Emily Wolfe

Transcript

Evan Ball:
Hello, and welcome to Ernie Ball's Striking A Chord Podcast. I'm Evan Ball. Today in the show, we welcome Emily Wolfe. Emily just released a brand new album, called Outlier, produced by Michael Schuman, Queens Of The Stone Age. So we discuss that album. We also discussed the city of Austin, her hometown, and we talk about road life, music business trends that might persist beyond COVID, non fungible tokens and more. Ladies and gentlemen, Emily Wolf.

Evan Ball:
Emily Wolfe, welcome to the podcast.

Emily Wolfe:
Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Evan Ball:
Yeah. So you're in Austin. Is this where you grew up also?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, I was born in North Carolina, but I moved here with my family when I was pretty young. So I was raised here, and yeah, I love it. I haven't moved ever since.

Evan Ball:
You've probably seen some change then.

Emily Wolfe:
Oh my God. Totally. It's wild. It seems like a brand new city every five years, it's multiplied, but it's good. There's a lot of art, a lot of great people, a lot of friendly faces and yeah.

Evan Ball:
No, I was there probably 15 years ago, so I'm sure it's way different, but I know it has the reputation for, I think it's the fastest growing city in America?

Emily Wolfe:
I believe it. I for sure-

Evan Ball:
But it's also got a reputation for live music. So was it a supportive environment for you as far as opportunities to play live?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, for sure. There's a ton of venues and a ton of bookers and promoters and, I mean, it's just a great city if you're trying to develop as an artist, which is what I did. I mean, I still feel like I'm developing, but at the same time, I did kind of plant my roots here and then, yeah, I got to try different styles out and kind of started out as an acoustic act and then evolved into an electric kind of three-piece band. So yeah, it's been great and there's a ton of artists here and it's just a really great vibe.

Evan Ball:
I'm glad to hear it's living up to its reputation then. It just seems like more and more, it's harder to find places to play live. It's hard for a lot of these places to hang on to the live music when it's maybe more lucrative in other areas, but good to hear. Good for Austin.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. Where are you out of? You're out of New York?

Evan Ball:
In San Luis, Obispo, California.

Emily Wolfe:
Cool.

Evan Ball:
Yeah. Do you know where that is?

Emily Wolfe:
I don't, but I love California.

Evan Ball:
Yeah. So we're right in between LA and San Francisco on the coast.

Emily Wolfe:
Oh my God. That's awesome.

Evan Ball:
So this is where we make all our instruments, electric guitars and basses, and then all the strings, accessories are made down in Coachella, California.

Emily Wolfe:
That is cool.

Evan Ball:
Yeah, it's a great spot. It's sort of a small town, a college town, but there's a lot going on. Beaches close, there's mountains, and it's got kind of a vibrant downtown for a small town, so it's nice.

Emily Wolfe:
That's awesome. Yeah, that sounds great.

Evan Ball:
Yeah, maybe you'll play through here soon, one day.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. I'd love to, I think I'm supposed to actually do a west coast tour in Q1 of next year, so I bet I will.

Evan Ball:
All right. So backing up, what came first for you? Vocals or guitar?

Emily Wolfe:
Definitely guitar. I was actually too afraid to sing until I was like 20 years old. I don't know why, but I was just like a phobia I had, but then through college I kind of had the inevitable heartbreaks and that kind of opened up my world into singing and expressing myself that way. But yeah, guitar was first.

Evan Ball:
Did you start singing, like in service of guitar? Like, well, it'd be a lot more convenient if I could sing and play guitar. Or was it more of a passion that you naturally developed?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, I think it was a little of both. I had a little band in college and I was the guitar player, and it was me as a guitar player and a singer. And I was like, I kind of got to a point where I was like, well, maybe I could just do this myself. So yeah, I kind of just gave it a go and my band mate was really encouraging. And so that was kind of something that pushed me to be a solo artist.

Evan Ball:
Well, it's a big step up. I mean, I kind of feel the same way, how you describe how you used to be, like playing guitar, I felt pretty comfortable, but actually singing, I sort of had to be pushed, and it was out of my comfort zone more. I mean, for one, you're stepping more directly in front of the stage, and two, it's just, for me I feel like guitar, I can look and see my fingers are on the right frets, for vocals it's more concentration sometimes making sure you're hitting the right notes. Is the sound system shitty? Is it... there's a lot of factors.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, totally. Yeah. It's like, singing is, I feel like a lot, like playing fretless based or something like, there's so many different, if you're flat, if you're sharp, it's tough to kind of, there's less rails on it, I guess, but yeah.

Evan Ball:
Did your parents play instruments or sing or anything?

Emily Wolfe:
Not really. My mom, before, when I was little, before I was born and when I was younger, sang in church sometimes, but other than that, not really. I had an uncle who played bluegrass music, and so he was kind of influential in that way, but-

Evan Ball:
So how'd you come upon the guitar then?

Emily Wolfe:
Man, I just saw it one day. I remember I was like five or six and I looked down the aisle of this shop that my mom took my sister and I to, and I saw this harmony acoustic guitar. And it was this awakening moment-

Evan Ball:
Five or six you said?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, yeah. I just kind of fell in love.

Evan Ball:
And did you get the guitar?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, I did, I begged my mom for it. Yeah. I still have it actually.

Evan Ball:
So it wasn't like a toy guitar, it's a functioning guitar that you could start learning on.

Emily Wolfe:
It's definitely a toy, it is like plastic, every piece of hardware is plastic and I mean, it's not something that-

Evan Ball:
Definitely entry level.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah for sure. But yeah, it was close to real and yeah, I just kind of started playing, not great obviously, but I just loved how it felt like a game or something, like playing chords and playing whatever I could on that thing. And so yeah, the next guitar was a Strat copy. And then from there it just evolved into what I have today.

Evan Ball:
Did you stick with it from six years old on?

Emily Wolfe:
I did. There was like, well, when I first started playing, I was like really young, and so I begged my mom for lessons and she took me to this older guy, and he told me that I was really bad. And so he was like, you should learn drums because-

Evan Ball:
At what age is this?

Emily Wolfe:
I was six. I was like a kid. But yeah, I mean, he taught me drums and I kind of, I learned some stuff on drums and I liked it, but I still wanted to pursue a guitar. So I was like, I don't want to do lessons anymore. I'm done. So I had one lesson and then after we moved to Texas, when I think it was like eight, that's when I really picked it back up to cope with moving and being in a new spot.

Evan Ball:
Well guitar is tough for six year old fingers, even eight year old fingers. I mean, I remember my grandpa tried to teach me when I was six, and then I went to the lesson and then he basically told my mom, he's not ready. It's too early. I don't think I had the passion there, but just, I think physically, it was just a challenge maybe.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. For me, I tried to play and play a song and it was, I remember it being so difficult and I was like, how do people do this? And I just kept going because I wanted so badly to make music from it.

Evan Ball:
You had the drive. Well, that's awesome, so early on that you wanted it.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. I just wanted, I don't know why, I just kind of gravitated towards it and just really wanted to be able to play a song.

Evan Ball:
So was there a point in your life when you decided, I'm going to go for it to make music my career?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, I think it was in... So I had a summer class, an audio engineering class in college and my professor was super cool and he had a studio and yeah, I started writing songs and I kind of went up to him after class one day. I was like, Hey, do you want to listen to this demo? It sounds really bad, but I'd love to record it with you. And he ended up really liking it. And so we did an acoustic record at his house and I released it and it did really well, like locally. And so I think that was kind of when I realized, okay, well maybe I can try and pursue this. And so I guess, when I decide something, it's like, that's the only way I'm going-

Evan Ball:
That's great. Yeah.

Emily Wolfe:
So yeah, it just kind of snowballed after that, into local gigs and then traveling through the music industry and now I'm here.

Evan Ball:
So you must've been writing songs at that point already to have at least enough to fill a demo, were these originals?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. It was like 10 songs that I didn't really know how to record, but I did have a MacBook. So I would go into my closet in my dorm room and just record vocals in there. And it sounded terrible, but I guess it was good enough to make out what I was trying to accomplish. So-

Evan Ball:
I always thought the built-in microphones in the Macs are pretty good.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. I mean, that's exactly what I used [inaudible 00:10:03]. I've since upgraded though, I've got a better, way better knowledge of how to do it now, but yeah, I did start writing songs. I think, I started writing songs in high school and then through college, that's when I formed my band with my roommate and we started writing together. And then after we kind of stopped really doing stuff with the band, I started to write my own stuff. So yeah.

Evan Ball:
What was... Backing up a little more, what was high school like? Did you play sports or were you academic? It sounds like you weren't quite in bands yet.

Emily Wolfe:
I wasn't in bands, but I desperately wanted to be in bands. I was actually in marching band. Yeah, I was one of those kids, but yeah, after that, I mean, I would play orchestral music. And after that I'd go home and play guitar. And there were kids in my school who had bands and I wanted to be a part of them so bad, but I was just too shy. And so-

Evan Ball:
You needed to move away to college to make it happen.

Emily Wolfe:
Exactly. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's like growing up with the same kids, from fifth grade to 12th grade, it's like, I don't really know if I can open up to these people. So yeah, after I graduated and went to college, yeah, that was kind of the time when I found myself.

Evan Ball:
Well, you mentioned a recording class. Is that what you were studying there?

Emily Wolfe:
Actually, I wasn't. I found a loophole in a summer class. I went to college at St. Edwards University, which is on South Congress in Austin. It's a smaller kind of Catholic school. I'm not Catholic, but I love the campus. And it was a great school and yeah, I studied kind of communication and basic stuff there, but I needed a credit or something. And I found, oh, maybe this class would count. And so it did, I got it to count, but it was audio engineering and I just, I really wanted to learn about it. And that was a pivotal part, I think.

Evan Ball:
That's great. Yeah. Speaking of pivotal moments or events, or connections, are there any other ones that stand out, when you look back just that have propelled you forward with your music career?

Emily Wolfe:
Early on, I think one of the most pivotal moments, the one that like stands out in my memory is, one of the first off-campus shows that I got booked for, was at the Mohawk Inside, for this band called Sucre. And I believe the drummer for that band was in Mute Math. Yeah. And I just thought, it was like, oh my God, I've made it. But it was really cool. It was the first time that I ever got to play out in front of people that I didn't go to school with. And that was kind of a pivotal moment, I think.

Evan Ball:
Motivationally, or as far as getting fans?

Emily Wolfe:
Motivationally. I think it was just like a high that I never felt before. And it opened up this world that I was like, I want more of that. I want to be in that world. So I think that was it. Yeah.

Evan Ball:
And then, so we'll get to this new album, but up until this album, you've put out your music on your own, right?

Emily Wolfe:
Yes.

Evan Ball:
Well, actually, yeah, let's talk about the new album. So for our listeners, it's already out, so we're recording this on June 3rd, but the podcast won't actually air until July. So the album is indeed out for our listeners here.

Emily Wolfe:
Cool.

Evan Ball:
Yeah. Anything you want to say about it right now, in general, title, and-

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. This album is called Outlier and I recorded it with Michael Schuman from Queens Of The Stone Age. He's the bass player in that band. And I mean, I've always loved that band. I'm a huge fan, especially of Michael's side project, called Mini Mansions. So he produced the record and it was... We did production kind of creatively. It was during COVID in lockdown, in early in 2020. So we basically had to send demo files back and forth to get pre production finished.

Emily Wolfe:
And yeah, I mean, this record, it's a bit of a pivot from my last 2019 album. Because I was, I guess, more rooted in blues rock, but I wanted to try something different with this record. I wanted to push some boundaries between genres and take modern synth elements and drum samples, and mix them with pop arrangement. And of course keep the guitar at the forefront because, first and foremost, I'm a guitar player, but yeah, I just tried a bunch of different stuff on it and it came out really cool. I think I dig it.

Evan Ball:
Yeah. It's great. Yeah. I've actually got a secret link, so.

Emily Wolfe:
Oh, sweet.

Evan Ball:
Yeah. I've been enjoying it. So, but it does make me think how you brought up how you're pushing boundaries and there's a strong electronic component. You said there's some drum samples, there's some more produced fuzz sort of tones in there. So I'm wondering, if I peel back some layers, are you still writing on an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar, and then you sort of put flesh on it once you're in the studio, or is that in pre-production, what does that evolution look like?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. So I don't write on acoustic anymore. I don't really feel connected to an acoustic. I think, because my career has evolved so dramatically by playing electric that it's like, okay, that's my thing. So whenever I want to write, I just pick up an electric and plug in and see what happens. And so it starts there and then I'll flesh stuff out in pre-production and get the basic sounds that I'm looking for. But then in the studio we'll tweak and refine them to be the exact sound that I'm looking for.

Evan Ball:
Yeah. So would it be like, initially, a riff and melody, or are you actually, or playing chords on electric guitar? And then you're going to send that over?

Emily Wolfe:
I usually have them pretty written, before I send something to somebody I like to have at least a verse and a chorus, and the basic idea of every instrument. So I kind of do as much as I possibly can upfront and then send-

Evan Ball:
Do you use Logic?

Emily Wolfe:
Actually I use PreSonus Studio One 5. Yeah, it's great.

Evan Ball:
Do you have a favorite song on this album?

Emily Wolfe:
Favorite song... Let's see. I feel like it's probably My Lungs Give Out, that one-

Evan Ball:
Is that the last one?

Emily Wolfe:
That one is-

Evan Ball:
Oh no, I dig that one too. I love the verse, the instrumentation on the verse.

Emily Wolfe:
Oh, thanks. Yeah, I don't know. I just love playing it live and I feel like I really got to a point with the lyrics where I achieved what I wanted to do achieve without saying more than I had to. And I just love the instrumentation, I think Michael added a lot and it's really fun.

Evan Ball:
Yeah, it's got a great vibe to it. Do you have a favorite, so we talked about favorite song. Do you perhaps have a favorite moment on the album?

Emily Wolfe:
Yes.

Evan Ball:
Oh.

Emily Wolfe:
There's a song, called Cover of Virtue. I think it's the second one, but there's a part in the second verse that Michael and, and Keon, the guy who mixed the record, they came up with this really cool idea to make it sound like the record was skipping, but it's in rhythm. And so I love that part. It's really, it's got a lot of attitude in it.

Evan Ball:
Oh, that's awesome. I'll go back and check that one out. I think that song has... Yeah, that one's got really cool changes. I think I'm thinking about the right one, like a really great chorus, then does it go to like a halftime or like a sort of a slowdown part?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. It's kind of of all over the place. When I wrote it, I was like, oh my God, how am I going to... There's so many ideas swirling around this song in my head. And it was quite a beast to get it down. But yeah.

Evan Ball:
That's cool. I typically like that when people go for some big changes in songs.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, me too.

Evan Ball:
So how did your connection come about with Michael Schuman?

Emily Wolfe:
You know, it was a shot in the dark. While we were on the road, my bass player and drummer, and I just traveled the three of us on the road and we were listening to Many Mansions. I think we were going to Ohio or something. And my bass player was like, man, have you ever thought about getting Michael Shuman to produce your next record? And I was like, dude, that's a great idea. I should just see if maybe my manager knows anybody in his camp. Just like, why not? It doesn't hurt to ask.

Evan Ball:
Has he done other production or just his own stuff?

Emily Wolfe:
Just his own stuff. And I think he's done like film scores, I think, and session stuff for a lot of people, but yeah, just his own stuff. And I love the production on Many Mansions records. And I was like, I really want that sound. And then Evan, my bass player, was like, well, you should get Michael Schuman. Okay. So yeah, I emailed my manager and he was like, let me see what I can do. And I was like, okay. Yeah, I know it's probably a long shot, but why not? And Michael emailed back. So I mean, I remember me and the guys just like jumping up and down in our hotel room when I got that email. I was like, holy shit, this worked?

Evan Ball:
That's so awesome. Yeah. I'm smiling over here. That's crazy. It came through, just from an idea.

Emily Wolfe:
You never know. You just never know.

Evan Ball:
That's so cool. What's touring going to look like for this album?

Emily Wolfe:
It's going to be pretty extensive. I've got some Texas dates in between now and October when the actual month long tour starts. And we're going to go through the south and then up the east coast, all the way up to New York and do a couple shows with Joan Jett.

Evan Ball:
That's cool. Some Joan Jett shows?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. Yeah. That'll be awesome. I love touring so much and not being able to was pretty devastating. So I'm like, just give me whatever show, I'll play a nursery, just like I'll play in front of babies. Whatever comes at me, book it.

Evan Ball:
What do you like about the road? I mean, I guess it's the actual performing.

Emily Wolfe:
There's so much about it. I love being with my band. I didn't grow up with brothers, so I don't know, we've got this dynamic of, it's very family-like and we just laugh the whole time. Yeah, I just, I love the band rides. My drummer is constantly putting on old nineties stuff that I missed, we'll listen to the nineties stuff now and be like, oh my God, Sugar Ray is actually amazing. Getting to revisit old stuff, musically. Yeah, and they help me out with the merch table too at shows. So it's kind of fun. Everybody gets to meet them and it's just a really cool vibe. It's like family, we go on hikes in certain places, and hit up every Mexican place we can for burritos.

Evan Ball:
That sounds fantastic.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, it's great.

Evan Ball:
What about, what's the hardest part?

Emily Wolfe:
The hardest part is the load in and out, because I play a lot of venues that I haven't played before. So a lot of times we'll get to the venue, and there was one time when there were stairs and no elevator, and we had to carry up all of our stuff to the second, or it was the third floor of this place. So, I mean, luckily, my band mates are strong dudes, but man, it's brutal though.

Evan Ball:
It's a lot, yeah. Day in, day out. All right, I got a lightning round. If you could tour with any band or artist, past or present, who would it be?

Emily Wolfe:
Oh my God. Any artist? The Kilz. I love the Kilz.

Evan Ball:
Okay. If you could go back in a time machine, what advice would you give your 20 year old self?

Emily Wolfe:
Oh my God, that's so good. I would say, don't compare yourself to anybody else. It's not worth the time. Just go your own path because everybody's path is different.

Evan Ball:
Okay. Looking into the future, what do you want your life to look like in 10 years?

Emily Wolfe:
10 years.

Evan Ball:
Or whatever.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. I want to have a couple of Grammys under my belt. I want to tour, ideally, tour arena shows every night, have a couple of golden retrievers at home.

Evan Ball:
Man. That sounds good.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. That's the goal, I think. And I eventually produce other bands. I'd love to do that when I'm older.

Evan Ball:
Do you have any golden retrievers right now?

Emily Wolfe:
I don't. I have an Australian shepherd and a mutt, named Otis, but yeah, they're the best.

Evan Ball:
All right. Any strange fan encounters that come to mind?

Emily Wolfe:
Oh my God. I feel like I have at least one every show. Let's see, strange fan encounters. One that comes to mind is, one time this guy came up to the merch table and he didn't buy anything. He didn't say hi. He just said, he looked at me and he was like, you need to look at the audience more, and then left. And I was like, oh, cool, thanks. It's like, no, I don't want it. But yeah. So that's-

Evan Ball:
He's more like a mentor than a fan.

Emily Wolfe:
Just like critical person. I was like, cool, dude. It was weird, but for the most part though.

Evan Ball:
That's pretty good. Okay. Do you have a best or worst gig ever?

Emily Wolfe:
Best gig ever was at the Cajun Dome with Hart and Joan Jett. It was like the biggest show I've ever played, like a full-on arena. It was, man, I was riding that high for weeks after-

Evan Ball:
What city was that?

Emily Wolfe:
It was in Lafayette. Yeah, wherever the Cajun dome is. And then a worst gig, man, there's a bunch of them from early on. But one time I played a show on top of a hot tub in a hotel, which the stage was over top of the hot tub.

Evan Ball:
I'm trying to picture this. So it's built like say, six feet above it so there's like clearance?

Emily Wolfe:
Yep.

Evan Ball:
And people are in the hot tub?

Emily Wolfe:
They weren't in the hot tub. They were in the pool and drinking their cocktails. It was at this hotel in Dallas and it was just, it wasn't my scene. I think people were like, what is a band doing here? Why is she playing music? I don't think anybody knew I was going to play. [crosstalk 00:25:33].

Evan Ball:
Oh okay. It was just an awkward setup.

Emily Wolfe:
So awkward. It was so awkward. Yeah.

Evan Ball:
Okay. Let's see. Oh, if you couldn't play music, what would you want your livelihood to be? Do you ever think, oh, this would be cool if I had time?

Emily Wolfe:
Yes. I would be an electrician. I love it. I love that kind of stuff.

Evan Ball:
Are you an amateur electrician around the house?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. That stuff, and I mean, I love to solder and I love to pull apart pedals and look at, what does this capacitor do? What does this transformer... You know, whatever. So yeah, I think I'd want to go to school to be an electrician.

Evan Ball:
That's cool. Where does that come from?

Emily Wolfe:
I don't know.

Evan Ball:
Were you exposed early on to more mechanical things?

Emily Wolfe:
I mean, my dad would always kind of work in his shop and have creative ways of solving electrical problems or problems with whatever was going on. And I think that maybe had an influence, but something about opening up... I started opening up pedals and looking at them and trying to figure out how they make sounds, and that was probably about seven years ago when I started doing that. And I just loved it.

Emily Wolfe:
And from then on, I started making my own mics and I mean, they're not anything that anyone could sell, but they're fun. It's just like, yeah, it's fun. And there's been a couple of mics that I've made out of speakers that have been on previous recordings of mine. So that's cool. I just think it's so cool that you can plug in a guitar to a box and get a sound out of it that can inspire you to create a song that can affect someone's life. It's just really interesting to me.

Evan Ball:
Maybe you could take your electrical skills in this parallel life and start a pedal company. That might be cool.

Emily Wolfe:
That would rule. Maybe I would do that. Yeah.

Evan Ball:
All right. What's your most popular song?

Emily Wolfe:
I think it's Atta Blues, which, that one I did in 2014 and that song is pretty special to me. I had kind of a rough time leading up to that, a lot of things going on in my life. And then I got my focus back on music and I played all the instruments on it and it was really fun. It was fun to play drums on a recording.

Evan Ball:
Do you ever think why it's your most popular? Anything that comes to mind there?

Emily Wolfe:
I really do wonder why because I feel like I have better songs elsewhere, but I mean, I love that people dig it. I feel like it's maybe the riff and the guitar kind of bluesy thing, but yeah. I don't know. I'm glad people like it though.

Evan Ball:
Do you have any predictions for this new album? What the most popular song will be? I don't know, say like a year in, do you see one song emerging as the most popular?

Emily Wolfe:
I've been told that No Man is like the one, by multiple people. I don't know if I feel that way. I feel that maybe Vermilion Park or My Lungs Give Out will be the ones that kind of break through, but I'm also kind of historically bad at guessing that, so yeah. I don't know. It could be one of those three.

Evan Ball:
Well, your guesses are on record, let's see. Any predictions of how the music business might be different, say 10 years from now?

Emily Wolfe:
Wow.

Evan Ball:
You can always pass too.

Emily Wolfe:
I want to try an answer.

Evan Ball:
Okay, cool.

Emily Wolfe:
Let's see. I feel like live streaming was a big thing of COVID and I almost feel like people are going to maybe live stream shows even when they're like real shows that people attend. I just wonder if that's a market that we're going towards?

Evan Ball:
If you could sort of enhance your revenue by selling tickets to people outside of the area, make it-

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. I do wonder if that's going to be a thing. Yeah. Maybe that, but there's, people come up with ways to monetize the industry all the time and I feel like it changes constantly, with the NFT thing. Have you heard about the NFTs?

Evan Ball:
Yeah, the blockchain sort of... I don't get it, but I know what you're talking about.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. I sort of understand it and it's super weird, but also I'm like, oh, that's kind of genius. So I don't know. I guess we'll find out.

Evan Ball:
So let's see. So we're talking about where people are buying digital, intellectual property or digital content, right?

Emily Wolfe:
Yes.

Evan Ball:
So it could be like a... Maybe you could give a better example than I can try to muster right now?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. So I'm not an expert, but what I've been told is, if I were to make an NFT, it would be, say I do an acoustic version of Something Better, one of my songs, and that song is available nowhere else, other than this NFT. And so I can put it up on whatever-

Evan Ball:
That's what I don't get. What is the NFT? Isn't it just a file, like an MP3 or something?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. It's just a file. Yeah. So I don't know where you put it up, but basically somebody can buy that for 10 bucks and then it's their property. And then every time they sell it to somebody, which you can sell it, then I would get a cut of the NFT sale. So they could sell it for 20 bucks and I would get a cut and then it can kind of snowball into this thing where they just keep selling this property. And it's just a file-

Evan Ball:
But is it the original mix that they own? People could just copy the song and then... I don't know, I'm trying to think how it's different.

Emily Wolfe:
I think that's where, that's how it differs, is that it's crypted to where you cannot share it. You have to pay for it to own it. So I think that's what it is.

Evan Ball:
There was some famous GIF that sold. And I was trying to figure out, what does that mean? Isn't it still roaming the internet? People can find that GIF anywhere, but it's like, did they own the original that the person made?

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. I think it is the original, I believe. But again, I'm not an expert-

Evan Ball:
But it's just interesting. There's this new concept of owning moments that happened. I've, they're talking about like selling sport, a famous, I don't know, soccer goal or something.

Emily Wolfe:
It's so crazy. It's like Black Mirror. Yeah. It's crazy. I guess we'll see what happens, you know?

Evan Ball:
Yeah. I got to do some research. All right. Are there any practices that you picked up through COVID that you think you'll stick with?

Emily Wolfe:
I feel like zoom, co-writing sessions with people through zoom started out being really terrible. And then after a while I was like, oh, this really takes out a lot of the logistics that somebody in New York, I could write with somebody in New York over the computer, versus me paying a bunch of money to travel up there, to write for a couple of days. It just takes a lot of the financial burden off of stuff. So I think maybe co-writing over zoom is something that I'll continue to do.

Evan Ball:
Yeah. Well, that makes sense. I mean, a parallel is this podcast. In the beginning, I used to do all of them in person, and then COVID hit, but now it's kind of like, well, this is so much easier. So many people are more available just to hop on zoom. I don't have to do a travel day down to LA, so that's definitely stuck. All right, here we go. Grand finale. Favorite guitar strings.

Emily Wolfe:
Slinky Cobalts.

Evan Ball:
Okay. That works for us. So you're playing the tens?

Emily Wolfe:
Tens.

Evan Ball:
Okay, cool.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah. I used to play [inaudible 00:33:49] strings, like the nickel ones, because I really liked the sustain of them. And then somebody reached out and they were like, Hey, have you ever tried the cobalts? I was like, no. So, I mean, I played them in and they sounded better. They were higher out, but they felt better, like the atta... It was just all around light years better. So I haven't stopped playing those. Let's see, I've been playing cobalts for like six years, I think.

Evan Ball:
Awesome. Well, Emily Wolfe, thanks for being on the podcast.

Emily Wolfe:
Thanks for having, me really fun.

Evan Ball:
Thanks for tuning in to Striking A Chord and Ernie Ball podcast. Thanks Emily Wolf. Congrats on a great album. If you'd like to contact us, please email [email protected].

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah, I mean...

Evan Ball:
Actually, you are freezing up-

Emily Wolfe:
But I'm glad I had some time to write a record. Oh shoot. Okay.

Evan Ball:
I guess that's why we turned the video off. I guess it does actually help for the audio.

Emily Wolfe:
Yeah.