Emma Bradley shares the importance of showing up on breezy new single "I'll Be Outside"

A self-taught pianist, 22-year-old Emma Bradley has picked up everything she knows from the senses. Having learnt to imitate her favourite film scores, she credits renowned composers like John Williams, Danny Elfman and Yann Tiersan as her inspirations.

“I was just obsessed,” she says. “At school there were music practice rooms with pianos in them and any chance I had I’d be in there. I would literally spend all my free periods, all of my break times and lunchtimes in there, even bunking lessons to go sit at the piano, I just wanted to learn so much. I even remember being on holiday and asking the hotel if they had a piano. Everyone was lying by the pool, and I was just sat indoors practising piano.”

Taking an audio-visual approach to sound, Emma also had Synaesthesia, which manifests itself as seeing sound as colours and textures. As a result, Emma’s music holds a cinematic quality at its core with deeply personal lyricism.

Displaying a jaunty guitar, “I’ll Be Outside” luxuriates in its tranquil nature before injecting an optimistic spring into its step. Bradley’s vocals are uniformly impressive as they veer from hushed, jazz-inflected singing to ballad-like notes – yet never losing a sense of intimacy.

Speaking on the meaning of “I’ll Be Outside”, Bradley shares “It was such a fun song to make, and doesn’t take itself seriously at all, which is why I love it so much. I don’t take myself that seriously, so it’s cool to have more of a fun song in the mix.”

“I actually wrote the song to myself when I was going through a bad time and I really needed a ‘ride or die’ figure in my life which I didn’t feel like I have, so the song is me deciding to be that for myself. It’s also just about showing up for someone you love in general. The ‘I’ll be outside’ lyric makes me think of pulling up in a car outside and being like ‘whatever you’re going through I’ll be outside when you’re ready to get in and drive away from this thing’, sounds a little weird but it was so visual to me.”

Bringing her EP to life with production credits from the likes of Will Canzoneri (Vampire Weekend), Jack Rochon (Charlotte Day Wilson) and James Jacob (Celeste, Ellie Goulding, Little Simz), Perfumed By You is laced with classical and R&B-like influences whilst exploring Bradley’s emotions.

“I hope that when people hear my songs, they can feel less alone in their own experiences and also empowered in some way. I think sensitivity gets a bit of a bad reputation, but everything that we feel someone else somewhere has also felt.”

“I wanted to express myself in the most true and honest way I could with these songs, so if anyone anywhere were to relate or feel less alone in something as a result that would be the coolest thing in the world.”