Emma Rugg :: Official Site

Behind those big blue eyes and the more often than not technicolour black and purple hair, there is more to this go-getting girl than is at first apparent. For a start I discover that she has been awake most of the night; her capo still hanging from the back pocket of her ripped and well worn jeans, exposing various tattoos.

Emma Rugg is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Hull, UK. She plays a customised retrofitted Taylor 414-CE guitar which she has owned for over 10 years. Emma also plays piano and is mostly self-taught. She did however learn to play the trumpet at primary school, tutored by world renowned euphonium player Robert Childs. By the time she left school she was in a covers band singing rock music around her hometown. Picking up a guitar at aged 15 Emma started writing songs of her own.

The haunting fingerstyle guitar work that graces her studio recordings often sees her likened to Nick Drake. Beverley Knight describes her songs as 'conversational with great vocal clarity'. Bringing together a mixture of emotionally drenched songs with often sparse instrumentation the intricate, stripped back tracks on her debut album have an almost exquisite sadness about them and an emotionally charged depth that has seen her work reviewed as being intimate, honest and affecting.

'Isolated Impression' was financed by months of extensive busking. In the Summer of 2002, Emma took to the streets of Hull with her guitar and raised the money to make her first record.

"I started busking because I really wanted to be out there all the time, playing, no matter what. I wanted to release an album so much and a lot of people at the time were asking if there was a place they could hear my songs."

Six months later, after all the change had been counted the rest of the year was spent finishing material and recording at Fairview Studios. Emma began organising all her own press and radio play. Interviews and features in national magazines such as Rock Sound and The Big Issue, sessions on BBC Radio and interviews on BBC Regional News TV soon followed.

The E.P - 'Oceans / Depart' is an altogether different story. With its mix of retro and pop 'Oceans' is quirky and upbeat whilst 'Depart' with its reflections on travel ventures into rock ballad territory. The songs were recorded in part in the UK and also with Producer John Beland at Frontier Studios, Michigan, USA.

Emma's music encompasses different genres and her iPod is just as eclectic. Her love for rock music is most evident. Artists on her playlists include Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee, Sixx:A.M, Velvet Revolver, Black Sabbath and Neil Young.

Emma's collaborations with US singer/songwriter Henry Doss include country, pop and acoustic songs - the two met 'on-air' in 2003 via the BBC Raw Talent radio show. In 2007 their 'Directions Tour' took them to venues on the East Coast and Mid Atlantic of the USA, as well as house concerts, benefit shows and bookstores from northern Michigan to Tennessee. They have also worked in a studio setting on various occasions recording a number of songs, one of which appears on the Henry Doss album 'Floating Islands'.

An Ambassador for her hometown, Emma Rugg has conveyed civic greetings to the Lord Mayor of Hulls' 'twin city' Raleigh in North Carolina. A frequent visitor to the US, she has even played for the mob at James Gandolfini's (The Sopranos) upstate New York restaurant. She has also played numerous live sessions for BBC / USA Radio and appeared on BBC and ITV-TV.

After months of voting, her song 'Oceans' made it through to the finals of The People's Music Awards. Fighting off competition from hundreds of unsigned artists across the globe she took home the award for BEST POP ARTIST 2010, performing at the awards ceremony in London.

She drinks her coffee and sweeps back masses of bed head hair from her petite face and as I gaze on I wonder what she will do next - Now that I've stepped into her emotional booth of sorts I don't think I'll be leaving anytime soon.