Jazz-pop neo-soul newcomers Emily Alice release ‘That’s Nice’, ahead of their opening slot for Six60 in March
Purveyor of all thing’s velvety vocals, smooth jazz and carefully crafted arrangements, Emily Alice have lent into their fun-loving side for their new track That’s Nice. Harbouring a strong background in jazz, soul, and RnB, the incredible musicianship is on display once again with this release. Featuring a double-bass line from Sam Healey opening the track, and silky saxophone from Mike Crawford, Emily Alice are entering a new level with their collaboration.
Written in the wake of their 2024 EP Hindsight, That’s Nice is a departure from the introspective themes that were prevalent in the EP. Emily (vox) says “That’s Nice came from a sort of tongue and cheek place, and an excuse to have fun in between the more emotionally taxing songs of the EP. We never really intended to record it.” Emily Alice found they could never quite capture the essence of the track after several recording attempts, however after working with engineer Sam Healey they found that magic.
“Sam didn’t record the song – he helped us liberate it.”
Described as an experimental track for Emily Alice, the song pokes loving fun at jazz standards where the vocal deliveries are extremely literal. “I was listening to a lot of jazz standards at the time and a lot of the lyrics weren’t complex or complicated – a lot of the vocal deliveries were very literal, and we wanted to mirror this in the track, we’re literally just listing off things which, ya know, are nice.” Comments Emily (vox).
Jazz, soul, RnB, and pop fusion are but a few of the many components that bring together the auditory charcuterie board that is Emily Alice. Born out of Ōtepoti, they are taking over Aotearoa one ear drum at a time. Legend has it the band never book themselves for a gig – they just turn up and start playing. When you sound as good as they do, who’s to blame them.
Emily Alice have received significant airplay across The Hits, OAR, Most.FM, Radio One 91FM, Radio Active, and RDU, and have charted on the SRN Top 10 Countdown. They have played alongside Ladi6, Bootleg Rascal (AUS), Broods, and Muroki. Emily Alice is opening for Six60 at their Ōtepoti show of their Grassroots NZ Tour.
Emily Alice are Emily Kerr-Bell, Joshua Botting, Toby Roseman, Jakira Brophy, and Angus Cleland. That’s Nice was produced and engineered by Sam Healey at Albion Studios and mastered by Ben Horton at Organik Muzik Workz. That’s Nice features Michael Crawford on saxophone, and Sam Healey on double bass. Images provided by Max Balloch.
“We’ve spent the last couple of years really honing our live sound and now we’re in a space where we are really finding ourselves as a band, and we feel like we are going from strength to strength.” – Jakira Brophy, bass.
