Emma Gale, the sultry-voiced singer-songwriter from Dorset, has been living out her passion as a singer since a young and influential age. Since releasing her debut single, ‘Let’s See What The Earth Has To Say,’ in April 2020, the multi-talented artist has been enamored with the craft of songwriting.
The self-proclaimed ‘accidental indie-folk artist’ has been sharpening her writing skills, through various endeavors over the past year by creating pop tracks and songs across the US and UK, for film and television. In addition, she has attended various songwriter camps and mentorship programs led by the likes of Grammy-nominated folk singer Mary Gauthier, Berklee College of Music professor Pat Pattison and LA-based songwriting coach Robin Frederick.
While indulging in her success and perseverance, Emma Gale allows us to venture into her thoughts and vicariously experience her mantra, with her newly released single “Enjoy Life While You Can.” This mellow musical piece carries forth the message that we should live life to the fullest and appreciate the smaller things amongst us.
With the assistance of John Paul Mason and Chris Pepper, she was able to bring her vision to life during one of her many fruitful songwriting retreats. Piloted by Emma Gale’s soft, calming vocals and Chris Pepper’s soulful back vocals, the instrumental to “Enjoy Life While You Can” is guided by the heartfelt and decisive strumming of the acoustic guitar as it’s layered with the spacy and nirvana inducing chords of the electric guitar.
While the bass and percussion resonate in your eardrums and encourage a crescent rise to your heartbeat, the keyboard and piano add a reassuring melody that engulfs you in this seemingly everlasting sense of bliss. A lyrical voyage, transcending you through time, the story has us basking in a journey of a young boy who feels the need to grow older in order to attain happiness, to be an elderly man craving his sense of youth again.
A masterpiece of storytelling encompassing our troubling views on happiness and fortifying our need to live in the moment and enjoy the simple things that life brings our way. The Dorset folk artist has come a long way, through her determination and pure love for music. Embodying such a sweet soul with vibrant and relatable intent, Emma Gale has us excited and attentive for what is to come of her career.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, Emma Gale! Congratulations on the release of “Enjoy Life While You"Can.” This beautiful tale is told from such a neat perspective. How did this overall concept come to you?
Thank you so much. I am very happy with the song and the feedback I have received so far.
So the song was born when I attended an online songwriting retreat, Bird on the Wire ran by Boo Hewerdine and Findlay Napier. The group was asked to work on an exercise. One person had to write the lyrics and one person the music. My co-writer John-Paul Mason put together some lyrics and I added the chorus, another verse and wrote the music. I just fell in love with the concept. It’s the story of life within 3 minutes and so true. We sometimes forget to enjoy the little things in life.
At what point did you know that you would be able to craft a song from the inspiration that struck? To you, what does this piece say about your artistry?
When I originally read the verses that John had written I felt that they were so relatable to everyone. I thought that they summed up life in three short verses. When you are young you want to grow up and you hear adults tell you not to grow up too quickly because these are the best times of your life. I tit's it’s the same all over the world, no matter where you come from, as a child you just want to grow up and do things that the adults do. You get older and realize complete what they were saying. There comes a stage when you are older and you just wish to be young again that's where the song circle backs with the final verse I added. In terms of my artistry, I am a collaborator, yes I can write songs on my own but I definitely prefer to write with other people. Writing in a retreat situation or co-writing a song is my happy place. I also tend to feel that my strength lies with lyrics and melody it's unusual for me to write music.
What was it like working with Chris Pepper in order to bring this vision to fruition? How did this collaboration come to be?
Chris has been producing my work for a while now and I love working with him. We originally started working on an album with Boo Hewerdine producing. That has actually just been sent to the distributors and is due to be released in January 2022. It has taken a few years and along the way, a couple of other projects have come and gone and Chris has helped me with those. He is so easy-going and really helpful and wonderful to work with, I also really trust his advice. Chris was also so patient with me when I was starting out, I hadn’t been into a studio before and took my songs to him. As a beginner, it can be quite intimidating working with people who know what they are doing. Chris never made me feel like that. Come to think of it Boo did but Cdidn'tidn’t (*laugh That'shat’s not true at all, I hope Boo appreciates the humor there. Both Boo and Chris have been amazing to work with. Chris really gets my sound and makes my voice sound authentic Boo takes the songs and Chris has also started to add backing vocals to my songs it’s a really good sound, people have commented on it.
What is your mission statement as an artist? How does this record tie into that?
My mission statement is to enjoy life while you can. I am an accidental indie-folk artist; I never intended to release a single or to build a following. When I released my debut single, it had an incredible reaction. It was played on the radio all over the world: the US, Australia, Europe, Hawaii, and the Philippines, to name just a few places. I had messages from people across the globe telling me how much it had helped them. The track is in the semi-finals of the UK Songwriting Contest, which just feels fantastic. I really hope it gets to the final.
I am an older artist and I felt that I wasn’t young enough or good enough to be doing this for a long time. young enough or good enough to be doing this for a long time. I also wasn’t brave enough to admit I had these dreams. I have spent the last 20 years telling myself that I am too old to be writing and releasing original music. Being a finalist in the Talent is Timeless competition made me realize that there could be a place for me. One thing I know now is that the only way to guarantee that there isn't a place for yourself is by not trying at all. I obviously had the drive inside otherwise I wouldn't have done it but it has taken a long time to build my confidence enough to say that I am a songwriter. I am also an amateur songwriter but would like to become professional and successfully write for other artists one day. I feel that my strength is in lyric and melody writing. This song just sums up life and sums up me. It's given me the confidence to follow my dreams. I haven't released any songs yet about human love or relationships yet. I have written some but I do wonder whether that means that I may end up releasing songs about other aspects of life.
What's next for you?
I have a charity single that is being released on the 17th of December for the Doodle Trust. The charity I am raising money for is the charity that I got my first rescue dogs from in 2011. Ten years to the day I am releasing this single. This is a song about when you have to make that really sad decision to say goodbye to your pet. In January I am releasing my debut album, which will be a mix of acoustic and Americana tracks. It has been produced by Boo Hewerdine, recorded by Chris Pepper, and will feature award-winning songwriter Dan Whitehouse on vocals, Robbie McIntosh (former member of The Pretenders and session guitarist for Paul McCartney) on guitar, and Melvyn Duffy (member of First Aid Kit and Squeeze) on lap steel guitar. I also made a return to gigging earlier this year, having performed at The Bedford, Balham in September.