Emily Best - Light Up the Dawn

Emily talks about her second album, which mixes indie rock, folk, and jazz.

Emily Best - Light Up the Dawn
The original photo for this episode comes from Emily Best’s website.

On the Rhythm Changes Podcast, Emily Best talks about her second album, Light Up the Dawn, which mixes indie rock, folk, and jazz. She released it from Vancouver on April 8, 2022.

Thank you to 12TH ST Sound for sponsoring this episode. Get going on your next music project today at 12thst.ca/booking.

Thank you to Railtown Mastering for sponsoring today’s episode. Learn more about the mastering studio in Vancouver at railtownmastering.com.

We talked about:

  • What makes Emily a great arranger, in my opinion; and where she agrees with me. She sees all the parts of the song and knows exactly what she wants her collaborators to play. I found this out because I heard Emily, playing solo piano and singing at Knox United Church, play all the little bits of the arrangements that other musicians played on Light Up the Dawn
  • Emily's high-school hustle to participate in the Semiahmoo Secondary School music program – one of the best in BC – while enrolled at a different school in Surrey!
  • Dropping out of a writing program at the University of Victoria and confronting the fear of going for music college
  • The appeal of the Vancouver Community College music program
  • Learning from Alan Matheson around 2010: for Emily, at VCC; and for me, at the Douglas College Summer Jazz Intensive
  • Going to Montreal and back in the mid-2010s, after VCC but before Emily started making her two albums
  • Navigating a hasty move to Montreal and collaborating with Janette King
  • Performing a summertime concert and streaming it to an online audience many months later
  • Being a fan of Tony Wilson, and how Emily invited him to record on her first album
  • Holding down a regular gig multiple times per week at the Sandbar restaurant on Granville Island, as part of a collective of working musicians