Opening Up

Having caught the attention of Spunk Records when her teenage covers of Neil Young and Joy Division made waves just as YouTube was becoming a platform for bedroom music-makers, Emma Russack is a long way from those days, yet the soulful, blues-tinged folk songstress is still suitably chuffed to be working with the label on her recent second album, You Changed Me. 

“I'm glad it's out there and it seems to be getting a rather positive response so far and that's always good. And it's just nice to have the continued support from Spunk. It feels great; I feel really excited – a lot of people don't get that opportunity and I'm lucky enough to have it. I think the first record I bought as a teenager with my own money was a Spunk album. I think it was Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's I See A Darkness and Spunk put that out and at the time I was like, 'Wow, Spunk must be really cool,' and then I got signed to them when I was 22, so that's pretty cool,” she admits with a laugh.

Armed with an intensely personal new record written over two years of personal growth, Russack reflects on what the title has come to mean.

“Well I've been thinking about that a lot lately and it really should be I Changed Me, but “You changed me” was obviously a lyric in one of the songs [Woman]. I think I've undergone the biggest change of my life in the last two years; I've become a much happier person, a much more upbeat kind of person. And also on a smaller scale, I started seeing someone a couple of years ago and he was a lot older than I was, but he completely changed my life for a while and he inspired the song that has the lyric “You changed me”, so I guess it's got two little parts to it.

“I think I'm getting to know myself a lot better, and just having a better attitude towards life; I used to be very sensitive to criticism and now I'm a lot more content and just a lot more upbeat and fun to be around. I've never had so many friends in my life as I do now; it's great – I feel like I'm finally living a normal existence and that's really, really good.”

Embarking on her first truly national jaunt for this album, Russack admits she loves the idea of being vulnerable in a live setting while sharing such personally intimate stories.

“I find it absolutely liberating – maybe it's even a form of therapy. Some people hate it – some people can't stand my music, which is fine, and some people love it and get a lot out of it. I can understand how it is polarising but that part of it doesn't concern me one bit, absolutely not! I enjoy being exposed, I absolutely thrive off it.”