Emily Bear

23 Oct

Preview

From composing for Moana 2 to performing on Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, Emily Bear’s career spans a remarkable range of musical worlds.

We caught up with Emily as she launches her new single, ‘God Forbid a Girl Gets Used to This’, to talk about her influences, her return to performing and sharing music of her own. The track marks her first solo artist release in almost a decade and her debut on Sony Music Masterworks. It is the first single from her forthcoming debut album, which she is currently recording, and follows two sold-out performances at the newly opened Blue Note London.

The release marks a return to herself after nearly a decade spent bringing other people’s stories to life through music for stage and screen. In 2022, she won a Grammy® Award for Best Musical Theatre Album for The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical. She is also part of the composing collective for Tony Gilroy’s upcoming BEHEMOTH!, starring Pedro Pascal, and will appear on BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland next month.

Interview By: Katie Shaw

Original: Where did your love for music and composing come from? Who are your influences or your inspiration?

Emily Bear: I wish I had a better answer than I don't even remember a time where music was not the biggest thing in my life. But honestly, there was no inception point, it has always been there. The feeling of writing music and when you hit that Nirvana point and you are hitting your head against the wall and you have nothing left to offer, but then you hit flow state, and I feel like most musicians that I have talked to feel this way, where it feels like you are plucking it from the universe and it’s just passing through you and it is just the most amazing feeling in the world and I am always chasing that.

“Just creating something from nothing.”

Original: Do you think of the different genres you explore: Jazz, classical, pop, as separate disciplines or do they all come from the same musical voice?

Emily Bear: I've found that they all crossed over at a certain point, the technique that I learned from studying intense classical music for 17 years only made me a better jazz player and vice versa. I feel like we are a smoothie of our own experiences. I just have a bunch of different worlds to choose from. For Bear, these influences are worlds to draw from. Quincy Jones was a major influence for her, particularly for his commitment to learning and developing his craft.

Original: Quincy Jones supported you from such a young age, what influences do you think he had on your career, and did you ever face any challenges growing up with that label of child prodigy?

Emily Bear: You know, as I'm getting older, I see more and more how Quincy musically has influenced the way that I write now. He was constantly in the pursuit of knowledge and furthering his skills in writing and creating. The fact that he was able to do so many things at the highest level in so many different areas of music, was so inspiring to me, because there are not a lot of people who have been able to do that successfully in every single area. I also hated the word prodigy growing up. I truly hated it.

She tends to avoid what she calls “the dancing monkey of it all”, when people focused on her age rather than her music. I don't really want to be great for a 5-year-old. I just want to be great. Working on Moana 2 brought a different set of challenges. Animation requires music to develop alongside the story and visuals, making the process more gradual and collaborative than writing for live action.

Original: What was that experience like for you, and what were some of the challenges you faced?

Emily Bear: It was my first time really working in animation like that and at that level it was kind of crazy. It’s a very different beast than writing for live action. She explains that the process was slow and painstaking, with the music and script developing together. Entering a room with experienced Disney creatives was daunting, but the project became an important learning experience. Everyday walking into the Disney animation building, it felt like I was living some sort of fairy tale.

Original: Performing as the featured pianist for Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour… Wow. What was it like being part of the tour?

Emily Bear: A very, very fun side quest because I don't really tour for other musicians ever but, obviously, when Beyonce calls, you have to answer.

Original: What do you think being on the tour taught you about performance and connecting with such a huge audience?

Emily Bear: It's almost easier in my head to play through a stadium because it feels less personal, versus playing in a jazz club like Blue Now, because you see everyone's faces and you're noticing everyone's little reactions and trying not to think too hard about it. Watching her run rehearsals and talk to all the department heads and do it with such grace…it was a very inspiring place to be. For Bear, music can begin as a feeling, a melody or a voice memo, with ideas gradually coming together.

Original: What do you think might surprise people about how your music sounds in your head before it becomes a composition?

Emily Bear: I don't even think I know what my music sounds like in my head before it becomes a composition. Sometimes, it's just a feeling or a melody, or I utilise voice memos a lot, to hum something. I sit down at a piano and just start playing until something feels good.

Original: You have a new single coming out, ‘God Forbid a Girl Gets Used To This’, what would you love to create next, and what might people who know your music not expect from you?

Emily Bear: Being able to have something that lives out in the world that is mine and I can take ownership over and I'm just doing it for the sake of writing music and not because I have a deadline to me, you know? And, to process my own emotions and explore my own point of view versus a character's point of view, which, again, I love it all, but this is a very different sound than I think I've ever put out in the world before, so I'm excited. Drawing on Minnie Riperton, Rotary Connection, Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire, the single blends cinematic elements with contemporary, personal lyrics. Releasing music so closely tied to her own perspective brings a different kind of vulnerability.

Original: Is that nerve-wracking for you, putting something like this out into the world and waiting to see the response?

“I am freaking out constantly.”

Emily Bear: She says, I haven't been an artist in a really long time, and it feels much more vulnerable and personal than I would like to admit, but... Very excited. Despite the nerves, Bear’s excitement for creating remains strong.

Original: If you could sit down with your younger self at the piano, what would you tell her?

Emily Bear: I still get so excited about, the creation of the music and doing something with my band in a show that you could just never recreate outside of those moments and I think she would be very happy to know that I still feel as much joy and happiness from the crafted music as I did when I was a kid and that hasn't gone away.

Original: What would you love to create next?

Emily Bear: This album is going to be different than anything I have put out before. This is a great example of hearing all my influences and backgrounds come together. Lyrically, it feels much more contemporary than those 70s soul songs because I am talking about my life as a 25-year-old girl. After years bringing other people’s stories to life, this single gives Emily space to share more of herself. We can’t wait to hear what she creates next.