Emma-Jean Thackray is an award-winning artist, songwriter, arranger, and producer who fuses jazz, soul and electronic elements into her brilliantly vibey and heartfelt music.
Off the back of her incredible new self-produced record, Weirdo, she joins us on the My Forever Studio podcast, brought to you in partnership with Audient. Thackray tells us all about getting into jazz by mistake, her early arrangement experiments with her brass band, and we navigate building her analogue-heavy forever studio.
In this hilarious episode, learn how she develops her eclectic taste, why she’s not upgrading to Logic Pro 11, and how method acting techniques can improve your recordings. You can watch the full episode, recorded at TYX London, below or listen on your favourite podcasting platform.
Thackracy’s Weirdo marks a whole new era for the British polymath, offering a more personal angle than her previous works. As the album’s recording progressed, she says it became a “grief diary” following the unexpected loss of her partner in January 2023.
“Losing my partner has changed the way I think and feel about absolutely everything, which includes my creative process,” she told MusicTech earlier this year. “I’ve always known making music was my purpose, but after a lot of time staring at the wall and being unable to do anything at all really, I found my way back to art. I had to refind myself through music again, and making Weirdo gave me a reason to get up. It was cathartic, it was therapy, and it saved my life.”
The making of Weirdo also reaffirmed her most valuable asset in the studio — herself. “Gear means nothing without the creativity behind it,” she said. “The investment is my education, the time I’ve spent listening to so much music, and the performing, composing, arranging, and mixing techniques I’ve honed over the years. Screw the gear.”
The My Forever Studio podcast – created in partnership with Audient – sees artists, producers, and engineers create their dream fantasy Forever Studio, wherever they want in the universe. However, hosts Chris Barker and Will Betts impose some strict rules in the Forever Studio. Our guests are permitted a limited number of items in their creative space, so they must choose carefully. There will be nostalgia. There will be anecdotes. There may be gags. But there will be no bundles!
In our previous episode, we were joined by producer, DJ, musicologist and podcaster Luxxury. We covered everything from musical gatekeeping and why it’s important to keep a DIY punk-rock ethos alive in the studio to finding out which legendary artists Luxxury dreams of ‘borrowing’ instruments from.
Subscribe to My Forever Studio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and check out all episodes so far via MusicTech.
The post My Forever Studio: Emma-Jean Thackray and the trumpet illusion appeared first on MusicTech.
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