Today we’d like to introduce you to Emerson Vernon.
Hi Emerson, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in a musical household. My parents met at Butler University studying music- my father studying guitar and my mother studying voice. My mom was also my music teacher in elementary school, so I was surrounded by music in my early life. I started learning classical guitar when I was in 1st grade and took up the bass in 6th grade. Growing up I always wanted to be in a band, but I could never find people that wanted to make the same music as me, or were as motivated as I was to make stuff. My parents also sheltered me a lot so it was hard for me to get involved with the local music scene until I could drive. As a sophomore in high school I discovered Skrillex and was in total awe that he made everything himself on a laptop. From that point on I sought to become a music producer. I spent my free time making crappy dubstep and getting my friends to sing on my copycat electro-pop songs. After high school I moved to Florida to study music production at Full Sail University. It was here that I began singing my own songs to build a portfolio under the name “wolfi”. The project saw mild success online, which lead me to getting my first job as a recording engineer at a place called Stone Tree Studios in my hometown of Indianapolis, IN. A few years later I moved back to Orlando to work at East Room Suites as an engineer there. Since coming back I’ve abandoned the “wolfi” named and am now releasing music under my government name. Nowadays I’ve been more focused on finding really good artists to produce, but I still care deeply about the music I make for myself. I don’t think of music as an avenue to fame and success so much as a way to document my existence.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I wouldn’t say smooth. In the past I feel like my peers have looked at me and thought “he just got lucky”, which is true to an extent. I am very privileged, but I also had to eat so many rejections and failures to achieve the small success I have. I don’t have rich parents or special industry connections, so I would often feel frustrated when people would discredit my work, especially when I’m self-produced. It was also frustrating seeing more people want something from me at the peak of my popularity. People I barely talked to used to reach out for me to retweet them or post about their stuff, and I rarely saw that kind of love reciprocated. It’s just hard in general to gain genuine respect as an artist/producer.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an artist/producer/mix engineer. I’m most proud of my ability to fully manifest an idea into a sonic creation from start to finish. Where one musician might end the creative process at writing the song, I end it when the mastered song is playing in my headphones, making me very capable in the studio. I specialize in vocal production, which I think is probably one of the most important aspects of songwriting/mixing. I think my best songs are “Hex Girl”, “Get Up!”, and “you don’t know what it’s like”. I’m a fan of all genres and it shows in my discography. I’m very proud of my musical diversity.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Artificial intelligence has become much more prevalent, and it’s already been shaking the industry a bit. I think this technology has great potential to be a useful tool in music production, but I do fear us becoming too reliant on it in the future. I heard a song made entirely by AI in an ad recently and it made me want to puke a little. While this is a concern, I do believe that humans will always be able to tell good music from bad music. People were just as scared when drum machines and auto tune were introduced
Contact Info:
- Website: https://emersonvernon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emersonxvernon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=emerson%20vernon
- Twitter: https://www.x.com/emersonxvernon/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@emersonvernon333
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/akawolfi
Image Credits
All photos are by Mark Schlegelmilch
@markalexanderphoto on IG
