Somehow, criminally, I've never posted about Emma Gatrill's solo music here before - and yet it feels that rarely a week goes by where I'm not falling in love with a track that she's had some involvement in, often lusting over those gorgeous clarinet solos. I first came to Emma's work through Matthew and the Atlas, and have recently been loving tracks that she's played on by Maja Lena, Siv Jakobsen and Rachael Dadd. She's got fingers in many a lovely musical pie! This year, alongside creating a baby (a particularly sweet collaboration with Marcus Hamblett) Emma has been busy making lots of new music. There's an EP on the way, and first track Be Brave is out now. It's a delight to be asked to premiere the beautiful video for the track - enjoy!
On the track, Emma shares: "Be Brave is about how even when someone is going through something very difficult, time continues to pass. About how we all have the strength to keep going if we keep our eyes on the horizon during hard times. It is a reminder that we need to keep looking forwards and up, even when we feel down.
This whole batch of new songs was born from an attempt to invert my writing process - starting with rhythmic elements rather than with the harmonic and melodic harp and vocals. So in this case it started with some drums that Rob Pemberton sent over. We found two really nice bars that worked well played at the same time and looped them. One plays in the left speaker and one in the night. I wrote the song around this loop, exploring a tempo and rhythmic feel I might not have otherwise found. All the upcoming songs were written in this way, with lots of contributions from a wide range of drummers and producers."
