FEATURE: Singer-Songwriter Emily Drinker Packages A Decade Of Stories Into New Album ‘Starting To Feel’

For her new album Starting To Feel, Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter Emily Drinker wrote it over the course of a decade. An exploration of her twenties, the award-winning musician had plenty to draw from, including relationships, friendships, and also her time spent as a cruise ship entertainer travelling the world. Released back in April of this year, Starting To Feel is a collection of songs that serves as a time capsule for Drinker and her memories.

“There’s longing, love, self-doubt, bitterness, sass, angst, and a tiny bit of fictional spookiness”, she shares. “The songs are personal and vulnerable, dealing with failed relationships and the uncertainties and insecurities I felt consumed by as a young adult while searching for love“.

Written during different moments in her life, the seven track release was mostly brought to life on her ukulele and keyboard, eventually budding into a fully formed record filled with bright folk, pop, and rock sensibilities. Touching on a diverse range of styles, the songs find common ground through her yearning for love and acceptance – a relatable theme for those in their 20’s.

As is to be expected for an album that was written at a different chapter in life, certain tracks began to draw out new meaning. “I can always remember the person I was when I first wrote a song, and put myself back into her shoes, but songs shape shift and take on new meanings as I get older“, Emily says.

Elaborating further, she continues, “’Starting to Feel’ is often mistaken for a love song, and in some ways it is a love song, but more unrequited than meets the eye…or ear, as it were. That was written a few years ago about a person with whom I had a physical relationship that never developed into a true relationship, despite my own feelings that were budding. I have since moved on from my complicated feelings for that person, and now when I sing the song I can see it in a new light, thinking of people I love or sometimes imagining a new character within the song. And some songs take on different meanings, even as I’m writing them. For instance, ‘Guilty’, which is a song on the new album, was written over the course a year or two, and the verses were about different people“.

Her bright vocals and overt storytelling bring these moments to life, now with a rich, polished maturity coming through a clear lens and warm nostalgia. Jumping between more upbeat, heartbreak-covered-folk-rock on “Guilty”, “On The Hunt”, and lively album closer “Enough Is Enough”, and into more sincere, stripped back singer-songwriter performances on “Starting To Feel” and “Finish My Sentence”, Starting To Feel is a well-balanced folk album that feels both deeply personal and highly relatable.

And for those curious about her time spent at sea as a cruise ship entertainer, those stories and songs may have to wait for her next release:

“As much as I romanticized the idea of writing songs while at sea, it just didn’t happen all that much. The reality of a cruise ship singer is that you’re performing around 3 hours a day, which is quite taxing on the voice. In my time offstage, I just wanted to be out exploring the ports, seeing the world, and resting my voice as much as I could.

As inspiring as all of the traveling was, playing cover songs several hours a day zapped some of the creative juice and inspiration out of me, so I found it difficult to want to sit down to write. I did keep a journal every single day of my journey though, and there’s plenty of poetry on those pages that could make its way into a song one day! All of the sight-seeing and traveling I did while working on ships certainly informed and expanded my perspective on life and the world, and in turn I think those ideas probably worked their way into songs, subconsciously. And plenty of angst, romance, and crazy experiences from those cruise ship days could make for several album’s worth of music!“

Asked what she would tell her younger self who inspired the album, Emily shares: “Keep going. Be playful, be daring. Please try to care a little less what everyone thinks of you, and don’t be afraid to get weird. Be curious instead of afraid. Believe in yourself. You are more than capable. Your song is worth singing”.

And while she has plans to record a new solo folk EP in the near future, Starting To Feel is quite not in the rearview just yet.

Listen below:

(Featured image by Will Drinker)