VIDEO
Emmah Toris is an Indie pop, Sophisti-pop, Dream pop, Dark pop, Electronic, Glitch, Neo-psychedelia singer, songwriter and writer born in Romania (on the morning of 3rd December), being primarily of Romanian descent, but also having distant German and Greek ancestry (on her father's side). The daughter of a chemical engineer and a pharmacist, she started out with swimming and ballet lessons as a young child, but her later ambitions, influences and interests included scientific performance, attending Math Circles activities during weekends, participating in county and national olympiads and competitions (in subjects ranging from mathematics, physics up to foreign languages studies) during her school years.
She attended the “Fratii Buzesti” National College, a prestigious high school in Romania, later earned a degree in Economic Studies (in English and German) from the Academy of Economic Studies based in Bucharest, followed by a Master Degree in Business Administration in English. Still, having begun writing poetry from an early age (both in Romanian and in English – which she started learning when she was four years old), she did not cease to pay attention to any of the significant inner messages that she continually gathered in painting activities (having won various fine arts competitions throughout several years) and poetry (some of her poems having been published in the United States of America, in various poetry anthology volumes).
Her nom de guerre, Emmah Toris, is an alternative to her name and it is strongly related to a cyclic dream, forgotten in terms of epic flow: ''the name became clear during one of the dreams I had. I was aware of the German origin and meaning of “Emmah”, which is "whole", "universal", "complete", "my God has spoken". Toris is an abbreviation of my family name, but I like to think of it as related to the Japanese origin of “Tori”, which is "bird". Basically, it's a pun, playing is fun“.
One of her first interactions with the music scene occurred in 2006, when she contributed the lyrics of “Suicidal Rebellion” to the album “Tango” released by the indie-rock, post-punk band Hotel Fetish. While she made her musical debut with a cover of Depeche Mode's “People are People” (performing vocals as a guest musician on Sistem's cover) in 2010, her first musical career breakthrough took place during 2013, with the song “Ne intamplam”, followed by its English version “We're happening”.
Soon after the release of her next track, “Lyrical Sober Dementia”, she presented a remixed, versatile version of the song in collaboration with Les Elephants Bizzares in 2014. As of 2015, she started producing her debut album by teaming with Bogdan Popoiag (UNU'), her lyrics and choice of melodic lines being harmoniously balanced and highlighted by the eclectic, carefully elaborated instrumentation provided by UNU'. Influenced by her traveling experiences, which have contributed to the development of her personal awareness regarding other cultures, by her interest in books, movies and music, she decided to record her experiences in songs blending various styles, from “jazzy touches, dark electronic sounds, obscurely-psychedelic pop hints, gloomy blues vocal options up to indie rock beats”, as she suggests.
Furthermore, she decided to resume writing and publish her first poetry and fiction volumes, as an ongoing process of self-discovery, and in an attempt to “reenact the enchanting nearness of hearts” (as she describes it).
Her faith is to “to keep and get people inspired, creative and confident that the world can be a better time (starting now)”.
“Je trône dans l’azur comme un sphinx incompris; J’unis un coeur de neige à la blancheur des cygnes; Je hais le mouvement qui déplace les lignes, Et jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris.” — Charles Baudelaire
