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

Emmy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents did a great job at setting a good example of how to work hard but also how to work smart. They set me up to be an independent thinker and take responsibility for my actions by giving me full control of managing my grades and allowed me the space and resources to do that and focus on that as my “job.” I was in a place of privilege because of the school I went to and the level of education I got from an early age.

I am currently refining and redefining what that looks like as an adult with relation to my mental health, and finding the best way to execute creative projects, since for me it is an intersection of art and business to be working with artists to make the content they need. This shows up when I’m making music videos, content calendars, branding strategies and I have to communicate my abilities and limits on what I know I can provide for them.

My parents are also incredibly generous and kind, helpful people, and I, like them, want to help others in any way I can, I’m just learning how to better pour into someone else’s cup, and not let my own run dry.

Emmy, 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?

I currently work with artists I know personally to do a variety of things including content calendars for music release, flyer design, event planning/execution, cover art, photography, videography, social media planning and creative direction. I have a podcasting/live streaming background since early 2020, I have been doing portrait photography/videography since 2012, I love all things YouTube and editing for content creation and also my own personal creative projects with music, art, crafts, and much more. I love learning new things, so even if it’s not something I currently know how to do, I believe we can either DIY it. I’m currently learning Adobe Software including animation/3D design, and I also have an at home laser/screen printing studio for custom merchandise,

Art is very personal, and traditionally business is seen as the opposite, but there is also an aspect of business thay requires you to be personable. So with these new skills, and my introduction to the STL underground music scene I have had to learn how to balance personal relationships and business more than I ever have before. Traditionally the projects I have worked on were for people I already knew and so learning how to balance personal relationships and business has been a new challenge for me. It’s important to give artists what they want, while staying true to my own artistic perspective and also meeting people where they’re at. Some people cannot afford to pay for a expensive music video shoot, but you’d be amazed at what currently widely accessible technology is capable of and the quality you can get from even a cellphone and the right eye. So I try to provide that for the people I’ve met along the way and as I go, I am making more professional connections with people who have a higher budget for projects. Accessibility to quality work for a reasonable cost or no cost is important to me.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I believe my only true setbacks or struggles so far have been access to equipment or opportunity. New skills take time to learn, equipment expensive, but this can be worked around. Access to opportunities is more difficult. I was reminded of that recently when I was given the chance to do photography for an artist (shoutout Aida Ade) where I had trouble with accessing the same photo opportunities as my male counterparts despite having similar (yet still limited) credentials. I, and the artist were restricted from certain areas because I did not have a designated press pass (understandable). However, when men with my same credentials were not denied access to those same spaces, it raises a question of bias within this area of the music world. Similarly the local artists from STL were given a different experience than those who were booked nationally, further highlighting how the perception of a person based on their labels (local, national, race, gender, sex, etc) still plays a major role in determing how things operate at the ground level.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I’m sorry to everyone who lost money on that but also what did you think was going to happen for real. One screenshot and it’s over. 😆

Contact Info:

• Instagram: urmomemmy
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@emmyisurmom?si=llbZydPHO_Cvzkpn
• Other: https://www.bandlab.com/urmomemmy

Image Credits

myself