In the spotlight – Emma Halpin
Emma Halpin (UK) has been writing and recording songs since the age of 11. This talented young lady has just turned 17 on Monday. She’s one of the youngest artists in our Top 20.
Emma has just released a brand new album ‘Cool Cupid’ with 9 new original tracks! Here you can find a link to her album.
Time to put her in the spotlight!
Emma grew up surrounded by music. Her dad, Dominic Halpin, is a full time musician. Growing up Emma had really enjoyed the arts. She attended theatre groups and choir clubs. As soon as Emma got into British Highschool she decided to put more time into music.
Her dad had been recording all his music using Logic Pro. In the past few years he has helped Emma with tracks and taught her how to get the sounds she wanted.
Last year Emma got accepted into the British and Irish Institute of Modern Music (BIMM) in the centre of Manchester, where she’s now studying songwriting. (She happens to be the youngest in her class at College!) It has made her even more motivated to make music. She would love to write for or it with various artists in the future.
So who would Emma want to work with? “At the moment, definitely either Rex Orange County, Arlo Parks or Alec Benjamin for sure! I honestly think I listen to their songs all the time and I really would love to write with one of them one day! I don’t think I dislike any of their songs and lyrics at all.”
Over the past couple of years Emma has truly fallen in love with the art of songwriting and she would love to make that into a career. “I think it’s beautiful having your words out there as well for other people to hear. I think if anything, in these next 5 years I just want to keep writing and creating new songs and also achieve some collaborations with other young artists for sure and see where it takes me!”
How would Emma describe her music? “If I had to describe my music to somebody, I would probably just tell them I have no idea honestly! I try to keep every song I do different to the last, so I do struggle in describing what sound my music fits into. I would say some songs fit into a singer/songwriter category while others are definitely more pop.”
Growing up Emma listened to a mix of different artists such as The Carpenters, Third Eye Blind and Don Mclean, to name a few. She pulls a lot of inspiration from older music more than she does from modern music in terms of writing. However she does like to have modern sounds in her music to fit people’s interest. Local bands and artists such as Oasis and Easy Life, have also shaped how she writes her songs.
Cool Top 20 HQ really enjoyed watching Emma’s music videos. She clearly has put a lot of thought and effort into making. So we asked her who comes up with the ideas for them. “All video ideas are initially thought of by me. I honestly really enjoy creating them as well! The funnest one to make so far though, definitely has to be ‘On a School Night’! For that video we had a green screen set up in the living room for a day and we had pre-planned each scene and got the footage together beforehand so we knew what actions to record. Overall, It was a very silly video and we had a right good laugh making it for sure!”
Every music video Emma has ever released was recorded by Emma and her dad with a good camera. The videos were recorded at home, which saves a lot of time and money trying to find other people and locations to film.
“For the ‘Too Easy’ music video we bought a £4 bath bomb online to create the black water scenes. It was recorded in our home bathtub, believe it or not. I remember particularly having a hard time with getting water in my nose while coming up out of the water like I did at the beginning of the video.”
“For the ‘I Should Probably Leave’ music video we borrowed some mannequins from a family friend and created the blue mannequin story around them for the video. The mannequins were also quite heavy and not easy to transport so I would say that video definitely took the longest to record.”
Of course we also asked Emma about her favourite song in the Cool Top 20. “My personal favourite at the moment has to be ‘Summer in LA’ by Pri and Padre Toxico! I love the chillness of that track and it’s great for getting ready in the mornings too!”
You can find Emma here:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/emmalovebirdy/?hl=en
Twitter – https://twitter.com/emmalovebirdy
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/EmmaHalpinMusic/
Website – www.emmahalpin.com
