gobbinjr Interviewtion
Emma Witmer makes intimate bedroom pop music under the moniker gobbinjr. It’s as dreamy as it is raw. She’s just released her EP “vom night” that’s as dreamy and fun as it is raw and dark. In this interview she talks about moving to New York, crafting her new EP, and using comedy to find some light when things get dark.
Q: What made you decide to title the new EP vom night?
A: The EP was actually made during a period of my life when I was trying very hard to get myself to vomit. It was a pretty crazy (and, looking back, scary) time in my life. I had a lot of dark feelings that I wanted to purge of and somehow I convinced myself that vomiting would help. You always feel so much better after you vomit. Anyway, during this Pursuit of Vom, my bestie/roomie Hayley Livingston and I were joking about the eventual Vom Night and came to the conclusion that that's what the EP should be called. It made sense because the EP was a different form of emotional purge for me. The actual Vom Night did occur though, on July 15th, which happens to be Hayley's birthday.
Q: For the new release Sophia Foster-Dimino created a comic to accompany the release. Was that your idea? What do you think it helps listeners understand about the EP?
A: The whole minicomic thing was completely Jordan Michael's idea! I was actually pretty against the idea of doing an EP but he came to me with this idea and it was so cool that I went along with it. Jordan showed me Sophia's work and a few others' and told me that Sophia was shooting the highest. She agreed to it pretty fast though. I think our works just really vibe together and she made the comic to accompany the EP perfectly. She personified the feelings I was trying to evoke.
Q: After growing up in Wisconsin, how has the DIY scene in New York affected your life and the way you write music?
A: I could write a book on this! They are entirely different worlds and I often feel both at an advantage and hindered because of my scene origin. I feel like everyone in Wisconsin was striving to go for the same pristine sound while everyone here seems to celebrate all possibilities and individualities. There was also very little DIY in Wisconsin, especially for teens and all, so it's been very liberating coming here.
Q: How has it been performing these songs with a live band? Was it difficult to transition these songs that you had recorded on your own to that setting?
A: Transitioning from writing and recording these songs to a live setting is very tough. It's like I have to rewrite everything. Lately I've been working with really good musicians that I know well so I've been trying not to order them around too much, otherwise I would just end up passing out sheet music to everyone. This makes playing with a band so much more fun because I get to see how my friends interpret my music and what it sounds like to have other personalities mixed in.
Q: You talk about extremely personal experiences in your lyrics, so have you ever been writing lyrics to a song and gotten rid of something that crossed a line for you somehow?
A: I don't really ever swap out lines when I go too far. The songs that have crossed a personal line come super easily, so they're usually finished soon after I sit down to write them. Those songs are put away. Some of them I'm waiting to see if I reach some sort of personal closure and maybe eventually share those songs, but some of them get really dark and I won't revisit.
Q: One of my favorite parts about your music is how you don’t limit it to one genre. Is this something intentional, or do you just write in whatever style you’re feeling at the moment?
A: I never really try to sound like anything, so I guess what comes out is whatever I'm vibing on. I try to just write whatever I would listen to.
Q: I love the way your songs are mixed (for example, the subtle pacman sound in firefly). Did you teach yourself how to record, or was that something you picked up in your time at NYU?
A: It was a big mixture of things. When I was in middle school I started teaching myself. Eventually I got bored of taking piano lessons and asked my piano teacher to teach me more about mixing and production, which is something he would do for this audio software company Mixcraft. I took a couple classes in high school on music technology, then I picked up some more at college. I took everything everyone taught me with a grain of salt though, because if I did exactly what they said I would end up with something that's been done a million times before. I guess that's kind of where the corny noises come in, but I try hard to pull them off in an unobtrusive way.
Q: When you record do you have your songs written out, or flesh them out as different instrumental parts come to you?
A: The whole writing, recording, mixing, and producing process is just a big jumble for me. I'm very bad at working linearly. I couldn't just do each of those steps one by one. It's part of the reason why I'm so determined to keep the entire process to myself; if I have to organize my process I'm not sure the product will come out as special.
Q: Do you have any hobbies that inform or inspire the music you make?
A: I don't really do much besides music. I really like hanging out with dogs and cats but that's not quite a hobby. Right now the songs come from a very internal place, although I would like to start going back to school or educating myself or SOMETHING so my songs can be a bit more multi dimensional.
Q: What has it been like to hear the reactions to your music once you’ve release it into the world, especially since the songs are so personal to you?
A: It's very strange to me. It was always my goal to make my music applicable to a listener's life so, although I'm singing about something very particular that happened to me, someone else hears the same lyrics and thinks of someone they know or something that they did. Although these songs are very much about me, once I release them I want them to be about the listener. That being said, I do always flinch when someone tells me they like "the dead girlfriend song".
Q: How important is comedy and goofiness in your lyrics? Is it intentional to balance out some of the darker lyrics?
A: Comedy is important in the lyrics because it's important in how I deal with my feelings. When I'm angry, I'm usually also laughing. I think when I feel feelings that are scary for me, I use comedy to alleviate that pressure on myself and those around me.
Q: Do you have any advice for people who have gone to through some of the same things as you?
A: I think the most important thing is to be aware of how you affect other people. No matter what you've gone through, you should be working to make sure that no one else has that same negative experience. I've found focusing on other people helps me work through things I've gone through too, so it's sort of a win-win thing.
Q: Looking into your crystal ball, what’s in store for gobbinjr?
A: I still don't really know what I want. I would love to have this be a career for me, so I don't know if that means expanding to something bigger than gobbinjr or simply expanding gobbinjr. But one thing I can confidently say that another full length is coming and it is the best songwriting I have ever done.
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