Emily Esplin (she/they) is an emerging Ōtepoti artist carving out a sound that feels raw, honest, and distinctly their own. Her music sits somewhere between vulnerability and distortion, a space where soft introspection collides with an ever-growing rock influence. She’s also single-handedly solving the masc shortage.
With her debut single “Eat Me Alive” just being released, and an EP in progress, Emily is focused on creating music that feels real – not manufactured. In line with their focus on authenticity, Emily isn’t interested in protecting a polished version of who they are. While her artistic identity is ever-evolving, her intentions have remained consistent: be open, be real, and let the rest follow.
That mindset hasn’t come easily, especially with the pressure of releasing music into the world. At its core, her work is deeply personal, and she describes it as a form of journaling – a way to express everything going on in her head. Their music has recurring themes of struggles with mental health and being her own worst enemy, and heartbreak (both in a romantic and a friendship sense).
Working on their debut single, Emily found herself caught in a loop of perfectionism. Recording take after take to no avail, in search of something that felt “right.” It became exhausting: forcing herself through sessions and becoming frustrated, all while chasing a perfectionist ideal that kept slipping further away. Eventually, she stopped trying to be in control, letting the process be more natural and fluid – her new single embodies this rawness. Emily wrote it at the beginning of 2025, while “experiencing a lot of change” in their personal life. In a time of “feeling so strange and claustrophobic,” this single was a way of getting it all out of their system. “People have been enjoying the track, which makes me really happy,” she shares. Clearly getting those feelings out was doing something right.
Being in control of the production process has been indispensable to Emily in developing their sound. She thoroughly enjoys people asking her questions about it, adding that they “love to nerd out.” One of her guiding philosophies is that the music has to make sense to her first, if she thinks too much about how it will be received, the whole process can be derailed. She’s conscious of audience expectations, but wary of letting them dictate their work.
In her view, art loses something crucial when its synthesis is overly calculated. To her, recent pop music feels “like an equation being filled out to create something that will make money and top charts. It feels like regurgitated music.” She added that she’s noticed a rise of this in pop – especially in this new age of AI-generated music. “A lot of it feels really empty,” they said. She emphasised how important it is to her to “push back from that […] The role of the artist is to critique what is happening and make work in response.”
What began as a solo project has since expanded into a full band, something that’s transformed how Emily approaches her music. “Being a solo artist can feel limiting and scary,” Emily admitted, “and I used to be quite quiet with my voice.” The addition of the band, Seth (drums), James (lead guitar) and Phaedra (bass), has given her “confidence and space to experiment with how I use my voice and how everything sounds.”
Live performance has also been a turning point in her journey. Even though they’ve been playing gigs for less than a year, Emily quickly found herself immersed in the local scene – from open mics to eventually opening for touring acts such as IVY and Beatniks. They’ve recently been playing in Ōtautahi, which they described as their best gigs yet, and her first time playing out of Ōtepoti. During these, Emily was trying her best to “really take everything in”, while still engaging with the crowd.
Underlying all of Emily’s work is a simple, but important reminder – this is still meant to be play. Without the constraints of a label or any external expectations, Emily recognises and appreciates the freedom to experiment, to fail, and to grow on her own terms. Rather than letting pressure or expectations carve out their path, she’s focused on protecting the thing that made her start in the first place: a genuine love for making music that feels real. “All I have ever wanted is to share my art with the world, and I'm so excited that it is finally happening for me […] I can’t wait to give people more”.
