Career 1st August 2023 by Lorna Gilligan

Singer-Songwriter Emily Weisband: ‘Winning A GRAMMY Was The Most Exhilarating Moment Of My Life’

She’s accomplished some incredible things!

Instagram/@enilyweisband

If you haven’t heard the name Emily Weisband before, now you have. Most of us know the names of the artists who sing our favourite songs, but when it comes to the writers they tend to go unnoticed; Emily Weisband is one of them.

Chances are you don’t know her name, yet she’s won a GRAMMY, one of the most prestigious awards in the music industry that many artists only dream of receiving during their career.

Emily has written for some of the biggest names in the music industry including BTS, Camila Cabello, Keith Urban and Lady Antebellum, yet her name is rarely mentioned in conversation when it comes to discussing their hit songs.

We got the chance to catch up with Emily while she was in Ireland recently to chat all about writing songs, releasing her own recordings, and who her ultimate artist to write for would be (Spoiler: They’re pretty famous!). 

 

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Hey Emily, how are you?

Amazing, I’m so excited to be back in Ireland.

What first got you interested in songwriting?

My dad! He wrote songs and sang in bands my entire childhood. I really wanted to be like him so when he bought me a guitar when I was nine, I dove in. When I was 11, I wrote my first song. I’ll never forget bringing my guitar into his office and playing it for him. He cried. I felt like a wizard. Me, an 11 year old kid, moving a grown man to tears. In that moment, I realised how powerful songwriting is. I felt this responsibility to get really good at it. The bug officially bit me that day and the rest is history. 

What was it that you preferred about writing songs for other people over singing them yourself at the time?

I moved here and saw how many girls moved to Nashville to be singers. I figured I couldn’t go wrong starting out as a writer, getting really good at that, and then if the opportunity ever came along to sing the songs myself, I’d have a story to tell and a way of telling it that I’d been perfecting. Once I started becoming a part of the writing community and getting a look into what the lives of singers actually looked like I decided I like the anonymity of being a writer [more]. I love standing in an arena or a nightclub and hearing an entire room of people screaming all the lyrics to a song I wrote but the person singing next to me has no idea that I wrote it. It feels like the most magical dirty little secret. 

 

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You gained acclaim early in your career thanks to your GRAMMY win, something many artists could only dream of doing. How did it feel? 

It was the most exhilarating moment of my entire life. I was only a couple of years into my career, so I was happy with even getting nominated. That felt like enough of a win to me! I never thought I’d get to stand on stage that day and hold a GRAMMY in my hands in front of a room of people I’d looked up to for years. It was and is still to this day one of the greatest honours of my life. Afterwards, I remember feeling like every writing room I walked into I had to prove that I deserved the Grammy I won. It’s the trap of success! You get a little and then your life becomes about keeping it!

Did your Grammy win change your trajectory as to who you wrote for?

It did. The phrase “Grammy Award Winner” is forever tacked onto my name and that’s pretty special. It definitely brought more Christian/Gospel writing opportunities into my lap. I was working primarily in country music at the time so winning a GRAMMY for a Christian song propelled me into that world a little more.

You’ve written for some huge artists from different music genres. Is the writing process different depending on the genre?

I think at the heart of it, it’s the same! There are definitely rules for each genre I’ve had to learn. There’s lingo for each genre that you pick up on and trends each genre is currently experiencing that are good to stay connected to. The process however, finding something real about the human experience and telling the truth about it, is definitely the same no matter the genre. 

How do you go about writing for some of the biggest names in the music business?

I definitely have my incredible publishing team to thank! My sister is my publisher so we’ve gotten to build our careers together. The more rooms she gets me in, the more I deliver. The more rooms she gets me in. It’s a cycle and we feed off of each other really well. Sometimes I get to be in the room with an artist. In that situation I try to be of service to them and their story. That’s my time to listen and use what I do to help bring their story or point of view to life! Other days I’m in a room with other writers and I usually try to find a great idea and pull everything I can from it. My publishing team then takes that song and sends it out to the artists they think will connect with it.

 

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Consequences is one of my absolute favourite songs on Camila Cabello’s album. What was the writing process like?

This is one of my favourite stories. I grew up going to church and decided I didn’t want to have sex until I was married. I ended up not making it to the wedding night and wrestling a lot with my faith. During that time I entered a hook up phase and wound up getting Chlamydia. It wasn’t a huge deal in the long run, but it felt like the end of my world. I was so ashamed! One of my friends said ‘Emily, that’s not how God works. Life has consequences. You have sex with someone who has chlamydia, you get chlamydia.” I went to a writing session and  I told the two women I was writing with the whole story and that I had this song idea ‘Consequences’ , about all the hard stuff you now have to deal with because you loved someone. The song spilled out in like 45 minutes. Amy Wadge, one of my co-writers, is friends with Ed Sheeran. She played him the song and then he shared it with Camila!

How did the BTS song, Boy with Luv come about?

I still don’t know how I got this lucky, but their team reached out to my publishing company asking if I would be down to topline on some tracks for them! Toplining is writing lyrics and melodies over an instrumental. They sent me the Boy with Luv track and I made up some words and melodies. I recorded them and sent them back. I didn’t hear from them for months! Then one day I got a text congratulating me on my BTS single! The first time I heard the song fully was the morning it was released! I got to discover it with the rest of the world. They are so talented and were so gracious to me. 

@emilyweisband I love my job 😭😭❤️❤️ #bts #boywithluv #halsey #songwriter #adayinthelife ♬ original sound – Emily Weisband

If you could write for anyone, who would you love to write for next?

I’m definitely known in my circle as a writer who isn’t afraid to get in my feels and get personal. I love artists who just sing a great song with no frills and shut an entire room up. I would love to work with someone like Adele, Lewis Capaldi or Ed Sheeran. I think I could write some really special stuff with them.

Is the writing process/style different when writing for your own projects as opposed to writing for others?

I don’t think I realised I was even writing my first project when I was. There was just a stack of songs that I wrote that no one else would record because they were too personal to me. I couldn’t even imagine anyone else singing them. 

Do you prefer writing for yourself or for others now that you’ve started recording your own projects?

I just love songwriting. It’s less isolating and super rewarding. As a self-involved creative, I think it’s a really healthy space for me. So as a lifestyle I’d say I prefer writing for others. I’m taking a little break from recording my own projects at the minute. I think I was spending so much time trying to crack the code on artist success that I forgot why I was doing it in the first place. I’m excited to explore a little more, knowing what I know now about the realities of it all!

 

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What made you want to start recording your own music?

I did love singing and I had a stack of songs in my catalogue I didn’t want anyone else to record but me. I got several opportunities from some record labels that had been hearing my voice on demos coming through their A&R offices. One day I got a call from Mike Elizondo. Google him. He’s a legend. He agreed to go on the journey of recording my own music with me. He gave me a really safe, fun space for me to begin to learn who I was as an artist. He was the first one to really encourage me to take the leap. 

What’s next for Emily Weisband?

I’m grinding away in the studio writing every day! After losing my ‘why’ for a few years, I really felt like 2023 needed to be about falling in love with creating music again. Showing up consistently, no ego, nothing forced, just getting back in rooms with my friends and letting magic happen. It’s been one of my most exciting, fruitful years to date. It feels like anything is possible right now.

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