Emma Louise Returns Rebuilt on ‘Sunshine for Happiness’

After years of pressure and burnout, Emma Louise returns home

After more than a decade of acclaimed releases, Emma Louise remains one of Australia’s most distinctive singer-songwriters. Following the success of songs like “Jungle” and albums including Vs Head Vs Heart and Lilac Everything, she built a reputation for deeply personal songwriting and fearless vulnerability. Now based near Byron Bay after spending the last decade in the United States, Emma recently released her fourth album, Sunshine for Happiness, through Future Classic. Written during a period of personal transformation, the record finds her reflecting on mental health, creativity, collaboration, and the process of letting go of expectations in order to move forward. In our conversation, she opens up about burnout, returning home, and finding clarity through a new chapter of life.

Thanks for taking the time. Where are you based these days?

No worries, thanks for having me! I am based just outside of Byron Bay in Australia.

Has Australia as a place been showing up in your work at all? If so, how?

I’ve actually been living in America for the past 10 years, and I’ve just moved back to Australia in December.

I love Australia so much, and whenever I am here, I feel like the blood in my veins moves easier. I’d say that in “Sunshine for Happiness,” my new release, there’s a lot of America in it and probably no Australian influence.

However, anything that I make when I’m home definitely is infused with the influence of Australia!! It comes out a lot in my paintings whenever I am home.

Is it true you made this album after stepping away from music entirely? At what point did it stop feeling like an ending and start feeling like something new?

I wouldn’t say that I stepped away from music entirely. In fact, I would say that I was trying so hard to write my best songs yet that I ended up putting way too much pressure on myself and having a bit of a menty b. At that point, I gave up on everything except focusing on myself and my mental health, and from that point my creativity flourished and I was able to see my whole life in a different light. Most of the songs from Sunshine for Happiness came out of that period.

We love “Nothing Could Tear Us Apart.” In the song you say, “I’ve been talking with my head and not my heart.” How do you differentiate between the two?

My head and my heart are always talking to me pretty loudly at the same time. My first album was called Versus Head Versus Heart. I can usually differentiate between the two pretty clearly. My head has the logic that I know to be true, and my heart has the emotions that I feel to be true. Both things are true, and it’s just a matter of choosing something in the middle.

And I guess when the fear of losing those things overshadows the gratitude for what you do have, then we have to reassess.

Right now, I’m scared to lose the thing that I am grasping onto very tightly. And I’m trying very hard not to have it taken from me. When I feel scared that I might lose it, I get stressed and sad. So I try to think about how grateful I am to have it right now instead.

You’ve been very open about your personal struggles. It's so helpful for people to hear this and know they are not alone. That said, have you experienced any cons of sharing so publicly?

Not really, but also I don’t really check comments or reviews or any of that stuff. Sometimes my parents tell me that I am sharing too much haha. But I just tell them that I literally don’t know how to be any different. It would be harder for me to speak about the album and do interviews if I had to fabricate a whole false story.

A lot of this started with just you and a piano. What did that strip away — or open up — compared to how you’ve worked before?

I’ve always written either on the piano or on guitar by myself, so it’s really all I’ve known! I’ve only just started to collaborate in the past few years and I love it. It’s very freeing to work with others.

This album comes after your project with Flume. Did that experience shift anything for you heading into this record?

I actually wrote Sunshine for Happiness seven years ago, so that was a good few years before I started working with Flume.

Working with Harley really opened up a whole other way of writing songs that was much more free-form and creatively exciting for me. I really do love to collaborate now.

You broke through pretty early with “Jungle.” How do you look at that moment now from where you are?

I’m so grateful for that moment and that song. It has afforded me the ability to keep doing music and to keep exploring creative projects.

I don’t think you can have much control of anything you’ve made after it’s released into the world. It just has its own life and that’s cool.

You worked with Tobias Jesso Jr. and Shawn Everett on this. What did they bring to the process without overcomplicating something that started so personally?

I always love handing over my songs to producers and the band because it’s an opportunity to explode the thing that I’ve done and rebuild it in ways that I couldn’t do myself.

I couldn’t feel that way unless I trusted the people that I was working with, and I trust those guys in the band so much with my music. If the bones of a song are good and true, no amount of production will break it. Looking at it like that, you can’t help but just be excited to get into it and be creative.

What did you have to let go of to make this record?

Going into any record, I think that I have to let go of any preconceived ideas of the outcome. That just limits it and encourages judgment throughout the process, and that’s no good for open expression and ideas.

What makes you bring someone into your world as a collaborator?

I have to get along with them as a person. And we need to have the same view on the creative process and be open to experiment and do wild stuff. And not be too precious. We also need to respect each other’s opinions, but not hold too strongly to our own.

“God Between Us” feels like an entry point into the album. What made that the first thing you wanted people to hear? Also, were the waterfall scenes in the video shot on location, or created in post? It looks great!

Those waterfalls exist in real life down the road from me! This part of the world is a beautiful, beautiful place.

I wanted “God Between Us” to be the first song that came out because I feel like it captures where I was at when the album was actually recorded. And it also just felt right.

Are there any artists in music or outside of it you’d want to collaborate with right now?

There’s an Australian artist called Ayesha Madon who I want to work with. I fucking love her voice and I think she’s hilarious, and I think we’d have a good time and make some good music.

What’s the biggest challenge you’re navigating with the music industry right now and what’s helping you push through it?

I think that it’s hard to make money right now in this industry if you’re not a touring artist. But I have faith that I’ll figure it out with the rest of those who are trying to figure it out right now.

In a world that can feel increasingly artificial, what’s feeling real to you right now?

I really want to get a dumb phone lol. What’s feeling real to me right now is being in nature and spending time with my family. I’m just settling back into living in Australia and I’m loving it. Everything here feels real apart from most of the things that I see and hear from this little device I am holding in my hand.

What’s something you’ve done recently that you’re proud of?

Over the past week I have gone through everything I have collected and stored since I was 18, and I have donated and thrown out so much shit that I filled an entire ute tray.

I’ve organized and labeled everything in all of my cupboards and drawers and it feels fucking amazing.

I’m not entirely finished yet, but I feel very proud of it and although it’s not creative, I know that it’s creating room in my brain for the creative process to begin.

What are some of your lyrics that best represent how you are feeling right now?

I hate to say it, because I feel as if I’m always trying to scamper away from this song in a way, but my head really does feel like a jungle. Lol.

I’ve very recently been diagnosed with a mild TBI, which has been very validating.

Follow Emma Louise on IG at @emmalouisemusic | Listen to Sunshine For Happiness here

Photo by @kristofski

Emma Louise - “God Between Us”

Emma Louise - “Dust”