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Jul 19, 2017 By Christopher Roberts EMA

Singer/songwriter/guitarist EMA (aka Erika M. Anderson) is releasing a new album, Exile in the Outer Ring, on August 25 via City Slang. Previously she shared a lyric video for its first single, “Aryan Nation,” a full on video for “Breathalyzer,” and the audio for “Down and Out.” She has also announced a co-headlining North American tour with The Blow. Now she has shared a video for “Down and Out.” Alicia J. Rose directed the video, with features Portland, OR performance artist Taj Bourgeois as well as EMA. Bourgeois basically does weird things with his face, such as taping it up, covering it with peanut butter, smashes eggs into it, etc. Check out the video below, followed by her upcoming tour dates below.

Pick up our current print issue (the Summer 2017 Issue) to read our Protest article with EMA where she writes about how automation and robots will effect artists and society in general.

Anderson had this to say about the video in a press release: “I came across Taj’s work at a small house-gallery in PDX called Surplus Space. It was mostly sculptures including a crucified banana and some leather-bound S&M carrots. I loved it immediately. One of the things that impressed me the most about Taj is you can tell how hard he works. He is constantly creating work on pretty much zero budget, and it’s brilliant. I thought that combination of broke-ness, innovation, desperation and hilarity would be a perfect match for ‘Down And Out.’ Our relationship isn’t super defined in the video but overall he’s kind of like my alter-ego. One theme that emerged was kind of male/female modes of destruction and frustration. Inward vs. outward desperation, vanity and lack thereof. Definitely our work in general shares the theme of transformation in a prosaic place. The little girl that comes in at the end is his daughter. They often make work together and how lucky of a kid to have a dad like that? To me the image of her cutting his hair at the end is kind of like the lamb taming the lion, a bit of tenderness in a cruel world.”

Director Alicia J. Rose had this to say: “I loved Erika’s idea of bringing Taj Bourgeois into the mix for this video. I thought his incredibly raw performance art could yield compelling ‘vignettes of futility’ that would juxtapose nicely with Erika’s stripped down performance of the song. We had been talking for a while about recreating a set that was like her living room, which as her friend I’ve seen evolve alongside her art as a sort of physical nexus of for her writing process. Visually, I was excited to toy with the ideas of female composure and restraint vs. male fearlessness and defiant flagellation, especially at this moment in fucked up history. We made the video around the corner from Erika’s house at public access studio Open Signal and only had 10 hours to pull it all off which gave it a challenging time-based art element.”

Anderson had this to say about the song in a previous press release: “People equate ‘worth’ with money. If you’re not making money, you can end up feeling pretty worthless. It’s a terrible feeling. We need to divorce human value from money and we need to stop treating people like they are disposable.”

Recently EMA also contributed a new song not found on her new album, “Stand With You (Song for Ghostship),” to the “Our First 100 Days” anti-President Donald Trump project. She also recently covered “The Crying Game” (originally recorded by Dave Berry in 1964, but also well known because of the Boy George version, recorded for the 1992 movie of the same name) for Amazon’s Songs of Summer original playlist.

It’s been three years since EMA’s last album, The Future’s Void. Exile in the Outer Ring was recorded in Portland, OR and co-produced with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

A previous press release describes the album as such: “It’s an expansive vision that brings together concerns from every corner of our present moment - and themes that have recurred throughout EMA’s career, from the brutality of late capitalism to the collapsing boundaries between private and public - into one dark portrait of what it means to be American in 2017.”

EMA Tour Dates:

09/17 - Copenhagen, DK @ Ideal Bar @ Vega
09/19 - Aarhus, DK @ Voxhall
09/20 - Hamburg, DE @ Reeperbahn Festival
0921 - Munster, DE @ Sputnikhalle
09/22 - Amsterdam, NL @ Muzieklokaal
09/23 - Cologne, DE @ King Georg
09/24 - Brussels, BE @ Autumn Falls / Botanique
09/26 - Berlin, DE @ Berghain // Certain People Festival (w/ Blank Mass & Forest Swords)
09/27 - Munich, DE @ Kranhalle
09/28 - St. Gallen, CH @ Palace
09/29 - Zurich, CH @ Rote Fabrik
09/30 - Paris, FR @ Le Batofar
10/02 - Brighton, UK @ Sticky Mike’s
10/03 - London, UK @ Oslo
10/04 - Manchester, UK @ Soup Kitchen
10/05 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Games Room
10/06 - Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast
10/07 - Leicester, UK @ The Cookie
10/09 - Nuremburg, DE @ Z-bau
10/10 - Ljubljana, SI @ Hrupni Večeri Noisey Nights Series, Gala Hala
10/11 - Budapest, HU @ Durer Kert
10/12 - Vienna, AT @ Arena
10/13 - Prague, CZ @ Meet Factory
10/14 - Warsaw, PL @ Smolna
10/26 - Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s*
10/27 - Vancouver, BC @ The Fox*
10/28 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios*
10/30 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop*
10/31 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo*
11/01 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Rebel Lounge*
11/03 - Austin, TX @ Barracuda*
11/04 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada*
11/06 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade - Purgatory*
11/07 - Durham, NC @ The Pinhook*
11/08 - Washington, DC @ DC9*
11/10 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Night Bazaar*
11/11 - Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA*
11/12 - Somerville, MA @ Once Lounge & Ballroom*
11/13 - Portsmouth, NH @ 3S Artspace*
11/14 - Montreal, QC @ Le Belmont*
11/15 - Toronto, ON @ The Garrison*
11/17 - Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory*
11/18 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle*
11/19 - St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club*

* Co-Headline w/ The Blow

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