venus speaks: emmy the great

In the six years we’ve known Emma-Lee Moss and supported her music career, somehow – inexplicably – we’ve never actually run an interview with her either on or in the pages of Wears The Trousers. Let’s fix that right now. As you may have noted from our Facebook and Twitter pages last week, Emmy was crowned the winner of our 2011 Venus/No-Penis Prize poll to find the best album of the past twelve months by a British female artist or female-fronted band, beating out the likes of PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi and Katy B.

The triumphant album, Virtue, is really a very remarkable record, written in the rawness of an engagement disintegrated by her ex-fiancé’s decision to join the clergy and recorded still in the aftermath. Putting such a personal record out into the world comes with its own set of challenges, as Emmy has discovered, but with the album scoring rapturous reviews across the board she’s not looking back.

Even as she completes her next project – a Christmas record with boyfriend Tim Wheeler of Ash – she’s already got some songs worked out for album number three and plans are afoot to make an album with Elizabeth Sankey of Summer Camp as their Sweet Valley High-inspired side project Jessica & Elizabeth Wakefield. Here she talks to Alan Pedder about all this and more.

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You’ve received a lot of great press for Virtue. Has it changed your own perception of the album in any way?

I feel like I’ve got quite a lot of distance from it now. It’s funny, if I read the same point in a lot of reviews I don’t necessarily let it affect my own thoughts on the songs but it does give you some perspective. You get a more realistic picture of what it’s like to listen to the album for the first time, because you never really know what that feels like.

Would you go back and change anything if you had the chance to with the benefit of hindsight?

I would change everything [laughs]. But isn’t that what everyone would do?

A lot of what was written about Virtue seemed to focus on the back story behind its creation. Has this impacted on your own opinions of your breakup in any way?

Again I’ve got a lot more distance from it. When I wrote the album people were telling me, ‘You know you don’t have to mention the story’, but I really wanted to talk about it. I wanted to tell everyone. I wanted to have conversations about it because it was so bizarre. I thought it could only help to talk to a lot of people about it, but after I’d done the first interview I was like, ‘Oh, I got it out. It’s all done. Great!’ But then I was looking ahead and thinking ‘Shit, now I have to talk about it with all these other people’. But it actually has helped, talking about it so much. It makes it feel like something that happened rather than something that happened to me, like it’s a story I read in, you know, Chat magazine or something.

How do you feel about First Love now, compared with Virtue?

First Love is like a sketchbook and Virtue is kind of like a record of a moment. It was quite an immediate thing. All the songs were quite immediate, the recording was very immediate. Like, I’m heartbroken right now, let’s go into the studio right now. There’s no way I could have waited. I needed it, for a start. I needed to get that stuff out. And also, I didn’t think it would be as potent if I’d taken more time. I didn’t want to get over it while I was making the record. I think it’s going to be one of the most peculiar recording experiences I’ll ever have.

You’ve self-released both albums, notably funding the second through a highly successful Pledge Music campaign. Given the significant success of Virtue, has this made you think about signing to a more established label for that extra push, or has this validated your own approach?

I don’t know, I guess we’ll see. I’ve seen a lot of indie bands sign to majors and their careers go both ways from there. For the first record we did almost go with a few labels but there was never a perfect fit, and it always felt like we could do it just as well ourselves. And we have kind of done it, so maybe it might be cool to just keep on going like that. It’s really impossible to predict with the music industry though, isn’t it? Maybe next year music won’t be coming out on CD. Maybe we’ll all just be doing, like, bar mitzvahs and everybody downloads a song if they get a piece of cake. Then I won’t need a label at all. I’ll need an agent.

And a baker.

Yeah, exactly [laughs]. And then maybe I’ll put out my own cake. Who knows?

So, assuming that doesn’t happen, what music are you working on now?

Well, I’m putting out a Christmas album later this year and I’ve written about four songs for the next record. I want to write a lot of songs this time, and this is going to be a completely different album experience as well.

Has it made a difference to your life now that you’re able to make music full time?

It’s made a huge difference to my music. In the last year or so, when I’ve been able to focus completely on it, I’ve just got better. There are things that I know about now that I just didn’t understand when I first started – huge barriers to making a really good record. The instant naïve energy was there and the good ideas, but you need a lot of time and exposure to musical situations. You need space in your life to be able to absorb that stuff. I go to so many gigs now, and I meet a lot of other musicians. I feel so much more inspired.

Can you tell me more about your Christmas album?

Yes! It’s all original songs. This is a really good story. I think this is probably one of the best Christmas press stories of all time. Tim and I wrote the first few songs because we got snowed in. He had just come over to my house for an evening because he had to go to an airport and we got snowed in in the country for, I think, ten days. So we had to these write songs because we were bored. And then, last week, when we were trying to finish them in New York, I had to leave before I’d finished my vocals but then Hurricane Irene hit and my flight got cancelled. So we were like, “This is so meant to be. For some reason, the universe wants us to put out this collection of snarky, jokey Christmas songs. That’s bizarre.”

When’s that coming out?

January [laughs]. No, December. We did discuss putting it out in January as it’s a good time to release albums…

So, as you know, PJ Harvey won the Mercury in the end. I read in the Guardian that she was the one you were rooting for.

Yeah, I was rooting for Harvey and for Elbow. When Let England Shake came out I was like, “Well, if there ever was an album that should win the Mercury, this is it. It’s so of our time.” But then I heard that Elbow was nominated, well, I love them so much… They’ve had such a great few years, I thought wouldn’t it be cool to crown that with a double win. But then it was also a double win for her too, so in the end I decided that they should both win twice [laughs].

Seems fair. So, now that PJ has become the first artist to win the Mercury twice, on top of becoming the first female solo artist to win it back in 2001, do we need to reconsider our stance on the Prize’s overall representation of women, which has been rather weak in the past?

You know, it’s not to the Mercury’s credit that she’s won twice. It’s the fact that she’s the most awesome artist. There’s a thing that Kate Nash told me before she launched her after school club for girls: only 14% of Performing Rights Society members are women. That’s across over 80,000 writers and musicians in the country. So even though it looks like we’re having a bit of a takeover, because there have been a lot of very strong solo female artists and frontwomen coming through in recent years, there’s still a huge bias.

Absolutely. That’s what Wears The Trousers has always tried to address. People say ‘Look around at all these successful women. Why do you bother?’ But that’s why. Because there’s still a huge bias.

That’s the thing about gender inequality. It’s sometimes obscured so that people don’t always see that it exists.

Well, that brings me nicely onto the subject of our Venus/No-Penis Prize. The name, I’m sure you know, is a bit of a jokey way of drawing attention to something we think is a worthy celebration of women across a variety of genres, from the weird and wonderful to the catchy and clever. People like Planningtorock and yourself, who wouldn’t have been out of place among this year’s shortlist. I’m happy to say that you, Emmy, are this year’s winner!

Am I?! Who else was on the list?

PJ Harvey…

Shut up! [laughs] How did PJ Harvey not win it?

You must have some very dedicated fans!

I’m going to give the award to PJ Harvey. Can I do that? In recognition of her awesomeness.

Well, the Prize is a £50 donation to a charity of your choice, so you might want to pick your own.

Okay, cool. Can I give it to Women For Women UK?

Yes. Tell me more about them.

[Goes to computer] Let me just check so that I don’t get this wrong and have to call you back. [Reads out mission statement] “Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies. We’re changing the world one woman at a time.”

They have a scheme where you can sponsor a woman in another country. It’s absolutely brilliant.

Okay, we’ll sort that out for you. Just a couple more questions. First, what’s your favourite ever album by a British female artist?

Hmmm [thinks hard]. Can I say Pretenders by The Pretenders? Is that allowed?

Well, the band are technically from Hereford, but not sure that Chrissie Hynde really counts. We’ll let you have this one though, because we like you. So, perhaps you can help us out with something we’re a little confused about. If your Sweet Valley High side project Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield release an album, would they qualify for the Venus Prize or would their California roots exclude them?

[laughs] Well, we’re from Sweet Valley California Archway, so you decide. I think we’re going to record our album over Christmas. I’m really excited!

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Virtue is out now on Close Harbour Records. Keep up to date with all things Emmy on Facebook.

Emmy’s latest UK tour kicks off tomorrow in Colchester. Catch her at the following venues right through ’til October 12:

16.09.11 Arts Centre, Colchester
17.09.11 Cecil Sharp House, London
18.09.11 Glee Club, Nottingham
19.09.11 Cluny, Newcastle
20.09.11 Oran Mor, Glasgow
22.09.11 Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
23.09.11 Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh
24.09.11 Georgian Theatre, Stockton
25.09.11 Library, Lancaster
27.09.11 Arts Centre, Norwich
28.09.11 Jericho Tavern, Oxford
29.09.11 Wilde Theatre, Bracknell
30.09.11 Soundhouse, Leicester
02.10.11 Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
03.10.11 Duke of Yorks Cinema, Brighton
04.10.11 Glee Club, Birmingham
06.10.11 Central Station, Wrexham
07.10.11 Stanley Theatre, Liverpool
08.10.11 Deaf Institute, Manchester
09.10.11 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
11.10.11 Fleece, Bristol
12.10.11 Junction 2, Cambridge

Written by: Alan Pedder

Tags: elizabeth sankey, emmy the great, first love, jessica and elizabeth wakefield, pj harvey, summer camp, venus no-penis music award, virtue

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 15th, 2011 at 11:01 am and is filed under feature, special features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.