Emily the Band
Emily the Band is a three-piece queer girl group based out of Peoria and Champaign/Urbana. They make gorgeous indie pop music, along with contribute heavily to their community. Emily is the main gal! She sings, writes music, and plays the ukelele. Camryn is the guitarist and singer for the band, and they play the melódica (which is one of the most beautiful instruments you’ll ever hear). Abbey is the drummer and a style icon! You can’t mention Emily the Band without bringing up their honorary members; Caspian, who is their photographer/best friend/partner, and Myles, who is their merch guy/bestie/partner!
Emily has been writing music since she was young, and she wrote her song “the one till the end” when she was 12! Since forming Emily the Band in 2021, they have released an ep titled living room, along with an amazing album in 2022 called the heartbreak album! My all time favorite song of theirs is “boyfriend” off of their album. They are currently working on a new ep, mwah!, which should be released by the end of 2024!
When Emily the Band isn’t playing music, they are participating in community events, supporting other local artists, and more! This past June, Emily even threw the first pitch at the Chief’s pride game!
I reached out to Emily to ask a few questions to let you all get to know her a little better:
Emily: The people in my life inspire me the most to make music-- whether it's the people I write songs about or the people who enjoy the music.
How long have you been making/playing music?
Emily: I've been singing since I could talk and making up songs since I could string together sentences. My childhood best friend gave me a ukulele for my thirteenth birthday, and I've been playing ever since. emily the band has been an official trio since April 2021, but Camryn and I started playing music together around 2017.
How would you describe the genre of music you make?
Emily: Indie pop! We've been putting a dash of rock in there recently, too.
What is your favorite part about performing?
Emily: I love when people come up to us after a performance and tell us they connected to the lyrics of a song. A lot of our songs are about difficult experiences I've had, and it feels nice to know that I've never been alone in those experiences.
What was performing like when you first started verses now?
Emily: When we started, I was 90% nervous and 10% excited to play our shows. Now it's more of a 40/ 60 split. Also, I feel like our first couple of years were about setting people's expectations for what we can do, and now we get to work to exceed them.
Emily: I think we're pretty similar to Beach Bunny, Samia, and The Sonder Bombs. They're some of my biggest inspirations, too.
What do you do for fun?
Emily: I play a lot of silly little merge mobile games on my iPad and listen to podcasts! Right now I'm really loving Upstairs Neighbors and So True with Caleb Hearon.
What is your favorite food, color, and animal?
Emily: Food: My partner's lasagna soup. Or sushi burritos. It's a tough call. Color: Pink <3 If I'm in need of a product and they have a pink option, I'm choosing that one. Animal: Mantis shrimp! I feel kind of Rawr-XD-2014 saying it, but they're sick as hell.
You can find Emily the Band’s social media and website here, and their Instagram account is best for keeping up to date on the band’s activities. Their next show is in Urbana on September 6th at the Rose Bowl Tavern! You can also view Emily the Band’s 2024 Tiny Desk submission below with their song “marceline”!
This was a very nice interview! It's very cool getting the chance to connect with local artists. I've been very interested in the local music scene so it was nice getting a closer look at the artists there with your blog. I think it is so impressive that she wrote her first song at 12!
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