Q&A: Emmy Meli Offers Healing, Safe Space for Listeners in “Silence”
NAVIGATING THE LABYRINTH OF HEALING — Emmy Meli's latest single, "Silence," resonates with listeners familiar with the relentless clamor of their own thoughts. With a voice that carries the weight of experience and emotion, Meli infuses her music with a poignant sincerity that cuts through the noise. Her soulful vocals, wrapped in a blanket of nostalgia and strength, serve as a compelling contrast to the stark honesty of her lyrics, which lay bare the struggle of contending with anxiety.
Through her heartfelt verses, Meli captures the relentless barrage of anxious thoughts that can overwhelm even the most resilient spirit. Yet, amidst the chaos, there's a glimmer of hope – a refuge found in the act of singing, a respite from the cacophony within.
As Meli prepares to unveil her debut EP, Hello Stranger, on May 10, she offers a deeper glimpse into her journey of self-discovery. Recorded in collaboration with the producer collective Some Randoms, the EP unfolds like a coming-of-age narrative, spanning seven tracks that mirror seven pivotal years of Meli’s life. Each song serves as a chapter, revealing layers of growth, introspection and transformation.
Meli’s creative journey is not just about crafting melodies; it's about excavating the depths of her soul and sharing her most vulnerable moments with the world. Through her music, she offers solace to those who find themselves grappling with similar struggles, illuminating the path toward inner peace and acceptance.
“Silence was written during one of the loudest parts of my life, internally and externally,” Meli says. “Anxiety can be deafeningly loud, never-ending and incessant. When mine won’t turn off, all I can do is sing. This song helped me find my silence, and I hope it helps you find yours too.”
With "Silence" as a prelude, Meli emerges as a promising voice in the realm of introspective music, offering a compelling blend of vulnerability, authenticity and resilience. As she prepares to unveil her debut EP, she invites listeners to embark on a journey of self-discovery – a journey marked by the promise of finding solace in the silence.
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what inspires your artistic style and creative persona?
EMMY: My artistic sound comes from a lot of different places, a lot of different genres and a lot of different artists that I grew up listening to. Honestly, a lot of myself, you know like nothing is necessarily copy but more so I've made into my own. There's bits and pieces of my personality in there. I would say above all else, it's just me. I don't necessarily try to be anyone or anything other than myself and what I'm feeling and I think that goes for my creativity and what inspires me and what makes my music stand out. Of course we get inspiration from other artists and other music we listen to, but I would say it's just bits and pieces. It's all very much individualistic for me.
LUNA: When I think about your music, the word that comes to me is empowerment. I’m curious how you would describe your music or what it means to you?
EMMY: I think that I sing things that I need to hear and so people might have this conception about me that I must be the most confident person on the planet who's got it all together, knows her shit and stands up for herself and so on and so forth. But that's not always the case. I teach what I need to learn. I write what I need to hear. A lot of my music comes from me trying to empower myself. It's my outlet and it's my way of strengthening myself. It's how I keep myself going. It comes from a place of me being like, I don't quite have this down, so let's try to do it together. I would say empowerment, feel-good and sexy is what the theme is right now, and for future projects, I’ll pivot, but I’ll always have an empowering element to it.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
EMMY: A place of safety. Growing up, music was my safe place. It was the one hideaway I had from the rest of the world and no matter what was going on, I could put my headphones in and drift off into oblivion and paint these worlds in my head that would take me far, far away from where I was and what was going on around me in the physical realm. I want my music to be that safe space for people, like the thing that inspires them and encourages them to be the person that they can look up to and see that it is possible. While we are imperfect, that's your superpower. I think that’s what I want people to take away from what I write.
LUNA: You have released your latest single “Silence” and are about to release your debut EP Hello Stranger. These are your first releases since 2021. Do you think you’ve matured as an artist since you released “I AM WOMAN” and how would you describe that artistic growth?
EMMY: I think I've matured, that's an understatement. I would say I've matured tenfold since then. I've become a completely different person, a completely different artist. This EP is two years old, so I wrote it only six months after “I AM WOMAN” and I would say I've matured so much even since writing this EP that's about to come out. I am a person who moves really fast. I have one foot in the present and then the other foot so far ahead in the future. My brain is always going a million miles an hour, and so I think my growth rate when it comes to my creativity and my music is exponential and I hope that it'll just keep maturing and keep growing. I think that the sound itself is bigger and different and different is a good thing. That's my goal when I make music, is to make something that people haven't quite heard or maybe they've heard it somehow, but they can't quite place it because it's still its own unique thing.
LUNA: I absolutely adore your single “Silence” and the raw honesty and vulnerability in your lyricism. What is the inspiration behind the single and what did the creative process look like?
EMMY: Honestly, the inspiration behind the single was the fact that I was having so much anxiety. I was going through one of the worst times in my young adult life – mentally, emotionally and physically – and it came from a place of me seriously having nothing left to give. And things were so in the height of “I AM WOMAN” at that time and my life took a 360. I constantly had other people in my ear, not only other people, but also just my own cyclical, dangerous thought patterns you know, where the lyric “Silence” literally just comes from me genuinely just needing a minute of silence in my own life. It comes from a really honest place. Word for word some of the lyrics are things that I was saying in the conversation with my producers. I was like, ‘I don't have anything left to give. I’m exhausted. I need a minute to have silence.’ Sometimes the songs that hit the hardest are the easiest to write because they come from such a true and vulnerable place that it doesn't necessarily need a lot of metaphorical input. It just is what you're feeling. Simple as that. She's very raw. The writing process was also really simple. It came out exactly the way it wanted to come out. It was me talking to my producers and telling them what was going on with me and where I was. I've been fucking smoking my life away and relying on my one vice because I was so stressed and had nothing left to give and felt so empty and those became the lyrics.
LUNA: “Silence” obviously touches on the universal feeling of anxiety and being in your own head. What are some ways you have overcome feelings of anxiety and channeled that into your music?
EMMY: I think that routine has helped me a lot. I'm a person who relies a lot on routine and trying to form healthy habits and having mindfulness. I find that I feel a lot better getting physical exercise in the mornings, waking up, stretching, writing, not going on my phone for the first hour of my day, reading books, writing about how I feel and being outside. Immediately I start my day and it brings me down to a calm base level. I prioritize work-life balance and making sure that in my free time, I’m actually doing the things that bring me joy and making space for that in my life. I also think keeping the right people around and having therapy has helped me. I've been doing really consistent therapy for a couple of years now. Keeping feelings journals and trying to eliminate toxic thought patterns. It's still a work in progress. It's not linear, like you can make so much progress with your anxiety and then still go through bouts of periods where you still don't want to go outside and be social and that is still sometimes really hard for me. It's about getting to the bottom of why I feel those things, at least for me, and then trying to rewrite the narrative.
LUNA: “Silence” is a glimpse into your upcoming debut EP Hello Stranger. What can listeners expect from this new era of music?
EMMY: I think they can expect more of that empowering element for sure. Instrumentation-wise, you can expect something a little different, some stuff that's maybe unexpected from my older music. Not too much of a pivot, but a bridge into a new era exploring new facets of my creativity. I do think that they'll get to know me better apart from just the one song because a lot of my most recent listeners come from just the one song that they heard from 2021. Now, I feel like they're going to actually get to know me as a person and me as an artist rather than this person that wrote this thing a few years back. I think it'll make me more of an actual person.
LUNA: Did you take any creative risks or experiment more either lyrically, emotionally or instrumentally with this project since your previous releases, and if so, how would you describe that growth?
EMMY: I do think I took some risks. There’s definitely some lyrical risks writing-wise, and I don't think a lot of people were necessarily expecting me to rap. In terms of the lyrical content, I think there is a bit of a pivot, but I really like it. It's growth again, and there's even more of a lyrical pivot into my next project, which I hope to continue making those pivots because then no one could ever get bored. I think the music is going to continue growing, like I think that it is a lot more mature. instrumentation-wise than “I AM WOMAN.” My new project hits harader and dabbles more in hip-hop which is more of the direction I’m planning on going into anyways. It’s not too far of a departure, but the exact growth that I think one would want after being away for a couple years.
LUNA: Did you have any lessons or breakthroughs while bringing this project to life?
EMMY: My biggest lesson is patience. I’ve always been an impatient person whose mind is always on what’s next. I have this whole process that has really taught me how to take a deep breath and be patient and trust in the timing of things, because things are going to happen the way they want to happen and you can't control that. There's only so much in life you can control. Honestly, the majority of life is out of your control. I'm literally the person that looks up the endings to movies, because I want to know. I think patience and learning that you can't control the ending was my biggest lesson. You can only be passionate and live your life with love, and everything else, just work hard and it happens when it’s supposed to happen.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
EMMY: I am actually really, really excited about this year. I have a lot of new music coming. I am announcing something really exciting that I'll be doing this next month. Hint, it involves a lot of performing. I'm gonna be booked and busy with lots of new music, lots of performing, which is honestly the perfect the perfect year in my opinion.
