I’ll think of Ireland on my Deathbed ...it’s so beautiful
Nashville star Emily on her memorable honeymoon trip exploring country
YOU may not recognise her name, but chances are you’ve heard her songs.
Nashville-based songwriter Emily Weisband has penned chart-topping hits for BTS, Camila Cabello, Halsey, Keith Urban, Lady A – “the list goes on”, she tells us.
Emily spoke to the Irish Sunday Mirror about her experience living among Nashville’s songwriting community, winning a Grammy, being offered three record deals in a week, and her recent honeymoon in Ireland.
Like thousands of others, Emily moved to Nashville to chase the dream. While she admits it can be challenging at times, the 29-year-old feels lucky to be part of such a supportive community.
Emily said: “It’s a town of dreamers. Thousands of thousands of people move here to chase the dream, there’s just a buzz that comes with that.
“It’s contagious to be around. You find your groove and find your people that you get to dream with and create with.”
DEMAND
These days Emily’s genre-bending songwriting means she’s always in high demand and typically turns in between 200 and 250 songs a year as part of an intense career that never fully allows her to switch off.
She explained: “Part of my work is not working, weirdly, so that’s like a blessing and curse sometimes. I get ideas everywhere, all the time.
“You think you’d get the most inspired and creative at work, but I show up to work sometimes and if I haven’t been present in my life, I don’t have much to say because I’m not really in touch with lives and what happens in them.”
One of the Virginia native’s biggest success stories is Thy Will, a song she co-wrote with Lady A’s Hillary Scott, which won Best Contemporary Christian Music Song at the 2016 Grammy Awards.
Of the win, she said: “It definitely affected my life and my career. It got me into more rooms and I got connected with a lot of people and how that song affected their lives.”
Emily never intended to become a solo artist. But after being offered three record deals in one week, she saw it as a sign.
While she loves writing and recording in the studio, she soon found that being an artist wasn’t for her. Emily said: “I got to a place where I wasn’t happy. I felt like I was falling apart spiritually, mentally, emotionally. I just wasn’t enjoying writing.
Women saw video and began crying for home EMILY WEISBAND ON HER DEATHBED SINGLE
“So I’ve decided to take 2023 and just write songs and reconnect with my community, family and friends and I can very safely say I’ve fallen completely back in love with creating.”
Emily recently tied the knot with Dylan Toscano and the pair enjoyed a honeymoon in Ireland. She was able to “freeze the whole trip in time” by using footage from it for a music video – which she says is tugging at the heartstrings of Irish expats worldwide.
Emily added: “I put the song Deathbed out around my wedding. It’s honestly the realist I could get for that song because on my deathbed, my memories will be in Ireland... the beautiful landscape. “My dad owns a rock memorabilia store in Nashville. He called me one day saying he was playing Deathbed and four women from Ireland came in, saw the video and they all started crying. It made them think of home.
“We love exploring new places to go and Ireland is the perfect place for us so, it was really cool to kind of freeze that whole trip in time in that song.”