Emma Guzman

Though not her first LP, Guzman considers this a fresh start – and certainly the beginning of a new era for her as an artist.

“It’s definitely a coming-of-age album,” she reflects. “I started writing it at 14, so it’s been a long time for me. These are really the songs that represent how I’ve grown over these years, both as a person and a songwriter. I’ve made friends, lost friends, got my heart broken a couple of times, been a camp counselor, worked at Subway, and more. I’ve been all over the place, and I wanted to get it all out there.”

A collection of wistful and wondrous songs built up around Guzman’s gentle voice and guitar, Something Less Than Alone puts the artist’s songwriting talents front and center as she weaves through her own highs and lows, uncovering the beauty and the wreckage inside us all through stories of everyday living.

“It’s a lot of little moments; that’s what I wanted it to be,” Guzman explains. “It’s me trying to evoke a feeling, rather than tell you what happened to me. I’m trying to show you how I felt in my lines – to use my words, the poetry and music to show you how I’m feeling.”

Album opener “Blue October” makes for a powerful scene-setting introduction, as Guzman captures the uneasy feeling right before winter hits, when everything is slowing down and getting darker. “I was clinging on to that last bit of Autumn magic and bracing myself for that long Michigan Winter,” she says. Her guitar plays a forlorn, longing melody as she sings herself into a daydream: “I’ll have a blue October, days by the creek long over, well could you swim when it's colder? drift upstream forever…” 

So begins a visceral collection of charming folk driven by the unseen emotions within. Guzman describes her single “Moving Along” as a kind of murder ballad that evokes the feel of a showdown in an old Western Film. It churns with tender turbulence, whilst the stirring single “Bullfrog” finds Guzman wearing her soul on her sleeve. 

“The song was my way of saying I don’t owe anybody anything. If you’re going to rely on me so heavily, I’m just going to let you down.”

The source of the album’s title, “Bullfrog” is a particularly special song and the artist’s personal favorite from her new album. “It was a moment of confidence for me, and I don’t see a lot of that within my music,” she notes. 

These songs are just the tip of the iceberg on an album that tracks Guzman’s emotional journey in vivid detail, and in real time.

“I really want this album to represent that I am fully here now,” Guzman says. “My voice has in into itself, as has my writing. Songwriting is my outlet and my way of having a voice in something greater than talking to a person face-to-face. What I’m saying is being shared, and anyone has the opportunity to go and find it. It’s sharing a piece of me in every song.”

Ultimately, Emma Guzman just wants to tell her story, and that’s exactly what she’s done with Something Less Than Alone.

“I just want people to feel a sense of comfort in my music and know that they’re not alone. That’s the message I want to share: You can be friends with me by listening to it.”

©Mitch Mosk