emory is more than prepared for the success she’s bound to find with her mesmerizing blend of acoustic songwriting and electronic production. The twenty-two-year-old possesses a deep wealth of technical production knowledge and hands-on experience. Whether it’s her Nashville roots or her studies at NYU Tisch, emory shines as someone who lives and breathes music. Her latest single, “double dog,” is an addictively catchy pop track that scratches your brain just right with its clinking, glitchy electronic production. Along with her breakout first single, “tooth,” emory has been carefully building a left-of-center rollout for her four-song project. After speaking with emory via Zoom, I can confidently say she’s determined to make a name for herself on her terms and her terms alone. Prioritizing originality and community-building, emory is here to stay as a unique and thoughtful voice in the crowded music landscape. 

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Did the rapid success of “tooth” affect your life? It’s already over a hundred thousand streams. 

Oh totally. It’s genuinely so crazy to me that anyone who’s not one of my close friends has listened to it. Like, huh? People I don’t know have heard my song? So, so cool and insane. It’s honestly been really surreal and validating to see this thing I made by myself in my living room one night become something that resonates with people. I wasn’t even that sure I would ever reach a point where releasing music felt good to me. So the response has been really cool. I feel really grateful. I also was very preoccupied when it was released. I was graduating college, on tour playing drums, and about to move across the country. I was all over the place haha. I don’t think I had the brain power to process that my artist project was becoming more of a priority for me than producing, writing, or playing with other artists. I never thought that would actually happen. 

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When did you first begin making music? How did you get into electronic production?

I grew up in Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. Our big claim to fame is that Paramore—who I’m obsessed with— is from there. I grew up playing drums in church, and though I’m not in that space anymore, I learned so much from playing in church with super-talented live musicians who were older than me and working in music. It’s weirdly a very common thing for musicians there. 

In high school, I got really into production. I started by making random things on GarageBand, saved up for a mic, and slowly got more and more obsessed with it. I ended up wanting to pursue music production in college, and I was lucky enough to get into and be able to go to NYU [Tisch]. I went to the Clive [Davis Institute of Recorded Music] program majoring in recorded music, which really meant just like creative entrepreneurship in the music industry. So, there were kids wanting to do all sorts of things in music there, from artists to A&Rs, the whole thing. It was such an insane privilege to study there. I first went into school wanting to do film scoring or experimental scoring for fashion shows and other sorts of visual design work like that, but I went through phases of wanting to be a music journalist, mastering engineer, the list goes on haha. I was all the over the place and still am. I honestly still want to do all of those things someday. But in school, I felt really lucky to be able to run down every rabbit hole of what I was interested in, which was so transformative for me.

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Your manager mentioned that you got to study electronic production in Berlin. What did you learn through that experience?

So much. I studied analog and modular synthesis, performance art, electronic music history – literally so much. Basically, a whole lot of nerdy music technology shit that I still think is the coolest thing ever. I also just learned so much about myself and who I am as an artist. I was encouraged to experiment in every way, and I turned 21 while I was there. So, it was just such an important time in my life and a turning point for me in a lot of ways. I always say that I love music because I will forever be stupid about music, like there is always more to learn and there will always be another ceiling to hit; Berlin definitely made me feel stupid in really awesome ways, if that makes sense. It really instilled so much curiosity in me. That period enabled me to break a lot of the traditional sort of rules that I learned earlier in college. I got to experiment with a lot of field recording, tape, techno production, so much that helped me expand my creative process. 

Also, the community aspect of the music scene there had a big impact on me. In my short experience living there, it was clear that the focus was much more on being creative than making something commercial, which was very opposite to my experience studying music in the U.S. It was more sustainable and accessible to make art there, which made for a really welcoming artistic environment for me. The ethos of the techno club scene was so huge for me. One, the music is fucking insane and I love dancing. Like being in a sweaty room of people where everyone just cares about having a good time with their friends and the music they’re listening to? Are you joking? I have never been in a safer, more fun music environment. But more than anything, it was so incredible to see how deeply people prioritized community and their art over commercial success. I really try to maintain that way of thinking with what I’m working on now. I’m trying to prioritize enjoying creating things, doing what feels good, and building community because if you’re not enjoying it, then what’s the point, you know? And making things you like! Even if it feels weird! Because weird is usually a lot cooler!

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Tell me more about the backstory of your upcoming single, “double dog.”

The first song that I made in Berlin was “double dog.” It was the first time I really employed that ethos I guess. Just making creative choices that felt good and fun and not thinking too hard about it. The track started as a slower, kind of silly little indie pop adjacent song that I wrote in the dorm with one of my best friends, Lucas. Meanwhile, I was also making a ton of, honestly, probably pretty unlistenable, atonal experimental electronic music haha. 

Anyway, one of my professors worked at a local radio station in Kreuzberg and organized for a few students to come play an original set. I had a whole hour to fill, so I opened up “double dog” again and made it into this crazy twelve-minute dance track. I  framed the whole DJ set around it. It was the first time I played original music publicly, and my like five friends listening to it really fucked with it, so that was definitely a confidence boost. That was two years ago. So since then, I’ve condensed it down to the version it is now with the help of my friends, Lucas, Ben, and Jason. I’ve gone down way too many rabbit holes and different versions of it in the process of finalizing it. But when I made that first version in Berlin, it was definitely the first time I was like huh, maybe being an artist is something I can really do.

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What are your thoughts on the hyperpop label? Do you think it’s more reductive than helpful?

I’m so honored that people associate me with hyperpop, but I do think it has a very  complex and important history that a lot of people don’t acknowledge. Some of the communities I was adjacent to in Brooklyn had a lot of crazy talented people in that space, but hyperpop has such a history and cultural value that I feel I haven’t even scratched the surface of in a lot of ways.

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A lot of queer history as well.

Yes, so much. To my friends in that space, it really served as an outlet for queer people to build a community online that wasn’t necessarily accessible to them in person. So as a female, queer artist and producer myself, I’m insanely honored that people associate me with artists in that space, but in all honesty, I wasn’t really involved in it while so much of that history was taking place. I definitely don’t feel like I’m in any sort of position to place my artist project in the “hyperpop” canon. The term itself sort of came out of the backwards Spotify playlist machine too, which feels weird.

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Yeah, it’s pretty oxymoronic that hyperpop, which at its core is genre-defying and anti-commercial, was given this commercial genre label by a capitalist streaming giant when Spotify made that playlist in 2019.

Yeah, it’s definitely a crazy thing. Language and labels around genre can be a really fragile thing.

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Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?

God, it changes every week. I’m a massive Porches fan. All Day Gentle Hold ! is one of my favorite albums ever. The mess of distortion and kind of digital rock music is so cool to me. Growing up I was obsessed with female artists who were intentional about all creative parts of their work like Björk. Right now, I’ve been listening to a lot of Water From Your Eyes and Nate Amos’s solo project, This Is Lorelai. Box for Buddy, Box for Star is so perfect and so influential to a lot of the new music I’m working on now — acoustic music translated electronically is so cool to me. I also love pop music so much, like Tate McRae and Sabrina Carpenter. Oh my god. I think it’s so massively impressive. It takes so much skill and intentionality. I’m so obsessed with pop music, I could talk about it forever.

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Okay, last question, how would you describe your sound to a middle-aged mom from the midwest who has never listened to electronic music?

That’s a really good question, woah. I’m kinda scared of that question. I would say it’s pretty much pop songwriting presented in a maybe experimental, electronic way. But, I do think that “double dog” is a pop song at the end of the day. The way it’s arranged and how the melody works feels very pop-driven. It’s interpreted in a weird way, sure, but I think it’s still very accessible to a middle-aged mom from the Midwest. There’s a throughline there, I’m sure. Like I listen to so much Shania Twain and that mom probably does too. Maybe we’re not that different.

Listen to “double dog” by emory, available now on all streaming platforms

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