Any musician on a budget will totally understand the plan Emily Molloy put into action when she set out to make her second EP Tell Me Something.
"I have enough material for a full-length album, but I decided to focus my resources on putting a lot of production value into four songs," she says.
"It's been such a great process. My first album was a lot more folky, and this one is really rock 'n' roll. I wanted a full-band sound."
The EP was put together with Jeff Zipp of White Hart Studios in Vancouver, after meeting him at a competition in the city. This came hot on the heels of Molloy winning the 2015 Whistler Music Search competition. Molloy says two of the songs she played on the night she won have made it to the EP.
"Jeff and I became friends and we started co-writing some music together. Two other songs on Tell Me Something are co-written with him," she says.
"I won Whistler and I thought that would open a bunch of doors for me, and it did. Then I thought why not compete in Vancouver and see what kind of doors that opens. Last year I ended up being in and out of the studio with Jeff."
The EP is still being completed, though the first single "Tell Me Something" is just out.
"It has taken a long time to get off the ground, but I'm really happy."
She says her sound is now punctuated by strong vocals and big guitar.
"It has been really cool to collaborate with other guitarists on this. I'm not much of a lead guitar player. I'm more a rhythm guitarist," she says.
Molloy, who is originally from Meaford, Ont., says the entire EP is about relationships, and laughs wickedly.
"It's interesting. One song, 'Catastrophe' is more about the relationship with myself than with another person," Molloy says.
"The other three are definitely about another person. It's very cathartic and really healing as well. It helped relieve a lot of the issues."
There is plenty of music in her repertoire. "I have a whole collection of ballads recorded that I wrote with a producer in Squamish. We wrote and recorded them three years ago, now. I will put them out on their own, because it is very different from what I am doing now," she says.
"I like to dance between genres."
Molloy has just returned to Whistler following a month-long tour in Eastern Canada, and she plans to continue a winter of performing in Whistler. Oh, and she's just created a band, which is based in Toronto.
"We're trying to work things out and continue to play. I think we can make it work. The rapport the three of us have is unreal," she says.
For more information, visit emilymolloymusic.com.
