Many former NYU students have graduated and achieved mainstream success in the music industry. But with so many artists (alumni or otherwise) and music groups to check out, follow, and buy music from, how do you decide who is worth your scarce and valuable time?
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Senior Emma Kate is breaching the New York music with optimistic lyrics and beats as well as her own perception of what music should be. The Gallatin student (she has chosen 19th Century European Art & It’s Effects on American Culture as her major) began seriously pursuing music in high school and is still working towards her dream now. She released a single on iTunes called “Neon Yellow Hearts” in July and has four demos and two live recordings posted on SoundCloud. She is currently in the recording process, but check out her SoundCloud here.
With all of that being said, here are the reasons why you will buy Emma Kate’s EP.
1. School is important.
Prior to her freshman year, Emma took a semester off of school to really focus on her music. Although singing is her number one passion that she hopes to make into a career, she believes that school is a necessary step that can even make her dream more attainable.
“Even just taking classes helps with my writing and my creative process,” she says.
2.She knows how you feel.
Emma, a native New Yorker, likes for her listeners to be able to relate to her music as much as possible, even logistically for us NYU students. When you listen to any one of her songs, you not only feel the galvanizing energy of a night out with the girls, but the brilliant New York sunset and the earth shaking bass that filled the club you hit last week. The end of a catchy chorus will bring a smile and a nostalgic sounding “good times…”
3.She knows who she’s talking to
Emma Kate has decided to go beyond just being relatable and has chosen exactly who she wants and can feasibly to relate to. Considering her approach based around specificity, she is aware that she is the best friend of the urban college student, but is also well acquainted with the twenty-somethings. In general young people, specifically females, will enjoy lines about spending quality time with close friends basking in the amazing parties and events that city life has to offer.
4.DIY pop
Granted I may have made this term up, but this felt like the most fitting brand for Emma Kate. Popular music, often associated with a bit of artificiality, is not a genre that she ultimately wants to be a part of. Emma looks to people such as Ed Sheeran and Tori Kelly for their genuine lyrics and honest recording process. She appreciated and embraces the idea of an artist writing, producing, and recording everything themselves and uses this concept to create music that she calls “real.”
6.But not just pop…
Although Emma Kate has labeled herself “pop,” she has not been singing pop for the entirety of her musical career. While she attended Trevor Day School, she learned music theory and was trained in a cappella and barber shop quartet. “Being in those [groups and classes] enabled me learn how to read music which helped my songwriting massively. Melodies and harmonies come much easier because of it,” Emma added.
7.She loves strong women
With many of her songs including scenes of a girls’ night out coming back strong from a broken heart, Emma says her music is geared towards the ladies. “I grew up in a house of very strong women” she says and indirectly demonstrates in her music, “You couldn’t go a day without my mom quoting her favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quote ‘no one can make you feel inferior without your own consent.’” “Ya Never” her favorite song that she has written vocalizes how she applied this advice to her own break up by never letting her ex break her heart again.
Emma is in between Manhattan and Los Angeles recording and plans to release an EP later this year.