Emma Driver is the embodiment of hope and resilience. Music has been the creative outlet in her life to express her emotions and process the obstacles that life throws at her. Her return to the music scene is something you don’t want to miss. Her latest single “Try Hard” discusses her journey as a cancer survivor and what that journey taught her about herself and life. She’s a force to be reckoned with.

Where are you based?
Nashville, TN, and sometimes Brooklyn, New York.

What inspired you to start writing music?
Writing music has always been a way for me to process my emotions in a healthy way. I have this memory from first grade of when I got into an argument with a friend and sat in the corner to write a song about it. I’m such a sucker for a good lyric, I think it’s really powerful how much can be said in so few words.

Congratulations on “Try Hard.” It seems to be a very personal and transformative piece for you. Can you share more about the emotions and experiences that fueled the creation of this song?
Thank you, the process of writing, recording and releasing this song was extremely transformative. When I first wrote Try Hard, I was really ashamed of how much I cared what other people thought. I resented myself for not being able to turn it off, and almost didn’t put the song out because I felt too vulnerable.

After getting cancer, I found I was able to have compassion for myself in areas where previously I’d only been able to have it for others, and this allowed me to take the shame out of it. I recognized it wasn’t that I didn’t know myself, it’s completely normal to care what other people think and to try to get them to like you. The important thing for me is maintaining my own authenticity and not letting what other people think, or my own projections of my harsh inner critic, dictate my internal landscape. Also, grappling with my own mortality, I realized I didn’t want to wait any longer to put the song out, I wanted to try and wanted to be seen because I’m just grateful to be here.

You drew inspiration from artists like Towa Bird, Paramore, and Chappell Roan. How have these influences shaped your sound, songwriting, and your overall development as an artist?
Other than being incredible songwriters, instrumentalists, and performers I’ve been so inspired by how queer artists like Chappell and Towa’s visuals and branding tie into their artistry. Authenticity is really important to me and as a queer person living in the south, I feel like it’s not always possible to be safe and authentically queer here. When I saw Chappell at The Basement in East Nashville, she had drag queens open for her and everybody dressed up and it just felt like such an inclusive space. That’s really the kind of community I want to build around my music, I still haven’t seen Towa or Paramore live yet, both are on the bucket list for sure.

After emerging from treatment and entering cancer remission, you felt an urgency to release new music. Can you talk about how this urgency influenced your creative process?
Like I said before, music has always been a processing tool for me. Getting cancer at 27 reminded me how nothing is promised and time is finite. I couldn’t help thinking: what are the things in my life that have held me back? If I was going to die tomorrow what would I have changed? I was met with so much shame for not having realized it sooner but then I checked myself, because why on earth would I be ashamed of that? It was horrible and random and unfair that I got cancer, and now I was shaming myself for not having seen it coming? And that spurred the title for the upcoming EP “Ashamed to Admit This”.

Try Hard is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, and yet it was about something that I was the most ashamed of. I felt empowered and relieved by the idea of finally admitting that. So I pulled the thread a little harder and asked myself what else I was ashamed of, and is any of it even really valid? Each road I went down was extremely informative on my journey to know myself and I wanted nothing more than to share that with others.

There’s an element of selfishness to it, leaving a bit of proof behind that I exist. But I also hope to encourage other people to explore their own shame with compassion because it really helped propel my personal development.

Your lyrics “What a nightmare to be perceived” carry significant weight given your journey through cancer treatment. How did your experience with cancer influence your relationship with these lyrics?
When I first read these lyrics back after writing them, I was almost shocked because I didn’t fully realize that I felt that way. As someone who’s been a performer almost my entire life, it’s not a nightmare to be perceived as I’m performing, but it was a nightmare to be perceived authentically as my true self. That fear created a loop because then I was ashamed of being afraid to be real. When I lost my hair, I became even more afraid to be seen authentically because I didn’t have a say in how I looked without a wig on.

The way I was able to come to terms with this was acceptance. Accepting the part of myself that was afraid to be herself, and trying to love it and make it feel safe instead of ashamed. And it’s been so unbelievably rewarding to finally feel strong enough to release the song and validating to hear that people relate.

In addition to your music career, you also work with Survivor Fitness. Can you talk to us a little bit more about the work you do with the organization and how they’ve helped you in your journey as a survivor?
Survivor fitness was huge for me in the journey back to myself after undergoing chemo. Fitness has always been a source of empowerment for me as well as a tool to self regulate, so when I was too weak to work out, I just didn’t feel like myself. I am so unbelievably grateful for the team at Survivor fitness for connecting me with my trainer Lauren, who not only encouraged me to try hard in the gym, but I could just tell from our first session she got it.

She would joke about how Personal Trainers are also mini therapists, and I’m sure that’s even more true of Personal Trainers who work with cancer patients. She was so understanding and non-judgmental and that helped me get past my initial embarrassment of working out bald, because who wants to work out in a wig? I highly recommend connecting with them if you or someone you know is touched by cancer, I look forward to supporting that organization for years to come.

How has being physical helped you reclaim your body?
Even before I got cancer, the feeling of my body getting stronger was empowering, but it was amplified tenfold by how incredibly hard chemo was on my body. It was such a gift to be able to feel my health returning to the baseline of where I was before my diagnosis. It felt like taking back a piece of myself that cancer stole, and that feeling is really hard to beat.

Returning to New York City after your treatment marked a significant chapter in your life. How has the city influenced your music, both in the past and now with your latest work?
New York is so accepting of weirdos, a group which I lovingly consider myself a part of. I think one of the biggest things the city taught me is to be open to what I don’t understand, immediately or at all. I was lucky enough to be exposed as a young kid to jazz and musical theater and rock ‘n’ roll in such a high volume that now I feel like there are pieces of all of those genres in my music in different ways. Another thing is the acceptance of queerness, which I definitely took for granted as a kid. After I moved to Nashville at 18, I encountered queer phobia, and I think I subconsciously suppressed that part of myself to fit in.

After being reminded of the finite nature of life, during an election year in the midst of so much proposed legislation to hurt queer people, I wanted to allow this part of myself to be seen. I wanted to help advocate for myself and those I cared about. When I went home to New York, I was extremely grateful to be accepted and held by my community in a different way than I was with people in Nashville minus a few gilded exceptions. I ultimately decided to record the EP in New York for this reason and it means a lot to me that where I grew up is where I ultimately ended up creating this EP. It feels full circle.

Your previous work was released under a different name. What led to the decision to rebrand as Emma Driver, and how does this new identity reflect where you are in your life and career today?
I’d previously released music under an artist name, and I really wanted this project to reflect my own authenticity, not a persona. To me, it’s indicative of my personal growth and no longer feeling like I need to posture behind a specific brand or image, it’s just me.

Looking ahead, what are your goals and aspirations for the future of your music career?
I have another song coming out in October called “I Don’t Hate It, It’s Just Different” which I’m very excited about. It’s a break-up song about releasing the vision I had for my life with someone and realizing the new reality isn’t horrible like I feared, it’s just different than what I imagined. I’m also working on getting a band together for my first full band show post cancer in November!

It’s been a crazy few years, how have you been staying positive?
I’m not going to sugar coat it, my Saturn return has been the most brutal period of my life. There were moments I was absolutely not able to stay positive, but those were fleeting. I’m happy to say almost a year after finishing chemo I am somehow able to look back on my experience with gratitude. It taught me so much about myself and as long as I can keep using what I learned to better my one precious life, it was all for something.

What is your motto in life?
The depth with which you allow yourself to feel your pain is directly proportional to your threshold for joy.

To learn more about Emma, please check out the links below: lease list any websites or social media that you would like Jejune to promote:
INSTAGRAM: emmadrivermusic
TIKTOK: @emmadrivermusic

Photography by Athena Kulb.

Emma Driver - Finding Herself Through Music