Emma Louise Opens Up About Autism Diagnosis

As Emma Louise and Flume (aka Harley Streten) celebrate the release of their collaborative album, DUMB, the former has opened up about her adulthood autism and ADHD diagnoses.

In a new interview with The Guardian, she discussed how the pair of diagnoses—received in her twenties—informed the glitchy new album.

“There was definitely grief, especially about the second one [autism],” Louise said, revealing that she wishes she had known earlier, “because I’ve suffered so much, just feeling unworthy and not good enough … [That] definitely got me into situations or relationships that weren’t very healthy. Looking back, I can see how it all happened.”

Revealing that Louise’s experiences with neurodivergence are “in the undercurrent of everything,” she explained that music gives her a pathway to communicate even if her emotions are overwhelming.

“If something happens to me… I won’t be able to figure it out in my head, and it’ll be so confusing emotionally – and if I let it keep going, dysregulating,” she said. “But if I get a guitar or a piano, and I close my eyes and play something and start writing … I feel that relief, because I have put it in a form that I understand.”

By giving the album the title DUMB, Louise hopes she and Flume will begin new conversations. “I feel like it will, at least, open up a conversation,” she told The Guardian. “We don’t want to offend anyone with it … I’m keen to hear what it makes everybody feel, especially people who are neurodiverse.”

At the end of the interview, Louise admitted that she’s reclaimed the word DUMB: “It captures everything that I’ve had to heal and overcome,” she explained. “I wouldn’t be able to release it if I felt in any part of me that I was less than somebody who’s neurotypical.”

It’s a concept Louise discussed upon announcing the album in July. “The title DUMB is loaded with weight for me,” she said. “Growing up undiagnosed neurodivergent, I often felt dumb—struggling at school, forgetting things, silencing myself to fit in.

“In the studio, whenever we got stuck, Harley and I would laugh and say ‘make it dumb’ to stop overthinking. It worked every time. At first, naming the album DUMB felt irreverent and freeing, but later I realised how deeply it connected to my own fear of being seen as stupid and unworthy. This album is me reclaiming that word, letting go of shame, and promising myself I’ll never abandon my voice again.”

DUMB was independently released last Friday (22 August) and marks Louise’s first album since 2018’s Lilac Everything, which saw Louise pitch-shift her vocals down an octave and redefine her relationship with her artistry.

DUMB also follows the release of Flume’s recent We Live In A Society EP, which marked his first release since the pair of his 2023 mixtapes (Things Don’t Always Go The Way You Plan and Arrived Anxious, Left Bored), which he created from unreleased gems across his career.