Emilia Quinn ‘Medicate’ Interview

Hi Emilia, congrats on the release of your new EP ‘Medicate’. It’s an incredible listen. My first impression on listening was that this was a very different project to what I’ve heard before from you. The two words that came to mind were ‘raw’ and ‘honest’. Does this make this more of an emotional release for you? 

Thank you! And yes, definitely! This whole EP has been a rollercoaster, and kind of still is, of emotions throughout the whole process. It’s not been an easy journey but any road worth taking isn’t always easy and I am so proud of how it all turned out.

You open up on the EP about moments you’ve been through in 2020 and 2021. How difficult is it to share these experiences and put those words into a song?

Putting them into song is actually far easier than talking about them. My whole life i’ve found it so much easier to pour my emotions into something creative be it poetry, song, art or even stories and so on. I’ve always been a very creative person and I actually feel privileged to be able to use creative tools to kind of heal myself and process my emotions.

When did you know that you wanted to release the EP. Was there a lightbulb moment, where you knew you had to release this body of songs together, or did the idea just build?

A bit of both really, before Firecracker came out I knew I wanted to release a more ballady EP after it and it was originally going to be titled Black and Blue and has a much more polished concept, I had a couple of the tracks ready for it but was still making my mind up on which others to add/still writing them. I think the lightbulb moment for the actual journey of the EP came when I wrote Pretty Pink Pills which ended up giving the title ‘Medicate’. I’m
still realising the ways the EP fits together, how the story flows through it and relevance to my previous experiences, it is very much a deep part of me and even I am surprised at some of the connections I am making looking back on it the whole process.

The artwork for the EP is something special – can you tell us a little about how that idea came into being?

Haha, so it wasn’t a case of setting out to capture a cover image. My partner Tammy (Tamography) and I just fancied doing something along the theme of the EP and seeing what we might come up with, we also wanted to experiment with a milk bath effect. We just couldn’t get the typical milk bath angle right, until she told me to turn my head and boom. We got the shot. It was shot on an iPhone and we decided not to go back and try to recreate it as we just captured it so purely and honestly the first time. (Check out @tamo_graphy on instagram for the Through The Lens IGTV episode about this image).

To finish, you’re hoping to help reduce the stigma around mental health issues by encouraging people to share their stories. Tell us more.

So this might sound a little harsh, but I think it’s just so ridiculous to have such a stigma and silence around something that literally requires talking and connection to heal. Pretty much every single human in the world has experienced some form of mental illness, difficulty or just a bad day and needed someone to talk to about it. Some people have it worse, some have conditions they need medicinal help with, some just need a pint with a mate or rant on the phone or even just a hug. But we’ve all experienced these emotions because we’re human. So I’m hoping that by sharing these stories not just from myself but from other people too I can create a safe space where we can feel seen, heard and less alone. It shouldn’t be deemed brave to share about your mental health, it should be normal