When I first heard ‘It’s Gonna Be Okay’, the debut single from New York-based singer/songwriter Emily Nicole Green, I knew I had stumbled upon a special artist. Her poignant and emotional vocal performance left me mesmerized, and it wasn’t long before the tune made its way onto my “On Repeat” playlist.
Emily has since released another two singles, both of which have been met with high praise. Wanting to know more about her, I was thrilled when she agreed to an interview! Talking with us about her upcoming EP, what she loves about being a musician, and who she’d adore to work with in the future, please give a big welcome to our friend Emily Nicole Green!
Hey Emily, it’s an honour to get to chat with you today! I love discovering artists still in their infancy musically! When did your love affair with music begin?
Thank you! It’s great to chat with you. I started playing piano at 3 years old. Both of my parents were and still are very passionate about music, so it was always playing in the house and in the car. They exposed me to brilliant singer-songwriters very early on. Dylan, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Phoebe Snow, James Taylor, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, and so many more. They had a large record collection. I started performing musical theater when I was young at camp and at school. When I was 14 years old I wrote my first song, ‘Puppy Love’ and soon after that, I started performing my songs at variety shows in high school.
Your debut single ‘It’s Gonna Be Okay‘ was a tune that I instantly fell in love with, and it’s undoubtedly one of my tracks of the year. How did you decide it was the song you wanted to introduce yourself to the world with?
Thank you so much for saying that. I feel like ‘It’s Gonna Be Okay’ is very relatable, perhaps the most relatable of all of my songs, so I felt that it could be helpful to a lot of people and that seemed like a good place to begin. I also feel like with the state of politics and Covid and everything else, I felt like it was a song of the moment. It’s also a little bit upbeat in a way, which I thought could be a good way to start since I was releasing my singles in the summer.
The EP will be released in the fall which is intentional as I feel the fall is a time of reflection and letting go. It’s also the most optimistic of the songs in many ways. It’s interesting because I never actually say “It’s gonna be okay,” I say, “Sometimes we need to hear ‘em say it’s gonna be okay,” but hearing the words repeated has a soothing feeling and asks the listener to find a hope that may be available to them in themselves. This song is actually the last song on the EP ‘Outrunning The Animal’ which will be available next month on my 40th birthday, October 30th. I tend to say that this EP isn’t about hope, it’s about healing, but it gestures in the direction of hope. I don’t demand it of the listener, but I believe that if the songs offer a catharsis for people to feel their buried emotions then maybe they will find a light underneath the wound.
Since ‘It’s Gonna Be Okay’, you’ve gone on to release two more singles in the form of ‘Wreckage’ and most recently ‘Thief’. I think it’s fair to say that they’ve been extremely well received! How does it feel to know that so many people are listening to and resonating with your music?
Well, it’s really hard to know what’s considered well-received in this music environment, but let’s face it, I released these songs from my living room, so I feel really great that anyone has heard these songs! I’ve worked really hard on promotion and I do hope to begin playing live shows, but haven’t played a show yet. The streaming numbers do make me hopeful that the songs are resonating with people. My number one goal of every song I put out on this EP is that I hope it gets to the hearts that need it. I hope they help people feel and begin to heal and maybe face themselves instead of trying to outrun the animal.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences? Who did you grow up listening to? And would you say that your tastes have changed over the years?
My biggest influences hands down are Ani Difranco, Jill Scott, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Garth Brooks, Patty Griffin, Suzanne Vega, Indigo Girls, and Bob Dylan. That said, I listen to musicians in many different genres. Although it is of course the musicians who create the songs and albums, I consider my influences to be more specific to the songs and albums rather than the entire body of work of a specific musician. Maybe that’s just semantics, but it feels more true. So for example, ‘Infidels’ and ‘Desire’ by Bob Dylan versus just Bob Dylan. The album ‘Stones In The Road’ by Mary Chapin Carpenter. I love Jay-Z, Béla Fleck, The Nappy Roots, and Maceo Parker, but again, specific albums and specific songs.
I also have a few soundtracks that I feel have been influential, for example, I absolutely love the soundtrack to ‘Buena Vista Social Club’. In terms of musicians that I’ve found a little later in life, but I still consider to be influential, I love the album ‘Meaning Of Life’ by Kelly Clarkson, ‘Lemonade’ by Beyoncé, many songs by Sia and Adele, the ‘Kaleidoscope Heart’ album by Sara Bareilles, and the album ‘By The Way I Forgive You’ by Brandi Carlile. There are so many people I’m not mentioning, but I have a playlist on my Spotify page where I add songs I love if anyone wants to know more.
What, to you, is music’s role in society?
Anything I say here will probably sound pretty cheesy, but the truth is I think music is critical to society. It’s a universal language. If done well, music bypasses logic and connects directly to the body and the soul. I played ‘It’s Gonna Be Okay’ for someone the other day and he started crying and kept apologizing for crying and I thought, why would you apologize, we are connecting on the deepest level. This is what life’s about. You are not alone. I wrote OUR story, not just mine. I think music is all about connection, and if that connection is between you and yourself that is just as valuable as music’s ability to help us connect with others. It’s all valuable and needed.
What aspects of being a musician do you cherish most? And on the flip side of that, what would you say have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered?
The aspects I cherish the most are writing the lyrics and the melodies. I also love harmonizing, but there are no harmonies on this EP, which is also intentional. Everything else is hard for me, but also really important. Producing these 5 songs took me 3 years. I worked with different groups of musicians in different states and finally found an arranger, Mike Williamson, who helped me create a blueprint of what I was hearing in my head.
I had to learn that you can’t just hand your work to people and say “Okay cool, let’s do this”. I mean you can, but there are infinite ways they can interpret it and there’s a good chance it won’t be exactly what you have in mind. Every time I think I have things under control, I realize there is a next step that pushes me way out of my comfort zone again. From working with mixing engineers and mastering engineers and then mastering for vinyl then moving into promo and now working on playing live for the first time in twenty years. I guess you could say I’m acting as my own label, so it’s just a lot of moving parts. But it’s all exciting and I really enjoy learning new things and even if in the moment it feels scary and nearly impossible, when you’re on the other side of each next step, it feels really good knowing you got there. I hope I get there with respect to playing live. I’m just getting started there.
If you were allowed to collaborate with any musician or band, who would you choose and why?
Ani Difranco, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Garth Brooks, Jay-Z, Adele, Brandi Carlile. I just feel so deeply connected to each of them. I can hear the kind of song I would write with each of them and it would be such an incredible honor to be afforded the opportunity to collaborate with any of them. You have to let yourself dream, right?
I think what all of these musicians have in common is that their music is entirely true to themselves. You feel them in each of their songs so clearly. My dream from the time I was a kid was to work on a musical for Disney. I was very influenced by the music from those 80s/90s Disney movies as a kid. In terms of a musician who is very new to me I would love to collaborate with, it’s Danielle Ponder. I just found her a few weeks ago and I think she’s incredibly talented.
Thanks so much for chatting with us Emily! It’s been great getting to know you a bit better! I can’t wait to hear your debut EP ‘Outrunning The Animal’ but, I guess, in a broader sense, what do you hope your musical future holds?
I just hope that my EP resonates with people. The greatest gift of my life is that I am able to write songs that help me heal. Now I hope they can help others in some way. I write when I’m happy, when I’m lonely, when I’m scared, when I don’t know what to do, when I do know what to do but I’m not ready to do it, when I’m in love, when I’m heartbroken, you get the idea.
Songwriting has been my way through. In terms of my goals, well, I hope my songs are included in TV shows and films in order to amplify the emotional resonance of a scene and I hope that people share my songs with people they can help. I hope I am able to play live and go on tour. I hope I get to keep doing this.
