Following the announcement of their EP Big Leap, No Faith, Small Chancer, we spoke to the pair about their weirdest obsessions, recurring dreams and earliest music memories
While some people caution that you should never do business with family, the music industry is filled with successful family bands. From The Jackson 5 and The Carpenters to HAIM and Chloe x Halle, family bands have provided some of the greatest music of all time. British-Chinese sibling duo Esme and Emerson Lee Scott, also known as Esme Emerson, are continuing this prosperous lineage.
Raised in Suffolk, the indie pop duo started making music together during Emerson’s last year at university. During that time, they realised how well their creative ideas aligned and started posting music and covers on TikTok. Before being signed to a label, their debut EP, S for Sugar, D for Dog, reached 300,000 streams on Spotify.
From their TikTok presence to their music videos, the pair always looks like they’re having the best time making music, and you can hear that in their vocals. It makes listening to them feel like an honour, as you’re witnessing two people do what they truly love.
Following the announcement of their next EP, Big Leap, No Faith, Small Chancer, out June 28, the duo spoke to Dazed about their music, the pettiest thing they’ve ever done and their nightmare blunt rotation.
How would you describe your music?
Esme Emerson: We want to make music that feels kinda yeehaw and reads like poetry. We aim for it to feel organic and contemporary. We love focusing on textures and creating something tactile and tangible, like you could physically hold the sounds. We also like to experiment with more electronic elements that cut through the organic bones we often build from. It feels fun to make things out of elements that challenge each other and heavily embrace 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 like scattered thoughts and excuses, delving into contemplations of imperfection and vulnerability (or lack thereof). We like to delve into the complexities of feelings while sonically not feeling as burdensome as the content itself – our music and the act of creating it are joyous for us!
Please share the most recent note from your Notes app.
Emerson: My last note is a potential tracklist for a new EP. I have a late-night habit of listening to old demos and imagining them as an entire project. It’s either that or a message draft because I can’t just send a text without overthinking it for half an hour.
Esme: My last note is ‘Borg the Bard, Goblin.’ I needed to remember this. Very important.
What’s your ghost outfit?
Emerson: A full suit of medieval knight armour, sword included. Fear me.
Esme: The pyjamas Ebenezer Scrooge wears with the little hat.
Pettiest thing you’ve ever done?
Emerson: I used to nudge my ex-girlfriend’s dog off the bed when she was asleep.
Esme: When customers were particularly rude to me at my old job, I’d crush their baked goods between my tongs as I plated them.
What’s your weirdest internet obsession?
Emerson: I love anime reaction videos. In my darkest hours, I binge-watch different people react to Attack on Titan, season 2, episode 6.
Esme: Sinjin Drowning.
Emerson: I know when Esme is watching lots of Sinjin Drowning because she starts to sound like Weston Koury.
Esme: I can’t help it.
Any recurring dreams?
Emerson: I often dream that my teeth have fallen out. In my final year of university, I tried going vegan, but my teeth started chipping, so I think that memory plagues me. I now take calcium supplements every morning because I’m not taking any chances.
Esme: For a few weeks last year, I had nightly dreams of being a spy. The dreams just stopped after a while, and my final mission was a high-speed escape via boat. I miss my espionage buddies. They were so rad.
What would be your funeral song?
Emerson: ‘Cold Beer Calling My Name’ by Jameson Rodgers. Sometimes heaven is a pocket full of payday green!
Esme: ‘Bye-bye’ by Jo Dee Messina. Open casket. Bye-bye, my baby, bye-bye!
Who is your nemesis?
Emerson: My ex-girlfriend’s dog.
Esme: This one girl I used to work with who would make me scrub the skirting boards.
What would the line-up be in your nightmare blunt rotation?
Emerson: All of BTS. I wouldn’t want them to see me like that.
Esme: Literally any rotation with a man in it.
What is your earliest music memory?
Emerson: Unboxing my first ever guitar, a sick as hell red Epiphone flying-v for my 9th birthday. Rock and roll, baby (I never learnt how to play it).
Esme: I peed myself while performing S-Club 7’s hit single ‘Reach’ to my mum and auntie in the living room when I was five.
You encounter a hostile alien race and sound is their only mechanism for communication. What song would you play to them to inspire them to spare you and the rest of the human race?
Emerson: If their only mechanism for communication is sound, we could easily overstimulate them. So maybe ‘Sticker’ by NCT127. I always had a feeling that song would save the world.
Esme: As expected, an easy defeat. Esme Emerson: 1, Aliens: 0.
Emerson: You’re welcome, Earth.
Big Leap, No Faith, Small Chancer is out June 28 via Communion Records