We recently connected with Emily Afton and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Emily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
I wished I started my career a lot sooner, with a million different decisions, but there is no point in thinking about regrets or the past. The grass is always greener on the other side, and for every “wrong decision” I made, there was a right one that lead me to where I am. And someone else is praying for the things I have right now, meanwhile I am sitting here, praying for things that other people have. It’s all relative, and the only thing to do is move forward in our lives and careers.
One thing I will say- I am grateful to have spent my 20’s developing my identity and getting to know myself before going out into the world and using my voice to speak my truths. I think I could have made a lot of other mistakes, had I rushed into being a public figure without knowing what I stood for. And so that is the thing I have to focus on; not that I didn’t go to art school, or that I didn’t work with that one producer who went on to become a platinum record producer, etc etc. No matter what I would have chosen, I would have made mistakes and so with that truth, I choose to be content with where I am today.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I got into music at a young age. I’d say at the beginning of high school was when I first realized I had a special passion for it. There was a piano in the student library in my high school in San Diego where I used to go play at lunch, and it was there at that school piano where I first started writing songs and playing them for other people.
Twenty years later, I still write songs on the piano, but I also now produce albums, compose entire song arrangements, play guitar, perform as the lead singer in my band, I now DJ, and do web design and graphic design for myself, and have taught myself how to sustain a humble, creative life and career as an independent artist.
My stage name as a singer-songwriter, performer, producer, and DJ is Emily Afton, and I make queer, emo electro-pop music aimed at connecting people to their humanity. My songs often explore my feelings and reflections on life, love, society, and identity, and the moments in which I feel the proudest as an artist are typically when I get to hear from listeners that my song has moved them deeply. Every once in a blue moon, someone will tell me my song saved their life, and I hold those messages to be my proudest accomplishments (for lack of better words) as an artist.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn being humble.
The backstory is that I was raised by a Southern woman from Georgia, USA. My mom Rose, who is arguably the kindest, sweetest person you will ever meet was never overtly taught to be confident or take up space, and I think in some ways she passed that down to my sister and I as female-identifying humans in our society. I spent the first 10 years of being a self-proclaimed “artist” apologizing, and letting everyone around me – including my fans – know I grateful I am for them all the time. WhenI look back at some of my interactions from the past, I see a person who is constantly asking permission to be an artist and make cool shit. And the fact is – that’s not how the world operates. You earn fans and accolades by working hard and creating high quality art, not by being nice and polite.
I dare to take up space, and thus the world makes space for me. That’s a lesson that took me a long time (too long) to learn and I am still unlearning it, on the daily. But my new mantra is: “Be unapologetically, authentically Me!” and it feels much better than being humble pie.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I think a lot of artists had to pivot during the COVID pandemic, and I was definitely one of them. I realized that I wasn’t living a sustainable life; that the hamster wheel I was on, hustling to pay bills and just survive was wearing me down. I pivoted by moving cities and starting to DJ, as well as learning new (non music-related) trades.
I taught myself new software and marketed myself as a solo act for the first time, and that has been one of the smartest things I have done as an artist. I can now perform with a full band AND as a solo DJ, and can show up to entertain in multiple, bulletproof iterations for as many people as the event calls for. COVID taught me that life is precious and short, and so I stopped settling and went after a riskier dream. I moved to LA and then San Diego, and did things that may or may not have paid off, but at least I tried!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.emilyaftonmusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyaftonmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmilyAftonMusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmilyAftonMusic
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@emilyaftonmusic Electronic Press Kit : https://www.emilyaftonmusic.com/epk
Image Credits
Images 1, 6, 7, 8, & 9: by Naz Massaro Image 5: by Estefany Gonzales