Folk Fest: Wells not afraid to get Dirty
Photo courtesy Big Hassle Records. Emily Wells plays guitar, ukulele, banjo, organ, and xylophone, just to name a few.
To describe Emily Wells’ music seems like a fairly daunting task, as there is not one singular sound or genre that would adequately characterize what she does.
But daunting task or not, here goes:
Trained as a classical musician, the 27-year-old plays instruments such as the violin on top of a fast-paced beat and then adds her evocative falsetto voice to top it off. And that is just a nutshell description.
She also plays the guitar, ukulele, banjo, organ, and xylophone, just to name a few, and incorporates orchestral and hip-hop influences.
It’s not only cool to listen to her music, but to watch her create music is even more spectacular.
Wells can be seen on youtube recording “Symphony 1 In the Barrel of a Gun,” from her 2008 record The Symphonies: Dreams Memories and Parties where as she continuously layers background beats, instruments and vocals.
If watching her perform in a tiny pixilated video is entertaining, one can only assume that her live performance at Folk Fest will be that much more spectacular—that is if she gets to Calgary.
Folk Fest Spotlight
Emily Wells
Shows: Sunday 10:30 a.m. Stage 5 (with Bell Orchestre, Esthero, Mirah) and 12:50 p.m. Stage 4
For Wells’ website click here
While Wells explained that she is definitely musically prepared for the festival, she joked that she was unsure if she was prepared for the trip.
“I have to say, my passport was stolen recently,” she said.
Photo courtesy Big Hassle Records. Providing Emily Wells recieves her passport in time, the aspiring folk artist will be making her first trip to Calgary this weekend.
“Until I have (my passport) in my little hands, I don’t think ill be able to say ‘Yeah I’m going’,” she said with a laugh.
Despite all the hassle to get a new passport, Wells said she couldn’t be more excited about coming to Calgary as it will be her first time in Canada.
Born and raised in the United States and currently residing in Los Angeles, Wells seemed to be asking just as many questions about Calgary and the festival as she was answering about her own music.
Ultimately, she said she “couldn’t be more thrilled,” about playing at Folk Fest.
“I aspire to be a folk musician,” she said. “I’ve always thought of folk as being story-telling.”
In addition to being excited about the trip, Wells explained that she is looking forward to performing songs from her recently released EP Dirty.
“We’re going to be playing a lot of songs from that,” she said.
The six-song album features an interesting array of songs from a cover of Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” to the very mellow sounding “Take It Easy San Francisco.”
Needless to say, Wells is an original and one song never sounds similar to the last.
