ABOUT EMBLETON
I was sitting with an industry-hot-shot recently and he told me I have all the power as an indie artist. I said something like “sure, we may have all the power but we also have all the responsibility.” How can an artist be their own manager, engineer, photographer, videographer, editor, and marketing team?
Maybe it’s possible, but it can’t all be done at once. Multitasking is for the birds, and I know for a fact birds don’t multitask.
People ask how I’m doing and I usually just say I’m plugging away. I can’t move that fast. Today I’m waiting on strings to come in for a new song that’ll be out soon. While I wait I’ll master a couple tunes and edit a live record I’m producing. I probably need to practice my guitar a bit and film some content. I need to book a solo tour and finish building this website. I might get to it today, but I also might not. I should probably call my dad, and I will definitely play with my kids later. I’ve accepted that my capacity and the capacity of others will determine how quickly I get this record done.
And when this record’s done, I’ll make another one.
Kevin Embleton
If you want a little more nitty gritty about my music history, here it is:
I started making records with my friends in 2005. You can’t find it now, but I released my first solo album in 2008 my freshman year of college. I started an actual band later that year called A Minor Bird, and we released our concept album, “Where the River Breaks Free” in 2010 to local acclaim. We disbanded in 2012 while working on our sophomore record.
I started Embleton in 2014 and tried out a few monikers before I realized you can’t go wrong using your actual name. So I settled on my last name. I tracked my first LP as Embleton, It Did Me Well (2015) in a living room in Canton, Ohio with my friends. I moved to San Francisco shortly after my debut and released a handful of singles and EPs out there from 2015-2019, most of which are compiled into my record, On Time: A Collection (Volume 1).
I landed back in Ohio in 2019.
I finally quit my day job in 2021. Frustrated with my catalogue of songs in the wings, I scratched everything and wrote 30 new songs, 12 of which would become my third LP, Heavy On Me (2022). Then I almost quit music.
I moved my family to Nashville in 2023.
When this record’s done, I’ll make another one.
As I sit here working on a slew of records for both Embleton and other artists I feel the dissonance between life in the studio and life on the road. I’ll sit for days writing and recording songs, but my bones ache to share them live. That’s how this thing started. Songs in my bedroom turned into songs for a living room full of people.
The older I get, the more I see the need for music that fills the soul. Those songs would lose some of their affectation if they were only ever canned. It’s difficult to even capture those songs in a recording, and I’ve never really been able to properly. Those are the songs I’m still chasing. When meetings with labels and agents turn up empty, my purpose remains. I’ll just head back to the studio to make up for lost time, because there’s always a new song burning in my chest if I look hard enough. That brings up something else I’ve been mulling over.
Life in the studio and life on the road can’t really be lived simultaneously, at least not for me. I go through seasons of writing and seasons of playing out. I’m built with limits; I was created for capacity. The longer I’ve managed my own career, the more I’ve found accepting my capacity as the healthiest thing I can do for myself, my family, and my listeners.