Hailing from Orange County, California, Emily Simonian isn’t just another young singer-songwriter passing through Los Angeles. With the combination of a great voice, a gift for lyric writing, a charming personality and a knack for creating catchy hooks, Emily possesses much more zest and spunk than your average girl next door! A graduate of Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles with a B.A. in vocal music, Emily was classically trained as a vocalist in her earliest music studies. After realizing that she was most passionate about singing contemporary styles and penning her own music and lyrics, she began working on her own songs and recording with friends and co-writers in Los Angeles and Orange County where she has been described as a major talent to look out for.
Growing up in an environment that was rich in artistic influences, as well as being raised by parents who encouraged creativity, are two of the factors that singer-songwriter Emily Simonian credits for inspiring and shaping her musical career. She says, “As a child, when my parents gave me coloring books, I colored outside the lines. When I got a hold of permanent markers, I drew on my walls! There were art classes, sewing projects, creative writing contests and poetry festivals…but when I sat down at a piano and started singing… that was it.”
Emily was classically trained as a vocalist in her earliest music studies. At age seven, she trained with a singer from the Los Angeles Opera Company and continued on through high school choirs, achieving coveted spots in the American Choral Directors Association’s California All-State Honor Choir and receiving highly esteemed awards upon graduation.
High school merits and accolades were left behind when Emily accepted a scholarship and moved to Boston in 2005 to attend the renowned Berklee College of Music. The experience was a valuable one, however, Emily decided to return to her native Los Angeles and finish a bachelor’s degree in contemporary music in Hollywood at Musician’s Institute. “Those were growing years, both musically and otherwise, and I will always be grateful.”
Those were also the first songwriting years. With the aforementioned creative writing contests and poetry festivals under her belt, mixed with years of vocal and piano training, Emily had unknowingly equipped herself to merge talent and passion and become one heck of an inspired singer-songwriter. “The first attempts were rough” she says, but soon enough she found a sound and style that was uniquely hers which has been described as punchy, piano-driven pop. Her lyrical inspiration comes in all forms. Simonian talks about “growing up” in one of her songs and does so by abstractly singing about a maple tree, of all things. Old boyfriends are compared to the likes of a pair of designer shoes and Peter Pan. There is nothing average about the content of Emily’s songs. “If you’re looking for a simple ‘I need you baby’ love song, you won’t find it here!” she states, laughing.
These days Emily is gigging throughout Los Angeles and Orange County and has published her debut EP, entitled “Pale Green”. The 5 original songs featured on the EP chronicle a long-distance romance. It’s sassy, it’s spunky, it’s campy, it’s melodic, romantic and haunting. It’s very “Emily Simonian”. You may not know what that means exactly yet, but you will. This unique singer-songwriter is sure to be a household name in no time.
Released on December 5th 2010, look for “Pale Green” on iTunes, CDbaby, Amazon or on the Welcome page of this website.
