Since 2009, singer-songwriter Emmett Skyy has called Los Angeles home, but Dreamer, his new album out this spring, has plenty of heart from the “other La.” buried within its smooth Johnny Cash-meets-Marvin Gaye grooves.
Skyy, whose surname is Spooner, had recorded a more rough-around-the-edges rock record soon after arriving, but he was never satisfied with that sound, and it wasn’t until he returned home to Baton Rouge to be with family during his father’s health scare that he wrote a batch of new songs he felt confident to release.
“My father almost died,” Skyy recalls. “And what I wrote about was that whole experience. That’s why the first single is going to be a tune I wrote off Essen Lane in B.R. called ‘On My Way Home.’ It’s what inspires me. It all comes from home.”
Back in L.A., producers and musician friends immediately responded to Skyy’s new work. The intensely personal lyrics seemed to resonate with listeners on a deeper level, Skyy recalls.
Through a friend, he was able to take his slate of Louisiana-inspired songs to one of the most storied recording houses in the world, EastWest studios. Known as United Western in the 1960s, the studio was home to Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley.
Skyy arrived last year to collaborate with Bruce Sugar, a longtime recording engineer for former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.
After laying down several originals, including “On My Way Home,” a gentle, strumming heart song, Sugar suggested that Skyy record an old tune he had written years before and demoed with Starr but never properly recorded. The song is called “We Are One Love,” and Skyy describes it as a huge anthem, an inspirational call for unity.
To replicate the feel his original recording, Sugar suggested they contact the most famous drummer in the world, and a top-selling songwriter in his own right, to lay down some beats. Suddenly, Skyy had a Beatle in his band.
While tracking drums at his home studio in Bevery Hills, Starr even made a suggestion that altered the finished version of the song.
“He was loving it, and said ‘Turn the vocals up,’” Skyy recalls. “Still pinching myself.”
The value of this experience and opportunity is not lost on the Baton Rouge native, who grew up in a musical family, playing and singing with his brothers. He is planning a music video shoot later this month and likes his chances of Starr making a cameo.
“To have Ringo on my record is unbelievable,” Skyy says. “For a black kid from Louisiana to move to California and a city that’s really tough to crack into and then work with one of The Beatles, I definitely had a special moment of realizing how incredible that is. I thought ‘Now’s the time to believe in myself.’”
Not long after, ex-Eagles member Joe Walsh, who is Starr’s brother-in-law, came aboard as well. To have music legends contributing to his music is a humbling thing, Skyy says, but their help just makes him that much prouder of the record by reinforcing one of its central themes.
“It’s all about putting out love,” Skyy says. “I feel like I was a person who had lost their dreams, and maybe a lot of people are that way, too, because they are doing things they aren’t in love with doing. Maybe someone’s a doctor but always wanted to be a ballet dancer. That’s the cry of the world, and I want this record to inspire people to chase their dreams.”
For updates on the new album Dreamer and more, visit emmettskyy.com.
