We recently connected with Emma Gullo and have shared our conversation below.
Emma, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
Risk taking is one of the biggest necessities of being in the entertainment industry. You constantly need to be pushing your boundaries, trying new things, and overall just be unafraid to put your whole self on display. My biggest risk I’ve taken so far for my career is relocating – I recently left my home state of Georgia and moved to the infamous music city, Nashville, Tennessee. The risk factor for me was: do I leave a place where I’ve already built traction for my whole life and start over in one of the most competitive music areas in the world? I teetered on this for a while, because you really do have to lay out the pros and cons of all the outcomes that could have on your career.
I accepted the risk, and so far I’ve been proud of my decision. I started off in a rocky headspace of “did I make the right choice”, cause who likes to start over? But I’ve been exposed to more creativity, more passion, and more drive in my new home. I thought it would be an intimidating experience to participate in writers rounds with other artists, but it could not be more opposite. It’s inspiring to be in an intense music community, it makes you want to take even more risks to meet your goals, something I don’t know if I would have done if I didn’t take this first great leap.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
New friends & new folks – My name is Emma Gullo (EG, and I’m a singer/songwriter & performer who goes under the stage name EGSINGS. I started diving into my craft when I was 14 years old, playing cover gigs in restaurants and bars in my hometown. As I got older, I started to gain traction in other parts of North Georgia – playing venues, weddings, late night restaurant stages and events – and eventually started working my way south when I went off to college. Every weekend in high school I was either gigging or in the school play, performing was my job and passion 24/7.
Throughout those youthful years, I did start writing my first attempts at original music, including my highlighted song “WEIGHT”, which I completed at 14. But I would not release any original music until my college years.
I went to GCSU in Milledgeville, GA for a degree in theatre and creative writing; I was following my passion of stage performing while still driving every weekend to gig somewhere in the peach state.
My senior year came and I finally wanted to take my first risk as a songwriter and release original music – I had always sang and interpreted other peoples’ songs, but never allowed myself the credit of recognizing my own stories to share.
I met Bryce G Raburn (BGR) in September 2021 – a 20 year-old music production prodigy with the skills and talent of a seasoned engineer. We immediately clicked over our visions of music and the creative process of a making a song, it was the first time I got to work with someone who understood how important every detail, every note, every nuance in a project is to the whole story.
We finished my first single in December, and then followed with a 5 song “mini album” in May. It was the proudest I had been of myself in a long time, this was something baby Emma would never believe if I told her we accomplished such a major goal this early in life.
I learned and grew from that experience, now excited to continue personal projects and feeling validated that this WAS the path I was meant to walk.
In February, I met 4 guys that would change my career yet again: John, Jake, Devin, and Bates. We all met through Bates, and found ourselves at his house with a whole band set up of two electric guitars, a bass, and a full set of red drums, and now vocals. This was just a fun jam session, or that’s how it started. That first “rehearsal” of us just messing around with stuff we all need blossomed into a challenge of competing in our college’s battle of the bands. The winner would open for Flo Rida at the Homecoming Concert in three weeks. Almost as if the universe pulled us together specifically at this moment, we practiced and got our set down – the competition day came with a great turn out, we performed for an audience for the first time, and watched as our spontaneous meeting suddenly won us “Battle of the Bands”.
And since then, our band “HighSpeed Dreams” as been another extension of myself in music – it was revolutionary for me to play with other musicians, I had never performed with a band until then and now it’s a hunger to perform with them any chance I can. We’ve played festivals in Milledgeville, bars in Athens, PorchFest in Atlanta, and regular late night gigs at bars, Greek life events, and where ever else we are called too.
Now here I am in Nashville, I’ve graduated college, I drive weekends to play with the band or to perform solo gigs whenever I can. I’m deep in the process of writing and getting my barings in the real-world entertainment industry. It’s hard, but I won’t be happy if it was easy – being an artist is all about pushing yourself and the boundaries of society to create something new, and neither of those things come easy. But it’s why I love being a musician, and why I gravitate toward the challenge.
What sets me apart is my attitude and my sound – I’ve always been told Ive had a unique, powerful vocal range, but even more so I think my perspective on the music industry is what holds me together. I’m honest in my lyrics, I write for myself – I simply can’t write songs just to sell, they have to be meaningful, skillfully written, something that triggers a geniune human response to a phrase or metaphor. I’m in this for the beauty of artistry, I’ll be 23 in a month and I’m already unbelievably grateful for the opportunities and chances I’ve been given in this life. I look forward to seeing what’s around the corner.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Covid-19 was devastating on every economic field and industry at play, especially the entertainment business. Months without gigs, without networking, because truly entertainment is a extra privilege, so when venues started to pull back on expenses to stay in business themselves, live music was the first thing to cut. Understandably so, everyone was trying their best. You could look at this in two ways: disaster or opportunity. You could scramble and panic, or get creative – I’ll admit I fell into the first category for a month or two, but eventually it just became an opportunity ti write more, to figure out what I wanted from my brand as an artist. I made a website, started working on new songs, practicing instruments more and teaching myself terminology of the industry. If I was going to be stuck at home, I was still going to be productive, even if they were little goals.
Now that things have reopened up and everyone is hungry for a new social setting of fun and live music again, I actually feel more prepared as an artist, and I have a new perspective on how to handle gig ruts. It’s all about getting creative!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
This is really important to me because as artists we compare ourselves to everything and everyone. With so much competition for the same spotlight, it can be discouraging to have people around you in various stages of the same career you have. You look around and only see where you haven’t achieved yet, and that’s a tough reality to get past. But that same thought process is something you MUST let go of, because in this day and age, with social media and sponsored posts being shoved in your face, you will drive yourself crazy and ultimately lose the love you have for your passion if you choose to focus on where you’re not.
At this stage, I’m not looking at the top of the mountain – the goal I want to be at – but instead looking at the path, the steps toward that I can immediately take that ultimately gets me closer to the peak. If you just stare at the top, wishing you knew the secret on how to get there, you won’t. It’s the little goals, the one-at-a-time steps forward that will get you there.
And another this is, once you reach that peak, there usually is a taller one you couldn’t see before with a new, bigger goal to reach. And you do as you’ve done before, and walk the path until you reach the top again … and again.
Contact Info:
- Website: EGSINGS.com
- Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/EGSINGS
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EGSINGS
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCeDPP3eJE2W9PcWGDRUSsDA
- Other: Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/2vBR6Fx6GXvYZ6fBQn5zbk?si=XfbiwL50Qg28AMkEXZY72w Apple Music – https://music.apple.com/us/artist/egsings/1600091461 YouTube (Music) – https://youtube.com/channel/UCRTa-BxH29N5NR_A7HLSkJw
Image Credits
The Round Downtown The Bowery Vault Emily Cash Photography Peter GULLO Clay Garland Smiling Eyes Media Shelby Lauren Smith Photography Juliana Cross