Emmet Smith
"The Ugly Side of Me"
- When did you first discover theater/what was your first experience?
My first loves were music and dance. And baseball. I was pretty shy and had a mean lisp so it took me a minute to warm up to the stage. But when the world was ready, I finally made my long awaited debut as the Mayor of Munchkinland.
- When/how did you become a writer? Is there a writer, show, or text that particularly inspired you?
My Freshman year, to get into a writing class, I wrote a Sopranos-meets-Zootopia mini-musical about a squirrel vs. rabbit vs. skunk turf war over the Northwestern campus. I had no idea what I was doing — I maaaybe stole melodies from other songs I knew and prooobably the plot from Animal Farm — but I DEFINITELY had something to say, about coming together for a greater cause. Yes, the animals join forces and decide to raid Allison Dining Hall as the solution for their territorial food crisis.
- How do you describe your style/work?
When I grow up maybe I’ll have a “style”! At this point I’m all over the place. My Spotify discover weekly is chaos, so of course my writing is just as eclectic. I grew up playing jazz drums, so that’s probably the biggest genre influence. I like to set up the world for my character to live in — get to know what they’re feeling first before figuring out what they have stay and how they say it. A mentor taught me to start by writing the monologue / dialogue version and let the character(s)’ vernacular drive how the lyric is structured. This process can lead melody and groove to all sorts of stylistic sensibilities, and I like to try a little of everything. So short answer, it depends!
- What is most rewarding to you about writing music?
I love the puzzle. You get to express something that’s true to you, some story you need to tell, and then push the pieces around until you find the best way to tell it. We don’t have the chance to do that very often in real life.