With a forthcoming EP, “Animus,” out July 15, and a soon-to-be full-length produced by Here We Go Magic’s Luke Temple, Emma Ayz is sharing with the world the results of a deep dive inward during the pandemic. This week, Emma shared a new track, “Judy,” whose dreamy melancholy takes shape with the spare arrangement of twinkling guitar, a backdrop of angelic keys and heartbeat-like drums, appropriate for wistful summer drives in spite of its subject matter. The track recalls the grieving process of a close friend who suddenly lost her mother.
Like so many who packed up and moved home during the pandemic, Emma returned to Los Angeles to live at her mom’s place in Silver Lake after being disenchanted with her work as a data analyst in New York. The state of the world and her move home allowed Emma to eventually focus on herself and her music after being laid off.
“I was going through the biggest changes of my life, and the world was actually on fire. What got me through it was focusing on other things,” she says.
While the world was forced to look inward at the things that no longer served us on a macro and microcosmic scale, this feels highly relatable. In transmuting that energy into music and a routine in which she found peace and the time and space to process layers of grief, “Animus” was born. Now, Emma is drawing comparisons to Jessica Pratt and Etta James, and fans of acts like Hand Habits and Julia Jacklin will also be drawn to Emma Ayz.
“I started really working on myself. Now I have an insane morning routine of meditation, movement of my body, and deep gratitude,” she says. “At the same time, I started to grieve a lot of the things that I had sort of pushed down. I guess I was grieving the person who I was before.”