Emilia Christine Russo has instantly established herself as an artist who isn’t afraid to express her deepest emotions through her music. In this exclusive interview, she opens up about the personal experiences that have shaped her debut single, “Ghostly,” a track born from the raw pain of losing her older sister. Emilia’s openness in her art invites listeners to connect with her on a profound level, offering a rare glimpse into the healing process that music can foster. As we explore her creative process and the inspiration behind her work, it becomes clear that her authenticity is at the core of her craft. Her debut single will make you shed a tear; this interview will make you fall in love with her soul.
Emilia Christine Russo, welcome to A&R Factory. We’d love to discuss your debut single, Ghostly, what’s the story behind the single?
Thank you so much for having me! “Ghostly” came to me after a therapy session, as most of my songs did, actually. For years, I have written on my notes app words that I think would make great song titles. “Ghostly” was one word that I thought was cool, and originally, I thought the song would be a break-up song. Like, the idea of someone being left numb and ghost-like after a break-up. I don’t really write love songs, though. Well, at least not until recently.
Anyway, the topic for “Ghostly” came when I was finally opening up to my therapist about the trauma of the death of my older sister. I was literally the last person to find out about her death. We had a good session, and later that night, I wrote “Ghostly” all in one go. I changed the idea of what “Ghostly” would be like to something that was very healing for me personally. Someone should write a break-up song about how the split left a person wandering around all ghost-like. *laughs*
There’s an incredible equilibrium of artfulness and authenticity in Ghostly; could you walk us through how this manifested?
I don’t know, it kind of came out like a stream of consciousness. I’ve heard my lyrics be described like that before–a stream of consciousness. Just thoughts onto paper. Pair that with a piano, and I got a song out of it.
Did you know you always wanted to debut with Ghostly?
No, definitely not. This was such a personal song. At the time, I had a music therapist who was more like a songwriting teacher, as she reviewed with me the basics of how to write songs–you know, verse, pre-chours, chorus, yadda yadda–and encouraged me to put into words my feelings about my traumas.
My problem is that I tend to put my feelings into boxes–like, “I don’t have the time to deal with that, to feel those feelings, because I have this deadline or whatever, so I’m going to trap them in this little box and put it on a shelf to deal with later.” Pushing through things is how I was raised. But then that mythical “later” never comes, and the feelings manifest in somatic symptoms. That’s why I was going to her, along with my psychologist. I could state the facts of things that happened to me, but I wasn’t facing my feelings about them.
But back to the song. I wrote “Ghostly” and showed it to my music therapist at our next session. She was like, “I wouldn’t change a thing.” I was really proud of it, so I wanted to show it to people first.
Would you say Ghostly exhibits your signature songwriting style or is it always in flux?
I think it would be accurate to say that “Ghostly” exhibits my signature songwriting style. I don’t like my lyrics to be too predictable in the sense that it has a lot of rhyming. In fact, rhyming kind of grinds my gears and was something I had to slowly be more okay with doing for my songs.
I also like to keep my lyrics kind of vague–general enough for people to not know exactly who or what I’m singing about, which people can then take and personalize for themselves, but specific enough for me to get healing out of it.
What can your fans expect from your forthcoming ‘Two Rights Don’t Make a Wrong EP’?
More songs about real things that happened to me. Well, except for one song that’s a cover. I heard it when I was a kid and loved it. It’s kind of an old song, and I want more people to know it exists. But yeah, more songs that came from therapy sessions, so they’ll have a kind of emo vibe to them. *laughs*
When did your songwriting skills first start to become apparent?
For songwriting, I guess it was the first time I showed my lyrics to my music therapist/songwriting teacher. It wasn’t “Ghostly”, it was another song that I don’t think will ever see the light of day, because I’d like to think I’m better at songwriting now. But she really liked it. I had written lyrics before, all the way back to middle school, but they were more like poems. They had the structure of a song, but I don’t think they would’ve worked paired to music.
I was a poet first before I turned to songwriting, and I have been writing poems since elementary school. So, if we’re talking about when I noticed I had writing skills, those go back to when I was a child. Side note, one song off my EP is taken mostly from a poem/”lyrics” I wrote many years ago. I could actually pair those lyrics to an instrumental. I hope that makes my younger self happy.
Who do you draw the most inspiration from lyrically and sonically?
For this song, I drew most of my inspiration from Evanescence but circa 1998 to 2017. I also draw from Paramore and The Holy Trinity of Emo Music–Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and My Chemical Romance. You’ll hear that more in my future releases.
What’s your main ambition as a singer-songwriter?
I just want to see how far I can take this. It’s like one big experiment. Would I like to play a live show someday? Yeah. Would I like my song to get some airplay? Also yes. But really, I’m exploring this one area of writing that I haven’t really delved into and seeing what I can get out of this experience.
One thing I’d really like, though, is to find other female or non-binary musicians in the Seattle area and form a band. I’m an extroverted person and want to make more friends, so I don’t want to go solo with this. *laughs* I have so many songs I could share.
Stream Ghostly on Spotify and connect with Emilia Christine Russo on Instagram.
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Interview by Amelia Vandergast
