The Empty Room is a band from Louisville, KY who all came together in 2008 and early last year have brought us the great and emotional EP titled "She Wasn’t Enough". The entire EP has such a relaxing vibe to it. Imagine coming home from work after a long day, you’ve made yourself some dinner and now you’re drinking a glass of wine, you have 12 minutes to yourself and this is what you’re listening to.
Let’s start with the first song, "Little Boy Departs". Lyrically, it makes you wonder if this a song about self-discovery and coming of age. It starts and ends so smoothly, from the lyrics to the vocal performance and the instrumentation of the entire song. This vibe continues to flow to the end of the track. It sets the tone as an opening track and gets your ears ready for what else is to come from this sonic masterpiece of an EP.
Keeping along, the second track of "She Wasn’t Enough" is the beautiful song "Dangling Conversation". The song opens up with fingerpicking guitar work that, for lack of better words, dangles in your ears. “The door was open so I guess I would come in” kicks off lyrically and sets the mood of a song that is potentially about two ex-lovers trying to find a resolve. The song progresses a bit into the bridge, where some heavier emotions are displayed both lyrically and musically. ‘Dangling Conversation’ is the perfect middle track and sets us up sonically for the closing track.
Lastly, we have the closer of the EP with the title track, "She Wasn’t Enough." This entire EP is super personal and very emotionally intelligent, this track is no different. The song opens with some moody acoustic guitar work and vocals that begin with “tearstained dress on the couch”, which instantly spreads to this title track. Vocally, the storytelling performance captivates you from start to finish. Musically, the song stays steady and leaves you wanting more from The Empty Room. We love this band, we love this EP and we think you would too. We highly suggest spending the 12 minutes to fall in love with The Empty Room and their EP, "She Wasn’t Enough."
Listen to "She Wasn't Enough" here.
There seems to be self-reflective themes and a sense of storytelling. Can you speak to this? Self-reflective is a good description for the EP, but the reflection that is coming across is often fictional instead of something we have experienced. It is not centered around self but is designed to give an overall picture of the themes---consumerism for Little Boy Departs, communication problems for Dangling Conversation, and loss of relationship for She Wasn't Enough. Also, the sense of storytelling is a special kind that may not immediately come across to the listener: it is based around images as opposed to a unified narrative. The images of consumerism in Little Boy Departs are disjointed on purpose. They are not supposed to give the feeling of a story with a beginning/middle/end, but a collage of emotionally charged images. Who is the producer of this EP? Eddy Morris produced Little Boy Departs along with the band. William Willis produced Dangling Conversation and She Wasn't Enough along with the band.
Why did you feel that 3 songs were enough to tell this story? We really felt like three songs weren't enough, but that was the point: we want to leave the listener wanting more. A good song often sounds too short to encourage the listener to engage with the song multiple times. What song do you feel best represents the EP as a whole? The band is split on this question. Musically, each song is pretty different, but they still come together as a fairly unified whole. The catchiest song is She Wasn't Enough so we ended up naming the EP after that track. What is next for your band through 2020? We are hoping to release another couple of EP's in addition to a potential tour in the early fall.