When Emma Ogier sat down with us earlier this year, her debut full-length was still under wraps. Fly 1111 took four years to make, built from bedroom demos, live band sessions in Nashville, and a willingness to say the tender parts out loud. Ahead of its November 11th release, she walked us through how it all came together.
Luck: You made this record with producer David Baron over the past year. What did the actual recording process look like between Nashville and Woodstock?
Emma: Once I had a big chunk of songs together, David was really the pusher who said, “Let’s go make some songs.” He’s been such a mentor through it all. We got in the studio and ended up live-tracking everything with the band over the course of an entire year. We did three songs, then the next time we did eight songs, and then we did the last batch almost a year after we recorded the first ones. It was all live-tracked in Nashville, and then I’d go up to Woodstock, where he lives, to track vocals and work on overdubs.
Luck: Your bedroom demos have a very distinct sound. Rather than wiping that slate clean in the studio, how did you bring that DNA into the finished tracks?
Emma: All of the demos I make in my bedroom have a ton of synths on them. They don't have electric guitars, live drums, or keys - it's just acoustic guitar, electronic drum beats, and synth noises. When we tracked with the band, the core song was recorded live, but my fingerprint is that we went back, pulled the exact synths from my original bedroom demos, and flew them directly onto the studio masters. Most people would either say the record has to sound identical to the demo, or scratch the demo entirely to build something standard. I love doing it this way because there’s something special about those early textures.
Luck: You've had the chance to work alongside iconic writers like Conor Oberst recently. How did seeing his creative process influence your own standards for this record?
Emma: Being around writers like that pushes you. It makes you sit down and be so intentional with every lyric, melody, and guitar part. Conor recorded a cover record of Simon Joyner, who was his biggest influence, and listening to those songs made me realize, “This is where Conor learned to write.” Five years ago, when I first found Conor’s music, I was trying to write just like him. You pick up those tools, and eventually, that lineage naturally comes out through your own voice.
Luck: Because these songs were written over a few years, do they carry different meanings for you now than when you first wrote them?
Emma: Absolutely. The meanings change over time. I have love songs on this record that I wrote when I was first falling in love years ago, and listening to them now, they actually fit my current situation far better than the one I wrote them about. It’s not predicting the future, but it feels like manifesting - learning how you handle things and what you want your life to look like before you're even there.
Luck: Where did the title Fly 1111 originate, and what thematic space does the album occupy?
Emma: The "1111" started out as nothing more than the timestamp on the file when I bounced the track, but I see angel numbers everywhere all the time, so I leaned into it. The title track, Fly 1111, anchors the record. Almost every song touches on birds, angels, flying, and landing. It puts you in this dream world that’s an open book about independence, growth, and moving forward - whether that’s “take these wings and fly” or “I don’t know how to land.” Right now, I feel grounded, but definitely soaring.
Luck: You've talked about how today's music landscape is hungry for "dangerous" songs. What does that mean to you in the context of this album?
Emma: To me, dangerous music means having pure, unfiltered conviction without hiding behind trends. It's inspired by classic soul artists who would open a song by saying, “I love you and I’m gonna love you till I die, period.” It's terrifying to say something so absolute. On an unreleased track called “Hands Tied,” the lyric is, “I’m gonna love you, falling forever.” I wanted to write that because that’s what I genuinely felt in the moment. I didn't care if things worked out or fell apart; I wanted to say exactly what was true. Standing behind that kind of honesty feels dangerous.
Fly 1111 is four years of Emma Ogier choosing the true thing over the safe one. One bedroom synths flown onto tape, love songs that caught up to her life, and conviction she doesn’t soften. Now she’s letting them all go. Time to see where they land.
Emma Ogier’s debut album, Fly 1111, is available now on Lost Highway Records.
