EmilyVictoria
Speaking from her bedroom in Wurundjeri Country, surrounded by art posters, guitar picks and oil diffusers, Naarm-based musician Emily Victoria (she/her) chats creative processes, favourite suburbs, and her newest release of music.
Interviewed by Juliette Salom (she/her)
Naarm
In a bedroom filled like a kaleidoscope tunnel of creative points of inspiration, Emily Victoria muses that its being here that makes her feel most content. With an array of mirrors, a vintage Matisse poster, and an assortment of candles, oil diffusers and herbal teas, it’s no surprise that Emily prioritises ambience in her personal surroundings – not dissimilar to the atmospheric universe of enveloping sound she builds with her music. It’s a space curated so to “ignite my imagination”, Emily says. Take one listen and look at Memorise, and one can see how Emily’s ignited imagination is envisaged.
A vivid dreamscape of a song that explores the preciousness of memory and its cyclical nature, Memorise and its accompanying music video is the latest single from the Naarm-based musician. Written and worked on over the past few years, the song has taken Emily from scratching lyrics onto paper in a Chapel Street café to scratching her movements onto film on the cliff edges of Northern NSW’s Emerald Beach. Emily describes Memorise as “one of the songs that captures so much of what I’ve been searching for that drew me to writing songs in the first place.” And while the artist searches for meaning, the protagonist does so too – whilst Memorise sounds like the feeling of sand running through fingers, the lyrics allude to the sensation of trying to remember a forgotten dream, a dream that is actually memory.
It's not just the poetics of the language used that alludes to the thematic exploration of memory, but the song’s technical structure too. “The layout of the song is open ended and cyclical and the direction of the melody builds and then dissipates, making way for new growth,” Emily says. Bolstered by this sonic dreamscape of remembering is the vision of Brendan Schoemaker’s visual interpretation of Emily Victoria’s song that complements the project. Filmed in three days in Brisbane and across Northern NSW, including at the ethereal Emerald Beach, the team behind the video (Schoemaker, as well as Mungo Heath on cinematography and Nicole Collett on production) have beautifully captured the kind of nuanced complexity that traces every dream and every memory, the kind of familiar strangeness we all live with every day. “Now watching the video,” Emily says, “there’s so many layers to it.” Shadows cross and light leaks through where it hasn’t before. Rewatching Memorise is like re-remembering a memory, with different readings every time.
“Emily Victoria is not only moving loudly through the local music scene but standing firmly at the forefront of it.”
Emerging from Australia’s haven of local music in Naarm, Emily has found inspiration for her work both in the pockets of places around the city and the seasons that background them. “In summer I am drawn to the South side,” Emily says, naming Half Moon Bay as a favourite place to follow the beach as it weaves it way around the shore. For winter, she loves the North, suburbs like Thornbury, Northcote and Abbotsford “for their nature walks, gum trees and small coffee shops”. But it’s the Eastern suburbs – where the artist grew up – that has been a formative point of inspiration. Between little shopping precincts and expansive parks, Emily admits that “I still spend most of my time there”. Described by the singer as “sleepy” and “dreamy” – not unlike the ethereal sounds on Memorise – it’s this corner of the city, no less, that has inspired much of the Emily Victoria character, she says.
With the song and video already on rotation on iconic music video program Rage, as well as featured on Rage’s Wild One of the week, Emily Victoria is not only moving loudly through the local music scene but standing firmly at the forefront of it. And while Memorise only marks the artist’s second official single release of music under Emily Victoria, fans are already widespread. So widespread, in fact, that they extend far beyond the bounds of the local scene and across to Eastern Europe. Emily’s debut single, Humming Heart, topped the Latvian Spotify charts, an achievement Emily describes as being “totally unexpected”. “I am super appreciative to the Latvians for their support and would love to visit and tour Latvia at some point over the next few years,” Emily says, pointing out that the song also has picked up steam in Portugal too.
Like a clock, like the seasons, like the way memories come back around, the rotation of work from this emerging Naarm artist isn’t stopping here. Memorise marks only the bubblings of the next wave of releases from Emily Victoria, with a few tidals sure to be on the horizon. The sound and the structure and the language of the song not just point to the cyclical nature of time and memory, but also to the cyclical nature of me listening to this song on repeat all day every day (it’s so goddam beautiful). “There is so much more to come for this project,” Emily says. Until then, you can catch Emily Victoria and all of her work at the links below.
Emily Victoria on Instagram
Memorise music video
Humming Heart music video
Listen to Emily Victoria here