Emma Elliott: The connection between her music, her audience, and her roots
Emma Elliott is a second-year business of creative enterprises major at Emerson College — but also so much more. Elliott is a singer and songwriter who began her music journey doing musical theatre. Three years ago, she started writing music.
“Using other people’s music wasn’t really sitting right with me,” Elliott said. “I wanted to learn how to make my own stuff.”
Elliott has released four songs; her newest is “If I Try.” Her songs are sentimental and often include lyrics sung in her native language, Indonesian. It’s easier for Elliott to sing in Indonesian because her vocal coach taught her how to “explore [her] voice through Indonesian music,” she explained.
Since then, she has discovered her independent skill as an artist. Singing has been a medium for Elliott to use as a means of expression. However, music isn’t only a talent of Elliott’s — it’s also a way for her to connect with others.
“I think singing is so vulnerable,” Elliott said. “I’ve always struggled connecting with people, only because I’m really shy.” In “If I Try,” Elliott is vulnerable with her listeners. The song explores how she felt graduating high school and moving on to the next chapter of her life.
“I think I’ve always been like a nostalgic person,” Elliott said. “I never really liked the idea of growing up. I think that song is [saying] no matter how much I try, I can’t stop time from happening. [I’m] just trying to accept the pace that it’s moving at.”
Through her honesty about her identity and experiences, she is able to connect with her audience on a deeper level. Covering other people’s songs was difficult for Elliott because she “wasn’t able to really connect with the lyrics,” she said.
“I feel like [making] music has really made me less lonely,” Elliott said. “I know that feeling… I’m so used to it. Music is a way for me to share my experiences and hope that other people can relate to that.”
Her journey in the music industry wasn’t smooth sailing at first. Connecting with Indonesian producers took years.
“There were a lot of people that I worked with that ended up not really working out,” Elliott said. But, in the end, it all worked out. “It works in the timing of it all,” she said.
In the beginning, Elliott didn’t know that success requires community and teamwork as much as networking. “There’s so much reaching out to people and giving yourself or explaining yourself and then just them not liking you,” Elliott said. “It can get really discouraging. I think that’s something I definitely struggle with a bit because a lot of people expected more of an entertainment sort of personality… I think I wish before getting into it that I could be mentally prepared to just meet all these different people who have these different expectations — to be able to go to them with a sureness or this belief of my own abilities.”
Singing not only connects her to her audience but also to her culture. Elliott lived in Indonesia until she came to the U.S. to attend college. Her music brought her back to her roots — it helped her communicate with her home.
“I feel like singing in Indonesian has always been easy for me while speaking can be a little hard,” Elliot said. “[Indonesian music] is able to explore this other part of me that I usually struggle to get at.”
Despite being so far away from home, in her art Elliott looks at the positives of the big changes she is experiencing.
“I’m somebody who’s always craving something else,” she said. “I spent so long in my home country trying to make things work. I think I needed that change to just take things more lightly because I was getting in my own head too much.”
Eventually she does see herself making music in Indonesia.
“I want to see where that goes,” she said. “I would love to reach a larger demographic. People (in Boston) could connect with that.”
And she’s only getting started. Elliott came out with a new song, “Bingkai,” which she developed with other Indonesian producers. She has more in progress that “better represents the way I would approach my music,” Elliott said.
You can tune in to Elliott’s music on Spotify and YouTube. She hopes her music may connect you with yourself, as it does with her.
Regions: Boston