emma louise

Tell us about your music - how did you develop your sound?

I moved from Cairns at the beginning of last year to start taking my music further. Instead of jumping straight in and doing heaps of shows I found myself looking at a lot more music and seeing a lot of live bands that I never saw in Cairns and thought 'holy moly I need to develop my songwriting before I do anything'. So I just wrote a lot of songs, listened to heaps of different music and experimented with friends that were producers. I finally started recording with an old friend from Cairns, Mark Myers, and it just worked really well.

How do you feel about involving others in your creative process?

I have tried to write songs with other people but so far no luck! I am really keen to start co-writing more and get out of my stubborn solo artist ways.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given and who was it from?

A man called Terry Doyle taught me heaps of things. He saw me play when I was 15 and mentored me for a few years in Cairns. He told me not to compare myself to other artists because we are all different and just to be myself... also to be really nice to your sound dude because he has the power to make you sound good or really bad.

Tell us about the bands and people in the Brisbane music scene that inspire you.

When I first moved to Brisbane I had a brief job in events management and was working with two other Brisbane musicians, Dan Parsons and Steve Grady. I reckon they are two of Brisbane's best songwriters. We didn't really do much work... We used to just jam all day and get paid for it! It was awesome! Although maybe not so much for our employer. I see them as two big brothers and they really helped me settle into Brisbane. I love watching them play live as a duo and both their solo shows are awesome too.

What’s coming up in 2011?

Well I release my first EP in April and I got the opening support for Boy and Bear so that's exciting! I'll be touring with them in May! :D I'm really keen to just play as many shows as possible and start to do stuff with my music.

Australian music is?

...really awesome. My biggest musical role models are Missy Higgins, Josh Pyke, Sarah Blasko and Lior. Missy Higgins really inspired me to start writing music. My dad bought me her DVD and took me to her show when she came to Cairns and that got me started on writing songs.