Emma Leitch

“I knew I had wanted to record an album since the age of 11. Singing was natural to me. I would sing when I was happy and sing when I was sad, to make myself happy again! I think it was always there in my mind, that I would sing when I was an adult. If it made me feel good, could it not make other people feel good too? Fast forward a few years with a Gaelic language degree and music performance courses behind me, I felt more prepared for what was to follow: 

 

“Aurora, the EP, all started with a substation. I had wanted to record for a long time, and the local electricity substation is on my regular route into town. I would find myself listening on my way by to the low buzz of the machines and somehow harmonising with them. Then when I started to record my EP, my engineer Fin suggested we start with a low drone a base for the guide vocals, which to me seemed very like the substation. Things progressed from there really. I had no specific sound in mind for the EP. I wanted to experiment with different sound samples and work with the instrumentation to hand and see what developed. One thing I was keen on was recording my own material, some of it written in Scots Gaelic. I wanted to add my own touch to the songs and add a modern twist, without removing the songs too far from their acoustic roots. The EP itself features themes of love, loss and hope, a lot of it taken from personal experience.I think you can write songs for many reasons, but for me, writing is a comfort as well as perhaps therapeutic! I do write my own songs, but sometimes it takes someone elses words to articulate how you feel. That is what motivated me to record songs other than just my own on my EP. ‘Aurora’ was recorded in through Winter 2016 to the Spring of 2017, and she was so named for the aurora borealis, because colour has always featured strongly in my life. I love bright colours and I felt the material was in itself colourful: from reflective songs with rich arrangements, to bright, sparkly tunes. Music in itself has always been uplifting to me, brightens up any dull day and I would hope this comes across in my recordings. I feel recording has helped me develop my confidence somehow. I am also delighted if my music helps people feel better in some way or other.”

– Emma Leitch, 2017