Project Description

Interview With

WHAT SO NOT

Interviewer: Brianna Dnmde

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What So Not is the electronic music project from Aussie producer Chris Emerson (better known by his stage name Emoh Instead). What So Not has been commanding Australia’s electronic scene with boundary-pushing bass since 2011. The Australian-gone-global star has just released his debut album ‘Not All The Beautiful Things’. Amnplify interviewer Brianna had the opportunity to chat with Chris about the album and a few other things, check it out below.

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Hey Chris how is it going? How has your day of Interviews been so far?

It’s been long. Kind of enjoy it, haven’t spoken about the album very much before now. It’s really exciting to be talking about it and having people have heard it.

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Yeah, it has been kind of under wraps so exciting now that you’ve got your interviews and they’ll all be coming out for release so you must be feeling good about working all year on it.

Yeah definitely, I mean I’ve been working on it even longer than a year on this some of the songs I started three and a half years ago, an only just sort of got them to a point where I was happy to release them.

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That’s fair enough, sometimes perfection takes time. The album is really good. I’ve been listening to single that’s about to be released “Be Okay Again” over and over it’s so good with Daniel Johns. It’s awesome. Is that kind of the whole vibe of the album even though there are a few different songs mixed in there, you’re kind of going for that house/hip-hop vibe?

I guess. Yeah, I haven’t had really described it as that but ill take it. Sure. Be okay I would say is definitely the anchor for the album it flows through the emotions that I think the album as a whole flows through more grandiose movement and scale. It starts off quite melancholy and has a sudden energetic shift into this positive and uplifting stabbing chords with the ‘oooh’s and the vocal searing over the top takes us through a little journey and winding up at this dramatic end with screaming and distortion and glitching out noises.

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That’s the What So Not vibe from your older sounds I hear that coming through towards the end of that track which is really old school and it is so different from the beginning. Musically speaking were you going for that electronic xylophone and then it obviously went into heavy bass and synth, what musicality were you going for with this track?

I wasn’t really going for anything. I just made it as it came to me and shifted and flipped it on a few occasions along the way and it sort of became what it was there was definitely a narrative and a concept I wanted to reflect, but the sounds themselves just sort of lend themselves to jamming out on the song and then trial and error on a few different things, especially with the synthesisers and stuff.

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Awesome, that’s really cool. So it was more an emotive song, do the lyrics mean anything to you? What’s the meaning behind the song? Or the main concept?

Yeah, I mean this was really a song for me, more so than a production. First and foremost it’s a song and it focuses on dramatic ends to important relationships and that kind of what the whole album focuses on. A while ago I came up with this idea of what I wanted to do with the project and it was parallel to dramatic ends to important relationships in an almost apocalyptic setting where you know, everything is falling apart. Everything you thought was your life and your world is suddenly gone and you’re kind of rebuilding from whatever is left and what remains. And trying to redevelop. And it was kind of exciting and therapeutic to create this world that the show exists in, that the show visuals exist in and develop all the music video figments from that same place. ‘Not All The Beautiful Things’ the title of the album itself kind of follows that same mantra in that it’s a nod of respect to the things you leave along the way. Often things fall apart without us even knowing and that’s where the drama ends come in. I felt like it was a way that emotions a lot of people can relate to sort of being contrast into this world. You can come and see the show and see it all just happening there in front of you and hope everyone feels a part of that and have a rapport with it.

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It all makes sense to me, seems like a really nice way to resonate with anyone about how they feel about life because everyone has a moment eventually where it feels like you have lost everything you have worked for, but you have to go on. I like that it has so much meaning behind it. And it’s not just a production it’s more of a lyrically emotive meaningful song & whole album. Like you said it’s all anchored to that one meaning.

Yeah definitely, and its funny that I would’ve loved for this song to come out first but its kind of up to the way an album works its up to what everybody thinks, what the label thinks, what the managers think and so forth, its crazy to see that this was the song that was chosen because for me it was creatively the most passionate tracks and really the core of the album like I’ve said. And for everyone to think that was the best song to put out first is really amazing. I’m grateful that it wound up in this way because I wouldn’t have had it any other way if I had the opportunity.

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Wow, that’s really nice to hear that you all are on the same page of how the album should be released. How did you and Daniel Johns get working together on the track?

It was actually just a chance meeting, I was working out of a studio here in Sydney and he just happened to walk past the room and popped his head in and was interested in what I was working on and got in touch through a mutual friend and invited me to come up and jam on some ideas with him up at his house in Newcastle.

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With the new album do you know much about your touring schedule? Can you leak if Australia is on the agenda, obviously being your home country?

Australia is definitely on the agenda. It’s always an important focus for me. There will be a whole world tour announced I’m sure by the time this interview is live haha.

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Yeah yeah, you’ve got a little plan of where you’re going to take the tour then?

Yeah, 100% I’m so excited to do that. I got a little bit of a taste with my last body of work the Divide & Conquer EP that I did I’m so excited to have this big extension piece of work, the album, out in the world right as I go on tour its something I’ve put so much time, energy, and passion for. And not just the music but the show visuals, the lighting, the stage design and everything. And to be able to as I said, create this space where people can walk in and be apart of the whole thing I’m really excited to see that happen.

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As a Sydney boy, how do you think the Australian industry compares with the rest of the world? You’ve been on the road now for a while doing all these amazing big festivals. Do you find there is a difference? Do you feel your music is affected coming from Australia?

Many things you said there apply. I think even different cities in Australia you go to have totally different cultures & that happens all around the world. I would often name songs after cities eg. Montréal, because you’d venture into a place and into a culture and it is so lush and so deep how far the veins of that city run and how that affects the music that you hear when your travelling and hanging with people who are born & raised there. It can have a very strong and profound effect on how you write. Sometimes I would even start a song and I couldn’t get into the same frame of mind until I actually returned to that city.

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Wow. That super interesting. I can imagine that travelling would have an impact on your writing. I suppose as you’ve been writing this album you’ve also been developing as an artist.

Yeah definitely, I feel like you write your first album like your life story you’ve been writing and working towards it since the day you were born and for me I think I’ve been working on these songs for years and as I mentioned earlier I wasn’t confident enough to release them, it took a lot of restraint to really strip things back to a nice level for me.

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It seems as though you really took your time on the album to make sure you were putting out something that was exactly how you wanted it to be. Which is very admirable. Its how it should be.

Definitely definitely.

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You do support other Australian artists like Tkay Maidza and George Maple and you’ve helped them produce their records or write on their records what’s it like working with them? Do you think maybe going on tour you’ll work with them again?

Yeah for sure, it was great working with on many parts of that George Maple record and Tkay I’ve worked on a couple of things here and there. She actually has a few little pieces on this album and there is an intro she did for me which is so incredible but I couldn’t end up getting it to fit with the album so ill try and get that in somewhere down the line. I love working with people. There’s some really incredible talent here in Australia.

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Lastly, if you could collaborate with any musical, no longer alive, who would you choose and why?

Ummmm, I’d have to say Prince because I always felt like one day id get to meet him, but he passed before that could happen and I think he’s just one of those artist that’s just so much himself that would be insanely difficult to work with but I really like working with those insanely difficult people because if you can get them in the right space at the right time you can get the most insane things happening with them in the studio so I think Prince would’ve been a really good one to work with!

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Thank you so much for your time. Look forward to seeing you on the tour.

No problem, Thank you.

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