EMILY BLUE

EMILY BLUE IS DEAD. LONG LIVE EMILY BLUE.

by Stevie Logan | Photos by Shea Petersen

Emily Blue emerged on the pop scene in 2016. Six years and three albums later, the artist who created her is ready to step into the future. In between stops on the farewell tour, I spoke with them about pop music culture, moving on from Chicago, and how it feels to bury their musical alter-ego.

Before we get to the end of Emily Blue, let’s start at the beginning. How did you first encounter or discover Emily Blue?
It all kind of started when I was writing this concept record about gendered violence and trauma, just giving a voice to survivors and my experiences around that. And it was pretty heavy and personal. And I remember the Tara Terra guys being like “You should release this by yourself” because it was so personal to me.

So I did that, and I had to come up with a name for that. But I feel like Emily Blue really started existing when I made pop music, and that had a lot to do with my friend Max who produced a lot of it. It’s been a long journey with lots of versions and iterations.

So you kind of transitioned out of the indie-rock sound you were doing with Tara Terra into more of a dance-pop and even experimental pop sound. What were you thinking and feeling as that shift happened?
I feel music has always been a way for me to figure out who I am. With pop, that can be fun because you can play with personas and do super exaggerated musical choices and costume choices. That can be liberating in a way, but something I’ve also found is if you get really deep in that mentality you can lose parts of your authentic self in the process. So balancing that has always been super interesting to me.

I love making pop music, but I do feel like pop music culture sometimes can be a little bit tricky…just the things we focus on culturally in pop music.

Are you thinking in terms of focusing on image and aesthetic over music?
Yeah, I don’t know how other people feel about this, but I think that because we live in capitalism, so much of our music culture is focused on “How can we grab people’s attention very quickly, and create trends?”

And I do feel like like aesthetic has become more important than the music itself sometimes. So with the next wave of my artistry, I’m definitely going to be looking inward, especially since Max is no longer here to riff off of. Our musical conversation was always collaborative , and now I’m trying to do that on my own going forward.

Do you feel like you can’t, or don’t want to, continue this specific project without Max? Is that part of the decision?
If I could sum it up in one sentence: There is no Emily Blue without Max Perenchio. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to explore certain things, or I wouldn’t have felt bold enough to do it. And we really had such a great time. But on the other side of that coin, every time I play these tunes or market them or promote them, I am thinking of a time in my life that’s kind of painful.

I have nothing but positive memories with my friend, but at the same time it’s a heavy feeling carrying that into the future. I’m a really emotional and spiritual person, and I believe that there’s energy wrapped up in everything you do - even objects laying around have significance.

So for me, when I change gears here, it’s gonna be about carrying my own energy and representing myself the best way I can now.

What parts of Emily Blue, if any, do you want to bring with you versus leaving behind?
I definitely want to bring all the lessons and skills I’ve learned over all the years of making this project. I’ve learned so much about production, and that’s gonna be so fun for me going forward as I finally feel like I have the knowledge that I’ve always wished I had. It’s been years of hard work and soaking everything in from Max, and really from anyone who had mentored me.

The genre bending and blending - I’ll never want to stop doing that, because I think it’s so fun and it’s interesting when you’re in the process to think about how you can change something, for example, that’s starting to sound like a country song and add a vocoder or something.

Other than that, what I want to leave behind is a lot of the brand and mentality. I feel like a very different person than I was three years ago, or even two years ago.

Was The Afterlove album the first time you produced your own music?
I’ve been dabbling in it forever, but it was the first time I really rook the reigns. I co-produced a lot of the tracks, and one of the reasons was just because Max wasn’t here to do it. But I had these stems and could kind of hodgepodge it together during quarantine. I learned so much doing that for myself.

And also, I felt really excited to get my ideas captured in sound. It was definitely such a fun record to make, and it was really educational for me. I kind of feel like I found my style and what will be my style.

So that experience of taking a huge part in producing the music is inspiring the next steps you’re going to take?
Absolutely. It’s become really important to me to use all of the things in my mind in the way I want to. I don’t know if that makes sense. (laughs)

Every skill I’ve learned, everything about production, being in multiple bands…I’m excited to incorporate that into making the music. My band and I were even thinking about doing a cabin trip where we take songs that are partially done and flesh them out with real instruments. Because a lot of the stuff we did was sampled or programmed, and of course we had live guitar and sometimes live drum textures, but there’s something magical about when you can get recording of people playing at the same time as well.

Do you feel like you’re being drawn more to that real instrumentation versus the big pop, digital, synthetic sounds?
I think it will be fun to play with those two worlds. Lately I’m really into Japanese House and Bon Iver and Dora Jar and stuff like that, and I feel like they all do such a good job of taking the modern tools we have - the crazy plugins and weird textures and pedals - and at the core of it having a very strong songwriting sensibility. I admire that a lot.

When you have human beings pouring their heart into something - whether its a guitar line or the songwriting - you can feel that. It’s something you can really share as a listener, so i wanted to capture that going forward.

As the converse of that, in your experience do you feel like there are themes or emotions or narratives better expressed through a big bombastic pop sound?
Pop music is cathartic. It’s a super exaggerated version of whatever you’re feeling. A lot of times, I think of breakup songs in pop. Those are big feelings and people need to get that out sometimes. So those types of songs play a huge part in people healing in life. Like if you’re at a bar or club with your friends and one of your favorite pop songs comes on, it’s a magical experience you can share. And there’s not anything like it, so I value that a lot.

Looking back on your discography, do you have a favorite Emily Blue song, or a song that you feel perfectly captures the Emily Blue worldview?
I think the Emily Blue universe is best captured in “Microscope”. That’s the first song I think of. I remember it being a breakthrough, but I also love how crusty and dark it is. And then there’s all these weird moments and I think it’s pretty much the Emily Blue experience.

One of your most memorable, provocative moments was the Trump song, which is an incredible song. Can you tell me the mindset behind that and how it came about?
That was so much fun, oh my God. So, first and foremost, Max and I approached it thinking “Which two elements are the most opposite?” And we came up with pan flutes and death metal. We decided the verse was gonna be a ridiculous, super campy pan flute part that almost sounds like a cult leader is beckoning you to join their cause. And then in the chorus, we were gonna go into an abrupt metal breakdown.

We were laughing so hard during the making of that. It wasn’t necessarily a joke song but there’s definitely a sense of humor to it. If you watch us do it live, we all have so much fun because it’s the most out there you can get.

Not a joke, but a troll moment.
Exactly. But we wanted it to be on the line of funny but still absolutely rip.

It’s still an amazing song, and that’s why it works so well because it’s such a banger. And then what was your thought process behind changing the song title after the fact?
I initially thought the song reminded me of Donald Trump, and it still definitely does, like every single lyric and the mentality of it is how I imagine his brain. So much narcissism and so little regard for humanity.

The reason I switched it is because I wanted the interpretation of it to be a bit more open. And also, we were talking about how I feel about energy…if you say something and put it out in the universe, that energy now exists, and I didn’t know much attention I wanted to give you-know-who anymore.

I felt better after switching the title, like I could rock out to it more.

Let’s talk about the move out of Chicago. After making your name as a Chicago pop artist, what inspired the move to Nashville and how has it been going?
At the tail end of quarantine when we could start to travel again, I decided I needed a solo trip. I was going through a lot personally and thought it would be helpful to do something by myself and for myself.

So I went to Nashville, hung out with my guitarist’s partner who lived there, and I was like “Wow, I think I should move.” It wasn’t impulsive, it was more like I immediately knew and felt right about it. And then the move itself was actually very quick. I changed my whole life around, I broke my lease, sold all my things and furniture. I just got in my van and moved in with two strangers. It’s been the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.

Has the relocation led to new inspiration or pushing new musical buttons?
I think more than that it’s reminded me I can take breaks, actually. Nashville has a slower pace and is a little less stressful than a bigger city like Chicago. It’s also warmer. So for someone with anxiety and depression, I love being outside in the sun. It’s been good for me to kind of take my time a little more. So it’s been a time of self-reflection and healing more than creating, but that’s why I feel ready to make the art I need to make now. Because I did that for myself

So you see yourself staying in Nashville for the foreseeable future?
For sure, I think we’ve built a great little community and it’s gonna keep growing. And I guess since this is gonna be in print I should shout out my band who is sitting right next to me. (laughs)

Jody Lee runs an open jam in East Nashville, and then Evan on guitar and Nick on bass are frequent attendees of that, and also play all over town.

You probably don’t want to share too much, but do you have any hints about your next steps musically once Emily Blue is laid to rest?
I would say RIP. And not in a sassy way, but it’s time to move on. And I’m really excited that the people I’ve been playing music with, or who have been listening, or have been a part of this journey…they’re ready to do that with me. I feel that and it makes me excited.

So no hints or anything like that, but it’s gonna be great. And I’m ready.