Date Signed: October 2023
Label: Don Giovanni Records
Type of Music: Indie-folk
Publicity: Sarah Avrin, Charm School Media, [email protected]
Web: emilyfrembgen.com
Country-tinged indie folk artist Emily Frembgen released the No Hard Feelings album and the “Drink Tonight” single in recent weeks, further cementing her working relationship with Don Giovanni Records. It’s the latest chapter in what has been a fascinating journey to this point. Frembgen has been singing and making up songs for as long as she can remember.
“I got my first guitar when I was 15 or 16 and after learning three chords, I was serious,” she says. “I went to a guitar lesson and the teacher told me I wasn’t ready to write songs yet and I never took another lesson. I was overconfident then and sure I was bound to get discovered recording on my four-track in my bedroom. I started playing live during a stint in Denver in my early 20’s and when I moved back to New York, the first of couple gigs here shook my confidence. Eventually though, I found my people and places.”
The artist describes her sound as straightforward Americana, though there are certainly nuances. Delicate, yet strong. Honest and authentic, and always charming. It’s a sound that brought her to the attention of Don Giovanni.
“It was all very serendipitous,” Frembgen says. “I was booked on a show with Paisley Fields and we hit it off. I had also just finished the video for 'Fentanyl' with Kate Sweeney, who has worked a lot with Don Giovanni. She hooked me up with Mike Campbell for PR and he was like, ‘oh, I’ll just give Joe a call!’ By that time I think so many people had put in a word for me he couldn’t say no!”
No Hard Feelings was recorded with producer Hugh Pool at Excello in Greenpoint, with work starting around the spring of 2023.
“This one’s really about getting to the middle of my life and really unpacking what I had been carrying around, mostly with my father,” Frembgen says. “When the pandemic happened and I wasn’t running around and dating crappy guys I really had to dig deeper for material and get more honest than I have been in the past.”
With the album out, Frembgen is looking to play a bunch of shows around Colorado and New York, with SXSW on the horizon. Beyond that, the sky’s the limit.
