Artist Profile: Emma Gabriel
Photo Credit: Arvin/AUDS
An artist from Ottawa, Canada, Emma Gabriel is here to be heard.
When taking in her history, it seems Gabriel was destined to be an artist. From a young age, she was fascinated with the complexities of music and knew she wanted to be a part of it. For a while, she pursued that dream determinedly, taking music lessons and playing guitar as more than just a hobby.
When starting high school, her involvement with music and the arts faded into the background. Almost without her realizing it, she was separate from music for the first time in her life. She took a break to play basketball, but she felt like something was missing. Gabriel describes a moment of epiphany about following her life’s calling and pursuing music seriously.
“I just need[ed] to go back to what I actually love to do, and that is music.”
In Gabriel’s senior year of high school, she decided she was done with passivity. She started actively releasing music. Her preferred genre? R&B. Many current artists are influenced by R&B, but rarely is a modern artist so loyal to the genre. Gabriel knew this, but couldn’t imagine anything else.
“Going into it, I was honestly a little nervous, because I saw that a lot of people were doing pop, indie, that kind of stuff getting into the music industry, and I was like, 'Is there going to be a space for me…are you guys going to listen?”
Despite these initial concerns, Gabriel is happy with the response to her music.
“My community has really supported me, and on top of that, because I tend to travel a lot for music, I’m starting to make little connections everywhere else…someone will randomly be like, ‘We love you in the UK!’ and that’s fun.”
With influences ranging from SZA to PARTYNEXTDOOR, Gabriel is inspired by the modern R&B landscape, but make no mistake: she is her own sound.
“I often get asked, if you were to describe yourself in three artists, who would you be? And I’m like, yes, I can tell you artists I listen to or who I think have influenced me, but sonically, I don’t think my music actually sounds like anybody else. I definitely have influences, but when you listen to a song, you’re like, ‘This is an Emma Gabriel song’.”
One of the most interesting aspects of our conversation was Gabriel’s insight into songwriting. Gabriel likes to experiment with perspective changes in her songs. On tracks like “The Villain,” Gabriel sings from her ex-boyfriend’s perspective, not her own. She also plays with intention. “Whiplash” deals with the feeling of blame and confusion about how friendships and relationships degrade. Gabriel’s lyrics in this song intentionally reflect that.
“In [the song] I’m throwing nails in the coffin like it's all my fault, it's all my fault. But then the guitar kicks in, it has this big drop, and then it’s like ‘the blood on my hands, blood on my chest…’ It's symbolic of ‘I have blood on my hands, so I guess I hurt you. But I have blood on my chest, so did you actually hurt me?’”
“Whiplash” is from her 2025 album, Crushed. The album was inspired by her experience with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD. In the title track, Gabriel intentionally pitched her voice down to mirror the internal struggle between her OCD and her real self.
“When I’m making these songs, I’m showing everyone like, this is me, this is what’s going on in my life. It may sound dark, it may sound scary, but this is it. Do you like it?”
These aspects of her music feed the essence of R&B as a genre, something Gabriel feels is essential to the genre.
“You have to be honest; you have to get sensual. R&B, I feel, is one of the most honest genres, because you have to be. That’s what it demands. If you can’t be honest, then you’re not gonna make the best R&B that you can make.”
If she could have each listener take away one thing from her music, it’s that this honesty and intention goes into every lyric.
“I’m a lyric nerd…So when I’m writing music, there’s something for both people. There’s the person that just wants to vibe to music—cool, I’m gonna give you some nice vocals, I’ll give you a cool melody, you can dance to it, but for the people who like lyrics… yes, my music’s fun, but go read them, I promise, they’re actually great!”
Songs, Gabriel says, can also be a mix of multiple similar experiences, rather than a straightforward perspective about a one-person narrative. “Lifeline,” for example, is an amalgamation of experiences Gabriel has had with both ex-partners and ex-friends, and recognizes the similarities between the two.
“Sometimes all of my emotions kind of mix together. And so when I'm writing, it might be inspired at first by, like, a romantic relationship, and I'm writing about that. But then over time I'm like, you know who else I experienced this with…If somebody knows it's about them, and they're like, “this is definitely something that is about me,” they might hear that first line and then hear the second one and be like, what the fuck? I didn't do that…And it's like, okay, but it's not just about you. Like, you're not the star of the show here. I'll tell that how I want.”
This can lead to songs being greatly misunderstood. Gabriel’s song “HUSH HUSH” has no basis in her real-life experiences. Instead, it’s a fictional story of a woman in a relationship with a famous celebrity, and the abuse of power and need for silence that can come with that.
“It's kind of like, you're doing something, and it's being perceived as positive, but there are actual ramifications to it…Like, this is not the first person you're doing this to. You keep seeing young ingenues, and they're just notches on your belt. So like the whole “HUSH HUSH” song is very playful, but it's actually about, like, abuse of power in the industry.”
This type of songwriting really opens an artist’s creative abilities and makes them limitless. Gabriel’s songs take full advantage of this.
“At the end of the day, when it comes to the lyrics and the stories behind them, sometimes it's me, sometimes it's really not. And that's why it's like, unless I specifically clarify this is a very personal song to me, there’s a good chance it’s not about me, guys.”
No matter the context, Emma Gabriel keeps it honest and thoughtful. After all, that’s what R&B is all about.
Emma Gabriel has a new single, “TWIST ME UP,” out on Spotify. Listen now, and follow on Instagram to keep tabs on her music. There’s much more to come.
