MacD on Music: White Wash

Social Media has given the world a lot of good and a lot of not-so-good over the years. On the not-so-good side, we have people like the previous (and hopefully not future) US president and certain people referenced in the CHERYM song 'Alpha Beta Sigma' (from the album ‘Take It Or Leave It’, available now in Cool Discs) and on the good side we have people like Adam B and the subject of this week's column, Emma White, as featured in these fine pages exactly one week ago today.

Emma is one of the many great singers making waves on the local music scene and has just released her new single ‘Hurts Too Much’. I spoke to Emma recently about her new music, her plans for her live gigs and the people she would like to work with in the future:

“The song is basically about being in a relationship with someone but the thought of not having them hurts more than actually loosing them. The positives outweigh the negatives.

"You go through tough times with someone but you never actually want to leave them. You just go through that and get over it. You’re in the thick of it but you know that you’re not going to leave them. It was written by me and three others. It’s a great song to be part of and to have it as my own.

"The writers were Jex Jordyn, Roseanna Rose Brown and Liam Geddes. I’ve worked with Liam a few times on two other songs of mine. I think he’s a great songwriter and he’s also done the production so I really like working with him and the direction the songs have gone.

“The reception has been really good so far. It’s going to be on Cool FM with John Kearns and ‘BBC Introducing’ are going to play it but they’ve not given me a date. I’ve sent it off to RTE as well, to RTE 2. Someone’s got back to me but I haven’t heard any more.

"Radio response has been good so far, and on TikTok it’s had a good response on videos I’ve done. I think it’s doing well for the first week. People are really positive with comments and what they’re saying about it.”

Next, we spoke about the possibility of live gigs: “I’m looking at doing gigs. I’m up and down to Dublin all the time, I’m reaching out to people in Dublin like Whelan’s Live and Whelan’s Ones to Watch,and then there’s also the Workman’s Cellar and there’s the Grand Social.

"I’m reaching out to them and I’ve got a few responses back about performing live so I have to wait to see there. I also know fellow musicians that I know through Liam that are also doing shows and stuff so hopefully I’ll be doing support for them. I’m just waiting on the response from them.

"People like Kyla Belle, she has a show in September and there’s no support lined up yet and we’re kind of friendly so I’m hoping that maybe she’ll take me on as one of the support acts. I would have loved to have performed at Stendhal this year but I’m away so hopefully next year.”

Next, I asked Emma about her musical beginnings: “My social media started during Lockdown in 2020. My background is musical theatre. I went to London when I was sixteen to do musical theatre but COVID sent me home in March 2020 and that’s where TikTok started off. I posted singing videos there and YouTube and that’s pretty much my career so far. It’s been built on social media.”

I next asked Emma about names she’d like to work with: “There’s a lot of big names and a lot of Irish names. Someone I look up to is Lyra, She’s pretty big. Then there’s Cian Duncrot, I’d love to collaborate with him. Locally, Cora Harkin, I love her sound. I think she’s great. Stephen McKeever is also a name from out where I live in Claudy and he’s a great artist as well.”

“I’m writing and writing away at songs, completely by myself that aren’t mixed with other people. I’m trying to get out as much music as I can in the next year and hopefully do live performances and then have my own show.

"This time next year that’s my goal for sure. Right now, it’s a bit too early. I don’t have enough songs. I need at least eight songs to do the show that I want for my fans and followers on social media so that hopefully this time next year I can do my own show.”

And that’s it from Emma White. Her new single ‘Hurts Too Much’ is out now on all good streaming platforms. She can be found on Instagram @emmawhiteex and on TikTok @officialemmawhite.