Jukebox

The Trials & Tribulations of The Unsigned #1: Who Am I?

about

I’m a singer/songwriter from Hull, England. I’ve had an interest in music from a very early age that started when my Mum and Dad bought me a cassette player. I would listen to Madonna and Nat King Cole amongst other artists ’til about the age of 10. When I became old enough to buy my own music I would save my pocket money every Thursday to buy cassettes for the tape player. The first one I ever bought was the single version of Ain’t It Fun by Guns N’ Roses in a cardboard sleeve. Rifling through bargain bins in discount book stores was always fun, you never know what you’ll find.

I played the cornet and keyboard and was in the school choir and orchestra. I joined the City Of Hull Youth Training band at the age of 8 and progressed up through to the Senior Band. We would play at the City Hall every year, especially at Christmas. At the age of 15 I became interested in guitars and saved up enough money to go buy one. It was an entry level Hohner electric guitar which took me ages to carry home as I couldn’t even fit my hands around the box it was in. I bought a tab book and started to try and figure out how to play.

My interest in guitars took over and I left the Senior brass band. My music teacher at school was very supportive of this change but she left half way through Year 10 and was replaced by another teacher who told me mostly every lesson “You should quit while you’re ahead, you sound like Oasis“. Fuelled by this ridiculously annoying statement I thought I’d carry on and not listen to the teacher. I took an amp to school having already obtained the keys to the music room from my previous teacher and would go up there every lunch time and play my guitar. I sang in assembly, was in most musical productions and would sneak into the main hall to play the piano. I left the green tiled corridors of Newland School for Girls with 7 GCSEs not really knowing what or who I wanted to be (probably as most people do). I went and got a job, and stuck at it.

I went down to a local venue every Monday night and played songs at their musicians night. The first time I ever got up on stage with my guitar I shook so much that I probably didn’t make much sense at all but it was a start. Months later I slowly began to acquire some confidence and had been trying to write my own songs. At that point I met a covers band who needed a singer, we practiced three to four times a week and a few months later went out to play around local venues.

As members of that band we were all quite young, we sat our GCSEs whilst juggling gigs mostly every night of the week. It was great being part of the band and for a while it worked. Everyone got on, we played loads of gigs and things were good. Two and a half years later we disbanded. I joined a ska band looking for a singer, we played a few gigs but it amounted to nothing more. I decided to go off and work on my own material.

I went back to the venue I started at, every Monday, the same as usual. A few years down the line I got more opportunities to play different places and get around my hometown a bit more. People started asking me “when is your CD coming out” and I thought “what CD?” It was great to think that people wanted to listen to my music so I started thinking about how I could release one. With no spare money, no way to fund a release and no way of recording I started to go out in the town centre and busk. I chose a spot opposite a TV store in Hepworths Arcade. Seven months later I had raised just about enough money to go and record something.

I had run into someone who owned a recording studio at a battle of the bands competition, he gave me his card and I called him, went down to the studio and met the main engineer. The first time we met we arranged to have a day of recording demos. This was successful so I went away and wrote new songs. I booked in time at the studio and started planning for an album release. I would go down there with my guitar and some days we would spend so much time in the studio that we would almost get snowed in by bad weather! I would take the guitar parts I recorded that day and go home to write new ones.

Everything came together well, I released the album, Isolated Impression, and went about trying to get as much exposure for it as possible. The album received positive reviews and was being played on local radio. I went on BBC Look North (local news TV show, BBC 1) to perform a track from the album and continued playing locally.

A few years later I met Henry Doss, a singer/songwriter from the USA. Having heard his music on a radio show I e-mailed him to tell him I liked it. A few weeks later we arranged a collaboration and I flew out to Michigan, met Henry and recorded vocals for some of his new songs. Since then we’ve done another collaboration, worked with legendary producer John Beland and more recently we’ve been on an East coast tour of the USA. We’re great friends and as with many other people I met Henry through our love of all things musical. I’ve also played at James Gandolfini’s (Tony from ‘The Sopranos’) restaurant in New York and was in Mike Mendoza’s Top 20 Unsigned Playlist at the end of 2007. I’ve released an EP (Oceans/Depart) and am working on another release. These are a few highlights of the past few years.

The fact is, if I’d have listened to my 10th grade music teacher I probably wouldn’t have pursued the avenue I’ve chosen to take so stick with your dreams no matter what they are. At the end of it all who wants to look back and think that they never did anything with them. How disappointing could that possibly be? Stick with it and work hard. Set goals for yourself, aim for something and go out and try to achieve it !!

I’m going to be writing a column for Jukebox about my experiences as an unsigned musician - in no way is it meant to hype me up as a ‘know-it-all’ or someone who sounds like they’re preaching or banging on about how to go about making a success of your music/self, that’s the last thing I want to be. It’s just ideas, observations and having the time to be able to sit down with a cup of something good to write about.

There are many avenues to consider in making music - which one you choose is up to you and depends solely upon what you want to achieve, if you have talent do something with it!

Written by Emma Rugg - February 2008
Read more: Guest Columns, Emma Rugg