Can music exist without the influence of fashion?
For designer Emily Daccarett, fashion and music can not be separated. Daccarett creates an immersive world of storytelling through music, film, and fashion. Each artistic direction begins with a beat that forms a story.
From the start of her brand, she has fused those worlds together, creating a symbiotic flow between the two. She uses textiles, shapes, and sound as her tools for world-building and gives her audience the chance to step into those stories and experience them for themselves.
She graduated from Instituto Marangoni in Paris and the prestigious Ecole De La Chambre Syndicale de La Couture Parisienne, where she trained in the French technique of draping and pattern making. Soon after graduated from the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, she made her runway debut with Concept Shows during LA Fashion Week.
Now she is pushing the boundaries of her imagination through synth-pop. Think of Blondie and David Lynch having a baby in 2020, and that’s the direction her music takes. Emily has a new album out called Yours Always, and if you would like to learn more, head over to Emily’s website and dig in. Cheers.
Bio courtesy of www.emilydaccarettmusic.com.
Andrew:
Emily, I appreciate you taking the time today. How have you been holding up over the last year or so? What have you been up to?
Emily:
Thank you so much for having me here! It’s been a roller coaster of emotions and growth. I was fortunate to be surrounded by my family and nature, we love to go camping and boating, it helped me find peace during the madness. I was able to get lost in my writing, which resulted in a new album!
Andrew:
Before we dive into your professional career, let’s go back a bit. What first got you hooked on music?
Emily:
I developed a strong bond with music through dance. I started ballet and tap when I was 5 years old. Music would transport me into another world while on stage, and there was nothing I loved more than escaping to that world.
Andrew:
Who were some of your early influences?
Emily:
I’m so grateful that my parents would play only 70s and 80s music because I fell in love with David Bowie, Blondie, Hall & Oates, Fleetwood Mac, Jannette, Nancy Sinatra, Michael Jackson, and Pink Floyd. As big as they were, their music felt so free. A freedom that’s hard to find in current billboard charting artists and I wanted to bring that freedom back.
Andrew:
Let’s talk about recent events first. Tell us about your new album Yours Always.
Emily:
I didn’t go into 2020 thinking I would write a new album but spending so much time alone with my thoughts I turned to writing to help me sort them out. I left LA to quarantine with my family and suddenly I was back in my childhood room revisiting the dreams I once had. I knew I wanted to have the sense of traveling back and forth through the songs from innocence to adulthood, so we took on the task of creating this concept album during lockdown and working virtually throughout the whole process. My producer is also a film composer and for this album we wanted to go back to our roots of writing this album as more of a soundtrack to a movie. We experimented with adding spoken word and worked with amazing musicians to give it a big band feel, lots of winds, brass, background vocals in that cheeky 70s style, live drums and gritty guitar. The electronic elements are slight and used more for time travel between the songs, different from my EP which was very synth-heavy and produced. I still love that style, but for Yours Always I wanted to have a more authentic retro feel to mirror the story within the album.
Andrew:
What lyrical themes are you exploring with your new music?
Emily:
The central themes are memory, loss, rejection, love, childhood dreams, time, and hope. I included imagery from Peter Pan and some of my favorite books of all time. I’m curious to see if people can pick them up without me saying which ones.
Andrew:
How about the production side of things? Do you self-produce, or do you bring in outside voices?
Emily:
I co-produced with my producer S. Peace Nistades. He composed and arranged the music in this album, and we also let the musicians add their take on their parts as well as what we had.
Andrew:
Are you into vinyl? Cassettes? CDs? Or are you all digital now? What are a few of your favorite albums, and why?
Emily:
I’m into digital and vinyl. I don’t have a cassette player, but I’m obsessed with the tape format. I love Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, Chemtrails Over the Country Club by Lana Del Rey, Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, The Kick Inside by Kate Bush, and Let’s Dance by David Bowie. These albums have helped shape my intake of music and how I approach it, they were and are storytellers that take you far away.
Andrew:
What other passions do you have? How do those passions inform your music, if at all?
Emily:
I love film and fashion. I’m a fashion designer and have my own brand, which is how I got started with songwriting. I had produced a short fashion film and had planned to use “Je t’aime Moi Non Plus” by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, but the license was taking too long to approve, so I decided to work with a film composer. I still work with him, and he is my producer who has worked on all my music. Music is the glue that ties my passions together, and one can not exist without the other for me when I create.
Andrew:
In your opinion, what is the state of the music business these days? Should artists be hopeful? Scared? Both?
Emily:
We need hope to continue. The industry forgets that without its artists there is no industry, and cookie-cutter manufactured pop songs can only exist if real artists are creating so they can copy them. It’s a sad reality, but it is what it is. As artists before did, we have to continue fighting that through our work and, more importantly, creating work with substance for people to cling to.
Andrew:
Last one. We seem to be nearing a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of COVID-19 restrictions. That said, what’s next on your docket? What are you looking forward to most in the pos-COVID world?
Emily:
I can’t wait to perform live! Hopefully, tour with my music…I’m so ready for that! I want to meet the beautiful people who listen to my music and give them more of the performance side of my work!
Interested in learning more about Emily Daccarett? Check out the link below:
Dig this interview? Check out the full archives of Vinyl Writer Interviews, by Andrew Daly, here: www.vinylwritermusic.com/interview
