In the intimate setting of Green Note Camden, Emily Duff sits down with 1st 3 Magazine for a candid conversation following her final UK gig of the tour.
Known for her genre-defying music and raw storytelling, Emily reflects on her diverse musical influences, her unconventional journey, and the profound impact of her personal experiences on her artistry.
From her formative years surrounded by the eclectic records of her parents to her unexpected career as a chef and eventual return to music, Emilyâs story is one of resilience, creativity, and relentless passion. She opens up about the significance of her roles as a mother and a musician, the challenges she overcame from a tumultuous childhood, and her continuous drive to connect through her music.
With a deep love for her craft and an unwavering dedication to authenticity, Emily Duffâs narrative is as compelling and multifaceted as her music. Join us as she shares her insights on life, love, and the beautiful chaos of her artistic journey.
I started playing guitar when I was seven."
1st 3 Magazine: This is the last of your UK gigs on this yearâs tourâwhat have been the highlights?
Emily Duff: Every show is a highlight for me! Because itâs a privilege to play hereâthis is where Iâve found people love music and the kind of music I do because theyâre kind of lyrical, and theyâre stories and people love to connect through them and listen. I really like playing in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, at The Robin Hood. They have this thing called the âSunday Showdownâ and it was special because I got to play on my birthday!
1st 3: The Yorkshire people are very honest!
E: It was two shows, and they both sold out. I sold all my vinyl and almost all my merch! Itâs all been special, but that one stood out because the audience was so appreciativeâand it was my birthday.
1st 3: It has been said that you are a âgenre benderââyou donât stick to one style.
E: Yes, I say that I have musical genre-dysphoria!
1st 3: So going back to your earliest memories (and I know that you had a lot of trauma when you were little), how was your musical style shaped? What was in your parentsâ record collection?
E: Oh well, thatâs the thing; they did have great records in the house. While they werenât good parents, they were good musical teachers. Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin, Brill Building writersâNeil Diamond, Ellie Greenwich, Carole King⊠so great songwriters. My favorite band growing up was Blood, Sweat & Tears. I liked The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, and I loved pop. I watched The Partridge Family and The Monkees, so that stuff was really important to me too.
1st 3: Your mum played guitar?
E: She was a folk guitarist. She had a 1967 Giannini guitar which she still has, and she taught me four chords: G, Am, Em, and D7. You can play almost every song from the 1950s if you know those! That was her era. I started playing guitar when I was seven.
1st 3: You went on to play âcello?
E: Yes, I was a classical cellist for a really long time, which is how I got into writing country music with string arrangements. I was writing baroque-style string quartet arrangements of songs.
I woke up one morning and saw that I was smoking the same cigarettes and drinking the same scotch as my mother, and I said stop. Thatâs it."
1st 3: Have you always been a composer? When did you start writing music?
E: I was playing Haydn, Bach, Romberg, and then I started writing sonatas for âcello andâ450 Camaro engine! So right away I thought, âOh thatâs a noise!â and started designing, making, and building instruments. I went to college (SUNY Purchase) where there was a dance program and a music program. I wasnât in either of those, but I got together with musicians, dancers, sculptors, and choreographers, so I wound up doing a lot of performance art on instruments that I designed and built.
1st 3: String?
E: Mostly, yes, but string instruments that were combined with percussion.
1st 3: Chromatic or diatonic?
E: Chromatic. They were all based on what I knew, but I took it to a different place.
1st 3: How did your career develop from then on? What did you want to do? Did you want to be a performer?
E: I was supposed to graduate (and I did graduate!) from school and go to downstate medical to be a nurse midwife. But I got thwarted again! I was living in Tribeca (in the â80s); I wound up in a kitchen, started apprenticing, and then I became a chef for 25 years! I was cooking, I started my own restaurant, and in 1995 I also sold a script to Disney, Touchstone. Itâs been like this, my life; music, teaching, cookingâIâve wanted to do it all.
1st 3: Do you think your childhood struggles made you more of a go-getter? More determined to succeed? You created a great big life for yourselfâŠ
E: Yes! My sister used to say we were raised by a pack of wolves, but I always say I was raised by a pack of cigarettes. I started smoking when I was ten years oldâI was pinching my grandmotherâs cigarettes. Because I had no boundariesâI had no boundaries. And that was really good and really bad. Because I started so young I stopped everything when I was 24. I got sober at 24. I woke up one morning and saw that I was smoking the same cigarettes and drinking the same scotch as my mother, and I said stop. Thatâs it.
1st 3: Has it been really important to you to be a good mum?
E: Well, I never thought Iâd have children, get married⊠but then I met the person who made me want them. I mean, I got it. I never understood before, why people wanted children until I met my husband.
I donât call it songwriting, I call it song catching."
1st 3: Tell me a little more about your role as a mum, following your atypical start to life.
E: Itâs really important to me. I didnât realize how important it was to me until I had my daughter Sylvia. She was named after my grandmother because after my mum left, my grandmother moved in, and she was the only person who ever made me feel safe. And I loved her. When Sylvia was born and I looked at her for the first time, my first thought was âOh hello again!â That this was something I was supposed to do.
1st 3: Like songwritingâit comes easily to you. Weâve read that sometimes you can write a song a day.
E: I do! I have to stop myself from writing!
1st 3: Have you always been like that?
E: Iâm a double GeminiâI donât call it songwriting, I call it song catching. Most people are so caught up in being the God of it that they donât sit back and let the song happen. I feel more like I have antennae, rather than being a pilot. Itâs like when I was back being a chefâpeople would ask me, whatâs the difference between being a male and a female chef? And I would say, a female chef feeds her customers and a male chef feeds his ego! I donât feel the need to lay down on top of an ingredient and fuck it into submission. Similarly, I follow the song. It will come to me if I let it stay open. I respect itâI donât need to be the God of it.
1st 3: So when they come to you, the songs, how do you record them?
E: Theyâre all different. Sometimes I can be walking down the street and I just start singing. Like with âJesus, Love This Tired Womanâ; I had just dropped my son off at school and I hadnât been sleeping; I was exhausted. As soon as I walked out of school, I literally started singing it like I knew it already. By the time I got home it was almost like a hymn, a mantra; and as I got inside I just had to grab my guitar and write it down. Itâs a gift, you know, when that happens. And I donât mean Iâm gifted; I just mean Iâve been given a gift. Itâs lovely.
1st 3: Do you still play the âcello?
E: I donât, because I live in a tiny apartment in Greenwichâ340 square feet! All four of us, no upstairs, a hound dog, thirty guitarsâand Sylviaâs boyfriend often stays over! I moved in 34 years ago, just me, my pug, and the guitars. At that point, I was never getting married or having kids. Thereâs an energy there in my house.
1st 3: And has your music, your voice, changed over the years? Did it change after you became a mother?
E: Yes itâs changed, but Iâve never liked my voice. Iâve always called myself a songwriter, never a singer. I think Iâve got an interesting voice and maybe itâs getting a bit more gravelly and resonantâbut Iâve done 11 gigs in a row and I might be missing a few top notes!
I love creative people and every time I find something new itâs like a treasure."
1st 3: What do you write about? Do your songs reflect your life stages?
E: I write about everything! Everything comes from a different place. You donât think that the human heart could get any bigger, that youâd have the capacity to love or feel any more because itâs a physiological thing and your heart is just this bigâbut then you have children and you just burn brighter. Your desire to be present grows. For exampleâI wrote âHallelujah Helloâ which is a gospel song. I was born Jewish. But my daughter is seven years old and sheâs sitting in this little portable dog washing bowl that sits in the shower, and Iâm cleaning up after dinner, and she starts âBringing in the Sheavesâ and I say, âSylvia, how do you know that song?â She says, âLittle House on the Prairieâand why donât we go to church?â I explain that weâre Jewish and she says, âNo, youâre Jewish but Daddyâs not and I want to go to church.â And that started a period when Sylvia became really connected with our Episcopalian neighborhood church. So then I started going, and I fell in love with itâand then I became a member of the church, and became what I call a âJew-discopalianâ!
1st 3: A bit like your songwriting! Thatâs youâa lovely rich mixture. Whose music are you excited about at the moment?
E: Everybodyâs music! I love creative people and every time I find something new itâs like a treasure. There are three girls in a band in NYC, theyâre young, Iâve known them since they were 14/15 and theyâre killing it! Theyâre called Hello Mary. I had them over to my house a while ago and added acoustic instruments to their sound. They are a rock band, touring all over the world now with a manager and a label! Iâm specifically excited about every single young woman who picks up a guitar, and who wants to write about her experiences. I will help anyone. I will give her a guitar and extend every courtesy.
We all make our own happiness."
1st 3: Where has it come from, all of that love? Do you think you were born with it? Do you think your Grandmother gave it to you?
E: No, I had to make it on my own. I think I just became really used to producing on demand.
1st 3: And knowing that you had to make your own happiness?
E: We all make our own happiness.
1st 3: Maybe not a lot of people realize that. And sometimes people that had a tougher start find it harder. But not you.
E: No!
1st 3: Youâve got it allâthe cute kids, the cute husband, the West Village apartment⊠have you got any life goals left?
E: Iâm just going to see where I go⊠I would like to get back into riding horses! I miss horses. And my mum⊠sheâs had some health problems, so Iâm going to go to help her. You only have one mum. She might not have been able to be a mum to me when I needed her, but that was because of other things.
1st 3: It seems you have a huge capacity to love and forgive, and to infuse others with joy.
E: We all have. Itâs inside every one of us.
Emily Duff played  Green Note Camden on June 23rd, 2024
