One thing I think I’ll never forget in my life is my upbringing with music, mum loves artists like Sade and Joss Stone, I will never forget the amount of times we watched Sade play Smooth Operator live on the tv! It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to soul music, and writing mostly about alternate music, I’ll admit I was skeptical when I got an email asking if I’d like to interview Emma Donovan, but after giving her a listen there’s a clear dividing line between the classic soul artist and Donovan. A soul voice infused with elements of reggae Donovan brings something completely revolutionised to the table. Donovan has recently collaborated with The PutBacks who are well known for their funky sound and put together Daddy, an energetic song that sparks so many emotions.
PEARL caught up with Donovan to have a chat about her new release and the uniqueness of her sound. Emma Donovan is an indigenous artist who is influenced heavily by her family, on this particular release- Dawn– Donovan says “It’s about a long term relationship that didn’t work, and me still finding a place to get to in healing the hurt and pain, so coming through it, being in the early hours of the Dawn was a place for me when it finally clicked that it was all over.” Regardless of its inspiration, Dawn is not a collection of Cliché breakup songs, but rather an opportunity to delve into the mind of Emma Donovan and discover more about her underlying message and her inspirations for music.
Donovan was already “becoming a musician around 12” she was born into a musical loving family and “started [her] first proper gigs around 16” now an established artist, Donovan has this advice for up and comers “don’t be precious when it comes to making music, have fun & enjoy it” which is good advice in my opinion, there’s so many acts that are afraid of breaking out of the generic mould of some genres, it’d be interesting to find something new! Donovan’s personal taste in music includes “a lot of old country and old hymns and gospel cause [that she was] brought up listening to [as well as], a lot of reggae, any indigenous music /artists and of course soul/funk/blues” when listening to Donovan’s music, is safe to say there’s strong traces of her personal taste in what she composes herself.
Emma Donovan’s Dawn came out last month through Hope Street Records, and you should definitely pick up a copy before her visit to Northcote Social club on the 4th of December, tickets are available through http://northcotesocialclub.com/ so go and snap yourself up some for a good night!
MILLI RANSOM