emily wells profile picture

emily wells

dreams memories and parties

About Me


You can hear pieces of the song that my boy JEREMY SOLE and i created for Rami's Bryant Park Fashion show. Buy the single at itunes here:------------------------------------------------BIO---- --------------------------Emily Wells is an anomaly among musicians most of whom spend their careers striving for a major label deal. Before she was old enough to vote, a major label was courting Wells, two music-publishing companies were competing for the rights to her songs and she was recording with award winning producers. By the time she was legally buying her first drink, however, Emily had chosen a different path. With true indie ethos, she moved from New York, leaving in her wake a lucrative deal from a major label, the renowned producers, recording studios, and a manager. During that period of her life, Emily had been offered everything that most musicians want. Everything except what she, as an artist, needed most: creative control.Attaining the ever-elusive artist’s dream of creative control, as Wells would soon learn, comes only at a price. Wells’ cost was the thousands of miles logged, traipsing across country, playing in and outside of bars, pubs, and juke joints. She traveled in a tiny car, dragging along guitars, a tiny bass, a giant old Linn 9000 drum machine, and a four track. When flush, Emily would spend the occasional night in a seedy motel room where she would tirelessly record with her archaic four-track and dirty old instruments. Emily didn’t look back to her swank days as a would-be priority artist on a major label and regret any of her choices; she saw each obstacle in her path as a challenge. Eventually landing in Los Angeles, Wells finally learned through recording and performing, how to have the creative control she craved. Slowly building her own studio, she taught herself how to record and produce. This is the studio in which she would create, record, mix, and produce “The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties” her latest release. To get the sound of a full orchestra, Emily didn’t take the easy way out and simply loop the layers of violins; instead, she played up to 21 separate tracks of violin on each symphony, often using an octave pedal to create the tones of an underwater cello or viola. In addition to the strings, there is a plethora of other sounds, electronic and organic alike. Two years ago, Wells found a bassist, Joey Reina, and a drummer, Sam Halterman, who add a richness to both the live show and the recordings. Their contributions to “The Symphonies” give the compositions more depth as well as a little junk in the trunk.----------------autoBIO ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------{early memory}-------------- I was three, maybe four, up way past my bedtime, and I saw a girl named Midori on Johnny Carson playing a Vivaldi Concerto for Violin. Somehow, strangely, from that moment on I had it in my head that I was going to be a violinist. Months later I finally convinced my obliging parents to find me lessons. I don’t know if it was the sound of the instrument, the poised young woman, or the affections of Johnny Carson and the crowd that night that lured me, but since that day my desire to make noise and be heard has not ceased. ----------- {history of musical growth, triumphs, failures, and choices follows} ------------------------------ {the present}---------Both live and in the studio, the addition of two incredible players, upright bassist Joey Reina and drummer Sam Halterman, have added an invaluable richness to the music, with their unique and booty shakin sensibilities. Our live show has become something of a musical spectacle, with live violin sampling, bumpin hip hop to classical beats and bass to move you.My last record “Beautiful Sleepyhead and the Laughing Yaks” was made with guitars, violins, upright bass, drums, banjos, xylophones and glockenspiels, Hammond organ, piano, and a few electronics. The record was made entirely in my studio, where I sat behind the board and in front of the microphones.I just finished a new record of 10 symphonic folktronica fantasies, entitled, "The Symphonies: Dreams, Memories, and Parties." These works are indeed my most ambitious, and have been a huge and exciting challenge to capture in the studio. They are big strings, big beats, big bass. They are memories in song, they are my joy, my dreams, my longings, and my past. They smell like color, and sound like September. They are Sam on his drums, and Joey on his basses. They are samples of whales, crickets and kids. They are Al's Banjo and a thumb piano. They are drum machines, clicks, bike gears, typewriters, toy piano: sounds that pour into your right ear and out of your left. They are for me... and they are for you. June 2008- ....................... join the mailing list
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Member Since: 8/9/2005
Band Website: emilywellsmusic.com
Band Members: CLICK BUY NOW to get BEAUTIFUL SLEEPYHEAD AND THE LAUGHING YAKS.... 12$ INCLUDING SHIPPING Or you can download directly from iTunes : Joey Reina on Upright and electric bassSam Halterman on Drums Emily Wells on violin, vocals, piano, banjos, organs, synths, subs, sounds, samples, drum machine, xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels, guitars, ukuleles etc Jessica Catron performs cello on the recordings of Symphonies 1 - 9... Count Bass D appears on Symphony 3: The Story (Featuring Count Bass D)
Influences: nina simone, bob dylan, egon schiele, arcade fire, biggy smalls, joanna newsom, katherine dunn, bjork, timmy straw, outkast, yoshi nara, robert johnson, kozyndan, action e jackson, elliott smith, toumani diabate, richard yates, modest mouse, rumi, aphex twin, billie holiday, david sedaris, the cure, damon albarn, mali music, dizzy gillespie, lou reed / velvet underground, mazzy star/ hope sandoval, Ruben Gonzalez, Simple Citizens, miles daves, CocoRosie, matmos, audre lorde, the shins, portishead, lee scratch perry, beethoven, ahmed jamal trio, raymond carver, michel gondry prefuse 73, j.d. salinger, ee cummings, suzuki, ratatat
Sounds Like: “Multi-instrumentalist Emily Wells says she's ‘most influenced by the songs and voices of Nina Simone and Bob Dylan.’ You can hear it in Emily's music. She's a singer-songwriter with unconventional and often chilling vocals." -NPR..................... "Emily Wells has a quavering, angelic voice that has a little aura of strangeness." -iTunes (indie spotlight artist)............. "Like a mix of Nina Simone and Bjork, Wells bled emotion with every word." -Performer Magazine (live review).............. "Wells flirts with preciousness on the Joanna Newsome-esque 'Supermarket'" -Pasadena Weekly ................ "The closest thing I could think of to describe Ms. Wells is like a stripped-down Portishead mixed with a Neil Young/Nick Cave/Nick Drake sensibility." -Reviewer Magazine ............. "...singer/songwriter Emily Wells wrote, produced, and mixed her most recent album, Beautiful Sleepyhead and the Laughing Yaks. The result is an accomplished record that combines the curious vocal delivery and lyrical quirkiness of Joanna Newsom with the world-weary wisdom of Billie Holiday...." - Flavorpill.............. "Fans of Leonard Cohen, Elliot Smith, Tom Waits, Bright Eyes, Joanna Newsom and others in similar veins will find Wells a pleasurable listen. It sounds like she could have been influenced by any or all of these artists and many more though there's no sense that she's copping anybody's sound in particular. Jazz, blues, and country figure into her music as does an Eastern European tinge, magnificent string arrangements. and a marvelous vocal vibrato." - Lefthip Magazine
Record Label: creative control
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Download Symphony 6 free on KCRWs todays top tune July 8th!

Hey pals... i'm happy to tell you that on tuesday july 8th KCRW will feature "Symphony 6: Fair Thee Well & the Requiem Mix" as their top tune. This is a really extra wonderful thing they do where eac...
Posted by emily wells on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:02:00 PST

100 PRESALE TIX for ALBUM release.. available NOW!

Hey pals... I just don't know what to do with myself blog wise now that we've got through all the symphonies... I guess I could tell you about some of the other things I'm up to... I've been in the st...
Posted by emily wells on Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:03:00 PST

day 10, symphony 10, blog 10 this one’s for YOU

Symphony 10: Could This Really Be the End?So, if you're reading this, that means you likely care, means you might have been coming to the shows over the past year, during which time the symphonies we...
Posted by emily wells on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:14:00 PST

Day 9, symphony 9, blog 9

Symphony 9 and the SunshineSo I think i said this the first time I posted this song a couple weeks ago... This is a favorite of mine... I guess lyrically especially, it means a lot.... it's my past an...
Posted by emily wells on Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:21:00 PST

day 8, symphony 8, blog 8

Symphony 8 and the Canary's Last TakeIt's hard to write songs about the environment... They always sound weird and preachy... And yet it's something I think we've all got on our minds... This song ha...
Posted by emily wells on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:36:00 PST

day 7, symphony 7, blog 7

Symphony 7: Dreams Memories and HeavenSo this business of blogging is very serious... it's like a job.. jeez.. ! i took the weekend off...Symphony 7 is the only instrumental on the record... though th...
Posted by emily wells on Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:03:00 PST

day 6, symphony 6, Blog 6

Symphony 6: Fair Thee Well and the Requiem MixA lot of what the symphonies are all about are summed up in this song. This song is about the way my memories and my dreams feel the same. About how the...
Posted by emily wells on Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:01:00 PST

day 5, symphony 5, Blog 5

Symphony 5 was a surpriseThis song was definitely a turning point in the record. It was the first one i really had a love affair with. The music came first, and completely on accident. I was pract...
Posted by emily wells on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:31:00 PST

Day 4, symphony 4, Blog 4

Hey palsSymphony 4: America's Mercy WarSo I sometimes write songs with some political commentary or consideration, though i am always cautious not to be preachy, or even judgmental. I am, after all,...
Posted by emily wells on Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:02:00 PST

day 3, symphony 3, Blog 3

Symphony 3: The Story (Featuring Count Bass D)After 2 i was ready to go... My focus was very clear... all symphonies, all the time. Though you might not hear it right off, I'm a huge fan of hip hop....
Posted by emily wells on Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:38:00 PST