Interview: Singer & Songwriter Emily Weisband Releases ‘New Salt’

LOS ANGELES – Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Emily Weisband’s stellar track “New Salt” is being released on February 19th, 2021, via Apple Music, Spotify and deezer [19]. Prior to stepping into the spotlight and writing her own story, Emily was renowned for writing songs for prominent artists BTS, Halsey Maddie, Sam Hunt, Keith Urban, Lady A and others.

Emily’s acoustic EP released in January, “Not Afraid to Say Goodbye (Stripped)” [20], features stunning stripped-back iterations of tracks off her fully orchestrated EP “Not Afraid to Say Goodbye” [21], highlighting her confessional lyrics, intimate instrumentation, and nuanced storytelling.

’New Salt’ by Emily Weisband Releases February 19th, 2021
Photo credit: Facebook @EmilyWeisbandMusic


She first stepped from behind the scenes and into the spotlight as an artist in 2019, making her debut with “Identity Crisis” [22]. The EP earned praise from the likes of ELLE, BILLBOARD, NYLON, and ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY for songs that played like diary confessions, but were somehow instantly relatable. But if that EP grappled with its title subject, “Not Afraid to Say Goodbye” takes a different track. The confidence she gained by hearing her work out in the world is palpable, using her nearly lifelong study of songwriting to transmit raw emotions that revel in shades of gray, while also maintaining empathy and a searing wit.

Jeff Doles of HollywoodChicago.com talked to rising star Emily Weisband in anticipation of the single release “New Salt.”

HollywoodChicago.com: You have successfully transitioned from being primarily a songwriter to becoming a performer in your own right. On a personal level, what has that process been like for you?

Emily Weisband: A total mind f-word. [laughs] I have terrible stage fright, there are videos of me as a kid belting out the ‘Beauty and The Beast’ theme song, facing the wall with my arms crossed, because it was the only way I could sing for people. In writing for other artists, I got to hide in a room and if people didn’t like the song, I could hide behind the artist I wrote it for. Now it’s just me. Whether people connect or don’t connect with my music, I have nothing to hide behind anymore. It’s my face, my experiences and my voice.

On a less creative and more practical note I was building a lot of momentum as a writer. I started on music row in Nashville as a little fish in a big pond and I was growing into a bigger, healthier fish. So when I started a new segment of my career as an artist I found myself back to being a little fish in a big pond again, and this time an even bigger, more intimidating pond.

If I’m being really honest it was a really uncomfortable blow to my ego, since I realized I had to start small and celebrate the little victories again. It’s a process I’m really grateful for though, and I’m growing more and more into who “Emily the Artist” is with every song I release.

HollywoodChicago.com: How would you characterize your single release ‘New Salt’?

Weisband: It’s my first release off of a new project I’ve been working on. Every project I put out has had an overall message and theme as a whole … so I’m excited to reveal the first piece of the new puzzle.

An ex called me a few years ago in the middle of the night and was just trying to get me all wrapped up again… it was so validating to hear the things he was saying to me, but when I got off the phone and snapped out of it, I was pissed. So I went home to Nashville, vented to my co-writers on Monday morning and “New Salt” was born.

I’d never been angry in a song before. I’ve been apathetic and I’ve been cold, but I’ve never confessed that I’m mad because it always felt dramatic and catty. I’m learning that being angry isn’t dramatic, it’s a part of being fully human. I explore the acceptance of that fact in this song, so I’m really pumped for everyone to hear it. I think that moment is a really relatable one.

’Not Afraid to Say Goodbye’ (Stripped)
Photo credit: Facebook @EmilyWeisbandMusic

HollywoodChicago.com: How does singing your own songs and lyrics compare to seeing someone else performing them?

Weisband: Seeing someone else sing my own song lyrics is wild. My dirty little secret is that I always loved it. I’ve often stood in a crowd at a concert and watched the people around me singing along to a song I wrote and thinking, ‘if only they knew that the girl standing next to them right now wrote this song.’

Singing my own songs and lyrics is a little less wild and little more intimate for me. You know how they say ‘puppies are at their most vulnerable when they’re sleeping?’ I’m a sleeping puppy when I’m on stage singing my own song.

HollywoodChicago.com: Does the writing process change for you when you are writing for yourself as opposed to writing for another artist?

Weisband: Definitely! I see songwriting as a service industry… I’m there to serve the artist by listening to them, asking them questions, being familiar with what they’re drawn to musically and ultimately helping them tell the truth through their own voice. So besides relating however I can to them, I’m not really focused on myself in those situations. There are also certain boundaries for different genres that you kind of have to play within when you’re writing for artists on the radio.

When I’m writing for me though, there are no rules. The song is about MY experience, told in MY voice, set to melodies that capital ‘I’ love. At that point I’m not serving another artist as much as I’m serving the people I know will be listening to this music when it is presented. It’s like being a painter and only being able to use the primary colors … and then someone hands you a key to the closet where they keep all the paint and tells you that you get to have at it. That’s really FUN!

GO TO PAGE TWO to get Emily Weisband’s perspective on BTS, and find out her surprising musical influences.

HollywoodChicago.com: Let’s talk about a specific song. What inspired the lyrics for ‘The Way I Say Goodbye’ [23]?

Weisband: UGH … one of my favorites I’ve ever written. I dated a guy for four months and around month three I decided to really open up. I wanted to know if it was going to work and the only way to do that was to actually be vulnerable and let myself feel. And I fell really hard, I poured out my heart to make him feel safe and loved… and then I got dumped.

I don’t know what it was in that moment – I would usually cry or blame him or beg him to change his mind – but I let him go. I told him if I loved him the way I claim to I had no choice but to do that and wish him the best.

We did end up getting back together and I wrote this song a couple weeks into us trying again. I think I had to wait months to write the song because I had to process it… but sometimes when you love someone, it’s all you can do to let them go with grace. You don’t have to hate someone when you break up.

HollywoodChicago.com: So out of Nashville, you write a song for one of the hottest international groups, BTS. What does hearing ‘Boy with Love’ [24] feel like?

Weisband: SO SPECIAL! It just reminds me that no matter where you are in the world, no matter how you were raised or what you believe, human beings are really all the same at the end of the day. So much divides us but music has this powerful way of unifying. For three minutes all that matters is that song and how it makes you feel.

At concerts, when the lights go up and the music cuts out and everybody singing at the top of their lungs, nobody is thinking about what makes them different. We’re all in it together in those moments, so to know that some little girl in Nashville helped write a song that people on the other side of the world connect with, and want to represent, is such a powerful idea to me. Plus I’m a BTS fan and I’m so honored they invited me to work with them.

Singer & Songwriter Emily Weisband
Photo credit: Facebook @EmilyWeisbandMusic

HollywoodChicago.com: I have to ask … what are your musical influences and inspirations?

Weisband: I’m inspired by A LOT of different kinds of music. The first album I ever bought was ‘Songs About Jane’ by Maroon 5. I listened to a lot of bands like The Fray, The Script, Keane, Coldplay, Snow Patrol… emo stuff. It was actually 1990s country music and the craftsmanship of those songwriters that really got me going.

Then of course there is Joni Mitchell, The Carpenters, Cat Stevens… but the one kind of music that influences me more than the rest is the various songs and songwriters that contributed to Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Doris Day, Barbara Streisand, even dipping into some musical theater show tunes! I value timeless music, and that means timeless music we are all still listening to all these years later. I want my music to still mean something 70 years from now as well.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, any plans for future collaborations, live or streamed performances?

Weisband: YES! Just like everything else I strive for in my music, I wanted to be really intentional and authentic when it came to choosing collaborators. The stories behind those are coming soon.

As for performances, I CAN’T WAIT to get back out there and sing these songs live for audiences in the flesh. I played one show in Nashville before quarantine and they sang every single word of every song I’d put out back to me. I’m ready to feel that again!

Follow Emily Weisband:
Website: CLICK HERE [25] 
Instagram: CLICK HERE [26]

Twitter: CLICK HERE [27] 
YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE [28] 

Interview by: Jeff Doles
Published by: Patrick McDonald, Editor, HollywoodChicago.com