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

Emma, 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?

My creative personality has many sides, but two very prominent ones, songwriting and performing. I was inspired to want to perform through watching my aunt perform and songwriting has been something I’ve been doing ever since I was a child. I was always a creative when it came to stories. In second grade, my teacher would rave to my parents about my stories. Growing up in a pretty rural area, my sister and I would play outside almost every day when I was younger. My family owned a large farmhouse on 50 acres of land, so the boundaries for our imaginations were incredibly vast. I took this tool, and I put it to good work. I was writing short stories, songs, poems, anything I could write I would. This went on for several years before I started singing. When I was about 10, I auditioned for a musical in a community theater. I landed ensemble. The next year, I auditioned again for a different ensemble. Once again, I got in the ensemble. At the time, I really wanted to become a better singer, as I felt that was one part of my creative self I wanted to be very good at. So, I got into voice lessons. I started in middle school, and once I felt confident enough, I auditioned for the school musical. Finally, I got a singing role. It was singing with 2 other people so still kind of an ensemble, but this time smaller. I felt that I could be heard this time. Then, when I entered high school, I knew I needed to be a part of the annual talent show that they would have at the end of the year. So, I continued with my vocal lessons and entered the talent show. This would be the first time I would sing solo in front of a large audience. I was terrified. I cried before I went on, gave the best performance I could, then went right back to the bathroom and cried again. I was SO proud of myself. I overcame my incredible stage fright and did the best I could. Even then, I realized the thrill and excitement I felt from performing in front of people and I knew I needed to do it again. Even if it made me cry, this is what I wanted to do with my life.

Moving on the present. My name is Emma Moreau, and I am a multifaceted musician. I am in bands of basically every genre, I write songs, play many different instruments, do marketing and business, have an incredible love for performing, and still find the time for hobbies I love such as basketball and working out in the gym. Something I believe sets me apart from others is my passion and drive. I am in direct definition, a hard worker. I believe that no matter my talent, if I put my all into something for an extensive time, there is no doubt that I will reap the benefits. And so, this is what I will do. I believe I have a confidence in my hard work that very few people have. There is no doubt in my mind that I will achieve the goals I set for myself. Combining my extreme tactical mindset with my creative talents, there is nothing I cannot do.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As a musician and songwriter, a great skill I believe I must possess to create, is the skill of playing an instrument. Most of my life I have played alto sax, but when I started to sing a lot, I realized I couldn’t really write songs with saxophone and voice. So, I decided to pick up guitar. At first, it was incredibly hard for me. I struggled playing smoothly from chord to chord, I couldn’t play bar chords for the life of me, and I was using the same basic chords. In the beginning, I had no desire to play any song that wasn’t my own, so I didn’t really get around to learning more about the guitar itself. After this, I got into a habit of just playing instruments when I wanted to write. It was similar for voice but less so. I would still do karaoke when I wanted to, but I would never actually warm up my voice. The consistent practice of my instruments was something I really struggled with. I think a lot of the not getting into the practice habit had to do with insecurity. Before evening trying to play songs, I would just immediately think I’d be bad at it, and therefore not even try. I think this is something so many young musicians and even non-musicians struggle with. Then, something inspiring happened. I got a scholarship to attend the Berklee Five-Week Performance program in the summer. During this camp, one of the things I learned, is how I should’t tell myself I can’t do something before I even try. Coming back home after, I suddenly got the inspiration to learn blackbird on guitar. I played my first and only ever show with just me and my guitar and felt really good about myself. About a month later, I fell back into the habit of not practicing. Throughout the next few years of my life I kept going back and forth between these two modes. I finally feel like I sort of unlearning these habits, but it’s still incredibly hard sometimes. It’s so easy to cancel a practice or scroll on your phone instead of practicing, but it feels so good when it is done. And, it’s so simple too!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

For my social media, it was not created just for my music. It began before I even started wanting to post about my music. In high school I was a person who did a lot of things. Whether that was a scholarship pageant, a women’s leadership convention, or an all eastern choir, I traveled around and met so many new a different people. This is how I gained my following. I put myself out there, met new people and made new friends. To create a successful social media platform you have to connect with people. Whether that is in person or on social media is up to you. I’m just now starting to try and connect with people through social media, which in my experience is a lot harder than connecting with people in person. Trying to add connecting with people on social media to my arsenal of skills is definitely challenging, but probably worth every drop of sweat. It’s all about portraying who you are, and letting the people come to you. The more consistent, true to yourself, and creative you are with your content, the easier it will be to connect with people. Social media is a hard thing to crack, not many have. I’m still working on how to be a better content creator. It all just takes a lot of time.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @moreau.em
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emma.moreau.10297/

Image Credits

Ginette Slaughter
Sanjana Bellapu
Sophia Bryter
Bella Demita