INTERVIEW: Emei talks new single 'All These Kids': "The most important thing is being confident and learning that I am worth being in the room and my voice is worth being heard"

Image: Jordan Kelsey Knight
Published: 20 September 2024

Los Angeles sensation Emei (full name Emily Li) is a young artist who is very quickly on her way to the top. Releasing her first single in 2021, her intoxicating electronic alt-pop has attracted a huge following, with her 2023 debut album Scatterbrain accumulating over 70 million streams on Spotify alone.

After wrapping up her first ever Australian tour this week, today Emei releases her new single ‘All These Kids’. It is a song that sees Emei embrace two polar opposite sides of her personality - the one that is super confident and the other one that is scared and timid.

Starting with a saxophone and a sultry jazz vibe and a spoken voice intro from Emei, the song soon breaks out into a heavy beat with Emei sing-rapping, while the saxophone from the opener winds through the electronic beats.

“This song is the confident front I put up while my whole world feels like it falls apart,” she says. “I imagine there being two of me in this song, one scared while watching and listening to this confident version of me, and the other on a throne screaming at the other. It feels like the pep talk that plays in my head before I play a show.”

‘All These Kids’ is the latest step in a year that has been full of major events for Emei. In July she released a deluxe edition of her debut album Scatterbrain which featured three new tracks, and last month she released the single ‘Rabbithole’. She has also been touring across the world, playing a string of sold out shows across Europe as well as major US cities including at prestigious venues such as the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles and the Gramercy Theater in New York. After her Australian headline shows, she will perform at major US festivals Austin City Limits in Austin and the MetaMoon Music Festival in Brooklyn.

Emei’s electronic-indie music is unpredictable in the best possible way, always throwing a curve ball in terms of structure or genre when you least expect it - a song will change speed half way through, will switch genre, or will throw out glitchy verses making every listen a thrill. We recently caught up with Emei to find out more about her music and career.

Hi Emei! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat. How is everything in your world right now?
Everything is great - I was very excited to finally meet more listeners in Australia and play some awesome shows.

Your new single ‘All These Kids’ is out today, it is such a banging track, congratulations! What was the inspiration behind this song?
Thank you so much! I went into this session with Timfromthehouse and Kyle Reynolds and we only had 2-3 hours that day because Kyle had a flight to catch. So I wasn’t expecting to write something I was really excited about (something like ALL THESE KIDS) and Tim started playing this track that kinda sounded like M.I.A and immediately we were inspired to write something that felt really confident.

It is has such an eclectic soundscape, from this smoky jazz club opener, into a beat heavy pop-rap sound, it is brilliant. What was your intention in terms of the ‘feel’ for this song when you went into the studio?
I actually went into the studio wanting to make something like ‘Paper Planes’ that would be really fun. When Tim started playing this beat I was obsessed with it, I love the jazzy sample, it's so much fun. I am objectively a kid who was raised on musical theatre and jazz so that was inspired by that. The feel was just to go in and make something really fun to listen to.

You released the deluxe version of Scatterbrain a few months ago, I’m curious to know more about the decision behind releasing a deluxe version, and how you chose the additional tracks?
Honestly, how we decided to release this version is we went on tour in April and played the album but played some unreleased tracks. The deluxe came to be because the fans loved these unreleased tracks so much and it made sense to release these songs after playing them live for so long. ‘Human Being’ we’ve been playing live for 2 years at this point, ‘Agree to Disagree’ we played as well as ‘You Are Bad’. I've been leaking that on the internet for about a year as well so these are my fan favourite unreleased tracks. I'm excited that they finally have it on streaming platforms.

For those who might be new to your music, what is your musical backstory? How did you become the artist you are today?
I grew up in New Jersey to Chinese Immigrant parents. My parents weren’t very musical but they were always super supportive of my interest in music. When I was a kid I always went to Broadway growing up, because I grew up so close to New York. I loved jazz. I listened to a lot of C-pop growing up and a lot of singer songwriters like Sara Bareilles. The artist I’ve become today is a very much a compilation of the music I grew up around and the media I consumed when I was a kid and even now.

Who were those musical sheroes when you were growing up that inspired you in your musical journey?
As I mentioned, I LOVE Sara Bareilles so much. I absolutely adore amazing vocalists like Amy Winehouse, Yeba, Adele. I also grew up watching Hannah Montana and honestly that was a big part of it as it made performing look so fun. I feel like I have a plethora of different musical heroes.

You have been releasing music several years now, how do you feel you have grown as an artist, and in your creativity, since your first release?
That's a great question. I started releasing music in 2021, I like to think I have always made music that I would still be proud of years later and I still very much stand by that. Even now when I’m choosing songs to put out I am very intense in making sure what I put out I’m absolutely proud of and will always stand behind. That is something that hasn’t changed. 

But I do think my taste as I make more music, play more shows, and play more unreleased music develops as I make more stuff. I just follow that and follow my intuition. I think the more music I have released the better sense of intuition I have gotten. That has been a really fun journey for me in artist development and learning about myself.

The music industry has long been a difficult scene for female artists, particularly young solo female artists, in the main due to the fact it has been run for so long by older, straight, white men. What are your thoughts on gender (in)equality in the music industry?
That is a good question. It is one of those things where I do often find myself in a room full of men, but I feel like the most important thing is being confident and learning that I am worth being in the room and my voice is worth being heard. I actually do some things to make sure I feel that way. A lot of the time before sessions I’ll give myself a pep talk, before shows I give myself a pep talk. I literally say those things to myself and that has always helped me a lot. I feel like in a lot of industry women and their voices kinda get drowned out and you have to just stand by the fact that whatever you have to say is worth being heard regardless of what’s around you.

‘All These Kids’ is out now - what else is in the cards for you in 2024?
So much new music!! I am so excited. I am also playing my very first festival, Austin City Limits, and more festivals in the fall. I’m doing fan meets up and a lot of fun stuff! More music videos and potentially even a collab …  lots of things in the works it’s a very exciting year. I’m just excited for the fans to see the fun stuff I’ve been working on.

‘All These Kids’ is out now. You can buy and stream here.
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