Selective listening | Emma Beko presents Digital Damage

Emma Beko has experience as a rapper and singer, having first launched into the Heartstreets duo years ago. However, after the release of his first solo album Blue, in 2021, the pressure to create a sequel she would be proud of has dampened her inspiration. Time has done its job and Beko presents these days the mini album Digital Damagethe first part of a dual concept.

Marissa Groguhe
The Press

“I had to give myself time. The time to live, the time to breathe and to do some introspection to be able to write. Emma Beko recounts having had a period of questioning after her first album. ” The song MHS really worked and I thought I would never be able to do something so good or catchy, she says. Blue was done without any pressure, it was so free. There, I was thinking about how it was going to be received. Thinking too much about expectations, for me, it doesn’t work. »

The blank page, then. Or at least material she wasn’t really happy with. Emma Beko seems to have found this period long, too long. However, only six months passed after the release of the first album before, finally, “it unlocks”. “In September, I realized that I hadn’t lost it,” says the rapper. I saw Digital Damage very clearly. »

This vision for his next work came in the form of a mood and themes that would revolve around the harmful side of digital life.

While many people have experienced extreme loneliness in recent years, Emma Beko also reflected on how often she felt alone in her life. “I felt that feeling in people, but also the fact that we got used to it and that we adapted,” she explains.

Many facets

For the instrumental part, his childhood listening to grunge music had a direct effect on the creation of Digital Damage. “It was the nineties, I had older half-brothers and we listened to clips on TV on MuchMusic and MTV. My favorite compilation was Big Shiny Tunes. So, want it or not, even my way of writing melodies comes from a lot of that. »

Beko says that she didn’t really realize until now how much she had been influenced by this grunge music.

She quotes the group The Stones, “which does both the most hardcore and the soft, feverish and fragile”. It’s a duality that interests him and that we find on Digital Damage.

And speaking of duality, Emma Beko also wanted to create a sort of encounter between the two opposites that are Digital Damage and the mini-album that will follow, the title of which we do not yet know. “They are two parts of a universe,” she explains. Also, to be honest, I find it cool to give each song a chance to live longer, to give longevity to my project. »

For this second release, “a more intense EP”, she collaborated with the same team, namely her long-time musical partner Beau Geste, CFCF, Da-P and Day Hills. Added to the team are Montrealers Backxwash and Cécile Believe.

Following Digital Damage should be out in the early fall. Emma Beko will present her new mini-album during an intimate launch in a private loft.

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