Introducing Interview: EMILIE

Edinburgh-based singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist EMILIE, aka Emily Atkinson, creates dark electro pop akin to the likes of London Grammar or BANKS. Having been wowing Scottish crowds for some time, EMILIE now hopes to continue to capture the attention of the rest of the UK.

Filled with brooding synth-heavy melodies and pounding beats, alongside Atkinson’s haunting vocals, new single ‘Eyes For You’ is out now.

With her debut EP also out, we caught up with Emily to find out more…

Hi Emily! How are you today?
Hello! Yeah I’m good thank you!

Can you tell us a bit about your single ‘Eyes For You’?
So ‘Eyes For You’ was the very last song to be written for this EP. It’s definitely the most upbeat track from the EP and is heavily driven by quirky percussion and is decorated with distant airy vocal melodies.

Who would you say are your biggest influences?
Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding, Banks and Moderat, to name a few. Moderat is a bizarre one to the list but I’m so influenced at how they make sections of songs sound big through the simple use of additional layers and unusual percussive elements to make it interesting – it’s very much a concept that has been incorporated into the EP.

What’s the music scene like in Edinburgh at the moment?
The Edinburgh music scene is the healthiest it’s looked in a long time and is so diverse with so many great bands and artists in the circuit – Indigo Velvet, Mt. Doubt, Rebel Westerns etc. Seeing them all having their own successes and being so welcoming to me as a newcomer to it all is pretty inspiring. It’s quite a male-heavy environment, so it’s definitely a great position for me to be in to bring something new to the table that’s both stylistically different and female fronted.

What’s your EP I See You In the Darkness all about?
The EP centres around suppression and things being seen as defeatist so it’s definitely not the cheeriest of topics…

Please describe your sound in three words:
Dark, ethereal and melancholic.

What are your plans for the rest of 2016?
Hopefully some more shows in the pipeline and I’m just going to continue enjoying the doors that are opening as a result of releasing this EP.

Huge thanks to EMILIE for answering our questions!

I See You in The Darkness, the debut EP from EMILIE, is available online now on Spotify and iTunes. Find out more about EMILIE at her Facebook page.