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Joey Reina on Upright and electric bass
Sam Halterman on Drums
Emily Wells on violin, vocals, piano, banjos, organs, synths, subs, sounds, samples, drum machine, xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels, guitars, ukuleles etc
Jessica Catron performs cello on the recordings of Symphonies 1 - 9... Count Bass D appears on Symphony 3: The Story (Featuring Count Bass D)
Influences
nina simone, bob dylan, egon schiele, arcade fire, biggy smalls, joanna newsom, katherine dunn, bjork, timmy straw, outkast, yoshi nara, robert johnson, kozyndan, action e jackson, elliott smith, toumani diabate, richard yates, modest mouse, rumi, aphex twin, billie holiday, david sedaris, the cure, damon albarn, mali music, dizzy gillespie, lou reed / velvet underground, mazzy star/ hope sandoval, Ruben Gonzalez, Simple Citizens, miles daves, CocoRosie, matmos, audre lorde, the shins, portishead, lee scratch perry, beethoven, ahmed jamal trio, raymond carver, michel gondry prefuse 73, j.d. salinger, ee cummings, suzuki, ratatat
Sounds Like
“Multi-instrumentalist Emily Wells says she's ‘most influenced by the songs and voices of Nina Simone and Bob Dylan.’ You can hear it in Emily's music. She's a singer-songwriter with unconventional and often chilling vocals." -NPR.....................
"Emily Wells has a quavering, angelic voice that has a little aura of strangeness." -iTunes (indie spotlight artist)............. "Like a mix of Nina Simone and Bjork, Wells bled emotion with every word." -Performer Magazine (live review)..............
"Wells flirts with preciousness on the Joanna Newsome-esque 'Supermarket'"
-Pasadena Weekly ................
"The closest thing I could think of to describe Ms. Wells is like a stripped-down Portishead mixed with a Neil Young/Nick Cave/Nick Drake sensibility."
-Reviewer Magazine .............
"...singer/songwriter Emily Wells wrote, produced, and mixed her most recent album, Beautiful Sleepyhead and the Laughing Yaks. The result is an accomplished record that combines the curious vocal delivery and lyrical quirkiness of Joanna Newsom with the world-weary wisdom of Billie Holiday...." - Flavorpill.............. "Fans of Leonard Cohen, Elliot Smith, Tom Waits, Bright Eyes, Joanna Newsom and others in similar veins will find Wells a pleasurable listen. It sounds like she could have been influenced by any or all of these artists and many more though there's no sense that she's copping anybody's sound in particular. Jazz, blues, and country figure into her music as does an Eastern European tinge, magnificent string arrangements. and a marvelous vocal vibrato." - Lefthip Magazine
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You can hear pieces of the song that my boy JEREMY SOLE and i created for Rami's Bryant Park Fashion show. Buy the single at itunes here: ..
------------------------------------------------BIO------------------------------Emily Wells is an anomaly among musicians most of whom spend their careers striving for a major label deal. Before she was old enough to vote, a major label was courting Wells, two music-publishing companies were competing for the rights to her songs and she was recording with award winning producers. By the time she was legally buying her first drink, however, Emily had chosen a different path. With true indie ethos, she moved from New York, leaving in her wake a lucrative deal from a major label, the renowned producers, recording studios, and a manager. During that period of her life, Emily had been offered everything that most musicians want. Everything except what she, as an artist, needed most: creative control.
Attaining the ever-elusive artist’s dream of creative control, as Wells would soon learn, comes only at a price. Wells’ cost was the thousands of miles logged, traipsing across country, playing in and outside of bars, pubs, and juke joints. She traveled in a tiny car, dragging along guitars, a tiny bass, a giant old Linn 9000 drum machine, and a four track. When flush, Emily would spend the occasional night in a seedy motel room where she would tirelessly record with her archaic four-track and dirty old instruments. Emily didn’t look back to her swank days as a would-be priority artist on a major label and regret any of her choices; she saw each obstacle in her path as a challenge. Eventually landing in Los Angeles, Wells finally learned through recording and performing, how to have the creative control she craved. Slowly building her own studio, she taught herself how to record and produce. This is the studio in which she would create, record, mix, and produce “The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties” her latest release. To get the sound of a full orchestra, Emily didn’t take the easy way out and simply loop the layers of violins; instead, she played up to 21 separate tracks of violin on each symphony, often using an octave pedal to create the tones of an underwater cello or viola. In addition to the strings, there is a plethora of other sounds, electronic and organic alike. Two years ago, Wells found a bassist, Joey Reina, and a drummer, Sam Halterman, who add a richness to both the live show and the recordings. Their contributions to “The Symphonies” give the compositions more depth as well as a little junk in the trunk.
----------------autoBIO --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{early memory}--------------
I was three, maybe four, up way past my bedtime, and I saw a girl named Midori on Johnny Carson playing a Vivaldi Concerto for Violin. Somehow, strangely, from that moment on I had it in my head that I was going to be a violinist. Months later I finally convinced my obliging parents to find me lessons. I don’t know if it was the sound of the instrument, the poised young woman, or the affections of Johnny Carson and the crowd that night that lured me, but since that day my desire to make noise and be heard has not ceased. ----------- {history of musical growth, triumphs, failures, and choices follows} ------------------------------ {the present}---------
Both live and in the studio, the addition of two incredible players, upright bassist Joey Reina and drummer Sam Halterman, have added an invaluable richness to the music, with their unique and booty shakin sensibilities. Our live show has become something of a musical spectacle, with live violin sampling, bumpin hip hop to classical beats and bass to move you.
My last record “Beautiful Sleepyhead and the Laughing Yaks” was made with guitars, violins, upright bass, drums, banjos, xylophones and glockenspiels, Hammond organ, piano, and a few electronics. The record was made entirely in my studio, where I sat behind the board and in front of the microphones.
I just finished a new record of 10 symphonic folktronica fantasies, entitled, "The Symphonies: Dreams, Memories, and Parties." These works are indeed my most ambitious, and have been a huge and exciting challenge to capture in the studio. They are big strings, big beats, big bass. They are memories in song, they are my joy, my dreams, my longings, and my past. They smell like color, and sound like September. They are Sam on his drums, and Joey on his basses. They are samples of whales, crickets and kids. They are Al's Banjo and a thumb piano. They are drum machines, clicks, bike gears, typewriters, toy piano: sounds that pour into your right ear and out of your left. They are for me... and they are for you.
June 2008-
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You have such amazing talent and I am so glad to have discovered your cd. I can't wait for the new one to come out. I hope you will come tour in Boston. Best Wishes! ~Marcilia
I cannot wait for the album release party! Your creation is soooo much more than I could ever have imagined! True bliss...I just added the new track to my profile. Can't help it...it's an addiction. Radiant music always is... xo g
emily emily emily emily emily emily emily. you. are. the. most. amazing. THANK YOU ALL for everything. I've had a million calls today all about EM!!! You are such a magical addition to my life! I LOVE YOU (and owe you!!)
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