Following the announcement of their EP Big Leap, No Faith, Small Chancer, we spoke to the two about their strangest obsessions, recurring dreams and earliest musical memories
While some people warn that you should never do business with family, the music industry is full of successful family groups. From The Jackson 5 and The Carpenters to HAIM and Chloe x Halle, family groups have provided some of the greatest music of all time. British-Chinese sibling duo Esme and Emerson Lee Scott, aka Esme Emerson, continue this prosperous line.
Raised in Suffolk, the indie pop duo began making music together during Emerson’s final year at university. During this time, they realized how well their creative ideas matched and started posting music and covers on TikTok. Before signing to a label, their debut EP, S for sugar, D for dogreached 300,000 streams on Spotify.
From their TikTok presence to their music videos, the couple always looks like they’re having the best time making music, and you can hear it in their vocals. It makes listening to them an honor as you witness two people doing what they truly love.
Following the announcement of their next EP, Big leap, no faith, little chanceout June 28, the duo spoke to Dazed about their music, the tiniest thing they’ve ever done and their nightmarish dumb spin.
How would you describe your music?
Esme Emerson: We want to make music that reads like poetry. We aim for it to feel organic and contemporary. We like to focus on textures and create something tactile and tangible, like you can physically hold the sounds. We also like to experiment with more electronic elements that cut through the organic bones we often build from. We feel fun making things out of elements that challenge each other and strongly embrace the imperfections in our music.
Embracing imperfections resonates not only with how our music sounds, but also with what our songs are about. The lyrics often flow as scattered thoughts and apologies, delving into contemplations of imperfection and vulnerability (or lack thereof). We like to delve into the complexity of feeling until sonically it feels as taxing as the content itself – our music and the act of making it is joyous to us!
Please share the latest note from your Notes app.
Emerson: My last note is a potential track list for a new EP. I have a habit of staying up late listening to old demos and imagining them as a whole project. Either that or a draft message because I can’t just send a text without thinking about it for half an hour.
Esme: My last note is “The Board Bard, Goblin”. I had to remember that. Very important.
What is your ghost outfit?
Emerson: Full suit of medieval knight armor including sword. Be afraid of me.
Esme: The pajamas that Ebenezer Scrooge wears with the little hat.
Smallest thing you’ve done?
Emerson: I kicked my ex-girlfriend’s dog out of bed when she was sleeping.
Esme: When customers were particularly rude to me at my old job, I would crush their baked goods with my tongs as I put them away.
What is your weirdest internet obsession?
Emerson: I love anime reaction videos. In my darkest hours, I watch how different people react Attack on Titanseason 2 episode 6
Esme: Drowning of Sinjin.
Emerson: I know when Esme is watching too much “Sinjin Drowning” because she’s starting to sound like Weston Couri.
Esme: I can not help.
Any recurring dreams?
Emerson: I often dream that my teeth have fallen out. In my last year of university I tried to go vegan, but my teeth started to break, so I think that memory is haunting me. Now I take calcium supplements every morning because I’m not taking any chances.
Esme: For a few weeks last year I dreamed every night that I was a spy. The dreams just stopped after a while and my last mission was a high speed boat escape. I miss my espionage friends. They were so joyful.
What will your funeral song be?
Emerson: ‘Cold Beer Calling My Name’ by Jameson Rogers. Sometimes heaven is a pocket full of green!
Esme: ‘Goodbye from Joe Di Messina. An open casket. Bye-bye, my baby, bye-bye!
Who is your enemy?
Emerson: My ex-girlfriend’s dog.
Esme: A girl I worked with used to make me scrub the baseboards.
What will be the lineup in your nightmare dumb rotation?
Emerson: Everything from BTS. I wouldn’t want to be seen like that.
Esme: Literally every rotation with a man in it.
What is your earliest musical memory?
Emerson: Unboxing my first guitar, a helluva red Epiphone flying-v for my 9th birthday. Rock and roll baby (I never learned to play it).
Esme: I peed myself while performing S-Club 7’s hit single “Reach” in front of my mom and aunt in the living room when I was five.
You encounter a hostile alien race and sound is their only means of communication. What song would you play them to inspire them to spare you and the rest of the human race?
Emerson: If their only communication mechanism is healthy, we could easily overstimulate them. So maybe “Sticker” by NCT127. I always felt like this song was going to save the world.
Esme: Expected, easy defeat. Esme Emerson: 1, Aliens: 0.
Emerson: You’re welcome, Earth.
Big leap, no faith, little chance out June 28 via Communion Records
