Emma Davis’ star is looking bright. Her debut album released last year has been well received and to celebrate is hitting the road with mates WIM and Grace Woodroofe for ‘An Intimate Night’ tour. Emma gives Music Feeds a rundown on the tour, her career progression and becoming a real grown up!
MF: What’s the latest in Emma Davis’ world?
E: I just turned 25 so I’m getting used to that at the moment. I’m trying to cook at home more and eat more veggies and fruit like a real grown-up person ought to.
MF: Tell us a little bit about this tour with Grace Woodroofe & WIM?
E: Well both these acts have recently been signed up to Modular so the label are putting on a tour around the country to celebrate them and they’ve decided to take me with them!
MF: Do you have a favourite Grace & WIM song?
E: WIM’s is probably Something for You…it’s the first of their songs that I heard a while back and it really stuck with me. It’s damn catchy. Grace’s is probably Battles. Like her other songs it shows off her incredibly soulful voice but then this mad almost dub beat comes in and gives the song a huge lift.
MF: The album’s been out for a little while now, how has the response been? (For the record, I liked it a lot)
E: Aw well thank you! The response has been good I think. Fish Records have given me an incredible amount of support and they’ve been featuring it as a ‘recommended’ CD in their stores for a while, so it’s sold really well there. I’ve also sold lots on ITunes and it’s had some pretty lovely reviews. For me it’s also been really good to have something to sell at shows that’s not just a 3 track EP.
MF: What’s next on the cards for you?
E: I would like to finish writing some new tracks and release an EP, but this time with a bit more support behind me. I felt ready to record and release my first album, so I did. I wanted to give the tracks that had been sitting with me for so long a home so that I could move on creatively. I think it’s been good to see that I can achieve Triple J play and some great album sales independently, but I do feel like I’m at a point now though where I need some more support behind me to make the next big step.
MF: Are you still pulling beers in Glebe? I think you may have added a few drunken nights in the past for me!
E: No, I’ve moved to Newtown where I now make cocktails instead…big career change. I enjoy having that kind of job to pay my rent and bills. I would rather that than a 9-5 job where I have to be hugely invested and can’t separate it from my music. I’m glad I could help in making you merry though!
MF: I read that you listen to a mix tape in your old Beetle, what’s on that tape?
E: Ha yes, I have a couple, but I did recently find one that made me laugh. There was this family that lived next to us in London when I was growing up. They had kids around the same age as us and when they were forced to move back to their homeland – Australia, we kept in touch by making tapes for each other. The tapes had a whole mixture of things on them: spoken messages to each other, favourite songs at the time (lots of Aqua and Hanson on this particular tape). There are even some pretty terrible recordings of us playing the instruments that we were learning at the time. Ten years later, my family followed them out to Australia!
MF: If you were to make a new mix tape, what would be the first track on it?
E: Jees louise, that’s a toughy. If it was for me to listen to in my beetle, then I would probably rather someone else decided that. I think that’s the wonderful thing about mix tapes. They follow someone else’s train of thought and give you a little surprise with every track
