By Jenny Henkelman
Flowered wallpaper, little-known Catholic observances and wartime longing—things and feelings pretty far removed from most young musicians, including Emily Millard. But Millard, who performs under the name Miss Emily Brown, explores them all on her new album, In Technicolor. It’s a gorgeous album, with warm acoustic and electronic sounds, with Millard’s effortless soprano colouring in her clever but heartful folk songs. Stylus exchanged electronic letters with Millard during her current tour, which stops in Winnipeg on April 19 at Mondragon.
Stylus: You used your grandmother’s wartime diary as inspiration for the songs on this album. What drew you to choosing an artifact and using it for inspiration in this way? Is your songwriting process different when you do it this way?
Miss Emily Brown: I first discovered my grandmother’s journal when I was about fourteen. It was on the bookshelf in a zippered leather case with my grandfather’s Second World War medals and Air Force papers. For years I had thought of researching the details of her journal and writing songs about it, mostly as a way of getting to know the grandmother I never met. Last year I was finally ready to do that. My songwriting process wasn’t so different for the songs on In Technicolor. I really like to write about other peoples’ life experiences. It helps me understand them better. I find that when I write about the lives of others, the songs last longer because I don’t out-grow them like I do with songs based on my own feelings. I love finding pieces of writing or hearing stories and then boiling them down to a few verses of song.
Continue reading “Miss Emily Brown – Era to Era, Coast to Coast”