Words by Amar Gera April 23, 2021

Catch us in our feels to this record for the next month…

Australia has a new R&B princess, and she goes by Emalia. Tearing up the local scene with powerhouse vocals and electric tunes that are overwhelmingly infectious, the songstress supreme has mastered the art of enchanting listeners with each and every utterance; so much so that she’s quickly become one of the scene’s most adored vocalists, appearing on everything from Like A Versions, Youtube Music Sessions, and more as she continues on her quest to world domination.

Her debut EP Unmuted (out today) sees her fully step into herself, expressing the sentiments she couldn’t before and sharing her voice in all of its honesty and soul with her legions of fans. From the super catchy ‘Suga Rush’ to the empowering ‘IOU’ ft. Guapdad 4000 and the most recent single ‘Messy,’ the talent proves her range is completely boundless. And trust me, the rest of the EP is just as invigorating.

We caught up with Emalia to get deep on the EP, suss every influence from tracks to visuals to albums. The result is a pretty unique sneak peak into the songstress’ creative world, and we’re just itching to share it with you.

Check it below.

Destiny’s Child – ‘Jumpin’ Jumpin’

Destiny’s Child will forever be one of my biggest artistic influences. I think a lot of my natural instincts with harmonies come from having grown up listening to their music. The vocal layers, melismas, and syncopations in their melodies are all elements that really inspire me. Vocally, Beyonce is god, and when I grow up I want to be even half as majestic as her. Not to mention, Destiny’s Child are three strong, talented, and empowered women who always stood out to me as role models when I was little.

Kiana Lede – ‘Forfeit Visualiser’

Kiana is an incredible artist that I have been following since her early youtube days. Her voice and presence as a performer have always pushed me to strive for more. For her latest album, Kiana released a series of visualisers to accompany each song. I really like to create a concrete overall vision and world for my projects, I appreciate each and every piece of the puzzle – so I really appreciated the work Kiki had done on this one.

I’d had the idea to make videos for each of the songs on my project as it is so visually charged, realistically that’s not always possible to do, but seeing these visualisers provided me with plenty of fresh inspo! I ended up creating mini visualisers (little footage loops) for each of the songs on the EP that didn’t get a full music video, which was a perfect way to build the EP aesthetically while still having the opportunity to share the visual vision for each of the tracks.

Kehlani – ‘It Was Good Until It Wasn’t’ (Album)

Kehlani is the queen of an ‘understated’ chorus. She makes so many bangers, and a lot of the time the choruses aren’t these huge pop-tastic statements I was originally drawn to in my early days of writing. They are cool, laid back, rhythmic, and catchy as hell. My writing style has developed over the years to explore more of that, particularly on the ‘Unmuted’ EP, and listening to Kehlani played a huge part in that growth. I also love the honesty in her writing. Still, she keeps it witty. I love the way Kehlani explores the lower ranges of her voice in the chorus of ‘Serial Lover’. The melisma change ups in the second chorus had me screaming too.

Alex Mali – ‘Obviously’ Music Video

When I first saw this clip I was so obsessed with it. The lighting style and colour schemes influenced a lot of my music videos in this era, particularly Suga Rush. The camera angles, raw performance and of course the song itself, are bomb!

Taylor Swift – ‘Fearless’

I feel like this is a surprising one for basically anyone I share it with, but I’m a proud die-hard swiftie. TS is obviously a completely different kind of artist to myself, but I learnt how to song-write at the age of 12 by listening to ‘Speak Now’ and the ‘Fearless’ album, writing out the lyrics while sitting on my bedroom floor, studying her structures and lyricism and trying to write my own songs using the same formulas. Taylor knows how to write very vulnerable and direct song-letters, but also how to tell a story, which is something I’ve always tried to focus on in my music.

It would be remiss of me to not credit her as an influence, as her music helped to build the foundations of my songwriting career and still influences the way I approach songwriting today. She also builds intricate worlds and eras for each of her albums, every single aspect is so well-planned and thought out, which inspires my art immensely. And she’s a boss. A woman who can reinvent herself repeatedly over 10+ years and only continue to grow in her success is a genius. I would have linked ‘Speak Now’ as it’s the first album written entirely by Swift herself, but ‘Taylor’s Version’ isn’t out yet, so I’ve linked Fearless instead.