Inspired #250 - Emilie Adams
Who are your top three musical inspirations and why?
Britney has to be in here. Just because I simply would not be doing music if it wasn´t for her! I love her. It's very difficult to only mention three, but Banks and Lana del Rey. Lana del Rey because when I was around 13 I first heard her music and it was so different to everything else being released at that time and that really opened my eyes to songwriting. Banks because her music just makes me feel so much. Her music is just emotion, emotion, emotion and expressiveness.
Is there a certain film that inspires you and why?
I can't really think of one specific film that inspires me, but I am really inspired by the dark and cinematic visuals. For instance, there's this new update of Ableton (where we produce most of my music) where you can download videos and sync them to the music you´re creating. So lately we've been putting movie trailers there and writing to match the mood and vibe of movie trailers. Everything from Tenet to Black Swan to Pingu has been there.
What city do you find the most inspiring and why?
I do think Oslo is very inspiring, mostly because of the people I´m working with. I will say though that there is something special about Windsor. I have family and grandparents there so I´ve spent quite a bit of time there. It's just the most beautiful town/city and it has a very special place in my heart. The sounds, the smell and The Long Walk.
Who is the most inspiring person to you and why?
I´m going cliche on this one: my dad. I could write a book about why, but I would say he is the most inspiring person to me because he has always been pushing me to do me, especially when it's uncomfortable. Don't take shit from anyone and trust yourself in life, in work, in songwriting. And also he of course has his “dad-sayings” that annoyingly just stick with me forever like: the people you meet on your way up you will meet on your way down. Or something like that. Moral of the story: work hard and treat the people you meet with respect.
What were your inspirations when writing your new track?
I think this was my first or second day working with Carl-Viktor Guttormsen and Jørn Erik Gundhus, and Carl-viktor had this vocal loop he recorded on his phone which turned into the intro of the song. So the sound of that inspired me immensely. And this chorus melody just popped into my head, and I was singing gibberish lyrics but the sentence ended with “geography”. So I was like “okay well that doesn't make any sense, so what sort of rhymes with geography? Monogamy”, which led to me remembering this situation from a few years back, and the whole song just basically wrote itself very quickly. So in short, sounds and words.
How would you like to inspire people?
What has always inspired me is people just unapologetically being themselves and doing their own thing. I always looked up to people like that, but I was never that person myself because I didn't want to take up any space or time and I had this “sorry I exist” mentality. But as soon as I started challenging myself on that good things started to happen, and I think authenticity will always shine through. So if I can inspire someone in that sense, even just to say “sorry this napkin has been used could I get a clean one” then that would make me very happy, because it took a lot of guts for me to say that once.