Introducing ËMMË, a Sydney-based producer packing some seriously big tunes

ËMMË is an emerging Sydney-based producer we've been keeping an eye on for a while. He's been pretty consistently pumping out some very large originals and remixes, mostly dabbling in the trap/bass world, and his latest single Good Love has us all in. A slightly more chilled out affair featuring the vocals of WA's own Jay Le Kat, it's shown a softer side to the producer that we dig. It's been racking up a heap of streams since release last week, and we sent him a few questions to help us (and you) get to know him a little better.

Tell us about yourself?

I’m ËMMË, in everyday life Emlyn Dodd, originally from Sydney but have lived all over in recent years (USA, Italy and Canada) but recently settled back in Sydney. I began producing about three years ago after DJing for a number of years and being heavily influenced by the world of electronic music and EDM. I learnt the flute and drums from a young age (like, really young) and have played in orchestras, jazz, funk and rock bands. Outside of music, I used to play basketball semi-professionally (and in College in Texas) and also have a PhD in
archaeology/ancient history (because why not have more bizarre niche fields of interest). But music is really where the passion lies these days.

What kinda tunes we talkin’?

I like to think that my song writing is influenced by my stupidly diverse musical background. I find classical elements in there along with a lot of funk and jazz/reggae inspiring me. So this all comes together, along with my love of current electronic music, to form the sound of ËMMË. My releases so far have focussed heavily on trap and moombahton vibes and this is definitely the “genre” that inspires me most. I also get really attached to emotional melodies and am starting to incorporate this into a lot more of my recent productions. So, basically, I guess you can expect everything from big club/festival bangers to moombahton-infused tunes to songs that slow you down mid-set and get the hands up and iPhone lights on.

Production/writing process:

Because I started off as a bedroom producer pissing of my housemates, and essentially still get the bulk of my work done like that (and on the train – shoutout Sydney Trains studios), I have somewhat of a haphazard and unrefined production process. I also find it depends a lot on my current inspiration. For example, I recently finished off a remix to be released soon (watch this space) where I was lucky enough to have an isolated piano and topline. So I built the drums and percussion around this, sketched out some new drops and fleshed it out from there. I guess I usually like to work like that in general, having a basic melodic/chord idea and structuring drums first then filling in the rest. Leads and tweaking sounds don’t come until much further down the track for me.

Something I’m really excited to start experimenting with into the future is having a vocalists input much earlier in the process and writing almost from scratch with them. I think there’s a lot of merit in that method too in a very different manner to me producing instrumentals for vocalists to sing over.

Can you tell us about your new single, Good Love?

Good Love really came about through me experimenting with sounds that were totally out of my normal "banger" comfort zone. It was one of the first melodic/pop pieces I produced from scratch and I was really inspired by some of the stuff Dan Farber was writing at the time. I came up with a rough instrumental and connected with Jay Le Kat via email. I'm actually a huge fan of the massive tune she did with Slumberjack (Enigma) way back so that inspired me to reach out to her. It turned out she loved the instrumental and was psyched to create a vocal idea around it. After a few back and forths we decided on the topline and melody you hear today. Her acoustic vibe really suited the song in a way that just seemed natural - she was an absolute pleasure to work with!

After we finished it I kind of sat on it for a while and I didn’t actually get it mastered properly for about six months. We always knew it had potential but kind of needed the timing to be right. When Elysian contacted me and showed their interest I knew it could be perfect. I’m in awe by the response so far with some people I have always looked up to and been inspired by supporting it. It’s getting some crazy radio play and has had a few spins on triple j, which is any Aussie artist's dream. Really excited to see where it takes us!

Any shows coming up?

What I like about this project is that I have kind of done it in the reverse order to what most do. I’ve released four singles and haven’t played any shows as ËMMË yet, whereas most I find start playing shows and then evolve into releasing singles. Unless you’re Martin Garrix. So I’m excited to start from scratch with the show and build it up with a solid base of originals behind me. Although I can’t say too much about this yet, there is a single tour for Good Love in the works and there may or may not be an announcement about this soon.

What’s the rest of the year have in store?

I’ve got a few remixes lined up to be released next and I am actually really excited for these. One of them is for another Aussie artist that put out an absolute whopper of a tune a year or so ago and I was honoured to be asked to remix that by him – don’t think I’m allowed to say much more about that yet though. After that I’ve got some more original music coming out – a bit of a mixture of melodic stuff and a few bangers to keep it interesting.

In terms of shows there may be some stuff happening in June/July and some festivals later in the year that I am crazy excited about. But again, I have to keep a lid on that for now.

Where can we hear more of your music?

You can find all of my original stuff on all the usual DSTs (Spotify, Apple etc…) and a few unofficial gems on Soundcloud and Youtube.

Follow ËMMË: FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / TWITTER