13th Floor New Song Of The Day: Emily Edrosa – NCEA

Having returned to NZ from LA, Emily Edrosa releases NCEA along with its accompanying video.

Fed up with Covid lockdown life in the US, Emily returned to NZ this year. Here’s hoping it a trend that continues with other Kiwi musicians. NCEA is taken from Emily’s debut solo album, Another Wave Is Coming due out November 20th. Here’s the blurb with more:

Emily achieved acclaim as the songwriter and frontwoman for the multiple-award-winning power-pop trio Street Chant, with the band’s final release Hauora (Flying Nun Records, 2016) winning New Zealand’s prestigious Taite Music Prize in 2017. Leaving behind a friendly music scene and a fierce reputation, Emily moved to Los Angeles in 2016 to start over in a country that seemed in its death throes.

After six months spent in Covid-induced isolation lockdown, in mid-2020 Emily made the decision to return home. Again based in Auckland, she’s preparing to release NCEA, the third single from her debut solo album Another Wave is Coming and her first since her return to Tāmaki Makaurau. Emily worked with Auckland based director/editor Anastasia Doniants on the video, which premiered on UK music site Clash Magazine who described it as “an undiluted vision of coy DIY guitar pop that is blunt yet personable in its approach“. Watch the video here.

Another Wave is Coming is the culmination of several years of meticulous work spanning two sides of the globe, and represents an ambitious leap forward for the Emily Edrosa sound. Emily demoed everything down to the drum parts before enlisting assistance from a cast including local favourites Alex Freer (Tiny Ruins) and Liz Stokes (The Beths) to fully realise her vision for the record. Mixed by legendary producer John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Waxahatchee) and finished by Emily in her home studio, the record is a portrait of life as a hyper-aware stranger in dreamlike and hostile territory.

The album will be released locally by PSL Sound and globally by American label Park The Van Records on November 20th, with Emily playing a headline show (with full band) at Auckland’s Wine Cellar to commemorate the occasion.

Presale tickets for the show at Wine Cellar on November 20 are available here.

Digital as well as black and limited edition red 12″ vinyl pre-sales for Another Wave is Coming are available here.

Emily says of the single/video:

“This track is very old, I wrote it in 2012 and released a demo of it which was just acoustic guitar and vocals and a lot slower. As for the music video, well obviously the song is about high school in a way and me comparing myself to the people in my class. I was obsessed with Carrie as a teenager, so that’s the motif we went for.”

“My friends made the video for me and I normally hate music videos! I find it hard to strut and pose etc but the team we worked with was small and really organised so it was easy. I think the director Anastasia Doniants has an incredible eye and did a great job. Best music video I have ever worked on for sure.”