Singer-songwriter Emily Hearn who sounds like a pleasant mix of heartfelt country and folk music hails from Athens, Georgia and is currently on a thirty four show tour opening for Tyrone Wells. I caught up with Emily after just returning to Athens during her 8 day break before her next show in Phoenix. Emily has said before that her biggest influences are The Judds, The Dixie Chicks, and Brandi Carlisle, but I was interested in who she was currently listening to at this moment.
“I feel like I’m in a little bit of a transition because now I’m kind of in a phase where I’m enjoying discovering new music again. I’m listening to a lot of Brandon Flowers and Jenny Lewis’ new album… and I’ve been listening to this girl BANKS, really good stuff, so I’ve just been trying to mix it up and listen to a little bit less country and singer songwriter and more full band type stuff. It’s just been my mood lately. I think that I’m the most inspired, and I’ve realized this recently, by jazz music! I got a record player for Christmas two years ago and I’ve been building a collection and it’s the most fun for me to dig through and find old jazz albums. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong have a couple of duet albums that are my very favorite. I’ll just listen to those on repeat. It’s a very specific genre and it takes a lot of practice and skill to play like that but I’m hoping that one day they will rub off on me.”
Emily taught herself to play guitar in high school and began writing and performing songs for her friends at parties in college. Emily told me what seemed like a random occurrence of someone hearing her music ended up being the first step in a career as a professional recording artist.
“I put a few songs on Myspace and someone who happened to be from the same small town I grew up in who was a producer, Trey Roth, heard them and called me and said that he would love to record my songs. I had never even met someone who had recorded songs and I found that interesting and intriguing. When I first started off on that project, which turned in to my first EP, Paper Heart, I just thought, ‘Cool, I’ll just record these songs that I’ve written and… I’ll just have them and that will be great.’ I didn’t even think about putting them on iTunes and selling them and playing shows and becoming a full time musician but as I was in the studio I was falling in love with the creative process and kind of had this idea that I could do it for a living. After we got that album mastered I started playing more shows and being more intentional about promoting the music that I had and it just turned in to something great… It turned in to something that I had a great time doing and I didn’t realize it was even possible. I actually ended up making my second album with Trey. He as incredibly inspiring in getting me to do this full time.”
Emily collaborated with Trey Roth for her first two projects Paper Heart and Red Balloon but he soon left the music industry. Shortly after her manager put her in touch with a producer whom he thought could really accent her sound, Chad Copelin.
“As soon as I got on the phone with Chad we clicked so quickly and I just felt like he really understood what I was going for and he seemed so laid back and fun. I had listened to a lot of his recordings and he’d recorded a lot of different styles. They all sounded different but they all sounded amazing. I was really intrigued by his work. So we decided to work on my next EP with him, which is called Promises, so when I went back in to the studio to make Hourglass it was just a no brainer because Chad is so talented and we work really well together. It was an easy decision. I’ve basically worked with two outstanding producers for two releases.”
Emily’s previous release, Promises, has an overall theme of happiness, love, and joy but on her new album, Hourglass, she begins to expand her horizons to the uncertainty that is the road of life but also illustrate the beauty of that journey.
“I basically wrote the EP, Promises, right after I got married. A lot of it was about my marriage and finding my soul mate and being really happy. When you’re writing for an EP it’s ok if a couple of the songs don’t fit together. I felt like that was just finding five songs that I liked but when I started writing for the album I really wanted it to feel cohesive and meaningful. I wanted to expand on the subjects I was writing about so I wrote some about heartbreak and a few songs that were advice or that were stories from friends. I also had a couple of really important people to me pass away from cancer so there are definitely some themes of ‘hold on to all the moments that you have because nothing is guaranteed’. I felt like at the end of the day the songs we picked for the album tied together in this really cool way where they weren’t the same subject. They weren’t all about love or death or fun but you could say this is all about what happens as we grow up. So that’s why I wanted to call the album Hourglass because it’s a commentary on how we grow and change and figure things out in life.”
Emily has been questioned as to why she would choose to focus on such a contemplative subject for someone who is only 25 years old and fresh out of college.
“I think that right out of college and when you are figuring out what is and isn’t important and what your calling is in life… those serious thoughts come in to your heard because you’re making decision that feel more important and more final than they did when you were younger. I was having these feelings and felt like a lot of people that I was talking to weather they were in college or younger and even much more grown up with kids were all seeming to relate so I thought why not write an album about that. I think that’s kind of where I tried to take this album: something a little bit more serious and relatable across the board but also mix in some fun and catchy songs.”
Emily’s next show will be in Houston, Texas at House of Blues. Purchase tickets here.
Emily’s latest album Hourglass is available via iTunes.
