Emika

Emika, a classically trained musician who studied classical piano and composition,[6] grew up in Milton Keynes, England. She started to make music at school (using an old sequencer program she found on a computer stashed in a cupboard)[7] and waitressed to save up for her first Apple Mac and copy of Logic Studio.[8] Emika received her Music Technology degree in Bath, then procured an internship at the offices of the London label Ninja Tune, where she worked for a month.[9] As the Bristol music scene was transitioning from drum and bass to dubstep, she went to the first parties organised by Pinch.[8]

Speaking of the reasons that made her leave Bristol, Emika explained: "I was very ill, physically, I've had to have some operations which weren't very successful and led to more, and had a long period quite surviving from morphine, really... I was in bed for many weeks. And afterwards in Bristol I became 'the ill girl'... It was very difficult for me to recover and stay in that city". In 2006,[10] she took advantage of a free flight to anywhere in Europe granted by her bank, as she got her account upgraded, flew to Berlin on her own and decided to stay there.[7]

In Berlin Emika began working as a sound designer for Native Instruments, while honing her own, "uniquely haunting" (AllMusic) musical style with her laptop, picking up ideas from the dance scene at the Berghain and Panoramabar clubs. Fünf, the compilation album of music crafted from field recordings made inside these clubs by Emika (who contributed her own track "Cooling Room" to the compilation), was released by Ostgut Ton, as part of the celebration of the label's five-year anniversary.[11] Her job at Native Instruments had an important role in her artistic development, too. "I am focused on the world of sound and the power of the human voice, the instant connections it makes with listeners, in music. In general I feel there is a lack of vocabulary in the field of electronic music", Emika later explained.[8]

Emika studied Creative Music Technology at Bath Spa University.

Her music has been used in adverts by Gucci,[21] McLaren[22][23] and NBC - who used her cover of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game in an episode of The Blacklist,[24] which led to the track reaching No. 1 on iTunes in Canada and No. 2 in the US. She has contributed to film soundtracks, including a trailer for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and her music was used at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Her track, "Professional Loving", was sampled by The Weeknd on his track "Professional" on his debut album Kiss Land (2013).

Emika has collaborated with artists and producers such as Tommy Four Seven, Pinch, Nick Hoppner, Paul Frick, (Brandt Brauer Frick), Amon Tobin and Marcel Dettmann (with whom she co-produced a song for his artist album).[25] She has recorded with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and in 2014 she revealed plans to create a full orchestral symphony.[26]

She has been shot by photographers including Bettina Rheims[27] and Madison.[28]

Emika contributed a remix (along with Gazelle Twin) to the Nicholas Sutton soundtrack album Angels Dreams Inches released as a limited 12" vinyl.[29]

Emika launched her own label in 2014, Emika Records, initially as a platform to release her own music. The debut release was a 12" entitled Melancholia Euphoria.[30]

Emika launched a new collaborative label called Improvisations X Inspirations (also abbreviated as ImpXIns).[31]

• 2009: Price Tag EP (MyMy & Emika, AUS Music)
• 2010: "2012" (Pinch & Emika, Tectonic)
• 2011: "I Mean" EP (Paul Frick feat. Emika, Doppelschall)
• 2011: "Make You Sleep" (Kryptic Minds vs. Emika, Black Box)
• 2011 : "Pretend" (Brandt Brauer Frick)
• 2016 : "Dreamt In Flesh" (Emika Remix) [29]
• 2017: "Olive tree" by Luke Black (Emika production) [33]
• 2018: “Tell Me What You Remember”, (The Black Dog, featuring Emika, from The Black Dog's “Black Daisy Wheel” album)

• Official page on Bandcamp