Hotly-tipped British-Chinese sibling duo Esme Emerson talk their musical genesis, their seamless collective process, and their nostalgia-fuelled sophomore EP, “Apple Sauce”.

Esme and Emerson, according to the latter half, feel like they “share a brain.” Their bond—that of two siblings with similar talents, age, and vision—is symbiotic. It’s grounded in the world, yet it’s spiritual and beyond the physical. It’s effortless. And it’s birthed their conjoining musical excellence, celebrated on their all new sophomore EP, “Apple Sauce”.

The British-Chinese brother-sister duo have floated vivaciously into the indie pop space since their emergence a few years back, laying down a marker with last year’s cascading and sentimental debut opus, “Big Leap, No Faith, Small Chancer”. This follow-up work sees the pair planting their feet within their own sonic agenda, confident and free-flowing in their stylistic nuance, and terrific in their ability to ease through vulnerability in their lyrical lens. Nostalgia seeps through each of the work’s four songs—the kind of project that feels instantly familiar, yet excitingly undiscovered. 

To delve into the impressive new EP, discuss their musical origin story, and to find out what’s next, Wonderland got to low down.  

Listen to “Apple Sauce”…

Read the exclusive interview…

Talk us through growing up in Ipswich. What music were you around? What was the scene like there?

Esme: Growing up in the countryside was a lot of sheep, dirt, and not fitting in. However, when we were tweens we started attending ‘Rock Schools’ during school breaks. They were put on by a local music studio in Ipswich, our nearest town, and we used to spend our breaks there forming our first ever bands. ‘Dragon Ducks’ and ‘The Year of The Sloth’ to name a few. These were really important to us, especially as kids who wanted to be rockstars lol. Suddenly songwriting wasn’t just this thing for grown-ups, we could do it too.      

How did you first begin making music as a duo? What works so well about the way you create together?

Emerson: We started making music together when I came home from University in 2020! It really does feel like we share a brain, so I think that makes the process of creating together super easy and fun. It kind of just flows and we don’t have to worry about judgement from either side. I also think we fill in each other’s gaps! For example I think Es has a really special sense of lyricism, whereas it’s something I find a little more difficult. Also just the fact that we’re siblings means we have a very specific way of communicating and we can be our most sincere selves with each other.

Do you think that fact that you are siblings augment your chemistry? Did you always get on well or did you argue when you were younger?

Esme: We always joke that we share a brain. We have the same tastes and so much admiration for each other’s ideas. Writing together is easy. We don’t need to talk about it. Having known each other our whole lives, the space we share feels safe and as easy as existing. And we didn’t really argue when we were younger, only silly stuff. Emerson was a very cool older brother, and I was just the weird kid that followed him around. It worked.

How much of an impact did you parents have on making you the musicians you are today?

Growing up, our parents were always listening to music. Our mum brought her silver boombox with her all around the house, always playing her favourite albums and humming along. Cooking, bathing us, hanging laundry. Everywhere. Our dad has always been quite the collector, always with a new CD in his car stereo. We still have and use his first ever guitar, a sweet nylon string. They listened to a range of music. The Cure, The Smiths, Sade, Joy Division, Echo and The Bunnymen, Beyonce, Pussy Cat Dolls. We have fond memories of singing along to their favourite songs, on repeat, windows down and snug in our car seats. Our parent’s love for music definitely fostered a love of equal measure in us, and they are our biggest supporters. 

What tends to be your creative process as a duo? Do you always write together?

Esme: We tend to write together. If we ever write apart, it’s always brought into the middle at some point and delved into further by the both of us. Em is the other half of my brain, and writing together just makes sense. The more we’ve written over time, the more interwoven the process has become. It’s almost like the more we get to know ourselves and each other, the less distance there is between our thoughts and the songs. It’s really great. I love writing songs with my best friend.

Your artwork for the releases is always amazing! Is it the same artist behind each one? What’s the story?

Esme: Thank you! I paint the artwork. I’ve always loved the scratchy textures of paintings, especially when it’s imperfect and kind of shit, so it just made sense to paint them myself. I get the same satisfaction from painting the covers as I do from writing songs. It just feels good to make things. It also keeps costs down, which is pretty significant lol. 

Your writing is vulnerable and emotion-driven/ How have you reached a point in being open and honest in the way you use lyricism?

Esme: Honesty and sincerity is so important to us when writing music. We grew up in an area where we didn’t fit in and couldn’t really be ourselves, but writing music together is a space where we’re allowed to be unapologetically us. We often write about belonging, whilst simultaneously making something that makes us feel heard and like we belong. Being siblings helps a lot. There is no one I feel safer, more understood, or more accepted by than my brother. It’s rewarding and I’m excited to look back in 10-20 years and see how we’ve grown.

Congratulations on your latest EP, “Applesauce”. Talk us through the making and meaning of the new work?

Emerson: These songs were all written at different times. So we’ve spent a lot of time with all of them in our home studio, demoing them and making sure we were happy with them. Then once we’d decided on the track-listing for the EP, we got into the studio with our great friend and co-producer Mr Hugo Hardy to bring these songs to life. It was honestly a fairly speedy process which was cool because, whilst we had an idea in our heads of how we wanted to approach the songs, we ended up following our gut feelings for lots of it. We trusted in ourselves and each other and just the process in general.

Esme: There are two apple trees in our front yard. Every summer the apples fall from the trees, roll down the hill, and rot over autumn. This year, however, our mum picked them. There were too many to eat, so she made applesauce. What I’m getting at is that “Applesauce” is an EP we made out of our ‘apples’. The songs encapsulate some recurring thoughts, memories, excuses, and finds somewhere to put them. There’s a lot within the EP about grief, belonging, and mistakes. “Applesauce” is us embracing our imperfections and trying to make something we’re proud of from the ‘apples’ we’ve been dealt. 

What are the key inspirations of the EP – sonically and thematically?

Emerson: Sonically there are so many different inspirations. I think we were very keen to make something that felt very ‘real’ and tangible, and so most of the instrumentation is underpinned by acoustic instruments. Something that really helped us achieve this was recording live violin for the first time. We were really lucky to be joined by the lovely Anne Yin one day in the studio and we had her track a bunch of different violin parts. We loved it so much, and there is violin in every song; it helps create such a sense of intimacy and closeness in all the tracks. We were then able to have fun experimenting with some wonkier and stranger elements in the songs. Whilst we don’t really like to focus on genre, these songs are broadly pop songs! But we wanted to maintain a folky feeling throughout and create something with a distinct sonic identity, embracing imperfections.

Esme: Thematically, there’s a lot of grief and reflection in this EP. I think nostalgia is really important when it comes to our songwriting, and it probably partially comes from being siblings. Making music often feels like looking back on our lives together. Our childhoods, growing up, making mistakes. 

What do you hope this project achieves? What conversations do you want it to open?

Emerson: These songs are very personal, and It’s always slightly daunting releasing your art into the world and letting go of it. So first and foremost I hope that it resonates with people in some way or another. We also want to keep making music forever, and right now have our eyes set on making a bigger project. So if this project can open that conversation up we’d be extremely grateful.

Having said all that I just want it to open conversations about how we can become to biggest rockstars on the planet.

You’re heading out on your first ever headline UK tour in April? What can fans expect from your live show? Do you consider yourselves natural performers or is that something you’ve grown into?

Emerson: Our current live show is very DIY and all live which I’m finding really fun! I love all our band members and it feels good to try and recreate these very produced songs with just 5 musicians on stage. So people can expect some quite rock and roll arrangements of songs from both our EP’s, as well as a bunch of new songs that we’ve been writing and that we’re excited to share for the first time at these headline shows.

Esme: I’ve always loved performing and dreaded it in equal measures. I peed myself, age seven, performing hit single “Reach For The Stars” by S Club 7 in the living room for my mum and auntie. Maybe it all started there. The best and worst performance of my seventh year of life.

What else is to come from you – this year and beyond?

We have our first ever headline tour coming up in April, which we’re over the moon about! We’re playing in Glasgow, Manchester, London and a hometown show in Ipswich. Aside from that, we also just want to make more music. A bigger project, more shows, and growing our sound. The whole shebang.