Interview with emaé
We caught up with Scottish singer-songwriter emaé following the release of the video for her track 'Something Beautiful'. Here is what she had to say!
Firstly, congratulations! We love the song and the video is so captivating! Can you tell us a bit about the story behind the song itself?emaé - Thank you! I'm really glad you do! The song is basically what my idea of love is. It's me looking at the different examples of love that I've seen and experienced in my life - familial, spiritual, emotional - and trying to put those convictions into words. I'm not actually writing it from a place of being in 'romantic' love myself, I'm kind of just saying, 'If I were in love, I think this is how it would be.' When I sing it live, I like to ask people who actually are in love if I'm anywhere near the truth. From the response, it seems that maybe I am.
Where did you film the video and how was the process of creating it?emaé - It was filmed at the Ragged School Museum, in East London. It used to be the largest provider of free education for the poor children of East London during the Victorian Era and now it’s been preserved as a museum. You should check it out! They were so gracious to us, we had the whole building to run around in and cause chaos! Really, the most difficult thing was finding the venue, because we were looking for a space that was almost trapped in time, somewhere with character and history, so when we finally secured it, everything else just fell in line. There was a lot of preparation to do, a whole lot, but during the actual filming - it was pretty straight forward.
How did you capture the essence of the song in the video?emaé - I had an AMAZING team. I've been friends with my producer, Victoria Ayettey for a couple of years now and her perfectionism through this whole project has been one of the reasons the video is what it is. I always wanted something that was unorthodox and different, I didn't want a storyline that was blatantly about love because I felt that, matched with the lyrics, it would just be a bit too much. A turning point for me in capturing the song essence was meeting my director Lee Jones. He’s a genuine talent. We gave him free reign to do what he wanted and his idea to include the kids spoke volumes to me. It was really exciting for me, even in the initial planning meetings because I could tell it was going to be pretty special.
How do you feel the video reflects who you are as an artist?emaé - It reflects me perfectly as an artist. I really don't think another storyline in the whole world could fit the song better than the one we've chosen. I really hope my signature is on it. Because I'm a songwriter, even though my songs are different, they all come from me and they all sound like me. I hope this video looks like me.
The video has had over 14,000 views so far! How does it feel?emaé - The response has been really overwhelming. Like phenomenal. It's been just over a week! I'm an independent artist, a complete novice, pretty much trying to navigate my way through the industry one step at a time and for people to embrace my art like this is just such an encouragement. This whole process has given me an understanding of what investment really means. The team and I worked SO hard for this project, and at times, especially during the very early stages, I had some really discouraging moments but it's like none of that matters anymore. The response has made up for all my time, energy and stress, ten times over.
Check out the video for Something Beautiful below and find out more about emaé here.