Emma Shaka’s brand new album, “Who I am” it’s a really bold and honest statement. From the very first note, the first thing that any listener would notice is a singer, a performer who truly feels for what she’s singing: The album title isn’t just a catchy name, this record really feel like a dive into Emma’s world. “Who I am” set out to blend simple, ear-pleasing melodies with the grit of rock and roll. Although all the songs on the album are sort of marked with the same watermark, being instantly recognizable as a part of one unique work, there is a really refreshing diversity to the flow, making this album one of those records that are a joy to listen from start to bottom. The setlist is so well planned that the eclectic, yet straight-forward feel of the music really helps to listener get on a true emotional journey. Find out more: www.emma-shaka.com

We also had the chance to have a chat with Emma: A really in-depth interview that just portrays how passionate this artist is!

– Your music has got a really heavy rock edge, although there’s a lot of melody to it. Does it come natural to balance the right mix?

Melodies are the most important for me, It’s what comes first when I’m writing music. I usually work on developing the melody before the chords, and this until I am satisfied. At this stage just with the melody, the song structure (chorus/verse/bridge) is close to be done and only misses the right chord progression. I simply record everything on a voice recorder and send it to James my guitarist, who will find which chords fits better to the melody, sometimes for one melody he comes up with 5 or 6 different version… I just choose the one that touch me the most, there is always one version that I prefer and usually the first shot is the right one. Spontaneity matters a lot to me and the right balance between the melody and the chords comes naturally.  I always have a precise idea of the kind of sound I need on a particular song, and luckily my musicians are easy to communicate with. I always compose with James usually with an acoustic guitar, we have exactly the same vision when it comes down to songwriting and I usually call him my brain mate (lol), he always understands what the song requires. We’ve been playing together for many years and are in a total fusion, which leads to a very natural approach to songwriting; this doesn’t mean we are prolific though… A song like “Sex Away” only took 3 hours to write (lyrics included), while on the other hand “Let Me Try” took us months of work before it could be called “done”. Once a song is finished we then submit it to the rhythm section for a rehearsal. The heavy rock sound comes out of the rehearsal studio, the plugged amps, the warmed tubes and the snarling drum on the beat. But it only happens if I want the song to sound like that, if I feel a song needs to be more pop than rock, I just ask my musicians what they think about it and work from their point of view too… To conclude and answer your question YES each song comes down naturally but still, it requires a lot of work from all the band members to sound the way it has to.

– If you could play with a ALL STAR backing bands with any musician (dead or alive), who would be in your band and why?

OMG ! I love this question. I would still work with a power trio behind me, because I believe this is the best combination. As a guitarist I would without any doubt ask Slash to join, I was a huge Gun’s & Roses’ fan when I was a teen and I am still a huge fan of his recent Snakepit project, to have Slash with me on a stage would be a dream came true ! I would pick up Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters on the drum, for strangely the same reasons as I chose Slash, I was once like many of us a “Smell Like Teen Spirit” addict and now in love with the Foo Fighters ! The energy behind each of their song and the sound they’ve got is just insane, that’s the reasons why I would ask Dave Grohl to join this All Star backing band. Oh.. almost forgot the bass… well as strange as it might sound… I would keep my bass player David H. Ortola, mainly for two reasons, first he is like me a fan of both Dave Grohl & Slash, and I think he would just kill me if one day I would be on stage with them without asking him to join, secondly because David is simply a real groovy kick ass bass player… Thanks for asking the question, hope Slash and Dave will see this, who knows ?

– Your music brought you all over the world, online and “for real”. Are your surroundings influential for your work or do you try to bring your personality wherever you go, rather than adapting to a new setting?

You’re right we are today living the dream almost every musicians and artist had back 15 years ago, and this dream was having your music accessible worldwide! Today independent artists and their albums are available everywhere from the States to Japan or Europe at speed light and sometimes for free… Crazy isn’t it? I don’t think I have ever adapted to a new setting or influenced a song on purpose to sound like the latest summer hit song. I love Adele‘s voice and songwriting approach for example, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to compose a song to sound just like “Rolling The Deep”.  All my songs were influenced one way or another by all the artists I loved to listen to, it’s unconscious and rather a big melting pot of all the music I have been listening to for the past decade. I always try to stay true to myself, and true to what I am as a songwriter because I believe a good song will remain a good song no matter what year you listen to it, which is slightly different from the “hit songs” approach aimed to be popular within a short given period.

 – You are an independent artist. What are the pros and cons for you?

I’ll share with you an honest point of view…People in bands might know this fact, some others maybe not… Being an independent artist with a record to promote today in 2013 means: composing, writing, playing, singing, arranging, recording, producing, mixing, mastering, videoing, designing, promoting, tour booking, facebooking, twitting… It takes hours and hours and cost a lot ! So you better be crazy in love with what you do, and there’s just no other way. Being a DIY artist doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve got to do everything on your own, the enormous advantage for me is that I’m the person in charge the one who decides with who I wanna work with, simple as that. I chose the studio, the engineers, the design, a video director and a good manager to take care of the whole thing (a manager is one of the most important btw).

I also have a wonderful team of fans helping me any times if I need something done with makeup, hair cut, handing flyers or someone to help with the CD stand during the shows. Their support is just invaluable! (thanks ladies @#lucyf’hair btw) But there’s a downside, and I mean a huge one: Finances… ;( An album to produce cost way over 30 000$ not including the promotion that needs to be done to let the world know you exist…nWhen you’re an indie artist, you’ve got to choose sometimes between buying a new set of tires for your car or get this kick ass mastering done with your album… I chose the mastering… It took me years and years of savings sometimes working several jobs to be able to produce the album and to get to the point where I am today, and yet 8.99$ for a 10 song album designed mastered mixed and recorded seems to be too much (that’s what you tell yourself the first time you receive your iTunes report). Streaming doesn’t make it easier, but I’m not the kind of woman that gives up easily, I am now working on a live DVD, a tour and focusing on writing songs for the next album.

–  If you could choose only one word to describe your album “Who I Am” what would you say?

Sincere

– Studio or live?

Studio or live ? that’s not easy to answer because like most musicians I love both, even if the feelings felt are much different though.

The studio is a really important tool because it is the only way for me to call a song “done“, in order to move on writing more songs. Studio is also a great place to realize that maybe the chorus needs a change or the melody needs more work with the arrangements, things you might not hear while rehearsing… and also a great place for thousands of other cool reasons.

You get more mature after a recording session and grew up as an artist, but there are also difficult choice to make, like saying to somebody what it’s not right and why… to me the studio is kind of the opposite of the stage. On stage, it’s the instant T that matters, it doesn’t matter if you have a headache or if your boyfriend just dropped you, you gotta do this gig and you gotta do it right.

Because it is what you’re doing right now, at the exact second while you are performing in front of this crowd that came to see you that matters! The energy is totally different from the studio… the lights, the swet, the heartbeats, the show, the big sound and the smell of beer… I also like to take some risks on stage like trying songs nobody’s but the band heard before, it’s a place where I just feel like myself.

To quickly answer your question I’d say that I’m more live than studio, just because I got to meet different people at each shows who love my music, and this is the highest reward.

MARCH 14, 2013 (6:17 AM)

3 NOTES

https://emma-shaka.com/

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