Emerson Snowe is a jack of all trades, ace of many. A singer, songwriter and self-taught producer whose music is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also emotionally gutting.
Songs bend from stylish carelessness to transcendent beauty in the blink of an eye – resembling an iron fist, wrapped in a velvet glove.
On their latest EP, Splatterpunk, Snowe willfully leans into this chaos, accompanied by ticker-taper beats and slippery vocals. In light of this standout release, Happy chatted to Snowe to discuss accessibility in art, successful dissonance, and the impact of body-gore.
HAPPY: There’s a certain sonic dreaminess to Splatterpunk that isn’t as present as your previous work – what have you done differently to evolve your sound like this?
EMERSON SNOWE: I think what I had done differently was touring the Snowe show more and learning to meet new people on my own. The short answer would be that I’m not entirely sure what I can really say about the sound evolving, as I guess it evolves as I do. It has already evolved with the current music I have been writing to.
HAPPY: Following on, what was your lyrical songwriting process for Splatterpunk. On Frankenstein specifically, but each song on Splatterpunk has incredibly intimate lyricism – how did you get into this mindset?
EMERSON SNOWE: The way I write is pretty eratic. It’s the one time I don’t censor myself and I kind of just let anything come out of my mouth. Literally clicking ‘play’ after doing the instrumentation and then sitting back in my chair and saying whatever it is that comes into my head. I think lyrically the tracks are pretty literal, Home Sweet Home might have been the only real track that I thought of properly when it came to lyrics. The track is about a fan that took their life, I went back and forth whether it was the right thing for me to do, but in the end I do feel like it was the right thing. It was my own way of grieving this person’s life.
HAPPY: Some quick background. You’re from Brisbane, but you’ve travelled the globe and you’re currently situated in Berlin. What made you wanna leave Australia to pursue your music and fashion – are there any interesting anecdotes about how art has shaped your worldview as a result?
EMERSON SNOWE: Yeah, so I grew up in far north Queensland and moved to Brisbane when I was 17. I guess I always knew that I wouldn’t move somewhere else in Australia if I was to move again, seeing as you can tour from anywhere in Australia to other parts quite easily if you’re fine with long plane trips. I grew up following the UK scene, so I felt like I knew I would somewhere end up close to there. When I did my UK tour most of the costs had already gone just on the flights over from Australia, afterwards I knew it was time to move forward again to be closer for future tours and also for myself to grow and experience new things. Berlin is a pretty central spot to everywhere, I never thought I would end up here at all, but here I am. All I need is a desk and a room, and I can do my thing. So luckily you can do that anywhere in the world. For now, I am here.
HAPPY: You’ve mentioned that You’re My Boy, Baby! is about an amicable breakup, yet it’s optimistic. How did you manage to strike the balance between optimistic and melancholic, without causing dissonance in your message?
EMERSON SNOWE: This is something that I seem to always do, unknowingly most of the time. It’s similar to the way I see The Cure in terms of the way that they look compared to their songs like ‘Friday I’m In Love’. The 2 things seem to be completely different, but they work so well, Yin and Yang I guess. It’s something i’m very attracted to. Maybe it started when I was 15 and listening to Sufjan Steven’s Illinois album (which is still my favourite album to this day) the tracks like Come On Feel The Illinoise! and Chicago – those tracks seemed to be completely opposite in terms of how they sounded, how almost sickeningly uplifting they were, compared to the lyrics that seemed very painful. Kind of the opposite of that would be Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ new album Carnage, those tracks sound like death, but the lyrics are optimistic in a very beautiful way.
HAPPY: I love that you self-write and self-produce, and the fact that you’re music has accessibility in the sense that it isn’t over-produced (doesn’t have a ‘professional’ gleam – Lo-Fi-esque). Why do you reckon it’s important to have that sort of accessibility in music – that is, music that falls outside the realm of what’s considered ‘professional’?
EMERSON SNOWE: Thanks, I appreciate that. In terms of why this collection was self-produced was purely because I just didn’t have the funds to work with anyone else. I knew that if I was able to produce and record this on my own it would really help me out in the future – not being dependable on anyone. If there is one thing that really bothers me are these bands and artists going into big studios and with big teams, and then coming out with something that sounds like it was literally just recorded on a dusty tape, I don’t see the sense in it at all. If I go into a studio for my debut album I wanna have beautiful strings and a real production. But each to their own. Recording low quality isn’t something I think about so much, I just don’t enjoy having too much equipment around me, I feel claustrophobic if I do and I’m unable to actually create anything.
HAPPY: The music video for You’re My Boy, Baby! made my heart melt in a really weird way. How did you capture such a bizarre, warm feeling through visual storytelling – or am I just projecting?
EMERSON SNOWE: I feel the same way, and I’m not so sure what it is about it. I mean, I was there and I could feel genuine enjoyment, so maybe that shows in the video. I really love that video a lot, and for me it’s a time capsule diary of my time in Tokyo for that week. Much like the other videos from the first EP and this EP (except Frankenstein) all the videos were basically me handing my phone to my partner and asking her to record me in one take, then that’s it. Everything I seem to do is about capturing THAT specific moment, probably why I’m so able to write so much music, because once I get an idea in my head, I have to do it in that moment, and if I don’t then it’s gone. I’m almost addicted to it, which isn’t surprising.
HAPPY: As a multi-faceted artist, how do visual and sonic aesthetics collide for you? Do you focus on the audio and then the visual afterward? Do you consider the two simultaneously as you create your art? Do you have a clear vision in your head, or are you throwing ideas at the wall until something sticks?
EMERSON SNOWE: The tracks on ‘Emerson Snowe’s Splatterpunk’ were all written in a week in London, December 2018. When I went back to Australia on the flight I had downloaded a ‘Making of Nightmare on Elm Street’ documentary, that was the first time I heard the word ‘Splatterpunk’. When I got home I knew I wanted to encapsulate my love of body-gore and that genre as a whole. As far as visuals I think in this EP there is a clear visual approach, especially in the videos. Each video I am in a different part of the world (Milan, Europe, Japan, America), and wearing different face coverings, as if you have just been dropped into halfway through a horror film. With the EP artwork and single covers, I knew that I wanted to keep the line drawings on the backdrop theme from the first EP.
HAPPY: Goodnight Sleepwalker has got to be one of the most entrancing songs I’ve heard in a while. Can you shed some light on what it’s about, and how you knitted its many moving parts together to tell such an intricate story?
EMERSON SNOWE: I love this song, it was the final song I wrote for this collection, I think it portrays the whole release as a whole. The lyrics are honest, and almost too simple. But the instrumentation I find fascinating and I really enjoyed myself while I was recording it. In December I met a girl in London, Eleanor. We were close and when I went back to Brisbane I would send her tracks, she would reply to my messages in voice messages. She said ‘Goodnight, Sleepwalker’ as she said I reminded her of Sleepwalker in ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’, I guess because of my on-stage makeup and maybe how I held myself, it’s hard to really understand why. Anyway, so she sent me that voice message and I wrote the whole track around it. I’m not sure if I’m actually answering any of these questions right or not.
HAPPY: Is there anything you wanna comment on, and anything I haven’t touched upon that you think is important?
EMERSON SNOWE: Not really, I guess I just want to say that I am happy that this release is finally out, it documents a lot of myself and things I was going through at that time, things I wasn’t able to see happening to myself, but now am able to reflect. I’ve really come a long way emotionally, and musically I think this is a step up from the first release. It can definitely be seen as part 2 of the ‘That’s Rock n Roll’ story.
Splatterpunk by Emerson Snowe is out now, and available on all streaming services!
Interview by Mike Hitch
Photos by Alie Chalal, Miriam Marlene
