On her latest album, Second Love, singer-songwriter Emmy the Great aka Emma-Lee Moss tackles the ins and outs of affection in 12 dreamy tracks. The album not only serves as a roadmap for romance and all the ways new love can lead, the songs are almost like passport stamps in that they came together in various cities across the globe. Moss wrote the songs while venturing through Salt Lake City, Tokyo, Los Angeles, her birthplace of Hong Kong, current home of New York and former homebase of London. 

Other than being a former homebase, the English capital also served as her launch pad back in 2006, when she was part of a new wave crop of indie musicians in the city making waves with demos on the internet. Her cohorts in the scene included Dev Hynes and Jeremy Warmsley, now making music as Blood Orange and Summer Camp, respectively. Her sound has continued to evolve since the early days to what’s now her third album. Second Love features delicate keys, subtle guitar strums and lively electronic percussion as the foundation for Moss’ gentle voice to be heard front and center, taking listeners on the journey though her falling into a new love affair following the dissolution of the relationship that served as the basis of her first album, First Love.

Myspace spoke to Moss about her musical origins, the path Second Love charted and the metamorphosis it triggered within her.

Homebase: New York, NY

Hometown: London, England

How did you first start playing music?

My dad taught me guitar when I was a kid and told me I only need four chords to make a song. I took him literally and didn’t learn any new chords until I was 15. I started playing in public after my first summer out of school, when my friends and I ended up hanging out with some bands. I realized that I found hanging out with bands kind of limited, and, as a teenage girl, I sort of felt like meat with some of the musicians. What they actually did looked challenging and fun. I basically dared myself to do it too.

How do songs come to you?

As I’m walking around, certain thoughts stick in my head and stay there. It all exists in my brain as mush—melodies, ideas, lyrics. Sometimes they spurt out together and I assign them to each other, and sometimes I sit down to write and purposefully try and match ideas with melodies, etc.

You wrote this album over several cities, how did they influence you? What drew you to initially land in each?

I went to LA to record with Ludwig Goransson, and at the time he lived a block away from the friend that I was staying with, who lived on the same street as my only other friend in LA. Then my best friend in New York moved to the same street, and it became obvious that I had to stay. After a year or so, I moved to New York for my relationship. The songs I wrote in LA were generous, smoochy love songs. The songs I wrote in New York were more anxious, issue based. I always finished everything in England, where we mixed, which grounded the songs.

"Swimming Pool" originally appeared on your S EP. Did you know then that you were building towards an album? Did you expect it to reappear on your catalog? How did the song take shape? What does the song represent to you?

Yes, the EP was always a precursor to the album, which was already half finished when S came out. I don’t remember what I initially wrote the song about, but I wrote it before I had even visited LA properly. Within a few months of writing it, I was living in LA, watching people dive into swimming pools.

How did you decide to name this Second Love?

It felt like this album was the natural successor to First Love, and I felt like I was a different person now, so it seemed useful to be able to A/B between the two records. I also have this jokey thing in my head about albums that self-reference. There’s something goofy and overblown about it (like my band name). Also I wanted it to start with the letter ’s.’

How do you feel you've grown in making this album?

In every way. I’m a completely different person. It has pummeled me with its needs and it took so long, and I had to be so accountable to so many people to make it happen, and to justify their trust in me. I feel like I didn’t finish the album, I emerged from it.

Where would you like this album to take you?

I think this album took me out into the world just so it could take me home again. I feel like it’s already done that. My next album is going to be about home. 

In what way do you think the London music scene has changed since you first began? What comes to mind when you look back at your early years and collaborations circa 2006?

Hm, I haven’t been in London for a while, and I don’t know many new bands. I find that London to me now is a very collaborative place with a lot of community. When I first started playing music it was quite snippy and I was worried that people didn’t like me because I was a little different and, though I’d live in England for most of my life, people still thought I was from elsewhere. I was lucky to know Dev and to meet Tim when I did, because they were kind and open and let me use my voice. I think the lack of money in music is making people less entitled and more open to sharing. Also, in 2006, we were mainly worried about who we were top 8 friends with on Myspace, as I’m sure you’re aware.

What makes you most proud in regards to your career as a musician?

Finishing this album.

What would you like listeners to take away from your music?

Anything they want! I love when people say I helped them through a breakup, and when I get messages from people who got my record as a present from a relative or a friend. I feel lucky that I get to be a tiny part of moments in people’s lives.