Emmy the Great – real name Emma-Lee Moss – is a singer-songwriter whose second album is released this summer. Together with poet Jack Underwood, she is curating The Goodbye Library, a tribute to the wonders of the Dewey Decimal System. The London Word Festival event also features novelist Joe Dunthorne, comedian Miriam Elia and Elizabeth Sankey of Summer Camp...
The London Word Festival is flying the flag for libraries this year. Why are they so important?
Having grown up in a time where we have to pay for everything, where school kids aren’t allowed into a shop because they might steal and everyone is under suspicion until they hand over their dollars, I consistently feel surprise and elation every time I get something for free in a library. I’ll be thinking: how am I going to check that book or print out that page? Then I’ll realise, oh, the library can help me. I’m using my local one so much at the moment.
How can the coalition government justify cutting these services?
In the short term, getting rid of libraries fixes your numbers. But even across one generation, the economics won’t work. The kids that use literacy programmes or the local people needing that census workshop will fall straight back onto the state. I think it was [the actor] Sam West who said that there has to be somewhere homeless people can go and read the newspaper. One time I went to the library, there was a guy who looked a bit lost. He said, “I want to sit down and read.” And the guy at the desk said: “Sure.” What if we didn’t have that service?
There’s something really comforting about a library, isn’t there?
Completely. When I first moved to west London, I was living in a really busy house with my fiancé so I used to go to the library for some peace and quiet. Then we broke up and I went to get away from that feeling of being alone. That was North Kensington [Library]. Now, I go to North Paddington and see people who are obviously doing the same. I live below a lady who’s a bit dotty and she was there last time I went, furiously writing a play. I peeked over and she was mouthing all the dialogue!
Collaboration is central to the London Word Festival. How do you pick who you work with?
It should be people you’d like to learn from. I first met Jack at a Book Slam he won and I just thought, this guy’s really sparky and really smart, I think I could get a lot creatively from being around him. Miriam [Elia] was at the same event and I wanted to see her perform again. Lizzie [Sankey] and I are friends who’ve been saying for ages: “Let’s write something, let’s do something together.” So when the festival got in touch, I thought, this is my opportunity. It gives us a deadline and a platform and the chance to get our work performed. Why not try something out?
What Dewey category have you chosen for The Goodbye Library?
Me and Lizzie are also doing teen fiction. She’s a Twilight fan so we’ve got songs based on that and also a Sweet Valley High skit because we love it so much. My mum used to give me one a week, but I knew where she kept them and I would sneak read new ones before putting them back in her box.
I’m doing Mind, Body and Spirit, my favourite section from North Kensington. A lot of the inspiration for my new album came from that library in those weird few weeks after my break-up. I was reading through the theology section and ended up in psychology and myth and cultural theory. You’d have Bibles and diet books and self-help all on one shelf, it was totally arbitrary.
How are you feeling about your new album? Was the creative process different this time around?
I’ve been a lot more in control for the second album, more sure of myself. A lot of the first album decisions were based on politics of authenticity/indie that I had created in my head, and the result was a sort of patchwork effort where my band and I had tried to have too much control of things we didn’t understand, like production. By the time I got to writing the second, I didn’t care about stuff like that, so I could concentrate on writing about something that really satisfied me.
Did your personal life affect the songs you were writing?
At the time, I was taken with the idea of archetypes in folk tales and classical myths, and their possible roots in the subconscious and was thinking of writing a non-personal album. It didn’t work out that way, because of getting engaged and the way the engagement ended, but the themes prevailed. The writing process was very, very easy at first because I was so interested in the subject and then because I so needed an outlet for the feelings that came with what happened.
Finally, do you have an all-time favourite library?
I recently visited Downpatrick in Northern Ireland where my new boyfriend [Ash frontman, Tim Wheeler] comes from and the library there is pretty special. It’s not just books; it’s an archive of the area. But my favourite has to be North Paddington. It’s mind-boggling how amazing and useful it is, like having your own office where you don’t have to pay for coffee. When I go, I feel part of the community.
The Goodbye Library is at The Nave, London N1 on 27 April. The London Word Festival runs from 7 April to 5 May.
Visit Emmy the Great’s website for album and tour dates.
Image courtesy of Sam Seager.