My name is Emma Morton, I started writing and performing when I moved from Edinburgh to Tuscany in 2009. Working within the Italian Jazz scene I met my musicians Piero Perelli and Luca Giovacchini and together we formed “Emma and the Graces.” I was inspired by these Lucca boys who have traveled and performed throughout the birthplace of blues and jazz, to start this project which blends Delta Blues and Scottish folk. We’re on an experimental journey, exploring past and present, the mystic and the absolute, home and overseas.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfC7zP6E80E
THIS IS MY PROJECT. And I want to talk about it and how excited I am about the possibility of honouring it with an album and sharing it with an audience but I feel that if I’m here to appeal to you for support that it’s important to start with where myself and the eventual “Emma and the Graces” came from.
BEFORE EMMA & THE GRACES
I’ve loved music and performing since I was a child, I found music to be one of the only ways I was able to communicate intimately and freely who I was and what the world meant to me. It became a kind of necessity from early on. Though I never considered myself as a singer but when I moved to Italy eight years ago I found myself in the midst of great jazz musicians who inspired and encouraged me to develop my passion for singing. I started listening to jazz and blues and formed my first Italian Swing band “Emma e gli Aristodemos”. Over time my confidence grew, I continued to discover new music and styles and experiment with all of it.
In 2014 I took part in Italy’s X Factor, which affected my life and music significantly. I was a semifinalist and subsequently released music with Sony Italia, Cramp Records and Reverb Records, and have since been working steadily with my music, have collaborated with popular artists both from Italy and overseas, done some television and radio, but most importantly travelled and performed with great musicians and gained a lot of knowledge and experience to help me find the road to my new album. There’s no doubt that my experience during X Factor helped my self confidence in ways I never thought possible — it was so difficult putting myself out there week after week to be judged that by the end of it I felt like I could handle anything and I now LOVE performing.
It exposed me the world of pop and electronic music which I didn’t know anything about and I’ve spent the last two years developing that, working with people within the commercial music world and trying to find my place in it too.
I would have liked to have released an album of my own music in the last two years, I have written enough material for three or four albums for some reason or another, I have never concluded the production and release of that music. When Emma Morton and the Graces was born I finally understood why. I needed to go back to my roots and write something which was part of me, of my past and my heritage and represented me non only with my lyrics but with a sound, a musical world which was “my own” – because it felt right, not because the numbers said so.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about a pretty special man who I met and sang for in 2012. He told me that I needed to find my homeland within my voice, that Scotland would be my key if I mixed it with the jazz I liked singing. His name was Lilli Greco, he was an important producer who had discovered and produced some of the best artists in Italy like Patty Pravo and Paolo Conte. That was four years ago, and I am now finally taking his advice and it’s crazy but I genuinely do feel “home”. That’s why this campaign is so important to me, because for the first time I can honestly say “I NEED to make this album”. I am proud of this project, I believe it means something, that it needs to shared with an audience.
I have waited this long to release my first original album of MY MUSIC, despite having had the opportunity to pursue other releases because I believe in giving my listeners something special, something with represents the kind of artist I am and how I see the world. I want this album to have a meticulous production team, I want it to be beautiful. We have some special guests and writers involved which I will reveal as the campaign progresses — I think you are all going to be excited! I want to offer my contributors (partners if you will) the opportunity to spend time with the band, to attend rehearsals, to see our show and come backstage, to have dinner at our homes, to take lessons with us and more! We want to make a limited number of deluxe edition albums with a special photo series which has an additional cost but will be very special addition for some donators!
The mixing and mastering of the album is another great cost, and one of the most important steps. In order to get the sound the band needs we need a serious international mixer!!
Most importantly, if you’re supporting us in making this album independently, allowing us to have full creative freedom, we will need funding for getting the album out and heard by as many people as possible! A good press agent comes at a high cost but a necessary one to get us OUT THERE!!
Over the next few months I will be posted snippets from our rehearsals on soundcloud and Youtube so you guys can keep updated on how the project is developing!
Thank you to all generous music lovers!!!!
Support Emma and Graces on musicraiser here