Emeree is creating her own dynamic R&B universe piece by piece

If you want to get a sense of EMEREE and her layered take on R&B, ask her what she thinks about vocal stacking. “I like doing it in a way that’s beyond just adding a double and then adding a third harmony on the whole thing,” she explains. “I feel like that’s such a boring way to work.” For her, the real fun is in experimenting with every tool available: the voice, the production, the instruments – and as both a singer and a producer, she has them all under control.

“I’ve always been that annoying kid who used to sing the harmony on songs in the car,” she says to NME over Zoom, just days ahead of releasing her soulful new track, “Locked Up.” “I love jazz chords, adding a lot of very spicy layers, that’s what I call them. So, I’ll have a stack of 10 different voices on just two words, and then they’ll cut out and it’ll just be the single vocal.”

 EMEREE. Credit: Margot Stewart

Her playful method is on full display in “Locked Up.” “I’ve gone ham on my backing vocals as always,” she laughs, calling it her “most '90s-inspired” track to date. The retro sound leans heavily on Motown and ’70s soul, a thread that runs through her catalogue, from her viral 2023 debut “Leave You Like A Man” to the lush throwback “Eyesore.” Laced with sharp, witty lyrics and a touch of bite, her music always balances edge with humor. “It’s very tongue-in-cheek. It’s not too serious, as all my music is. It’s just about being a little bit toxic and having a little bit of fun.”

While EMEREE’s catalogue thrives on playful energy, she also isn’t afraid to tackle serious topics. Earlier this year, she shared the cutting “Spring Cleaning,” which she wrote to “understand how my brain was working after going through DV [domestic violence] and trying to reclaim that space again.”

“I always start and finish my songs myself. And I don’t think that’s ever gonna change. And I don’t really want it to”

 

“A lot of it is reclaiming it and putting my spin on life, and not having the next thing that I release be some depressing, sad thing, and being like, ‘This is what I went through’,” she explains. “I wanted it to be fun, and I wanted it to be catchy and upbeat and a bit poppy. And that’s what I feel like I’ve done, and I’ve spun it funnily. I think that’s true to who I am as a person and how I deal with things.”

Since childhood, the Melbourne-born artist has relied on her creativity to process life. She remembers writing her very first song at just six years old to help her memorize homework. “I just have never wanted to do anything else,” she says. “I was watching Australian Idol and I decided then and there that I wanted to be a singer, and I turned to my parents and I said, ‘I’m gonna do that.’ And I never changed.”

Earlier this year, EMEREE was stunned when NME contacted her to reveal she had been named to the NME 100 list of essential new artists for 2025, alongside breakout acts like KATSEYE and Hanumankind. “My manager called me and was like, ‘Oh my god, like I have the coolest news.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god, what?!’,” she recalls with a laugh. “I thought it was surely some tiny extra thing within the NME 100.”

That “surreal” milestone marked the beginning of a whirlwind year. Since then, she has played festivals including Brisbane’s BIGSOUND and Brighton’s The Great Escape, supported Daniel Merriweather, and signed with Creative Artist Agency for representation in the UK and Europe. “They approached me, which was just such a cool thing to know that I’m on people’s radar,” she says.

““I’ve always been that annoying kid who used to sing the harmony on songs in the car”

Long before she started making noise as a solo artist, EMEREE built her reputation as a producer, working with other Australian musicians like Tyla Jane (2021’s “Energy”) and Sophia Petro (2023’s “Memory of You”). Even now, she admits she finds the demands of touring and performing more draining than long studio days. Whether she’s producing for herself or others, the studio is where she feels most alive.

“I just love being a producer and I resonate with that side of my craft more,” she says, noting that her “ideal situation” would be to follow a path like Mark Ronson. “Being in studios every single day, working, producing, writing, doing whatever for those artists. Then, I get to completely let loose with my project and do whatever weird things that I want to, rather than having to focus on, ‘Oh, this needs to be good for charts.’”

 EMEREE. Credit: Margot Stewart

At the same time, she knows firsthand how male-dominated the production side of the industry can be. “It’s just immensely harder to be taken seriously [as a female producer] for some reason. They think I know how to use GarageBand or could fumble my way through Logic, but I’ve done a whole ass audio engineering degree,” she explains. “I’m still getting in those rooms, and people will be like, ‘Oh, so when’s the producer getting here?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m the producer.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. But when’s the engineer getting here?”

She stresses the need for change in those spaces so that women can be recognized appropriately for their contributions. “There are plenty of female artists who also do a lot of their production, like Ariana Grande, who does all her vocal production,” she says. “It’s about realising that there might be some internalised misogyny, of having this view of what a producer should look like.”

Right now, EMEREE is thriving as both a producer and performer, traveling back and forth to London and working nonstop. “Fifty days back-to-back of at least one session every single day,” she says, “and I’m still not tired.” The studio remains her safe place. “I never get sick of being in the studio,” she tells NME, adding that she has “a stupid amount of music in the backlog” ready to be released. “I think it’s good that I always start and finish my songs myself. And I don’t think that’s ever gonna change. And I don’t want it to.”

EMEREE’s new mixtape ‘Maybe I’m Just Too Sensitive (I Am)’ is out on September 11.