Today we’d like to introduce you to Emi Evelia McCollum.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up on pop radio and YouTube lyric videos in the suburbs of Atlanta, writing heartbreak songs before I even knew what heartbreak was. I only knew how I felt when I listened to “Forever and Always” by Taylor Swift or “You Could be Happy” by Snow Patrol, and instantly wanted to create music that could make you feel something. When I was 14, I inherited my uncle’s old Johnson acoustic guitar and from there I was hooked. I made covers of my favorite songs in my bedroom and began playing shows around Atlanta at 15. It wasn’t until I moved an hour away to Athens, GA and went to the University of GA that I formed a band and started releasing my own music. Songwriting remains my favorite part of playing music—connecting with others by sharing a deeply personal story, but one that can resonate with anyone.
I’m so excited to share I am releasing my debut EP, “On Your Roof” on April 18th as an independent artist. I wrote this EP in the aftermath of my first real breakup. I found myself begging for something across these tracks. In “Molars,” I beg for that person to come back to me, while in “On Your Roof,” I beg to let go, and to be let go of. In my early twenties, I navigated what I wouldn’t stand for in a relationship and how I let that define me. I wrote these songs alone in my bedroom in my first apartment and later brought them to a band in Athens who helped shape the sonic threads, taking the music from acoustic ballads to polished, indie rock songs. We recorded in Athens with Owen Lange and produced the songs in NYC with Koa Ho. The EP was mixed by Drew Vandenberg and mastered by Charlie Chastain. My hope is that you listen to this project and are reminded of being 20 and madly in love—that you recall the brutal push and pull of making a dying relationship work, and remember the first time, fresh from heartbreak, that you found yourself.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When I first started playing music and writing more songs, I was also a pre-teen with horrible social anxiety and acne. I was pretty insecure and shy. I would wait until my mom left for the grocery store before trying to sing at home because I was too nervous to play and sing knowing she could hear me through the walls. I loved recording covers of songs at home but it took several years of me playing to become comfortable with even my mom being in the house. This definitely transferred to stage fright and I struggle to feel confident on stage or performing in front of really anyone. I grew out of this a little more when I first started playing in a band. Playing with people I can collaborate with and feel comfortable with on stage definitely helps me feel more confident and has helped foster my love of playing live shows.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a singer-songwriter at my core! Lyrics are really important to me, and finding the balance between emotional vulnerability and poeticism is a challenge I really enjoy tackling. Writing is cathartic, and I have loved getting to share that process with others in the hopes that they can relate to the songs. The musicality of the writing process—finding the right chords and the right melody to express what I wanna say—is equally important to me. The whole thing, I’ve just really loved doing since I was a kid.
I think I’m most proud of my song “You Are Not To Me Who You Were Before,” which I put out last November. The song comes 2 years out of a break up where I reflect on someone I used to know so intimately becoming a stranger. Not only are they no longer who they were to me before, but I also lost the person I became during that relationship. In the song, I reflect on the natural progression of being in love to breaking up, going from the line “It’s hard not to sanctify your name” in verse 1, to “It’s hard not to vilify your name,” in the 2nd.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My quality of songwriting and my ability to be emotionally vulnerable in my music is something I feel sets me apart. One of my favorite things when listening to new music is discovering the lyrics line by line, and absorbing everything the artist was feeling when they wrote the track. My hope is that my music can do the same for others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://eveliamusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/e.veli.a/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@E.veli.a
Image Credits
Ben Forte
Toni Hunlo
Karmen Smith
Ollie Silva
Suzannah Evans
