Flower-Powered Artist - May 2007

Emi Meyer

Emi Meyer was born in Kyoto, Japan and moved with her parents to Seattle, Washington at the age of two. Emi’s musical career began with piano lessons at the age of six. Early in her study of piano she showed great potential and was selected to be one of five students taught by an accomplished classical pianist in Seattle.

Emi's hours spent at the piano became times of introspection: it helped her cope with her struggle for identity, as well as develop her own voice. She expanded to jazz music for a more collaborative musical experience. Jazz’s synchronization between the fingers, voice, and ear helped her explore singing. Upon hearing her distinctive imagery and style, fellow musicians and friends encouraged her to further develop her voice. While Emi initially composes her songs for piano and voice, she is pleased with the results of adding bass and drums on her latest demo, "Magnolias".

Since moving to study Ethnomusicology at college in California, Emi has been performing at premiere venues for singer/songwriters in Hollywood, including: The Hotel Café, The Tangier, and Room 5. When back in Seattle, she performs at venues such as The Pink Door and Tula’s. When on the east coast, she is showcased at the Sidewalk Café. The range of venues attests to her ability to override categorization: her musical identity spans folk, anti-folk, jazz, rock, and pop.

Emi recently received the honors of being the only solo and singer-songwriter finalist in the Experience Music Project’s 2007 Sound Off! and Seattle-Kobe Female Jazz Vocalist Competition. Currently, Emi sends CDs nationally and internationally to those who request them via MySpace.

KGRL is proud to present May 2007's Flower-Powered Artist, Emi Meyer. Get to enjoy exclusive materials that we gathered from this fine emerging artist. This month is presented with our usual all or nothing smorgasbord feature including: a KGRL exclusive interview (audio/transcribed), Live At The Hotel Cafe 2006 CD Review, Magnolias EP Review, exclusive live photos, and the whole Room 5 Lounge Performance - 02.02.07 streamed on-demand.

KGRL Emi Meyer Interview

KGRL had a chance to interview the newly emerging jazz artist, Emi Meyer.

Listen to Emi Meyer's responses in High Quality MP3 Stream using the player below:




Transcription excerpt from the interview:

KGRL: We do appreciate Jazz music, but not a lot of people do... Can you tell us, why Jazz? How did you get into crafting jazz compositions?

Emi Meyer: Jazz is underappreciated because it can be pretty cerebral. No simple I, IV, V changes. I think learning jazz only helps with songwriting because it gives you tools to improvise and create new chord progressions. It gives you a whole new perspective… It's an acquired taste in that the more you know about it, the more fun it is. When a family friend kept giving me jazz tapes in elementary school, I hardly ever listened to them. But then, I realized that playing in a combo is a fun way to collaborate with others.


-> READ the full transcript along with high/low quality mp3 of the Interview by Clicking Here! <-

Live At The Hotel Cafe 2006 CD Review

We've said it again and again - forgive us for mentioning it one more time, not a lot of people listen to jazz nowadays. It's great that there are still young artists who boldly thread the path of jazz. It is with great pleasure that we've come across this emerging talented jazz artist, Emi Meyer. Emi contacted us with keen interest in being a part of the KGRL repertoire (found us by visiting the page of one of our previous Flower-Powered artist, Kate Earl). A quick listen through some of her stuff immediately got us excited, prompting us to request her materials for airplay.

Such is the case for a lot of start-up independent artists, manufacturing a full-length can be a big hassle. Luckily for Emi, she has what it takes to play so masterfully-well live that it's good enough to be recorded (in CD) - an accurate representation of her music. The Live At The Hotel Cafe CD features the pure singer/songwriter/performer in Emi - confident, classy and soulful.

The CD starts out with the song Mandarins & Porcelain, which for some weird reason reminds us of John Cougar Mellencamp's Jack & Diane. Emi rhymes, jives and flows as close as she can get to rapping - and it does work for this song (take that as a compliment, as we can't stand rap). Sunrise is probably one of our personal favorites. A very classy and complexly-jazz original that clearly establishes Emi's unconventional writing style. It's a kind of statement, like saying "I'm in jazz and I am not afraid to show it."

Another favorite, Crafted Tone, energizes the listeners with its upbeat piano accompaniment and playful vocals. Better Late is a stab at a more contemporary jazz style - a slow and smooth-flowing ballad with a wonderful piano solo. Before I Was Born was inspired by Facebook/Myspace and is a sort of Emi's reflections on why she likes to take photos. It's an excellent composition that features unconventional phrasing and complex-progressive song structure - freely flowing with sudden changes in tempo.

Emi has so far done a fine job of writing about a variety of themes in addition to clever lyrical constructions. Daydreaming and overactive imagination runs as the theme of the song, Everyday. The song I Wish You The Best deals a sarcastic blow to someone whom she can't seem to get along with. Both compositions, needless to say, carry the same classical jazz style that earned Emi the honor of being compared to acts ranging from Norah Jones to Stevie Wonder.

Magnolias is simply Emi's masterpiece in both musical and lyrical levels. From the wonderfully-crafted gloomy verses to sharply-contrasting joyously "feel-good" chorus - the song manages to present a gamut of emotions. Beehive and Arrivederci present us with more of the playful unconventional Emi songwriting style, which unfortunately did not quite raise our interest as much as the rest of the tracks - they still are good compositions.

Untitled closes the live CD and is as interesting as its title. It is a stand-out upbeat track that is sure to instantly reel listeners in. As Emi asks "What do you think is wrong with me?" in the song, we can't help but notice that we tend to reply with "Nothing really, you sound great."

It is through this wonderful live CD that we felt the need to push Emi out there and grab a hold of a lot more listeners than she currently has. This is also the reason we named Emi as one of our Top 10 Artists To Watch Out For In 2007, an article we wrote for Metroblogging Los Angeles. It's a pleasure to see Emi perform with such confidence and bravado. She's actually a lot more confident on-stage than she is off-stage. You may think that's strange, but it just shows that she feels more "at home" while performing - a naturally-born performer. If you fancy jazz or if you feel the need for a new jazz CD in your collection, try out Emi - you won't be disappointed.

Live At The Hotel Cafe 2006 CD - Buy It Now (Contact Emi)!

Tracklist:

Mandarins & Porcelain
Sunrise
Crafted Tone
Better Late
Before I Was Born
Beehive
Everyday
I Wish You The Best
Arrivederci
Magnolias
Untitled

Magnolias EP Review

All the songs from Emi's 4-track EP also appear in the Live At The Hotel Cafe CD, although this time it's done in studio with a band. As I have already given a review of the songs in the previous review, I'll just do a rundown of what's to be expected in the EP version.

Sunrise gets a huge improvement with the upright bass - giving it a lot more kick. It's such a beauty to listen with the bass pumping along with the piano and Emi's well-restrained vocals, sometimes even running along the melody notes. It really made us appreciate the complexity of this song even more. Crafted Tone and the title track, Magnolias, received its share of re-birth with not only the bass being a stand-out, but the drums as well. Everyday has the band kicking in by chorus - and it does give it a good highlight.

This EP does so well as a companion CD to the Live At The Hotel Cafe CD. Do yourself a favor, if you like Emi's songs then go ahead and grab this one as well. The live CD shows Emi's ability to perform very well solo, while this CD shows how she is able to collaborate with other musicians.

Magnolias EP - Buy It Now (Contact Emi)!

Tracklist:

Sunrise
Crafted Tone
Everyday
Magnolias

KGRL Emi Meyer Photos

Play Slideshow!

KGRL Exclusive Videos - Room 5 Lounge Performance - 02.02.07

KGRL proudly presents: Emi Meyer Room 5 Lounge Performance - 02.02.07. The streams can be viewed using our embedded flash player. We do hope you enjoy these wonderful videos!

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Arrivederci Magnolias Mandarins And Porcelain

Dear John Untitled Crafted Tone

Room Blue Before I Was Born Pages To A Story