A chat with Emily Moment

Hey Emily! Introduce yourself to our lovely campers.

I’m based in London so I’m in my apartment here in South Hampstead sitting on the balcony appreciating that the sun is out today. I have a voice over this afternoon, so I’ll have to go in soon to get my recording studio in order.

You’ve been in the UK for nearly a decade now, what’s the best British phrase you’ve started to use?

I try really hard not to use too many British phrases. With any assimilation you do naturally internalize some shift in your speech, but the first time I visited home after moving here, I had apparently developed some Madonna-style accent and my friends from back home didn’t let me live it down for ages. Since then, I’ve worked pretty hard to maintain my own dialect. It never really sits right with me anyway when an American says ‘mate’ or ‘brilliant’, but perhaps one I use in a tongue and cheek kinda way is ‘alright’. It’s used differently here than in The States...a kind of rhetorical, familiar hi/how are you?/everything good? all rolled into one.

And what’s the one phrase or word you just don’t get?

Being here as long as I have, It’s safe to say I’ve ironed out all the headscratchers by now, but l guess I’ll never understand - though I do find it very endearing - why Brits need to say ‘Bye’ approximately 5 times in a row before hanging up the phone.

Rumbled. I so do that… Anyhow, tell me about The Party’s Over in two sentences.

The primary themes for the record were heavily inspired by my time working in a counselling centre, so many of the songs dance around anxiety, depression and grief, but it's shared through a hopeful lens. It's about all the ways in which we can hit a wall in life and how we cope in those moments.

It’s your debut solo album but you’ve recorded with bands before, what made you want to do your own thing?

I think a perfect window opened up for me, where my primary bandmate was focused on another project and I had a big writing surge. A few songs in, I thought perhaps I would still just siphon off what I had written for the relevant band, but soon I realized I wanted to do something that was all mine from head to toe, and I actually had the material to do it. I found it thrilling to think about producing the thing without compromise. I had also been playing a great deal of ukulele in both bands, not entirely by preference, but more because it added a different dynamic where there was already enough guitar presence. The uke suddenly felt so twee to me. I really wanted to play electric guitar (a choice that would make no sense in the other projects), so I created that space for myself.

‘Master Of One’ is an ace opening song, talk to me about it.

Thanks so much. I really love how this track came out. Once we got the drums just right, I knew it was the only song that could open the album. The song talks about people who may be compulsively drawn to bad behaviours, but don’t know that they are. It’s told from the perspective of a person watching from the outside and trying to be supportive. The lyrics were inspired by an excerpt from ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’, by Huruki Murakami. He included this throw away anecdote about the Fugu fish, a delicacy in Japan which can be poisonous if prepared incorrectly. Apparently the area closest to the part which can kill you is the most delicious and I found that to be such a perfect metaphor.

The song unfolded from there. When we recorded the track, I played rhythm guitar live while I sang, but listening back something wasn’t quite right. Rather than toying with the mix or editing it in and out, we removed my guitar from the track entirely and the song took on a completely different personality. Sometimes it’s important to know when you’re getting in the way of your own music. That was probably the quickest and easiest decision I made on the record.

Another song I love - you might be getting the gist there are a few - is the title track, what can you tell me about that song?

This one is a giant hodgepodge of influences. When I’m in a writing place, I’m trying to play my guitar as often as possible, I’m reading a great deal, listening to music and opening myself up to find inspiration anywhere, so any potential song is just honey waiting for all these ideas to fall into place. The basic chord progression actually came from an Ocean Colour Scene song I really like called ‘She’s Been Writing’. It’s in a different key and tempo with a different arrangement, so no one would ever know that, but if you play the verses to ‘She’s Been Writing’ a little faster, you’ll probably hear it. The lyrics were inspired by a Bukowski poem of the same name, but I veered off and wrote about escaping a toxic environment. The vocal tone for the song came while watching Better Oblivion Community perform ‘Dylan Thomas’ on one of the late shows. In my other bands all unison singing is done in harmony, and I liked the idea of having two vocalists just singing the better part of the song together on the same line. My drum influence was from one of my all-time favourite singer-songwriters, Tristen. She uses big 60s style drums and I liked the idea of opening with that heavy tambourine intro.

‘Josephine’ is a cracking little song as well, with some harmonica no less. What’s your best harmonica story?

Well, my main harmonica story is that I don’t play it. My partner Steve in Mahoney & The Moment (who does play harmonica) loves to hand it to me on stage in the middle of a set, to get some spontaneous moment of fun for the audience. He knows I will get awkward with it and the audience will think it’s cute, and as much it makes me feel silly when he does, it does make for a good moment on stage. There are videos out there of me trying my damndest (and ultimately failing) to cut a solo during some bridge. For this album, I actually bought my own brace and shiny new Bflat so I could learn to play all my own harp for ‘Josephine’ and ‘The Bottom’, and I’d still really like to do that someday, but admittedly it’s a hard one to practice when you live in an apartment. I really like the way Steve plays, so it was a no brainer to have him record it. Fun fact: we did record a complete alternate version of ‘Josephine’ which is implied by the reprise at the end of the album. I may release it in full some day.

Looking back on the album now, which of the songs are you the most happy with?

‘Santa Maria’ and ‘Master of One’ both surpassed my expectations. I’m over the moon with how open and vulnerable they both feel to me. Plus, we landed both of those tracks within just a few takes and when you’re recording new songs completely live with the band, and they click that quickly, it’s pretty magical. I’m also really happy with a song which I know will be no one’s favourite (and that’s okay! they can’t all be singles!) ‘Can’t Take It With You’. Yes, it’s full of platitudes and yes, structurally, it’s very simple, but I wrote it after the death of a close friend and in times of grief, it can be the simplest of ideas that draws you out. I sprung it on the band on the 2nd day of our tracking weekend and asked if they minded giving it a try. It was the only song on the album they hadn’t heard before. I played it for them just once on the piano and then we just recorded it. I actually had to edit out myself cueing them in and out of the verses and bridge of the song, because I used that original take. I have to say, I like my little organ solo as well. All of the songs were pretty fresh, but that one will always feel different for me and a little special because it was spontaneous.

I hear you’ve done some voiceover work as well, what advert would we know you from?

Hmmm...I suppose that depends on where you are in the world. I’ve worked on over 150 voice jobs for apps, commercials, video games etc.. including Dunkin Donuts, Huawei phones, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Many campaigns are restricted to specific markets so I don’t always know who sees what. The one job I have probably gotten recognised for the most was as the voice of Meghan Markle in a Channel 5 TV show about her and Harry that aired here in the UK and Australia.

What can we expect from you for the rest of 2021?

My main focus is getting to play just one live venue-based gig with the entire band this year. That means nine of us including me. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t be an issue, but obviously in the age of covid and with my band pretty spread out (my drummer lives in Greece) it’s not so simple. I am committed to making it work, safety providing though!

Who (or what) has inspired you?

Specific projects from Conor Oberst, Josh Ritter, Norah Jones, Laura Marling, and Tristen were big sonic influences for this project. I really like artists who stretch and test the confines of traditional genres. Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters was terribly useful to me once I’d finished the recording and mixing and before I’d had it mastered. I had a real failing of confidence in the piece. Out of the blue, I heard all these little moments I newly interpreted as mistakes and I questioned whether I needed to go back and fix them all. I needed the rawness, the liveness, the authenticity of her record (which I had on repeat last summer) to show me that I didn’t. There are a ton of literary references on this record as well, so it’s safe to say reading inspires me lyrically. Specific books or collections I’ve referenced are ‘10th of December’, by George Saunders, ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ and ‘The Santa Ana’s’ by Joan Didon, ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’, by Haruki Murakami, and ‘Sometimes You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense’ a collection of Charles Bukowski poems. Finally, artistically, I’m really inspired by some album covers from the 70s that I wanted to pay homage to. Neil Young, Tom Waits and Linda Ronstadt were all big inspirations in that department.

If you could recommend one artist to hear this week, who would it be?

Tristen is my #1 rec. She’s a nashville based singer-songwriter with country influences and to me she sounds like a modern day Brenda Lee. I met her once in Nashville and made an absolute fool of myself, tripping over my words and not being able to recall any of her songs to say something meaningful about her music to her face and I would very much like to have another chance at that nonsense. I would recommend starting at the beginning with her catalogue. She’s collaborated with some big artists now and is putting out some awesomely polished, huge production stuff, but I caught onto her with her early, slightly more lo-fi tunes which are also really great. Her bridges are a masterclass and her last album ‘Sneaker Waves’ was a big influence on ‘The Party’s Over’. ‘Glass Jar’ is an absolute jam.

What’s the question we should have asked you today but haven’t?

I think we’ve covered some solid ground.

Finally, how do you take your coffee?

Columbian drip, black, no sugar. I’m actually very particular about my coffee.

To find out more about Emily go visit her official website, or you can check out what she’s up to on Twitter and Facebook.

Her album, The Party’s Over, is out now and available to buy on Bandcamp or stream on Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music, and Qobuz.