So Emily, Why is It Called "Something Beautiful"?

First of all, I promise the title isn’t some poor attempt at a joke about me being the “something beautiful” in question. I’ve had this title floating around in my mind for over 5 years. Basically, the idea of something beautiful coming from a bad situation has stuck with me for the longest time, and I thought it really fit this collection of songs.

If you really sit and listen to the lyrics of the 10 original songs, there’s only one single song that isn’t about a bad situation—and even the situation that inspired that song eventually ended pretty badly. Some of these songs date back to January 2013. In total, there are 5 unique stories that these 10 songs tell. All of them (except the non-bad-situation-song) came out of situations that I basically thought were the end of the world. I remember thinking I’d never get over those horrible feelings, and that nothing good could possibly come out of the situations I was in. I remember struggling with my mental health, and feeling like I was drowning in all of my negative thoughts. That’s one of the things that all these situations have in common.

The other common thread that ties these seemingly horrible times together is the music that I created while I was enduring them. Even as I was writing the songs, I wasn’t able to step back and appreciate what was happening. In the midst of some of the lowest points in my life, I was writing some of my best songs. Once enough time had passed and I was able to think clearly again, I looked back and saw that I was wrong—something good did come from all of those situations. Something better than “good,” actually. Something beautiful.

Discovering that my temporary pain resulted in permanently good songs was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Now, I’m not so scared of those bad situations anymore. I’m sure that there will be many more in my life, but I know what to expect now. I know that I can write my way through the hurt, and maybe even come out of it with some pretty great songs.

As for how the cover songs fit in? They’re both songs that are extremely dear to me. I sang them regularly when I worked at the Hann’s Point Dinner Theatre during the best 4 summers of my life. They represent something beautiful to me—something beautiful that didn’t require a bad situation to happen. Because, as hard as it often is for me to believe, sometimes something beautiful can just happen without any suffering.