Following her success fronting Tsunami Bomb, Emily Whitehurst (Agent M) gradually shifted into the synthy indie-pop sound of The Action Design before starting the electro-pop Survival Guide. The solo project is preparing to release deathdreams on 19 October. Having released 2 singles from the album already (see below), Emily was kind enough to spend some time answering TGEFM’s questions about the new album, working solo instead of in a band and what we can expect next from Survival Guide.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congratulations on the upcoming album deathdreams! What can you tell us about the new tunes? What stood out most to you with this recording compared to your previous trips to the studio?
Thank YOU! I’m super excited for deathdreams and can’t wait for everyone to hear it! The new songs are very special to me, because this is the first time I’ve written complete songs by myself. I wasn’t totally sure I could do it, and it definitely wasn’t easy. So I’m really proud to have made it over this hurdle, and I’m really happy with how the record turned out! Recording this album was unlike all other trips to the studio in that I was the only person in the band. I spent a lot of long hours in the studio with just Bob (Hoag, who recorded, produced and mixed the album), who I had never worked with before. I was nervous at first, especially since I wasn’t particularly confident in my songwriting skills. I worried that he would want to change everything and I had no other musicians on my side to help defend the music. BUT it turned out that Bob was super awesome to work with, and he completely understood where I was coming from with my songs. He seemed to enjoy the project a lot, which made me able to relax and enjoy the process too!
For those of our readers who know your previous work from Tsunami Bomb or The Action Design, the sound of your solo work is a definite change. What brought about the shift into solo work, what has the reaction been like and what benefits and what obstacles do you find in the solo setting compared to working with the full band?
Survival Guide started as a two-piece band: Jaycen played guitar and was also the guitar player from The Action Design. We wanted to do something a little less structured with Survival Guide — something where we could use any instrumentation we wanted because we were electronic-based. It was really great and fun as a two-piece, but eventually he started a family and wasn’t able to continue making music. It wasn’t so much a choice to go solo as it was a choice to continue making music. I would say the gradual shift from punk rock to whatever you’d call Survival Guide is because the more music I’ve made, the more I’ve wanted to expand instrumentally. I loved playing punk rock, but I wanted a place for strings, piano, horns, sound effects, etc! The reaction has been as expected — a lot of TB fans don’t even realize I’m still playing music. And understandably, Survival Guide is not what people would expect from me. So the fans that have carried over from my TB days seem to be the ones whose favorite aspect of the band was my voice. As for benefits and obstacles to being solo, there are so many of both! I love that I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. A lot of being in a diplomatic band full of equals (which is always the kind of band I was and wanted to be in) is making decisions. And if not everyone is on the same page, it’s hard to get things done. On the other hand, being solo, I have to do everything myself. So it’s a bit of a catch 22 in that regard! It was hard writing all these songs and not having anyone to bounce ideas off of, but at the same time, I feel like it gave me the opportunity to write some very personal lyrics that I wouldn’t have written if I were representing a group.
With Tsunami Bomb, you have been part of such an influential act that means so much to so many of us. Does the high bar you’ve set for yourselves in the past help, hinder or affect the music you make today and to what extent?
Thank you! I can’t think of any ways that the music from my past hinders the way I’m making music now. The one thing that I’ve carried over from then to now is that I want my vocals to have interesting and well-thought out melodies. Vocal melody has always been very important to me when writing. I want to do my best! So I suppose my personal bar has always been high in that regard. I also want to write lyrics that people can relate to. Not everybody pays attention to what the lyrics are saying, but sometimes people can form a deep connection with a song because of how they identify with the lyrics. That’s what I’d like the most. I know I have my own collection of other peoples’ songs that strike a chord in my gut, and it’s always so meaningful to hear when people have that reaction to my songs. I have gotten a bit tougher on myself as far as making my lyrics more poetic and a little less straightforward than they used to be. One thing I’ve lightened up on is that I don’t feel any self-imposed requirement to push my voice to the very top of my most powerful range. In punk rock, I felt a little like I had to seem as powerful as possible all the time, and I don’t have that restriction anymore.
The scene, and music industry in general, has changed dramatically over the last 15-20 years or so. What has been the most difficult to adapt to and where do you see things heading over the coming years within the industry and scene?
It’s kinda funny because we used to think the underground scene was so DIY… and now it’s DEY as in do EVERYTHING yourself! Record yourself, distribute yourself, spend all your time online promoting yourself. Which is really freeing in some ways, but really overwhelming in others. I often hear statistics like “over 50,000 new songs are uploaded to Spotify every day”, and it can be discouraging. Artists on big labels are still the ones people pay attention to, but how does a small artist build up nowadays? I don’t think there’s any one direct answer, so sometimes I feel like I’m just fumbling around. Where do I see things heading? I don’t like to ponder that because I do worry that music is constantly devalued more and more. Hopefully that’s just my current perspective because I’m uncertain about my own place in the music industry right now, since I’m sitting in that weird time period waiting for an album to release.
Every artist has a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
I wouldn’t say I “regret” anything specific, because I AM really happy with the album I’ve made, but I only wish I could have made it sooner. I wish I would have had more confidence initially as a solo artist, so that I wouldn’t have wasted time soul searching and determining whether I could continue. But at the same time, all those doubts and experiences I had along the way contributed to my creativity, so it wasn’t actually a waste. I’m very happy with my current relationship with Double Helix Records, and that I got to record with Bob, and everything that’s going on now. It’s hard to say whether all this would have transpired if I’d had a quicker approach.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some of the bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?
One band I love throwing out there is Wild Moccasins. I played a show with them a few years ago and have loved their music ever since — their album Look Together is so great! Upbeat and fun with really awesome vocals. Also, recently the YouTube algorithm suggested the band Honeymoan to me and I love them! They have some really great music videos too. I don’t feel like I have a reliable source for finding new music I love, so please let me know what your go-tos are! 🙂
After deathdreams, whats next for you and Survival Guide? Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
After the album comes out, I’ll be playing shows! I’d love to head out to see people all over — I’m currently working on that. There’s also the next release to consider. My writing process is slow enough that I’d better get started! Also, I’d love to point out that I’ve been working on a little companion piece for the album — I’ve been formulating a cocktail (or mocktail) recipe for each song on the record and will have that available for download too. Should be fun!
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
