Em – Love To Be: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day
AMA-nominated audio engineer Emily Wheatcroft-Snape has released Love to Be – a new single from her highly regarded solo project, Em.
Here is the blurb with more:
Love to Be is an uplifting, indie-pop ode to living life to the fullest and marks a new chapter for the multi-talented, Tāmaki Makaurau-based Emily, who alongside her esteemed reputation as one of Aotearoa’s leading engineers and producers, has been releasing her own music as Em, since 2020.
The new song gives fans a taste of a bigger, upcoming project from Em and sees the talented all-rounder reflecting on life.
The in-demand engineer was in the thick of releasing 2024’s debut album PHASES and hadn’t had a day off for a month, when she let off some steam by starting something new. “I loved being busy but I did feel pent up. I was thinking about the impending summer. I wanted to get out of the studio, get out of the house, try new things, experience the world, put in the effort,” she says.
It’s this sense of restless summer energy and the excitement of connecting with friends, that radiates from ‘Love to Be’, which leans more into electronic drums and dance music than Em has on previous releases.
“The process of merging folk-style guitars with a programmed drum beat and my layered vocals – and the eventual live drums too – was a hard balance to find, but I am obsessed with the end result. I think it reflects my desire to play with style and genre, and push myself as a technical practitioner while still keeping the emotion and world building I strive for in all of my music.”
It’s all captured in a fun music video made by Sports Team, which is the creative partnership of Callum Devlin and Annabel Kean. “I wanted the video to reflect my desire to take myself less seriously as I grow older. It references Britney and 90s fun pop stars. Also, Annabel expressed her wish to have a CGI dolphin in a music video – and who am I to restrict her creative vision?”
With her engineering hat on, Emily has received back-to-back (2024 and 2025) nominations for ‘Best Engineer’ at the AMAs for her work with longtime collaborator Amelia Murray AKA Fazerdaze. She has also worked on notable releases from the likes of Lorde, TEEKS, TE KAAHU and Tiny Ruins.
Meanwhile, her solo project Em has gone from strength to strength, with her 2022 EP UNDERGROWTH; and her debut full-length album, PHASES, receiving critical praise.
“If you listen to Clairo, Girl in Red or Feye Webster you’ll enjoy this album. PHASES feels like a mirror to yourself while following her skin deep that grows as you listen to it”
Now, with Love to Be out in the world, the focus is back on Em and paves the way for more new music in 2025. “The litmus test for the new project I’m working on is that it should feel good while sitting in the sun,” she says.
About Em:
Em is the solo music project by audio engineer, Emily Wheatcroft-Snape. A merger of indie, pop, and folk aesthetics, Em plays around with mesmerizing guitar patterns, rich vocal layers, moody synths, and groovy drum loops to build songs in a world of their own.
Em grew up as a songwriter in Auckland, before studying audio engineering, and working full time in the music industry. In between recording sessions, Em utilises her audio skills to push forward her songwriting into her own projects.
Em released her debut EP DEAD ROSES in 2020, aimed towards introducing her sound to her musical peers. In 2022 she released her follow up EP UNDERGROWTH, exploring the general chaos of life as a woman in her twenties. After releasing the TENDER EP in 2022 and the CLOUD CITY EP in 2023, Em collated the two projects into a single piece of work, her debut album PHASES, released in October 2024.
Find Em HERE
