We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emily Patterson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

There are times that I wish I had started learning production sooner in life but I do believe that everything happens for a reason and at the right time. My creative career started in 2014 when I attended my first music festival and my friends introduced me to FL Studio. I switched over to Ableton shortly after and began to teach myself production by watching videos on Youtube. I had stumbled upon a group of artists on Soundcloud who went by ‘Courteous Family’. These artists were making music I had never heard before and I instantly knew that I wanted to make music like this.

Emily, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello my name is Emily Patterson, I am 28 years old and I was born and raised in Washington State. I launched my brand ‘episcool’ and my independent music label ‘SUS COLLECTIVE’ in 2016 when I was attending college at WWU. The name ‘episcool’ comes from my initials which are ‘EP’. I grew up playing Xbox as a kid and my gamertag was episcool so most of my friends also call me EP which I actually prefer. It is pronounced e-p-is-cool. The name “SUS COLLECTIVE” was something that me and my friends came up when we decided to start a music collective. The word sus was super popular at that time, especially in our friend group so it was just meant to be. I had already been producing music for about a year when I began volunteering at a local music venue in my college town. One of the production managers who was familiar with my music had suggested that I start DJing at the venue. I began to DJ as an opener at the venue and eventually started getting booked for more bass music shows and music festivals throughout the country. in 2018 I started a 100-day beat challenge which I owe most of my growth to. I teamed up with another producer friend to make a beat every day for 100 days straight. This was one of the most challenging and rewarding things I have ever done and helped to improve my skills in a short period of time. I moved to Los Angeles in 2019 and have been here ever since. 

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I believe that it is important to ensure that artists are fairly compensated for their work. Community engagement is essential to help support artists by attending events, buying tickets and buying art. Another important element is having inclusive platforms that are accessible to artists of all backgrounds, So many talented artists go unnoticed due to the lack of inclusivity.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part is probably having the freedom to create anything you want and be anything you want to be. The ability to express your thoughts, feelings, and ideas through your work and have your art resonate with people is truly a surreal feeling. Being part of a creative community where you can share ideas, collaborate, and support one another, along with personal growth and development, are all rewarding aspects of being an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.suscollective.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/episcool
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/episcool
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilypatterson8/
• Twitter: https://x.com/episcool
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@episcool4505
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/episcool

Image Credits

Instagram Handles:
@kathysnapped
@auudrey.a
@quietwyat
@alexmariealford