Singer-songwriter and producer Emily C. Browning has been working up a head of steam over recent years, making creative waves in the Ōtautahi alternative music scene while building a powerful online presence through sheer drive and a hands-on approach to her artistry. With the mid-2025 arrival of her debut album, ‘Primary’, Browning draws back the curtain on the past five years of her life, revealing retrospective intimacies in her entertaining alt-pop album. She talked with Amelia Williamson ahead of the album’s release.

Emily C. Browning describes her aptly named debut album as being multifaceted in nature, inspired by several mixed genres, and deeply rooted in her most recent experiences in life.

“It started in the pandemic, which is when I first started learning how to produce music for myself. It started with a string of singles that kind of sped up! It explores primary emotions, and I’m leaning into primary colours at the moment.”

Browning’s father passed away in that period, which she admits affected the album’s sound and tone of ‘Primary’, the songs sharing a mix of feelings on events, people and sexuality.
“It covers a lot of frustration around dating and also falling in love.”

The alt-pop singer-songwriter recounts a full bodied journey in genre to have landed where she is now with her debut album.

“I’ve gone through a lot of phases musically. It started kind of being really into Ed Sheeran and wanting to do singer-songwriter kind of folky stuff. And when I went to music school, that shifted into a little bit more like the classic kind of jazz school, RnB, like really cool kind of theoretical nerdy stuff.”

Across the 11 differing tracks on ‘Primary’ Browning navigates a variety of genre with natural abstraction, weaving intricate melodies and unexpected instrumentation into a sound that keeps listeners on their toes.

“I think I moved slightly back to a more simplistic songwriter perspective, and I think now I’m starting to move into indie rock. You can hear it on the album too. There’s a few more folky tracks. There’s a couple of more like hip hop, RnB, soulful tracks, and there’s a couple of rock songs.”

Among influencers who also embrace genre diversification she mentions Rachel Agatha Keen, known popularly as RAYE.

“I think it was her debut album, ‘My 21st Century Blues’. She explores lots of different genres and I think it’s very healthy to do that, to explore lots of different things and not put so much pressure on yourself. But also not expect your audience to. From a project or an artwork perspective I think it’s nice to explore a more diverse genre.”

Bundled into a celebration of those most crucial to her over the past 10 years (informing her choice of album title), the songs explore love, annoyance, crushes, rejection and the highs and lows of obsession, with accompanying videos further revealing her playful theatricality.

A central figure among a loose collective of emerging Christchurch artists, Browning leveraged the 2020 lockdowns to hone her craft as a music producer.

“I put all my energy into production, and hence this album – so I think it was a really good time for me. I say that very delicately, because I know the pandemic was not kind to a lot of people, but for me, it was actually a really good thing. It just skewed me in the direction that I was probably supposed to go in, which is production, and I’m really grateful for that.”

Having built a foundation as a producer in music school, Browning acknowledges the mentorship of Billy Mills, aka Veryhandsomebilly, in honing her skills in the use of Ableton. The relationship is symbiotic, the prolific Veryhandsomebilly previously telling NZM that she’s the best songwriter he knows, and one of the very few people he listens to regarding his own artistic ideas. Browning features, and is otherwise credited, on a number of his videos.

“Producing for other people is definitely my main hustle, which I really enjoy. As a kind of footnote of that, I am often asked to do workshops or tutorials, or be a mentor for certain programmes.”

She produced the recently released It’s My Pleasure for fellow Ōtautahi alt-pop act and multi-disciplinary artist Phoebe Vic, the explicitly fun single described as a ‘fizzy ode to sex and desire’.

“The metal breakdown was Phoebe’s idea and I had to quickly figure out how to play guitar and bass like a metalhead. Very fun day in the studio!” Browning was quoted in the release notes.

It’s a heartfelt collaboration, the two are best friends and ‘Primary’ is being released on Phoebe Hurst’s newly established Show Pony Records. 

“I wanted to write a song for her to use on her album, and so I wrote a song of what I thought would be maybe from her perspective,” Browning shares. “And she listened to it and immediately cried, which was so sweet. Then she said, ‘No, no, this is your song. You keep this one.’ So it started as a poetry swapping thing and turned into a cute little co-write.”

Though Browning’s impactful journey through music has been largely afforded to her jack-of-all-trades nature, she is also proud to have just two collaborators on her debut album. Phoebe Vic and Isaac Dunbar, also known as Intrnetbf, on the beat-based track On Me.

“That was really enjoyable for me. I really don’t think I would have been able to write that specific song without his help”.      

Beyond her songwriting and production projects, Browning brings her energy behind the decks at sapphic events across Aotearoa, spinning sets at Gingers Lesbian Pop-Ups, Munch Sapphic Events, and CHCH Pride.

Though now finding success in music, Browning says she nearly took a detour into speech therapy after finishing high school.

“I was doing a lot of music in high school, doing all the bands. And then when it got time to graduation, it was kind of like crunch time. There’s a lot of pressure on teenagers to kind of, pick a career, to do something that’s going to make you money, or make you successful or something. So I kind of panicked. That’s why I chose speech language therapy.”

Despite ultimately returning to music, she says the initial year in speech therapy informed her understanding of anatomy and singing.
“I’m still really grateful for that time. I’m really glad I did it.”

She later transitioned into the jazz music course at Christchurch’s Ara Institute, acknowledging that it was hard work.
“A music degree is very challenging, especially jazz,” she smiles.

The resultant deep understanding of music theory lends her the technical dexterity to explore bold musical ideas, without losing the emotional resonance that connects with her audience. Eager to explore new scenes following her music education, Browning began her professional artistic journey with a six-month spell in Melbourne in 2012, followed by frequent bounces back and forth to America where she has made significant industry connections, writing with US producers and performing at SXSW.

Since 2017 she has released a substantial stream of music, much of which has been collaborations, including with various international artists. Will Carter, known musically as Tree Theater, is co-credited on her early breakthrough single Lover, as is Juan Carreño Ariza, aka Ariza, on the 2019 EP ‘WTF’.

Over the past year Browning has released one track per month, a process that she says helped sharpen the debut album’s pacing and purpose. Recent singles Not Done, Goldfish, and Analog, showcase her creative instincts as a producer, Not Done for instance blending ethereal vocals with an R&B-inspired pop sound. Earlier releases on the album, I Wasn’t Into You Anyway and Andy represent the start of Browning’s desire to take the reins with her sound and songwriting. 

Now firmly established in Christchurch’s music scene, Emily C. Browning is a fiercely independent artist with a sharp sense for the business side of music. Her natural vibrancy and colourful presence make her well suited to a career as a musician and artist. With over 90,000 followers on Instagram and several million streams on Spotify, Browning’s decade-long devotion to her music production craft, in collaboration and solo, she is prepped for the release of ‘Primary’.