SPOTLIGHT: ÊMIA

Meet Êmia and tune into her newest single “Gut Feeling”

What made you choose “Gut Feeling” as the opening single and overture for your debut album?

I had never written a song with the sole purpose of being the first single until “Gut Feeling.” Normally I’d pick whatever felt like the biggest banger, and before this song existed I had another track that I was sure would be the opener. But as the album came together, I realized I needed to honor the story’s progression. Some of the more layered and emotionally decadent songs need a foundation, a context, so they can really land.

I once read that Beethoven composed with performance order in mind, since audiences would hear everything straight through at a concert. I love that idea of orchestrating the entire experience, writing songs that were meant to be first or last.

You’ve described Conversations We Were Supposed to Have as a “17-track alt-pop thesis.” What story or arc connects all the songs together?

Almost four years ago, I cut off all communication with someone I had an intense, complicated relationship with, even though we were never technically romantically involved. So much of my writing back then were just subliminal messages to him, and it clouded my creative judgment. None of those songs made the album.

When we reconnected last year, I lived both my wildest dreams and my worst nightmares. I thought we’d finally have the conversations we never had, but I realized he wasn’t the person I thought he was.

Through making this album, I gave myself all the answers I was looking for. The “conversations we were supposed to have” became conversations I don’t need anymore. 

How did writing in places like subway cars and hospital waiting rooms shape the emotional tone of “Gut Feeling”?

When you’re in transit, you don’t have time to overthink. At any moment the train stops or a nurse calls your name, so the first idea you have is the one that gets written down. Writing in those spaces taught me to let my inner voice speak first, without editing myself.

The album explores the idea that “art can outlive the grief that once transformed us.” How has that belief played out in your own creative process?

I’ve been grieving in small ways my whole life. Every childhood home I left, every piece of clothing I donated, every friend who moved away. I cried over all of it. The only thing that ever made those moments feel beautiful was turning them into art. The grief fades, but the memory immortalized in a song or a visual lasts forever. Creating helps me face that fear of loss every single day

You call “Gut Feeling” a love letter to pop and electronic music. What elements of those genres did you want to highlight most?

I wanted the pop side to feel anthemic and sing-along ready, and I wanted the electronic side to feel like a world that could only be created by someone chronically online. That meant blending twinkly synths with airplane noises and fake guitar sounds until it felt both playful and surreal.

The title suggests a focus on instinct and intuition. Was there a specific moment where you trusted your gut during the making of this track?

Yes. The guitars in the track are completely fake, and I didn’t try to make them sound real. At first I worried listeners would notice, but then I realized that was the charm.

How did your upbringing in Pennsylvania influence your songwriting, even in moments where your home “never quite felt like yours”?

I didn’t grow up in Pennsylvania, but it feels like home now because of the seven months I spent there when my dad was hospitalized. My parents had moved there during my college years, and for the longest time their house didn’t feel like mine. They recreated my old bedroom, though, and it has been untouched since I moved to New York seven years ago. Coming back reminded me of being a kid escaping through music, and it made that period feel precious in hindsight. My writing is very much informed by that kid. 

You reference artists like Lorde, Taylor Swift, and Charli XCX as inspirations. What have you learned from their approaches to confessional pop?

They are powerhouses of artistry, voice, and storytelling. Everyone knows what a “Charli lyric” sounds like because she’s built such a defined world. What I’ve learned from all of them is that it’s never just about one song. It’s about the identity you create across your whole body of work.

What do you hope a “beautiful stranger on the other side of the screen” feels when they hear this song for the first time?

Bravery. I’m always looking for signs from the universe to take a leap, and I hope “Gut Feeling” becomes that sign for someone else

In what ways does “Gut Feeling” set the tone for the rest of the album, both musically and thematically?

It’s all about your intuition. Everything that led me to write this project was because I decided to unabashedly follow my heart to the very end. 

Listen to “Gut Feeling” here.