had you not left South Dakota, do you think?
If I had never left South Dakota I would probably have several children and at least one divorce, a couple more run-ins with the law, a drunken bar band and a job as a high school english teacher. And I would be involved in politics.

Your debut single clocks in at seven minutes, the b-side seventeen; does it feel as though you’re doing something a bit different releasing these tracks, or are you not so bothered by traditional ‘rules’ regarding length and such?
I’ve always loved really long tracks. I try to mix it up so not all the songs are that long, but for the long ones I want them to be as long as possible! I like things with lots of movement. When I was young my mom always played a mix of classical music and classic rock. I think that’s pretty much what I like to make. Tchaikovsky meets CCR.

How does having a penchant for long tracks impact upon writing an album?
For this record I tried to make everything as short as possible. It was my first attempt at writing an album of ‘songs’.

Did you record your debut album by yourself, or did you bring in some outside help?
Some of the songs are really old and were recorded long ago. The rest of them I worked on at this rad space in West Oakland called EASTNILE. Leif who runs it, helped me do a lot of production work and we did the California video there too. He also builds crazy gear which you can check out here. But I mostly play around and obsess over mixes and then have someone come in to try and fix the real fuckups.

Is there anything else you can tell us about the record?
It’s really diverse. If you don’t like something, just wait a while.

And finally: can we expect to see you in the UK anytime soon?
Yes! I’ll be there so soon, in mid-May. I’m super looking forward to it!

You can catch EMA playing the following shows this spring:

MAY
05 BERLIN: Berghain Kantine
09 PARIS: Cafe De La Danse (W/ Scout Niblett)
10 AMSTERDAM: Paradiso
11 LONDON: The Macbeth
12 LLONDON: Cargo (W/ Scout Niblett)
13 MANCHESTER: Islington Mill
14 BRIGHTON: The Great Escape @ the NME Stage