{"id":624759,"date":"2026-10-08T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624759\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T22:14:09","slug":"emma-ogier-talks-new-album-after-bright-eyes-dominic-fike-collabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624759\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Ogier Talks New Album After Bright Eyes, Dominic Fike Collabs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLast spring, when Bright Eyes<\/a> kicked off a series of triumphant anniversary shows for their 2005 companion albums I\u2019m Wide Awake, It\u2019s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, there was a singer onstage that fans didn\u2019t recognize. She had long brunette hair and a Texas twang, delivering Emmylou Harris\u2019 parts on songs like \u201cWe Are Nowhere And It\u2019s Now<\/a>\u201d and \u201cLand Locked Blues.<\/a>\u201d Fans took to Instagram<\/a> and Reddit<\/a>, asking<\/a>, \u201cWho was the singer in the blue dress harmonizing?\u201d Some eagle-eyed users sleuthed out her name, and noticed a connection<\/a> to the Phoebe Bridgers universe when the mystery artist posted a photo<\/a> with Bridgers\u2019 longtime collaborators Marshall Vore and Harrison Whitford. \u201cI\u2019m just waiting for Phoebe to post about her,\u201d someone wrote. \u201cAnd [for] her to blow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat same singer performed<\/a> at a Todd Snider tribute<\/a> at Willie Nelson\u2019s Luck Reunion in March, singing a ridiculously impressive take on \u201cConservative Christian, Right Wing, Republican, Straight, White, American Males.\u201d And just recently, she sang on Dominic Fike\u2019s \u201cSmall Town<\/a>\u201d and appeared with him onstage<\/a>, raising even more questions<\/a>. With her debut album on the way, this is bound to keep happening. So allow us to formally introduce her: Emma Ogier<\/a> is a songwriter from Houston in her early twenties, and she\u2019s here to stay a while \u2014 not only because she\u2019s proven to be one of the most in-demand backup singers, but because her own music is indeed about to blow up (no post from Bridgers or anyone else necessary).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOgier\u2019s \u201cBaby Don\u2019t Hurt Me,\u201d a highly addictive indie<\/a>-folk stunner with more than one million streams on Spotify, has been shared by Clairo, Gracie Abrams, Audrey Hobert, Kevin Abstract, Ethel Cain, and others. And her album FLY 1111, out (fittingly) on Nov. 11, is one of the most surprising and standout debuts of the year \u2014\u00a0a killer blend of country, folk, indie rock, and pure swagger, with 12 songs that pack a seismic punch when it comes to twentysomething realness. Or, as Ogier puts it, \u201cYou don\u2019t know what the fuck it\u2019s like\/To be a girl with all these dreams.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tWhen Ogier performs that song, which is called \u201cAll These Dreams,\u201d she tells the crowd, \u201cThis one\u2019s for the girls, bro!\u201d She recites it to me now on a Zoom call, wearing a Black Keys shirt with her hair in two neat braids. At the time of our interview, Ogier is at her parent\u2019s home in Houston, days away from performing at Austin City Limits (\u201cAs a Texan, it\u2019s going to be sick\u201d), and from turning 23 (she was born on Oct. 9, 2003, mere months before Bright Eyes began recording I\u2019m Wide Awake, It\u2019s Morning). She\u2019s incredibly down to earth for one of the most buzzed-about songwriters in music, someone you immediately feel like you\u2019ve known for years.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut don\u2019t let her chill disposition fool you: Ogier is incredibly ambitious and confident, as her producer David Baron realized upon meeting her several years ago, when Ogier was still in high school. \u201cShe was basically like, \u2018Well, I want to be on a major label and I\u2019d like to win Grammys, and I don\u2019t want to do the DIY thing,\u2019\u201d Baron, who has worked with Noah Kahan<\/a> and the Lumineers<\/a>, tells Rolling Stone. \u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018And also, I want to walk the red carpet.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Wait, you have nothing.\u2019 I didn\u2019t say that, but I\u2019m thinking it in my head. Her confidence was crazy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOgier would have to agree. \u201cI\u2019m very weirdly confident,\u201d she says. \u201cAn \u2018I do it myself, I got this\u2019 sort of person. I always thought I was pretty good, or mildly good, at a lot of things I tried. I don\u2019t want this to sound wrong or anything, but I\u2019ve noticed getting to hang out with a Conor Oberst or Dominic Fike and Kevin Abstract, I\u2019m never really nervous. I\u2019ve worked really hard and believe in myself enough to where I\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, I could be in that room. I could help write a song.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWill Shaw*<\/p>\n

\n\tShe wrote the songs on FLY 1111 over the last four years. \u201cBaby Don\u2019t Hurt Me,\u201d crafted in September 2025, is the most recent, while the closer \u201cPrivate Power\u201d was written during her first week of college at Belmont University in Nashville. \u201cWill you ever really know me?\/It\u2019s some surface-level shit,\u201d she sings across jangly acoustic guitar. Ogier began attending Belmont in 2022, following in the steps of her 24-year-old brother, Aidan (she was a music business major with audio emphasis, but left before her senior year). Ogier and Aidan are 16 months apart and are rarely apart from each other; he\u2019s a member of her band, and plays a variety of instruments across the album. \u201cHe\u2019s a huge part of my team, and has always been a really good advocate,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s more well-spoken than I am most of the time, and could go in a room and describe me in a way I couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tAs Baron recalls, Aidan initially felt that his sister\u2019s debut should be a full-fledged country album, but the producer felt differently. \u201cI said, \u2018I think we should be really bold and go as alternative as we can and push songs as far as we can so we get people\u2019s attention,\u2019\u201d Baron says. It worked: FLY 1111 fuses together genres and eras, with the one commonality being that it\u2019s purely what Ogier is into. \u201cIt\u2019s her world put into a record,\u201d he adds. \u201cShe loves alternative stuff a lot and she loves hip-hop, but she has this massive love of Nineties women songwriters, but she also loves the Seventies. The truth is it doesn\u2019t have to be one thing, and it shouldn\u2019t be one thing. I feel like a lot of the best artists do that \u2014 they\u2019re influenced by everything and nothing simultaneously, and it ends up becoming them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCase in point: \u201cAll These Dreams\u201d and \u201cHands Tied\u201d feature Ogier\u2019s filtered, distorted vocals over aggressive guitar riffs, while sandwiched in between is \u201cBaby Don\u2019t Hurt Me,\u201d a shimmering pop song inspired by Justin Bieber\u2019s \u201cSweet Spot\u201d (making it even more unusual, Baron notes that Ogier doesn\u2019t like to use reverb or delay effects). Then there\u2019s \u201cRocksteady\/HeavyMetal,\u201d co-written with her ex, musician Eden Joel. \u201cEden and I were like, \u2018Dude, let\u2019s lean into the lore,\u2019\u201d she jokes. \u201cWe didn\u2019t finish the song until after the breakup. David was like, \u2018I really like this demo,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Oh my god, David, I don\u2019t want to work with Eden right now!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThankfully, they completed the track, resulting in a feelgood indie campfire singalong that climaxes with a line they scream in unison: \u201cROCKSTEADY\/ HEAVY METAL\/FEELING FUCKING FLY!\u201d (Ogier says she\u2019s still workshopping how to deliver this cathartic moment onstage). \u201cMusic for us was always a little separate,\u201d she says of her breakup. \u201cThe romantic relationship was harder to figure out than supporting each other. And that\u2019s kind of what the song ended up being about: Keep on rocking, I\u2019m on your side. This love isn\u2019t necessarily what it was, but it\u2019s still love for someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe gutting \u201cLand,\u201d a highlight on the album, is a stripped-back meditation of the record\u2019s main themes: taking off, landing, and uprooting your life to perform your songs across the globe. Ogier contemplates life on the road \u2014 she\u2019s sleepless in Philly, thinking about her grandmother\u2019s furniture and how she missed her funeral. \u201cNow I\u2019m dying at the airport\/Never gonna land,\u201d she sings. \u201cI\u2019m trying not to miss him but damn\/That\u2019s my man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore she traveled anywhere, Ogier grew up in Houston, alongside Aidan and her 19-year-old brother, Coen. Her dad builds custom houses, while her mom assists, mainly working on the interior design aspect. All three of the Ogier siblings are musicians. \u201cOur poor parents were probably a little scared when we were all like, \u2018We\u2019re going to go make music!\u2019\u201d she jokes. Ogier grew up a theater kid with the hopes of making it to Broadway, but didn\u2019t get accepted into the arts-focused high school she wanted to attend. By the time she got into that school for sophomore year, she realized she no longer cared about theater. \u201cI was like, \u2018I just want to write songs,\u2019\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOgier grew up listening to Indigo Girls, Switchfoot, and her favorite artist, Aretha Franklin; lately, she says she\u2019s been into Seventies singer-songwriter Judee Sill<\/a> and the Replacements. She got her first management team while she was still in high school, at the peak of the pandemic. Things got messy quickly. \u201cOne of the guys got me to sign to his fake label and then said they didn\u2019t want to work together and they needed money from me,\u201d she says. She\u2019d released several songs with them, but an EP failed to come to fruition \u2014 and she spent a year trying to get out of the deal. \u201cI was not defeated, but I was like, \u2018Oh, this is all over,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought this was going to be the rest of my life, and it\u2019s kind of over.\u2019 So I just locked in, and learned how to actually write songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a great deal for her, but in the end it was a learning moment,\u201d Baron says. The two reconnected while Ogier was at Belmont, and they began to record FLY 1111. She signed with Lost Highway earlier this year. \u201cLucinda and freaking Willie and everyone who was on the original Lost Highway are some of my biggest influences,\u201d she says. \u201cI want to continue that legacy, and do this cool songwriting thing, where it\u2019s almost outlaw.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPerforming live is Ogier\u2019s favorite part of the job. \u201cI\u2019d rather have zero monthly listeners and go sell out shows,\u201d she says. She has no interest in going viral, either. \u201cNothing I\u2019ve ever done has gone viral in any way, which I actually really like,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go viral, because I feel like that would just crush the whole vibe. If the \u2018Hands Tied\u2019 video had a million views, where would I have gone from there?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tBaron adds that Ogier is largely offline \u2014 so much so that she\u2019s sometimes hard to get ahold of. \u201cShe\u2019s not a phone person,\u201d he says. \u201cHalf the time, she just doesn\u2019t have her phone. I\u2019ll call Aidan, like, \u2018I\u2019m trying to get in touch with Emma.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018She\u2019s sitting outside in the rain.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOgier and her brother recently left Nashville for L.A., though she was only there for half a month before hitting the road. \u201cWe just moved there to pay more rent,\u201d she jokes. She has several tour dates lined up, supporting Hovvdy, Joshua Stone, and Bright Eyes, and already has three albums worth of new songs under her belt. \u201cI\u2019ve always had this mindset where I just am going to put out stuff that makes me happy,\u201d she says. \u201cEven if I\u2019m gaining one fan every time I do, that\u2019s a real fan who I hope buys a ticket to a show \u2014 not someone who just looks up the song and watches the TikTok videos. I want to be viral as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n