Q+A: 5 Minutes with Fourth Daughter
Having a first foray into artistry at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, classically trained pianist, and producer Emily Atkinson aka Fourth Daughter immediately caught the attention of the likes of The Scotsman, The Skinny, The Weekender Mag, and BBC Radio Scotland’s Vic Galloway who named her as one of the Artists To Watch. Double A side single “Say What You Want / Calling Out Your Name” marked her return in 2023 receiving playlist support from Apple and Amazon whilst her latest offering, “Take The Fall” was featured by the likes of Wonderland Magazine, This Song Is Sick, and Acid Stag to name a few.
The Scottish riser gears up to her debut EP, HYPERREAL slated for release at the end of July. In the meantime get to know more about Fourth Daughter below.
Set the tone for us. Why the arts?
I think that just the arts in all forms and capacities is exciting. It’s an escape from normal day to day boring stuff. Why wouldn’t we want that?
Which comes first when you’re producing – the sound or the idea?
Definitely the sound. I usually get started with a beat or a loop or a synth sound I like and then build around that a little bit and then start placing melodies and song ideas on the top of it once I get about 8 bars of something that’s taking shape.
What’s on your current playlist?
I’m currently really loving Sofia Kourtesis. She’s great.
What techniques do you experiment with to get your original sound?
I think a lot of it comes from the synth sounds and the vocal production. Stacking different vocals up and messing about with each layer to make unusual textures out of my voice makes it sound a bit unique and pulls out tiny discrepancies in the voice which is cool.
Take us through a day in the recording studio.
It can look very different depending on if it’s by myself or with other people. By myself I’ll usually build a beat up, sometimes out of loops or sometimes I’ll just play it all in on a sample pad. Then I’ll layer up some synth sounds and start stretching out the potential sections of the song and begin to start laying vocals down on the top. By this point it’s always a little messy from just throwing the ideas down so I’ll spend a bunch of time tidying things up, pulling parts in and out in places and just getting it sonically clean. If I’m in the studio with other people it doesn’t start out massively different but I tend to be milling about a little more so darting between playing on synths or vocal ideas and spend the day mostly going in and out of the vocal booth. Not being sat at the computer too helps me to give production direction in a different way from when I’m on my own too. I love both for different reasons.
Was there a specific moment in your life where you thought, “this is what I want to do”?
I don’t think so. I think it’s just evolved over time and it’s always been a constant that I’ve been playing or making music for as long as I remember. I’ve always been passionate about it.
Any emerging artists on your radar?
I’ve really been loving Kenya Grace for the last while. Her songwriting is incredible.
What gets your creative juices flowing?
Listening to music from other artists that I love and getting inspired to get in there and started.
Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you this year?
My debut EP Hyperreal is out this summer on 28/07 which I’m super excited about. I worked tirelessly on it last year and it’s pretty good if I can say so myself.
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