We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Henry. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.

Alright, Emily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

It’s so weird to say this, but the pandemic is what made me a full-time creative. When live concerts came to a standstill in 2020, I and all the other musicians I know had to figure out alternative ways to make money with music. I started livestreaming my original songs on Twitch.tv, a streaming website that’s mostly known for video games, but has a growing number of musicians. The response was so immediate. I felt like I had just plugged in to this amazing community of independent music supporters, this enthusiastic, lovely group of fans who were so excited to help me take my music to the next level. They helped my crowdfund my next album and launch my Patreon, and once the world opened back up, at almost every live show I have played, at least one person from my Twitch community has been in the audience. It has been life-changing. In 2019, I had a day job and I didn’t even know that Twitch existed. Now, I stream three times a week, tour regularly throughout the year, and collaborate with other artists from around the world. It’s truly been the wildest ride.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Emily Henry and I’m a singer-songwriter from Virginia who plays emotional indie pop music! Many of my songs are inspired by books, movies, or TV shows, including my song “Blue”, which is about Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was recently featured on the award-winning fiction podcast “Welcome to Night Vale”. I love heightened emotions and complicated narrators, and even when my songs are happy, they’re sneakily a little bit sad, too. I think fiction can help us access complex feelings safely and discover more about ourselves, and that’s a big part of why I share my songs. I got into music very young as both my parents are musical. I wrote my first songs on guitar in middle school, started performing in high school, and I started pursuing a professional career in music right after college. I’m constantly amazed by the community-building power of music and I’m so happy to have made it the center of my life. Anyone can watch me perform online three times a week and I’m currently working on my next full-length album!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One thing I’m really grateful for that I didn’t always have is the certainty that I am pursuing the direction in life that’s best for me. I always knew I wanted to be a writer of some kind, and starting really young I gravitated toward music, but I didn’t start pursuing music professionally until after college, and even then, part of me wondered if what I was “supposed” to be doing was getting a traditional day job. Well, seven or eight years ago, I had the opportunity to interview as a proposal editor with a government contractor. Side note: I live near Washington, DC, where this is a normal job description. I got the job and I genuinely tried to make it work. I moved to be closer to the office, I got a whole new wardrobe, I had order-in salad for lunch with my officemates, the whole nine yards. I was utterly miserable. I think there are people for whom that kind of job is not an existentially challenging experience, but it was for me. I’ve never been more relieved to be fired from anywhere in my life. And I’m grateful for my awful time at that job, trying my best to make a square peg line up with a round hole, because it gave me an answer to that question of “what am I supposed to be doing?” I don’t have to wonder anymore if that kind of job is for me, because I tried it and it deeply wasn’t. That experience allowed me to pursue music with no more questions in my heart, and I will always be grateful for that.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish early on I’d had someone who could tell me which resources could help me and which ones weren’t worthwhile. For instance, there are a billion online courses on every topic imaginable, but most of them are self-perpetuating moneymakers that don’t teach a lot of actual skills or help people get ahead. I bought the Ari’s Take Academy course on livestreaming in 2020, and it absolutely transformed my music career and let me find my most important income stream and community hub, Twitch Music. The information in the course was incredibly valuable and I actually did make back – and then some – the cost of the course due to the skills I learned. If I had known about the course before 2020, who knows how different my career would look now? I’ve bought two other ATA courses since and I recommend them to anyone trying to learn more about a particular branch of this industry. I also like the voice teacher Hannah Bayles’ YouTube channel for free vocal techniques and advice, and I really recommend Robin Frederick’s songwriting newsletter for great refreshers on the nuts and bolts of writing hit songs. These are just a few, but they all made a big impact on me and my craft.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.emilyhenrymusic.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/emilyhenrymusic
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/emilyhenrymusic
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/emilyhenrymusic
• Other: https://twitch.tv/emilyhenrymusic

Image Credits

Rah Foard
Garion Brodeur
Chelsea Laine Francis