Interview With Emily Brimlow
1. If you could collaborate with any artist/band, who would it be?
Emily king, stevie wonder and norah jones
2. What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced as an up and coming
Musician?
Comparing myself to other great song writers and artists. Continuing to stick true to myself and just do my own thing regardless if people like it or not. It's hard living in la around so many amazing talented people, you have to be careful not to get stuck in the rat race of chasing fame and popularity. I want to make art. Not keep up with trends.
3. At what point did you know you wanted to pursue a career in music? How old were you?
I was constantly singing as a kid, everywhere we went, haha. (used to really annoy my brother in the car, causeIwouldn't shut up) It wasn't until I entered a talent show in grade 11 and won it with my original song (about a highschool break up) that I realized how much I enjoyed performing. I started to take it more and more seriously every year. And then when I was 20 I started performing at bars and cafes or anywhere that was have me :) that's when I decided there was no plan B. I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
4. Describe your first live performance: Where was it and what were you feeling right before
you got on stage to perform?
The first time I performed I was in grade 11, I entered a talent contest. The first round had to be an acapella performance. It was in our school auditorium and there was about 300 students watching me under the spot light.I choose Jealous Guy (very strange choice to sing acapella, now that i'm looking back lol) I remember walking up to the microphone stand shaking so hard that I had to grip the stand so hard to help hold myself up. I had to restart the song twice because I forgot the lyrics. Definitely the scariest feeling I had ever had. But once I completed the song and the crowd started clapping and yelling, it was all worth it.
5. Is there a quote or motto that inspires you on the daily?
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world.”
6. What’s one unforgettable compliments you have received and who was it from?
Someone once told me “I'm a desturber of bad spirits” they told me I annoy and disturb people with the freedom within me. I thought was the coolest damn thing I ever did hear.
7. What does your songwriting process look like? Do you have a ritual of some sort?
My favorite way to write is when im home alone, I take the guitar out and have a spontaneous jam session for a couple hours. Within the spontaneousness I usually sing something that ends up being my next song, whether it's the first verse or chorus. Then I sing it over and over and usually the song starts to naturally take shape, I will press record on my voice memos, and freestyle the rest of the ideas I have for the song. After that I re-play the recording and start to peace each part of the song together on paper.
8. Do you have a backstage routine before performing live?
Hot Throat coat tea with honey, and lemon water, and then I do my crazy vocal warm ups that you can hear from down the hall haha, sounds like there's an animal in the building. But they do help me to sing so much. And then I usually go pee like three times within the hour because of the tea haha.
9. What’s your favorite original song to perform and why?
Right now it's my new song that I co wrote with my friends Britney Spencer and Cody Aledia called “Unread” It's a more mellow song, but I love singing it because it's different for me vocally, and challenges me in a new way ;)
10. Describe your unreleased music; How is the new music different from music you have released in the past?
The music im writng now, is more experimental, but honestly it's always changing. I'm constantly writing new material, I would say each new song I write speaks to the season im living in at the time and that's the biggest difference, I mostly am just expressing myself and thoughts and feelings from that time.
11. You’re just wrapping up your tour with Ziggy Alberts! How did that opportunity come About?
I saw ziggy playing his guitar outside of his van in byron bay around 6 years ago :)
And then 6 years later, my management team and agency UTA reached out to his crew to be the support act for his amercian tour, it all clicked in my head one day that he was the same person I saw in byron bay. felt like the world was small, it was meant to be. I was lucky enough to join there tour. His fam/crew and ziggy are GOOD people. I was so blessed extremely blessed to hang with them we had a blast. Ziggy and his crew like the same things as me hehe : coffee, yoga, reading and hiking, and of course harry potter ;).
12. What’s one of the biggest lessons you learned while being on tour?
That I sleep better on moving buses.
Colorado boulder is the bees knees.
Waking up in new locations everyday is very disoritetating but extremely magical.
But the most important lesson was changing my mind set at shows..
My goal at a show should not be to win over the crowd and make sure they like me, at the end of the set, I should be measuring success whether or not I had a good time and enjoyed myself. (that's what changed everything for me)
13. What advice would you give to other up and coming musicians?
Don't compare yourself to other artists it's a waste of your time.
Love yourself and be unapologetically you, and it will show itself in your art.
Don't take yourself or career to seriously, enjoy yourself with others.
Think and create like a child.
Chasing the fame is a waste of your creative energy, just make beautiful art it will will speak for itself.
Put the time in, and work hard and your will reap the benefits.
Stop making plan Bs, just DO IT already ;)
Don't measure your success on the amount of streams you get thats a deadly trap.
If the music moves you, then your doing something right ;)
14. Describe your ultimate goal as a musician: Where would be the most epic place to
perform, what music artist/band would you want to attend your show, at what point
would you be able to say with confidence, “I made it.”
I've made it right now.
Im happy, and thankful for the life I have right now.
If I had a goal in my head of a place where I will “finally make it” I would be depressed until then. And i'm not. I love every inch of the journey im on right now, the hard times are what shapes me for the future.
I love playing small intimate shows for 20 people, and honestly feel the same joy in front of thousands. With that said, any show with people singing all the lyrics to my songs feels extremely successful. And also it would be a blast to play alongside stevie wonder one day even if my only job was to dance hehe. And maybe someday in the afterlife, I can sing some tunes with Donny hathaway, that would be so magical. Oh … I almost forgot, Coldplay! I would love to work with coldplay, I think I would melt and die if that happens.