To juxtapose the mayhem of 2020, Emma Gerson debuted our 2021 A-side Sessions with a performance so graceful, it had us doubting the short extent of her career thus far. This up-and-coming musician is merely a second year student at UC Berkeley, but holds all of the grace and poise of a woman who laid her stake in the music industry many years ago.
Join us for a performance so delicate and inviting, it warmed us from the cold of a January night, followed by an interview discussing the power of music in coping, community, and upbringing.
Natalie Gott: Welcome to another A-side Session. This is our first one of 2021. I’m Nat, the Managing Editor here at The B-side. Today, we have the lovely Emma Gerson. She’s a student-musician here at UC Berkeley and really just starting her career, so we’re so excited to see where it goes. Can you tell us a bit about that song, Put it Down that you just played?
Emma Gerson: Sure. Well, first of all, thank you guys so much for having me. I love everyone at The B-side. Put it Down is a song I wrote in the beginning of quarantine, really during a time when everything was falling apart. For me, it was a song I wrote almost as a prayer to bring us together in community. I think, obviously covid exposed a lot of these cracks and illuminated a lot of these issues that have been here since the founding of this country. I also cultivated this hope by seeing the everyday actions that people were doing to take care of eachother. Put it Down is just about putting down old belief systems and trying to create something new.
NG: That’s so beautiful. I love that song a lot. Another song that you played for us is part of an upcoming project that you have going on. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what that’s like and how that’s going?
EG: Yeah, so the video of Let Me Be Good to You will be out on Valentine’s Day and the song will be out on all streaming platforms, hopefully, by the end of February. So, just putting that all together, it’s really been a year in the making. I wrote the song in March of 2020, and it’s going to be out a year later. It really has been an amazing experience and I’m so excited to put it out.
NG: We’re excited for you. I’m glad that we get to have the first sneak peek of that song. We’re so lucky. So, you’ve been surrounded by music your entire life, since the beginning. I know that your mom is a musician, your dad works in the music industry. Do you want to tell us what it’s like to have had that influence your entire life and that support system?
EG: I consider myself extremely lucky. I really don’t know who I would be without all of the music that I grew up around. I grew up in Manhattan, Lower East Side. So that’s a place that’s so full of music and history. My mom is a musician, as you know, so watching her perform as a kid really just inspired me so much. I just remember being in awe all the time just watching her. And even till this day, when I watch her perform, it’s like nothing else. So for me, I felt deeply that that was something that I wanted to do. I wanted to have that same experience of transporting people into this little world, into this little moment that live music really creates. I’m so lucky to have her support in everything I do.
NG: Do you feel like you see her in yourself when you’re performing?
EG: Not yet, I feel like I have a long way to go in terms of my live performance. But, I do hope one day to get there.
NG: That’s so sweet. I hope she’s listening. So, a lot of the songs that you played for us seem to have really powerful meanings. What is the song writing process like for you?
EG: One thing that I always say is that I don’t know how I feel until I write a song about it. For me, I’m often very slow with coming to truly knowing how I feel and I take a long time to process. I spend a lot of time alone just writing — writing about how I feel and all that. Different songs take different amounts of time to write because different emotions come to me in different amounts of time. Every song that I write really is a piece of me and an experience that I had. I feel very blessed to be able to share it with people and to have people relate to and feel something from it too. It’s the most gratifying feeling ever. 
NG: As a writer, I feel the same way. I don’t fully comprehend anything I’m feeling until I at least get a few paragraphs out on it. So I get that; that’s really nice. So outside of your music, what have you been listening to lately? What do you like to turn on?
EG: This week in particular, I have been listening to Rufus Wainwright’s Poses album (2001). He’s just like an amazing writer and singer and musician in general. I also like it because it’s very emotional music and I like music that has that rawness. I eat that up.
NG: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We feel so lucky to have been able to have had you. It’s so cold, so we’re gonna end it. But again, thank you. We really loved it.
EG: Thank you so much.
Written by Natalie Gott.
Photos and videography by Lyle Kahney and Kai Jacinto.