In Conversation With #148 - Emma-Jean Thackray
Composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Emma-Jean Thackray has just released her widely praised debut album ‘Yellow’ via her own label Movement. She took a moment to talk to us in more depth about the release.
Hey there Emma - how are you? So your debut album is finally here. How does it feel to finally have it out there in the world?
I feel more complete than I ever have. It’s the most complete showing of myself that I could possibly make at this point in my life, as much of my truth as I could possibly express, so I feel very calm and content. I’m looking forward to listening to the record and starting to hear where I could have done better and where I would change things, because it means that I’m growing and I’m entering that next creative period. Then as my skills develop, as my mind expands and learns new things, as my spiritual capacity grows, there’ll be some empty space in my soul to fill. I’ll start to feel a spiritual itch to create the next project, and I won’t be content til I’ve finished the next record.
It is titled ‘Yellow’ - does that hold a certain meaning behind it?
It does. I use the colour yellow in meditation (and just in daily life really) to try and embody positivity and gratitude. It’s a healing colour for me, for my soul, and it felt right to call the album yellow.
I have a mantra I use when creating: "move the body, move the mind, move the soul”, meaning visceral grooves, heady cerebral harmonies / melodies, and nourishing for the soul. As well as through sound, I visualise these through primary colours: red for the visceral, blue for the cerebral, and yellow for the soul. This album is my soul.
Where was the album recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us from the creative process?
It was recorded a bit in Margate, a bit at Soup Studios (on a boat on the Thames), a bit at the studio in Red Bull London, but mostly at my studio. Even though the sessions span different places and times, I’ve tried to combine everything in a way that feels like a live experience, like you’re there in the room with the band and it’s happening in front of you.
I like to get my band into certain headspaces when recording, and I think the sessions in Margate are the best example of this. Sometimes Ben (tuba) would lead some qi gong, I often got us to record songs that the others had never heard before and were seeing the sheet music for the first time (to inject a bit of edge and discomfort into the record), or just before recording Spectre we had a bit of a jam and I was calling spirits into the room and pretending to cast spells - the lights started flickering and Ben bricked it.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
In terms of the messages behind the music, it’s the cosmos, Vedic astrology, and the universal truth of oneness. I believe that from person to person to tree to animal that we’re all one, with each other and with the universe, and the songs are are all influenced by this in some way. Musically and aesthetically there’s a lot of love for 70s funk, spiritual jazz, from p-funk to Alice Coltrane, a love for Brian Wilson and that dense wall-of-sound approach to the arrangements, and I’ve mixed everything to sounds a bit 70s too. So the bottom end is scooped, the top end is darkened, so hopefully when you listen to the record it feels like you’re listening on a big wooden speaker, to bring a timeless quality to everything.
You recently performed your track ‘Say Something’ on Later With Jools Holland - what was that experience like? Can you tell us what the track is about?
Going on Jools was fulfilling a childhood dream! I’ve always wanted to perform on the show so it was a little surreal. It wasn’t in front of an audience due to social distancing but I’m so grateful we got to be on the show anyway and bring the music to ears all over the country, especially to perform ‘Say Something’. The track is about making music with a message, always trying to ’say something’ and imploring others to do the same. Don’t just make noise, actually try to say something of worth and make a difference.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
Probably “We are all our people”. 5 words to sum up the whole record really, to sum up this universal truth that we’re all one and we’re all one. No matter our differences, let’s celebrate them and hold each other in love.
Now the debut album is out there, what next for you?
I’m not sure! My brain is always cooking and to be honest I can’t always keep up with myself, and have been trying to work on slowing down a bit. There’s some live stuff that I’d like to release, some collaborations happening - you’ll have to wait and see as I’m not even sure myself!