Emma Louise’s Supercry almost didn’t happen

SINGER-songwriter Emma Louise’s second album almost didn’t happen. But the former Brisbane songbird found some paint on the side of the road and her life changed forever.

Emma Louise’s second album, ­Supercry, almost didn’t happen but travelling changed the singer-songwriter’s outlook.

EMMA Louise loves the Old Museum in Brisbane’s Bowen Hills. Its stately red brickwork, many archways, cavernous rooms and hidden stairwells offer a treasure trove of ­delights for the creative mind. She also finds it a warm and embracing space.

“This place just hugs me,” the 24-year-old says. “The amount of things that this building has seen me through. It’s just magical.”

On this day, the singer-songwriter is up from her new home of Melbourne, where she moved eight months ago. She’s here to shoot a couple of promo videos at the Old Museum for her new album, Supercry, out on Friday.

CHAT: Four minutes with Emma Louise

We find a place to chat in a hidden upper corridor, ­winter sunlight through the arched windows falling across the unpolished wooden floors. Piano music drifts up from downstairs. She knows all the staff here.

Returning to Brisbane feels like a bit of a homecoming. It’s where Emma Louise, who moved to the capital from Cairns when she was 18, became a grown-up, fell in love for the first time, forged friendships and landed on the music scene with a successful debut album,2013’s vs Head vs Heart,and an international hit single, Jungle. Her second album, ­Supercry, almost didn’t happen. A few years ago she hit a point where she was ready to give up music. It wasn’t external pressure, she says, but the pressure she put on herself.

“I had so much to sort out and learn, it was kind of breaking my heart. Just too much fell on it, really.”

She decided to do something different, so took up art. She was going to start a jacket label. And she travelled the world.

“When I quit music I started all these other things and I realised how important love and relationships and all this other stuff was,” she says. “Any other music that ­happened was a bonus. Now if I hear that voice that says you haven’t written a song or you’re not good enough, I go, ‘oh, that’s cool. I can do something else today’.”

Her travels took her to Mexico, Canada, the US, Europe, Japan and New Zealand, and within Australia. For the most part she travelled solo. In Japan she locked herself in a cabin at the top of a mountain. In Mexico she was so bursting with creativity she hired a ­studio to demo all the songs that had come to her head.

The jacket label may emerge in the future (she loves ­designing her stage wear), but what she’s taken from that ­project is the name, Supercry.

“When I was touring the first album, I was determined I was going to change my name to Supercry and then I was going to give up music and make a jacket label called ­Supercry. It went through these different phases and just ended up being the name of the album.”

The album cover features Emma Louise’s artwork and that, too, is a new passion, one she found by chance.

“I started all these paintings because I wasn’t happy with what I was writing at the time,” she says. “I actually found paint on the side of the road and took it home. So it just started like that. I didn’t know I could do it. I really love it.

“It’s this whole new thing that’s really taken the pressure off for me. It’s really peaceful. With songwriting, I practised for years and years before I considered I could write a song, so now I’m just practising painting.”

Despite her world travels, Brisbane’s mark on the album is indelible, particularly in the song West End Kids,which is both a love affair with the bohemian suburb and the story of an actual love affair.

“I had this epic era that was in West End that was very dense, like falling in love for the first time. Everything was new and crazy because I was from Cairns and it was just magical. And when that relationship ended, the era ended and a lot of things ended. When a relationship is ending, you separate from each other mentally and emotionally but physically it’s challenging because for so long you’re like the one body, or you share each other’s bodies.”

Emma Louise is not too concerned about wearing her heart on her sleeve, broken or otherwise. If anything, she says she probably overshares.

Everything Will Be Fine was a note to self she wrote in the cabin in Japan. “Everything was fine in Japan, it was so beautiful. There was so much snow I had to push my door open every morning. It was really special. I’m so glad I did that.”

Emma Louise is clearly happy in her own company. “I’ve been looking into it, because apparently it’s weird to spend so much time alone but it’s totally normal for me. I love it. I love hanging out with my friends, we have a great time. But I love having a great time by myself too.”

While she says she’s probably more introverted than extroverted, on stage it’s a different matter. As for a tour, she’s excited to get her new songs out there and this time she’s taking it all in her stride.

“I’m feeling really chilled about it because I’ve already started working on the next one,” she says. “I’m not looking for a breakout album. I’m just documenting where I’m at.”

Emma Louise’s new album, Supercry, is out July 15. Queensland tour dates as follows:

Thursday, October 20, Miami Marketta, Gold Coast

Friday, October 21, Sol Bar, Maroochydore

Saturday, October 22, The Triffid, Brisbane

Tickets: oztix.com.au

Originally published as Emma Louise’s Supercry almost didn’t happen