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13 June 2011updated 12 Oct 2023 10:40am

Cultural Capital podcast: Emmy the Great

A conversation on music, lyrics, the monarchy and the end of the world with the singer-songwriter.

By Yo Zushi

A conversation on music, lyrics, the monarchy and the end of the world with the singer-songwriter.

In the first Cultural Capital podcast for Newstatesman.com, I speak to the singer-songwriter Emma Lee Moss of the band Emmy the Great. Their second album, Virtue, is released today.

In the interview, we talk about the difficulties of being a woman in the music industry (“It’s hard to be a woman anything . . . but that creates stronger women”); her song “Mistress England”, which she wrote for the Observer‘s royal wedding special (“I found out I was anti-monarchy”); the student protests (“The media focused on the violence because it was sexy”); being a member of the Labour Party (“Obviously, I’m not going to go Lib Dem”); and the impact of the internet on musicians (“It’s like being in the wild west – things are so unregulated”). She also explains how “the first time I fell in love, I got the squits”.

Watch the video for their new single, “Iris”:

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Yo Zushi works for the New Statesman. His most recent album, “Notes for ‘Holy Larceny'”, was released by Pointy Records

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