Emily Kay
Emily Kay has been making quite a name for herself as a live acoustic and she is set to return with her new single Hold Me Closely.
It is the latest track to be lifted from her hugely successful EP Emily Kay Unplugged and sees her kick of 2013 in style.
We caught up with her to chat about the new single, the success of her last EP and what lies ahead this year.
- You are about to release your new single Hold Me Closely so what can we expect from this new track? And what is it about?
Basically I wrote the new single based on my own past experiences about being in love and then just all the feelings that you get from that. I just sat with my guitar and thought about that particular experience and that is when the music came to me.
- You are already being labelled as a great acoustic artist and you have a very distinctive vocal style so who would you credit as being your major musical influences?
Thank you. When I was growing up I was loving all sorts of soul music. But it wasn’t until I went to New York, my sister is from New York, and her husband at the time was leaning to play the saxophone and he had a whole stack of jazz in the basement.
They put me in the basement as I was like an au pair or my niece and nephew and there was a cabinet of all this jazz and so I started to play it.
That was when I absolutely fell in love with the likes of Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan. In American they have all these jazz programmes and I was completely fascinated by them all and so it was there where I fell in love with more jazz than anything. Coming back to the UK I got back into my soul but I never lost all those jazz artists.
- You have slightly touched on my next question really as your music does have quite a jazz feel to it so have you always been drawn to this genre of music? And what is it about his genre that you do seem to like so much?
I’m not sure how or why I fell in love with it when I was in New York. They use to show a lot of films in black and white and I am a bit of a traditionalist so I love that whole feeling of being in love and romance in those classic movies.
When I was in New York they played all that in this particular channel and I like all romance so I like my romantic comedies as well.
The thing about Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan they all sang about love in a way that would make you feel like you were in a fairytale and that is how I viewed the whole love thing. I just think that the whole idea of love is just beautiful.
- How have you found the response to the track so far?
Oh my gosh, once the EP was released on iTunes everybody, well I say everybody, my family and friends were all commenting ‘the first track is just beautiful’.
I was really shocked and I didn’t expect that for Hold Me Closely at all but I think people can relate to the words when they are in a relationship - you can’t spend your time with your friends and he wants more of your attention; so you are trying to split yourself between your boyfriend and your friends.
When you are in love you just want to see that person every single day and it is just that whole fairytale thing.
- Hold Me Closely is been taken from you latest EP 'Emily Kay Unplugged' so for anyone who hasn't heard the rest of the record how does this track introduces to the rest of the EP?
I think people can tell when they come to my gigs that I am a very emotional person (laughs) - I might as well just put a sign up saying ‘this is going to be an emotional gig’.
I am just that type of person and a lot of people say that I am Miss Happy and I have a positive outlook on life but that is just me.
When they listen to the EP they will know that I am trying to bring them into a nice thought and the nice side of being in love and relationships and meeting someone.
I just want it to be nice, I want it be light and I want people to smile when they listen to my EP.
- Why did you decide to go do the unplugged or acoustic path with this new collection of tracks over something a little more produced?
Again I think it goes back to the type of music that you listen to and the likes of Billie Holliday, Sarah Vaughan and Etta James all just sound great - even if they had an orchestra behind them it was all about their voice and it made you listen to what they were talking about and their lyrics.
I just wanted to keep it simple for this one as I just wanted people to listen to the lyrics - I just wanted it to be as if it is poetry but with very very low music in the background.
- Off the back of this EP you have been called the Best Acoustic Act at the UK Unsigned Hype Awards 2012 so you must be thrilled with how this EP and your music in general has been received?
Oh my gosh, I am genuinely shocked. I am from Birmingham and moved to London about seven years ago now and just gigging in London and getting my name out there is exciting and it is the response that make you do what you do.
When people say ‘oh my gosh your voice’ or ‘that was really nice’ it just shocks me every single time because people like your music and it just doesn’t click some time.
And winning that UK Unsigned Hype Award was just the most amazing honour because they have just been incredibly supportive of underground talent - people had never heard of me but they just supported me and they put on events where people like me can be heard.
- And are there any plans for a full album in 2013?
So far I have released an EP a year, my first EP was Love Came Knocking in 2011 and the Emily Kay Unplugged EP last year, and so this year I am writing for my next EP release in the coming months.
I am really exciting as I am looking to work with some great producers and put out something even more exciting, hopefully.
- Are we going to see you continue down the acoustic path or are we going to see you mix it up a bit?
I am not quite sure yet. I want to stay true to what I love and what I think people enjoy, so we will have to see. I won’t definitely go along the route of anything that is not true to who I am.
- You have been playing in and around London over the last twelve months or so with gigs at Ronnie Scott’s so have you any live shows coming up early this year?
I have got a live show seeing that this is the month of love and all that - my next gig is in Shoreditch at the La Ropa Bar and that is with Band Republic. So I will be doing a live acoustic set there on the 13th February.
- Finally what's next for you?
I am not sure but I am hoping, by the way that it is going, that it just gets better and better. I am just enjoying the ride and I couldn’t be happier about where my music is going at the moment.
So I am just enjoying that people are enjoying my music and I will just take it from there and go with the flow (laughs).
Emily Kay - Hold Me Closely is released 24th March.