Scottish alt-electro-pop artist and producer Fourth Daughter, aka Emily Atkinson, recently released her debut EP, HYPERREAL, a dazzling six-track collection of songs highlighted by luscious, dreamy vocals.
Growing up the youngest of four daughters, for Emily music was a way of escaping the boredom of her small-town life in the Scottish countryside. Her obsession with music exploded while exploring her parents’ synth-heavy CD collection and soon enough she dove in head first and emerged as a classically trained pianist inspired by the likes of Rufus Du Sol, Jamie XX, and Sylvan Esso.
Named by BBC Radio’s Vic Galloway as one of his Artists To Watch in 2020, alongside press features in The Scotsman, Skinny Mag, The Weekender Mag, and being picked to join BBC Radio Scotland’s Introducing Program cohort, Fourth Daughter hopes to connect with people and help them forget about all the stupid stuff that doesn’t matter.
She explains: “Maybe they’ll appreciate the vulnerability and truth in my songs or just dig into the tracks/production and their energy. The human experience is confusing and weird at times but it’s relatable and being able to funnel that into creating songs is pretty cool.”
CelebMix spoke with Fourth Daughter to find out more about her mindset as she recorded the EP, and how she got started in music.
What three things can’t you live without?
Ableton Push. Coke Zero. Lip balm. Addicted to all three.
What inspired your new EP, HYPERREAL?
Everyday things, life events, people.
Walk us through your mindset as you entered the studio to record the EP.
The EP was written over a stretch of time and the writing and recording take place generally at the same time, so I guess my mindset when I go into these things is like pensive excitement. It can be a lot of pressure going in and hoping you’re going to come out with something great on the spot. When you get it right though it’s the absolute best.
How did you get started in music?
I started learning to play the piano when I was seven years old and it just kind of snowballed over the years. I had a great appreciation of music from a young age and being able to play just heightened it. I went to music college when I was 18 and that’s where I really started to song write and learn to produce.
Did your sound evolve naturally, or did you deliberately push it in a certain direction?
A wee bit of both. It evolved naturally in as much as I played piano and then the second I got access to produce I was straight onto playing synths. Then the music I made for a while was a lot different – a lot darker and had a bit of an electronic/singer-songwriter vibe to it. I knew I really wanted to make dance-leaning electro-pop music but I didn’t really have the skills to do it yet so I really started learning to produce better and would make beats constantly until I could do it really well and pushed it into a more dance leaning direction once I was able to.
How do you keep your sound fresh, and avoid falling into the trap of imitating either yourself or others?
I think listening to as much music as possible and as many different genres of music as possible too. There’s so much inspiration to be drawn from music that’s not even like your own and then that subconsciously collates together, and I think that’s how you end up with your own sound. It’s a culmination of all your music tastes and your own style that comes together and if you keep authentic to that then no one else can really imitate it and it will always sound fresh.
Are there any special recording techniques you use in the studio?
More recently it’s been recording vocals differently – changing the tempo of the song and singing really fast, then super slow, and then bringing them back to tempo against the main vocal and you get cool artifacts and glitches in the recordings that you otherwise couldn’t get.
How do you keep your sound consistent on stage?
A lot of that comes down to the production – having an additional producer on the songs to tie everything together makes all the sounds consistent and then of course my voice is the main theme that ties everything together. There are a lot of vocal samples I play live too that are made out of my voice. That’s the common thread.
What inspires your writing? Do you draw inspiration from poems, music, or other media?
Definitely other music and I guess just general life experiences. Not always big experiences either, it can be the smallest thing.
What can you share about your writing process?
It usually starts in one of two ways. One is with just me writing some beats, synth parts, bass parts, and some vocals and I’ll stretch the song out a little and then I’ll take it to another producer, and we’ll take the song and finish it off together. The other way is when I’ll go into a session with a co-writer/producer, and we will start with nothing and work together from scratch. I used to exclusively only do it in the first way, mainly because it takes the pressure off a little having formed ideas to work with, but I think I’ve grown to love to second way. I like the gamble of going in with nothing and just seeing what could happen in a day under pressure. Some of my best songs have been written and produced this way.
Which artists in your opinion are killing it right now?
Sofia Kourtesis. Georgia. Elkka. They’re my favorites at the moment.
What can your fans look forward to over the next six months? Music videos? Live gigs?
I’m playing live again and it’s quickly becoming my favorite thing – I’ve just played BBC Introducing Live which is being broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland this Friday. I’ll be at Outwith festival in September and a few more yet to be announced.
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