Emma Blackery - Her Arms Are Open
There are a multitude of ways you might know of Emma Blackery. It could be through her successful youtube channel, boasting over a million subscribers for many years now. It might be through collaborations with other youtubers across the spectrum, or even the book Emma released entitled 'Feel Good 101'. But it's been clear for some time that Emma Blackery's main talent resides with music. In celebration of Emma releasing her new EP, My Arms Are Open, Moths and Giraffes takes a quick look at her musical history, examines the new four track EP, and even gets some answers from Emma herself.
Blackery has released a long string of EPs that show development in an upward trajectory. From 2012, each year saw a consecutive run of releases entitled Human Behaviour, Distance and Perfect. Distance and Perfect feature fan favourites with The Promise on the former resonating with many. Human Behaviour would see more emphasis in the future. The first is the sound of a bedroom singer/songwriter where the songs are mostly written on acoustic guitar. With Distance and Perfect, Blackery would explore her pop-punk tendencies, especially with the title tracks. 2015 saw the release of a couple of homemade demos by Emma entitled 'I've Been Worse', and 'Your Own Shoes'. These would go back to the sound of the Human Behaviour EP. Though Emma had toured before, earlier that year saw her supporting Charlie Simpson, an important contact for the future.
It was in 2016 with the release of the Sucks To Be You EP that her music became a more serious focus. This marked a return to the pop-punk style heard earlier in her Distance and Perfect EPs. British band Busted had reunited and were set to complete a successful arena tour of the U.K. along with Wheatus as support act, and yes, Emma Blackery opened all of these shows. It's no joke playing massive venues like The o2, Genting, Manchester and Wembley arenas. In October that year, Emma completed her own headline tour. The ball was well and truly rolling.
2017 saw the release of Emma's Magnetised EP, featuring a remake of the title track from Human Behaviour, as well as an updated version of her first single Fixation (if anyone ever finds a copy of the original Fixation video, they're instructed to contact Emma since she lost hers). Straight away it's evident the pop-punk is gone as 'Nothing Without You' opens the EP with piano instead of guitar. The accompanying tour was a success, playing bigger venues than she had on her previous headline shows. Feel Good 101 came out in September 2017 alongside a book tour, but it was a surprise feature of the Magnetised cover-art in Apple's iPhone X keynote presentation that brought more listeners to Emma's music.
That lands us in 2018, the biggest year of Emma's music career so far. Villains, Emma's debut album, was released at the end of August. Emma's European tour for Magnetised was postponed and turned into part of the tour for Villains instead in the Autumn. The run-up to this included single releases of Dirt, Agenda, Icarus and Take Me Out. A modest signing tour of HMV stores around the release generated much hype, as well as the plethora of format releases including CDs, and for the first time, multiple vinyl editions and even a cassette issue.
2019 was mostly quiet for Blackery's music. The release of the single Cute Without You was something to celebrate as the demo made in 2018 saw universal acclaim amongst fans. This would be it until April 2020, when the lead single from My Arms Are Open, 'Wolves' was released.
The light-bulb extravaganza that is the Wolves video is a great way to kick off this new era. Opening with a drum beat that is neither pop-punk nor Villains and a keyboard track leading comments to suggest this is synth-pop, Wolves is smoother, slicker, and the most universal track Emma Blackery has ever released. Part of the first verse reads, 'Stone cold with your heart of gold, asking me to come out and play. Draw me out into open plains, I'm not a hunter but I'm nobody's prey.' She still has the attitude she's always had in her career, a strong character that is a fool for no one. The chorus is classic Emma Blackery, 'I'm sick of running, the Wolves are always gunning for me, my arms are open, right here I stand, you said you want me gone, so here I am.' How could you not lift your arms to that in the way Emma does in the video? There are some lovely backing vocals here too, something which Blackery doesn't dabble in too often. The song finishes with the chorus in the most perfect way.
Plot Holes begins with a vocal. 'I was heading for a crisis the likes of which I've never seen, I put my faith in a box and I blew everything.' Slower than Wolves, with percussive hand-claps keeping the beat going, it's great to see some guitar back in the melody department. This is further beefed up when the song kicks in with a more complex beat and some piano. Emma writes on her facebook page the inspiration behind this track, 'I began writing the song in 2018 whilst finishing my debut album. I was beginning to sink under the pressure I was putting on myself; this album was taking up all of my mental energy, all of my time, a huge amount of my personal savings.' Though there is an embracing of the pressure she was under as Emma repeats in the lyrics 'I do better under pressure.' Blackery is the first to say that she couldn't be happier with how Villains turned out.
History of Touches is track three on My Arms Are Open, and is the first proper production effort from Emma that's made it onto an official release. She produced, mixed and mastered it herself, a trend I can only see continuing as she hones her skills. It's still labelled as a demo on the EP, which makes me wonder if it won't appear again sometime in the future. Casting that aside, it sounds great. Don't fix what isn't broken. It's still largely down-tempo with drums, what sounds like a vocal sample and a layer of atmosphere behind the lead vocal track. 'Because I always do this, as soon as someone gets a little close, I go and ruin it, by talking too much and going too fast.' This one is about the early times in love, all the great stuff, the tiny little moments, but the anxiety that comes with that is the constant worry it might not be what you think it is.
Forever closes out this collection in a surprise return to a more organic sound in an EP that's full of the electronic. There's acoustic guitar, what sounds like real drums, piano and a touch of electric guitar too. It reminds me of early Taylor Swift, everything prior to her Speak Now era. The vocal is Emma at her most honest with her proclaiming, 'this is the happiest that I've ever been.' Gone is the tea-spilling of the Villains era, this one is closer to home. Emma's music career is littered with heartbreaking songs, but when inspired to do so, she can write a superb ode to love.
Keep reading for more insight into Emma's music from the musician herself. She discusses each track, production, a bit of Björk and I finally ask a question that's been bugging me for years. Special shout-out to Emma's team for facilitating this Q&A.
1. You were clear from the start of the Villains era that your debut record was a concept album, does My Arms Are Open continue this thread at all?
This EP isn’t a concept piece at all, but it does tell a bit of a story for me personally. The first two songs on the EP, Wolves and Plot Holes, focus on insecurities I’ve experienced over the last couple of years, but the final two are about love - so overall the idea of My Arms Are Open is to document my journey from a tough place in my personal life to being able to open up emotionally again.
2. Wolves was co-produced by Tom Gittins, what was it like working with him in the studio?
Tom is a fantastic producer - I met him through my partner, who has worked with him for years. Tom has a wonderful insight into what makes a song really work. During the recording for Wolves I was facing a little bit of difficulty with the outro - I went into the studio not knowing exactly how the song should end. It wasn’t until Tom gave his insight that I realised it wasn’t the outro that was missing, but that it needed a whole new chorus! Tom really helped to bring the songs to life.
3. Plot Holes was written in the anxiety surrounding Villains for you at that time. Two years on, has the meaning of the song changed?
Not at all. To me, my songs don’t change meaning, because I was the one who wrote them at the time - I know what they were originally about, and always remember what inspired them. I’m still battling the same anxieties I wrote about in Plot Holes, such as the fear of failure, only now, it’s not about the album - it’s about the music I make going forward. I’m not sure I’ll ever lose that fear, and perhaps that’s a good thing. If I didn’t care about how a record hits people, I think that would mean I should be taking a break.
4. You've written that the title 'History of Touches' was inspired by a Björk song. Is that where the influence ends or did Vulnicura inspire this subject more?
It was only the title of the song that inspired mine. Sometimes, hearing a phrase is all it takes to inspire an idea. Sonically, I’d say the song is closer to the more laid-back 1989-era Taylor Swift. Björk’s music is very inspiring, but has yet to really show in my own music. When it does, I’m sure it would be closer to Post, which is my favourite album by her. It seems to get very overlooked in comparison to some others.
5. History of Touches is your first all-round production effort on an EP, talk us through your process, did the song end up differently to how you wrote it originally?
It’s exactly the same. I wrote and produced it back in Spring 2018, just after I finished my demos for the album. I knew the song wouldn’t fit for Villains, and that it would appear later on down the line. The only changes that have happened are a few mixing tweaks over the years, but the instruments and vocals were all done two years ago.
6. I saw your performance at the Islington Academy in 2016 for the Sucks To Be You Tour and remember it being filmed, what happened to the recording? The energy that night was unbelievable.
The recording sadly didn’t work out. The audio wasn’t usable, so it never saw the light of day. I never even saw the video footage because the audio wasn’t right.
7. Forever sounds like a great way to finish off My Arms Are Open, where does Emma Blackery go from here?
I’m honestly not sure, but I’m excited. I struggled with writer’s block for almost the entirety of 2019, but now that this EP is being released, I’m finally feeling inspired again. I’m writing more music all of the time, and there are some exciting conversations in the works. The two-year anniversary of my debut album is coming up, too. I can’t wait until it’s possible to tour safely again, but hopefully by that time, I’ll have even more for people to hear.
You can download or stream Emma Blackery's music at all your regular music providers, physical copies are available on Emma's website: https://emmablackeryshop.com/collections/music
