Emmalyn Estrada On Life After GRL, Simone Battle’s Death & Finally Accepting Herself
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Emmalyn Estrada has always been known as a member of GRL. But for the past seven months, she’s been focusing on writing her own music and with the recent success of her first single, ‘Free Titties,’ she’s ready to share a new piece of her. HollywoiodLife.com got the chance to sit down with her to find out what the future holds.
Let’s start with your first solo single, “Free Titties.”
It’s controversial, it’s a statement… but you can’t please everybody! I’ve been writing music that I really resonate with, and stuff that I want to talk about. Women are my biggest inspiration — my mother is a breast cancer survivor. I grew up in private school, and I was always told to cover up and for me, and it was important to break free from that. I never felt comfortable in my own skin. I think that it’s important to be able to speak on that.
Why did you decide to go solo now?
GRL was an experience. I’m very very grateful & I wouldn’t be here today without them. After losing Simone [Battle], we participated with the Change Direction campaign, it really opened my eyes to see that maybe I wasn’t aware of a lot of things in my personal life. Now I feel like there is so much more than I can say — not just making music. GRL opened the doors for me & it’s helped me break free and open up more as a person and as an artist.
So, are you writing about Simone’s death?
I have; the first song I wrote since GRL’s break up was about Simone. I’m planning to release a body of work soon, and that song will definitely be included in that. It’s very important to me. I lost a friend and it is a very emotional song for me to play. I get emotional. It is a piece of me that I haven’t really shared it yet with anybody, so that song I do wish to perform one day.
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Are any topics off limits for you?
No, not really. I’m very open to everything I’ve experienced. I don’t intend to hold back any feelings that I have; music is my outlet of self experience. I don’t want to hold back any honest truth that I hold inside.
Where does your relationship lie with the girls now?
We’re all still friends. We do speak; we see each other once in a while. The other day, I talked to Paula [van Oppen] and we’re very close. She was like, ‘Hey friend, I’m really happy for you. You should be proud of yourself!’ The other girls are so supportive; we’re friends because we went through this period of time that you can only share with that core group of people.
Are you working on a full album now?
The last five months have just be experimenting finding the direction, [finding] what sounds I want to incorporate. I’ve been working with Matthew Burns who did Britney Spears’ “Make Me,” Chloe Angelides, who’s worked with Ariana Grande and Jason Derulo, and Jesse St. John, who’s worked with Sia. It’s been a process of digging into me. With GRL, we didn’t have any part of the writing, or the songs, or any of it. This is sort of the real introduction of me. It’s been a journey of self discovery. We dig in deep and they’re like, ‘What is it that you want to write or sing about?’ I would usually sing melodies made by other people, but this is really me. It’s been really awakening. Going through that process and finding out the real things that I experienced, to be able to sing about it on a different level… it’s very therapeutic.
You’re dating. Will there be music about that?
I am, yes. I am dating right now. A lot of my songs are break up songs or one night stand songs or just having fun. I found that recently, I’ve written a lot of songs about sex and one night stands have been my latest sort of topic. Now I’m in a relationship.
Have you warned him about the songs?
He’s heard things. He definitely questioned one of the songs like, ‘Who is that about? Is that about you?’ I’m like, ‘No! It’s not about you, it’s a past relationship!’ When you’re writing every day, you write what you’re experiencing.
Overall, what message do you want to send to fans?
Be comfortable with who you are. I think it’s important to love yourself first. To be able to like anyone else, you have to love yourself first. I struggled with deep insecurity, and I always looked outside for approval to feel good about myself, and I recently discovered that it all comes from within. I think it comes [through] experience, speaking to older people, reading the news, looking past just what’s on your phone. You get so stuck in social media, you can forget that there is a world out there — a bigger world where there are people are suffering, dying, and if you look beyond that, I think you’ll sort of be able to find there’s more than what’s around you.
Emmalyn’s single, “Free Tittes” is now available on Spotify.