Kildare dream-pop singer eyes national showcase
Emma Noodles in action
ROLLERSKATING lazily on country roads. Discovering a small star-man on The Curragh's Braveheart Hill. Falling in love with an alien cowboy in a Wicklow wild west town. Think Emma Noodles.
The themes in the music videos from Kilcullen-based Emma's growing catalogue on YouTube demonstrate a talent of dreamy songs underpinning highly creative video concepts.
“It’s dream-pop,” the former Cross and Passion College (CPC) student says. A genre this writer had not known of. But it's a thing. And in this 22-year-old singer-songwriter's interpretations, a captivating thing.
Emma is in line for the final of the Irish Music Month 'Local Hero' singing competition, representing Ireland's Classic Hits Radio. Of the 21 radio station nominees, six acts will be chosen to play at a special showcase event in The Academy, Dublin, on Tuesday 15 October 2024. She's keeping her fingers crossed for what would be a 'dream' outcome — there's that word again — if she gets to sing her on the finalists stage.
Emma grew up in a musical environment. Her father Joey Lee Lawlor is a singer-songwriter with his own tribute act which brings the 'Man in Black' Johnny Cash uncannily alive again. "There's always music in the house," says Emma, who adopted 'Noodles' as her stage surname because her curly hair got her that nickname in school. She currently works in a creche, leaving her the weekends to cultivate her music ambitions.
She has friends in the industry who help — her boyfriend is a member of a band, which provides backing musicians. Her dream is a full-time career in music, but she is very much aware that it's tougher than ever to do that in the free download era.
"And it seems that everyone wants to do it," she muses. Still, she has her background, and years of music study with CPC teacher Susan Fox which she loved ... the TY musical in her time was , in which she performed. And her older sister April is making her own way on the music scene, from London with a string of records on the Atlantic label.
As well as writing her songs, Emma develops the related videos.
"I kind of get the video very quick in my head. I visualise the whole thing from start to finish, and I just write down all my ideas and all the different scenes. Then I show up to the set and I just kind of tell everyone what to do. It usually works, and it's really fun seeing it becoming reality."
Much of that creativity stems from her longtime interest in writing, she has short stories in a drawer written over many years. She also did a year of Film Studies in the UK, but left that because it was too much theory, not enough practical.
Emma collaborates with Dublin-based producer Erik Konjin in making her videos. Filming them can be a very family affair — the roller-skating video of her single , done in the early morning with her dad driving his car and a friend doing the filming from the boot, she remembers as being 'a bit chaotic'.
"Every time a car came up behind, my friend would shout and I'd head for the ditch. I got bruises, but it was worth it."
It's been a hectic past year, her first video released just last September, and three more singles already dropped in 2024. She did a live performance at the festival in Whelan's of Dublin during the summer.
"It's the best feeling ever, performing live and singing my songs with the band. Everything was so cool and I just want to keep doing it now."
Emma's influences are 'old school music' from the 70s and 80s, including the Bee Gees, Queen, and Abba. "I love country music as well, I'm a big fan of Dolly Parton."
It seems inevitable, that there will be a growing cohort of fans for herself in the coming years.
