The Philly duo essie + nap’s second single “Long Distance Lover” is an in-your-face blues rock song inspired by the anxiety of awaiting that next text message. Featuring Andrew Lipke (Amos Lee, Get the Led Out) on lead guitar, the song captures the pain of maintaining long distance relationships in the modern-era where technology makes communication instantaneous and non-stop.
The song is a powerhouse of vocals and guitar, really digging in to that angst in a relationship that should be more requited than it actually is. essie spoke with us about the song and about what she’d like to see as a queer artist in the music industry.
Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?
We’re working at being really specific about what we want earlier on in the writing process. If you’re a new writer this is something good to build towards. Getting real specific about what you hear and want early on helps keep the song focused. We love to try out different sounds, effects, and all the endless options you can make in production but sometimes that really draws you away from the core of the song or your original intent. There’s a kind of magic when a song is first written that you have to protect as the song evolves. So getting specific about those things early on actually gives you a better direction when it comes time to experiment. We record everytime we meet on voice memos and essie is an avid note taker so we usually map out the songs – first just structure – then with chords – and last with specific instruments we hear. Like this track Long Distance Lover (LDL) was a voice memo essie sent with melody and lyrics and we combined it with this guitar progression we already had been playing with. So you can hear in each one of our early sessions in voice memos how the song evolved. It’s cool to look back on those recordings and sometimes you catch elements you want to keep that fell through the cracks.
Do you start off with the music or lyrics first? Why?
We kind of tag team writing. Typically one of us has an idea and we are constantly sending each other voice memos throughout the week. We try to get together and flush out all the ideas we’ve had. I (essie) typically write melody and lyrics, and Nap typically writes guitar, and bass parts. Then we work together to figure out the structure and nuance of each piece.
Have you ever been star-struck when playing with a musician?
Well we both have been star-struck by Andrew Lipke who is our producer and is featured on this track shredding electric guitar. He’s one of those people that just embodies music. We’ve learned a lot just by working with him on our tunes. We first collaborated with him together on Come Together: Abbey Road and that was like a dream experience playing one of our favorite albums alongside one of our favorite musicians to work with.
What’s the best way a fan can support you?
Following the artist if you use Spotify for music goes a long way to supporting artists and boosting them in the algorithm – playlisting on Spotify is like standing at this door knocking until someone lets you in. It may seem like a small thing that takes a listener less than a second to do but it really makes an impact. The other important thing is sharing and tagging. We love to see that our music is reaching people or how they are impacted by it! Tagging us in a post or sharing our song, video or one of our posts is another way to really support a local artist.
What is your vision for a more just music industry?
I (essie) have been in many rooms where people assume straightness. I would love to live in a world one day where that assumption had no grounds, and was non-existent. Where it’s not safe or normal to assume everyone is straight and then queerness is the “other.” I’m always hesitant to label my sexuality because I believe very deeply that sexuality is fluid and that we have a lot of catching up to do societally of normalizing all the different ways we can have intimacy, relationships, and soulmates outside of the conventional “couple.” If someone ever asks me about myself I always say, I love who I love when I love them. Lyrically, “Long Distance Lover” keeps this motto. I never really give a gender to the subject of the song and that’s because it doesn’t really matter to me as much as the person themselves.