For
the last year, London-born Sydney songwriter Emma Davis has worked with
acclaimed troubadour Brian Campeau (Angus and Julia Stone, Melanie
Horsnell, Elana Stone, Cuthbert and the Nightwalkers) to piece together a
record of her stories and give her sweet melodies and subtle turn of
phrase the delicate treatment that they deserve.
Amanda Picman caught up with Emma ahead of her east coast tour and learnt more about her musical journey thus far…
Congratulations on the album launch, you’re launching at The Empress in Melbourne on the 16th of October and in Sydney on the 29th of October at The Red Rattler in Marrickville, how are you preparing for the up coming tour?
Thanks Amanda! Yes Indeed and then Canberra and Brisbane.Well currently I’m writing this from the car on the way down to Melbourne so you’d hope that I was prepared by now. In actual fact I spent the morning making sure I had all the instruments ready to go and spent 5 minutes packing a bag of clothes so you can see where my priorities lie. I’ll have no toothbrush or underwear but at least I’ll have woodblock or an eggshaker. Musically I’ve just been trying to get back into playing my songs. The last few months were spent trying to finish the record and then book a tour so it’s been a while since I’ve just sat down and remembered the music part of all of this- the reason I do it. I’ve also had to spent some time working out how I can bring some of the new arrangements that are on the album to the stage as well as some of the wonderful musicians that featured.
Does it feel like only yesterday we were pouring beers at a local pub in down town Glebe and you were doing gig’s here and there around the inner west? Did launching an album feel like a distant dream?
To be honest pouring beers (and making the occasional cocktail) is still something that I have to do to pay rent, only now its in a different place and sadly not with you. Hospitality just seems to come with the territory of being a musician and as long as I have something else that I’m working on and excited about then that’s ok with me. Finishing a record did start to feel like a bit of a distant dream though. Because I moved to Sydney knowing no one it took me a while to meet musicians and find someone I’d like to work with and would like to work with me. When I did find someone I enjoyed working with (Brian Campeau) it made sense to keep going, so rather then stop at an e.p, as originally planned, we carried on recording and I wrote some more songs along the way. It was a very leisurely way to record. We’d record a little, not see each other for a few weeks then record a little more, have breakfast, record a bit more. I wasn’t really in a great rush. I wanted to put something out that I was proud of but also give these songs that had been sitting with me for so long, a home. That said, it did prove quite difficult to let it go at the end and realise that it was finished.
I’ve watched you play at places like the Sandringham and The Supper club, how important are the inner city venues around Sydney for up and coming artists like yourself.
Very important! I think it’s the venues that have a bit of a musical community around them though that really make the difference for unknown musicians. The Hoey would have been a great example of this. Also the Fringe bar on a Sunday night has been this for me. It’s a night run by musicians so there’s a wonderful community of regulars that go and share each other’s music. When you’re starting out, especially in a new city it’s important to have this way of meeting musicians especially when the scene can seem a little cliquey at times. The Red Rattler is to me another place like this. It’s a very warm venue run by people that obviously care about music very much. It was my first choice for the launch so I’m chuffed to be having it there.
You’ve played at Peats Ridge festival two years ago, how was that experience? Did your time there really push you to start thinking seriously about your music future, which led you to work with Brian Campeau? How did you two meet?
The first time that I played Peats was one of the best musical experiences I’ve had so far. The festival is in such a beautiful spot that just being there is a pleasure. Playing just feels like a bonus. I hadn’t actually been to a festival before let alone played one and my set was quite early in the morning so I didn’t go in with the greatest of expectations but I was very pleasantly surprised. I was playing on a stage in the Chai tent so it happened to be where everyone flocked in for their morning pick-me-up. So lucky little me got a nice big crowd. It was probably the biggest room of strangers that I’ve played to so getting lovely feedback too felt pretty great. I think I was already quite serious about music but Peats certainly made me feel very lucky to be a musician.
You were born in England but now consider Australia home, explain how you came to reside/choose Sydney as your home and location to base your musical career?
Well, when I finished school in London my family decided to move to Australia. I think my parents were a little over London and we’d visited some close friends in Oz before and fallen in love with the place a little. It felt like the right thing for our family to do I think.I moved to Boston for a year first to study music and then followed them out here (but to Sydney rather then Melbourne – just to be difficult). To me, Sydney was a more exciting place to move to after London. I wanted to be near the sea and have the sun on me for a little while. Now that I know Melbourne a little better I’ll probably head there next
How do you think that bold move impacted your music?
I think all of the travel that I’ve been lucky enough to do so far has inspired me in my writing. When I first moved to Sydney I did write a couple of happier sounding songs straight away so perhaps that was the immediate effect of feeling the sun on me. I’m not sure. I think everything that I see and experience around me inspires me to write and Sydney just brought a whole new set of people and challenges and everything else that comes with a new home.
Your record has been described as ‘quiet moments shared between people; stories of awkward conversations, mistaken loves and unfathomable friendships’ are these the most prominent themes running through your music, is there a particular message you’re sending to your audience or are they simply moments you’ve experienced in your life that you’ve documented in lyrical form?
I always find it hard to describe the way I write because I haven’t really worked this out for myself yet. If I sit down for the purpose of writing nothing tends to come out, or if it does it can feel a little forced. Usually a song comes when I’m sitting down playing the guitar because that’s what I feel like doing at that moment. If a song comes out while I’m doing that it’ll usually be about whatever’s on my mind at that time. But yes, usually it’s moments I’ve experienced or seen other people experience or just things that I’ve been thinking about rather then me trying to convey any particular message to the audience.
Could you explain one of your ‘awkward situations’ that is mentioned in one of your songs?
I’m pretty good at causing awkward situations in life, it must just be a skill of mine. ‘Feel a thing’ is a song that I wrote because I didn’t get to say what I wanted in an awkward situation. At the time, I chose to walk away and not let the other person see how upset I was, but later I felt like I needed to get it out of my system some how. ‘Feel a Thing’ was supposed to be a fun, tongue-in-cheek way of doing that.
Where do you draw most of your influences from? Musically, life, family, friends, travel?
All of the above! Everyone in my life so far has inspired or influenced me in some way. I’m very lucky to have wonderfully supportive family, friends and even luckier that these are spread across the world a little. I just wish flights were a bit cheaper.
You were a student at Sydney University? What did you study? Did you like it? How did you manage to juggle impending university assignments, find time to write such beautiful songs, perform the beautiful said songs and work a part time job?
I did an arts degree or as most people know it ‘just arts’. I majored in Latin and Italian. Yes I majored in a dead language. I even did an A-Level in it. It is one of those things where school made me do it at an early age and I just kept going with it. Even though many people see there being little sense in studying a dead language, It’s a subject that made a lot of sense to me. It wasn’t hugely different from studying English Lit, we were still reading poems and stories and analysing the language and techniques that were used but they just happened to be in Latin. I managed to juggle assignments and music to an extent but it was a little bit of a relief to be able to set down the books for a while and focus on music. Even though I juggle my work with music now, study took up more thinking and caring time for me. I like that I can switch off at work a little. Hopefully my boss won’t read this.
You used to do some pretty awesome covers of bands and artist such as The Spice Girls ‘Wannabe’ and Katy Perry’s ‘I kissed a girl’ what other famous song would you like to cover?
Good question. I’ve been trying to think of a new cover. I’ve been playing ‘I like you better when your naked’ for a while. I like to cover songs that are performed in a very different style from my usual sound. I think that’s more of a challenge for me and more interesting for the audience. I don’t really see the point in playing a song as it was written, especially if the original player did a good enough job themselves. Maybe a trance or hip-hop track next. Any suggestions?
If you were to describe your music as a food/flavour, what would it taste like?
Hmmm that’s a new question for me. Well it’s been described as sweet things so far. Ice cream, candy floss. Just quietly I actually don’t really like sweet things, I’m more of a savoury kid. I like cheese more than life itself. If playing my music could resemble the same feeling that I get from eating a nice blue cheese then I’d be one very happy songwriter and probably a slightly thinner one.
