“The essence of me is writing songs and expressing experiences or what I see around me and just trying to spread some happiness,” declares London singer Emily Saunders. Certainly songs like Blue Skies Forever and All As One on her current CD Moon Shifts Oceans are wonderfully uplifting. The album is a resounding creative triumph, but it also represents something of a triumph over adversity: Saunders has had to confront huge challenges in her life, some of them ongoing. At the age of 16, for example, escaping what she has described as “complex dynamics” in her family, she was compelled to find refuge in a hostel.
“It’s complicated,” she now says. “Many families have problems and for me the best option in my teens was to live in a hostel. Later, as adults, we reconnected and I love my family very much but at that time I had to do things differently. It was tough but it made me a stronger person and gave me a resolve to always survive in an independent manner.”
By happy circumstance Saunders was able to develop her musical skills while in the hostel. “I was in the hostel for three-plus years. I was going to school as well but there was a vacant church at the end of the road and the people in it used to let me use this beautiful grand piano and I used to sit there and write songs.”
‘When I was seven years old we would drive to Cornwall and just sing four-part harmony for four hours’
In fact, although Saunders’ family situation may have been difficult in her teens, she did learn some of her musical skills from her parents. “My dad, Antony Saunders, was a classical pianist. He was one of the country’s leading accompanists and was on telly lots. My mum taught piano and my sister Rebecca Saunders is now a phenomenally successful classical composer. We all just loved music. It’s how we tick. Like when I was seven years old we would drive to Cornwall and just sing four-part harmony for four hours.”
Music provided Saunders with a way out of the hostel. “I got a scholarship into music college in Birmingham, which was amazing,” she recalls. Subsequently she acquired an MA in Jazz Voice from Trinity Laban. “There were certain tutors that really resonated for me – like Liam Noble, who was fantastic. I remember one thing he said was that you don’t always have to start at the beginning – you can start at the end! And I think that’s a great concept. When you’re studying with people with such incredible careers their job is to challenge you so you grow, which is a fantastic thing. You learn to think outside the box.”
Saunders has also been influenced by more mainstream popular music. “I wasn’t really listening to music of my era when I was in my teens. I was obsessed with Stevie Wonder and into Bob Dylan, Diana Ross and, later, Massive Attack and Portishead. I love [artists] who have strong voices, either vocal or instrumental, and have something to say and deliver with absolute conviction. So vocally Bob Dylan, Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin don’t have anything in common but they all make a massive impact on me, because the essence of them is in their sound and their delivery and their voices.”
Saunders released her debut album Cotton Skies in 2011 and followed it with Outsiders Insiders in 2015. “Cotton Skies was the first time I’d ever recorded my own music and it got four stars in the Guardian. I was blown away. I included some songs by Hermeto Pascoal and Airto Moreira as well because they’re massive influences on me. For Outsiders Insiders I just did my own music but again, there are Brazilian jazz influences because I studied that at Trinity Laban.”
In 2017, however, Saunders was diagnosed with acute psoriatic arthritis. The effect on her life and career was devastating. “It wiped me out,” she says. “I wasn’t able to walk for a long time because my left knee was bent at a right angle. My right hand as well was bent and was very, very painful. It was very hard. Gigs were incredibly rare – I’d have to be transported there and somehow get on stage, deliver and then recover afterwards. It hugely affected things.”
Saunders has a remarkable ability to see the positives in any situation, however. “It was awful, in absolute honesty, but because I was stuck in my own environment it gave me an opportunity to learn the skills of self-recording. So, now I’m back recording I can really self-drive what I’m creating.
“I still live with psoriatic arthritis but I think the glass is always half full. So, my right hand doesn’t fully work – but fortunately I’m left-handed! Psoriatic arthritis is a way of life for me, sadly, but through it I’ve developed a lot of strength of mind. And it’s not as acute as it was so I’m able to be back powerfully on stage.”
Saunders is unsurprisingly excited about Moon Shifts Oceans. “Each individual song’s really important to me and it’s self-produced, self-edited, self-recorded … so it’s like, ‘Wow, I did it!’ And it sounds pretty banging so I’m really proud of it.”
Saunders totally controls her creative process. “Initially I’ll start writing on piano, etc and come up with various things on my own and out of that I use Sibelius and create fixed charts which are set lines of keys, bass, drums, etc.
‘The musicians have to be very good readers because there are a lot of dots and they are only allowed to play those notes – they’re not allowed to play what they want at all’
“[My] charts are incredibly well arranged and notated so the musicians – basically I work with session musicians – have to be very good readers because there are a lot of dots to read and they are only allowed to play those notes – they’re not allowed to play what they want at all.
“So I record the musicians and then sit down again on my own afterwards and do editing. Through Pro Tools I can really explore the music and take it to where I want it to go. I love editing. I love layering up synths and guitars and vocals and creating multi-layered sounds. So if an album takes me three years, the band have only been involved in person for one or two days for the actual recording of the charts.”
Many of Saunders’ various influences can be detected on Moon Shifts Oceans. “I would say there’s contemporary jazz fusion, there are underlying groove elements of Brazilian jazz, texture-wise there are elements of drum ’n’ bass / broken beat and vocally it leans towards both Brazilian and funk,” explains Saunders. “But I’d also say that texturally with my voice there are edges of folk – and some people say soul-jazz and folk-pop … and there are reggae influences as well in the bass lines, which are very much forward.”
Saunders’ songs are often inspired by the natural world. For example, Rugged Waves came during a holiday in Greece. “I was sitting on this beautiful bay. It was warm but windy and the waves were dancing and I imagined people dipping and diving through the waves like fishes. And then this bass line came to me. So I captured it on my phone and then back in London I expanded it to a whole tune with words, which painted the picture of what I’d imagined, and the harmonic arrangement and stuff. And then we recorded it and I edited it. But it all began with imagining this visual of people dipping and diving through the waves.”
Blue Skies Forever contains the powerful line “… we are all made from the same grain / And sit below the same sun rays.” “Often, people can feel isolated but connection is what helps us feel more whole,” says Saunders. “My psoriatic arthritis led to me being quite isolated for years so that led me to really value the importance of connection with people via my music and when I create something that makes someone feel uplifted, it’s lovely.”
All As One celebrates dancing. “I adore dancing,” says Saunders delightedly. “On stage I’m always jigging around but sadly I can’t really dance much now. But after losing the capacity to walk at one stage I tend to feel happy just walking down the road, because I’m so grateful I can do so. But, yeah, dance is so freeing and All As One was inspired by going out one night and dancing until the early hours.”
‘I’m a practice technique obsessive. I love technique! I do approximately two hours’ vocal work a day, six days a week, on very specific technical exercises. For me technique is freedom’
Sa’unders opines on the state of the world on Mashup where she sings of “The blood-born wealth controlling lives …” “It’s about the powers-that-be on one side of the world affecting people on the other side, and the refugee crises that keep happening, with people having to go on a journey looking for a home,” she says. “And there’s a lot of angular riffs in there – it’s got edges of Zappa!”
Saunders’ singing on the album is beguiling. “I’m a practice technique obsessive,” she says. “I love technique! I do approximately two hours’ vocal work a day, six days a week, on very specific technical exercises. For me technique is freedom. I like to throw my voice around in a very technical manner and the only way that will happen is if you do your exercises.”
On stage, Saunders looks like she’s having an absolute ball. “I am!” she laughs. “I love people and when I’m on stage I feel incredibly fortunate to be there and I feel it’s an absolute honour that anybody has turned up to see me. When I’m there I’m ecstatic and I grasp every moment with gratitude and happiness.”
Learn more about Emily Saunders and Moon Shifts Oceans here: emilysaunders.co.uk/moonshiftsoceans
