From sword choreography to soul-baring lyrics, Empara Mi combines raw storytelling with theatrical production to create a world where pain and power coexist.
I’m Empara Mi, a British-Irish artist, born in Guernsey. My first ever song, ‘Wanderlust’, was about leaving home and trying to find where I belonged; I think I’m still trying to figure that out. I’d say I’m a truth-teller before anything else. If my music doesn’t come from a semi-autobiographical place, then it doesn’t serve a purpose for me. On the other side of things, I like to take these moments of truth and create a fantasy world of which they can exist in, usually where my pain and some form of hope can co-exist as a lesson to myself. Music is an escape for me, and a way to better understand myself – it’s the best therapy there is.
Stylistically, I sit somewhere between theatrical balladry and dark, heavy alt-pop. I love drama, not in a surface way, but in the way that life can sometimes feel operatic when you’re in the depths of feeling. My music often explores the duality of strength and vulnerability, love and apparently self-destruction.
I want to remind people that being emotional is powerful, that there’s no shame in feeling deeply. I never set out to make ‘empowering’ music, however that’s something I lean into because it feels like a truthful perspective I have of the world. I hope that others can feel and hear themselves in the music and relate in some way and hopefully feel less alone in whatever they are going through.
I wrote ‘I Can’t’ with Robot Koch; he sent me some chords, and it immediately inspired me emotionally. It didn’t take any thinking to put me exactly in the spot that I needed to be to write, and that was a place of fear of losing the one thing I knew I couldn’t live without. I just sat in a dark room by myself and let it come out and tried to live at that moment and imagine how I would feel. Sadly, that thing did come true, and now I feel it every time I listen back to “I Can’t”, which has probably been the hardest thing about releasing it, but at least it’s real.
My song ‘Masochist’ is part of a chapter in my life where I went through a lot of grief and anger and I only wanted to write something dark. ‘Masochist’ is very much about self destruction and not letting someone get too close, someone who is almost addicted to chaos and the feeling of pain.
I have a love of martial arts so when I thought of doing a video for “Masochist” I wanted to take my training to a more challenging place which was to incorporate a weapon. I’d seen people do it online but had no idea where to start so I spent time teaching myself and choreographing my movement with the sword for the video. I also loved the symbol of the sword which could feel heroic and equally villainous which I wanted for this as it’s unclear where I lie on that spectrum in this song and in the album in general, hence the name ‘Monsters & Masochists’.
Hearing my songs in films and on TV isn’t something I’ll ever get bored of; it’s amazing to see the music reimagined in a completely different setting. I very much write songs as if I’m in a movie of my own mind so it’s amazing to see them reborn again. I also happen to really love the shows the music has been included in so I’m very lucky there. Sometimes I’ve found myself watching a show and completely forgot my music is meant to be in it, like ‘Day of the Jackal’, so it’s always a good surprise. I’m very drawn to cinematic music, and it’s allowed me to reach people who may have never found my music, so I’ll always be grateful for that.
I think the hardest part of being in the music industry is carving out space for vulnerability in a world that often values surface over substance. As a female artist especially, I’ve had to wrestle with trying to be taken seriously on a creative and executive level. I love to be involved in everything, writing, production, visuals and that’s not always expected or wanted. But out of it I’ve learned to trust my vision, even when it makes others uncomfortable because there’s nothing worse than looking back and thinking ‘why did I let them do that, I knew it wasn’t right at the time’. I try to tread the line between letting people do what they are best at but also not at the determinant of what I already know is right for me.
I’m inspired by contradictions, the divine and the damned, delicate and dangerous, soft and untouchable; I’m a true Gemini. I’m inspired by a lot of female artists with a strong identity who you can tell have stuck to their guns with their artistry and probably had to fight along the way to keep it.
My aspiration is to build a world where people can feel seen in all their complexity. I want to be the voice you turn to when you feel like no one understands you. And beyond music, I want to create a universe, fashion, film, beauty, that invites people into that space of transformation. One day.
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