Q: We see that your first album, ‘Thank You For Your Complaints’ was mastered by Valgeir Sigurðsson, who is known from his work with Bjork. What was that experience like for you?
Emilya ndME: Valgeir Sigurdson is a super talented composer, audio engineer and musician and he’s a kind person and friendly. We got in touch e-mailing due to the pandemic situation and I remember I was upset a little to manage all the stuff not in presence but everything was super easy from the start: he helped me to take the right direction for my album during the final phase and in the same way he was ready and willing to listen everything I had to say. So I’m super honored he accepted to master my album that I think sounds like the white ice and deep beautiful color of an uncontaminated land as well as Iceland is.
Q: How did you come up with your stage name, Emilya ndME?
Emilya ndME: Emilia was my mum’s name so I decide to connect the idea of me and her, playing on words.
Q: How has growing up in Italy affected your music?
Emilya ndME: I really and deeply feel like a European citizen, I think that North European music influences affected my music mostly.
Q: Can you tell us the inspiration behind your album ‘Thank You for Your Complaints’?
Emilya ndME: “Thank You for Your Complaints”, it represents a one year life journey of strong working but it belongs to the last 10 years of my life, including experiences, music, friends and my love and respect for nature, that in some way I tried to represent with accurate sounds and research.
Q: What is your personal favorite song from the ‘Thank You for Your Complaints’ album and why?
Emilya ndME: It’s not easy to choose among “my children”… anyway, probably Snow: it tells of the last moments spent with my mom together with my family, close around her. It’s a song about love, sorrow and anger and about what I remember about feeling and images from that time.
Q: What kind of advice would you give to other up and coming bands trying to get their names out there?
Emilya ndME: I suggest to be smart, to have in their mind what they want to do, projecting it in a clear way and to be independent and competent as much as possible.
Interviewed by Kaitlyn Westerman
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