In Conversation With Colin: Emma King

19 August 2025 841 390 4

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Pocketful of Sun: Emma King’s Journey of Music, Motherhood, and Magic

Born and raised in Kingston upon Hull, Country singer-songwriter Emma King received a scholarship to study music and performed in England and Germany before making a self-funded move to America. Having lived in Tennessee for eight years, Emma became a regular of Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe and represented the UK at Nashville’s CMA International festival before returning home to Yorkshire.

Emma recently sat down with Colin Palmer for ‘The Rock Vault’ radio show and explained some of the challenges surrounding the recording of her new album, released 22^nd August and titled Pocketful Of Sun, and chatted about her musical background and more.

“I always had this urge to go to Nashville,” Emma tells me. “When I was ten years old I accidentally caught the Country Music Awards, and back then it was on television about ten o’clock at night so I definitely should have been in bed but I was mesmerized. It was something I had never seen or heard before and it was just exciting and there was a moment where I thought that is what I want to do.”

By the time Emma was twelve years old, she was singing most weekends doing bar gigs and occasional theatre in Hull, her father acting essentially as her de facto roadie. As a natural progression five years later she decided to go on to further education to study music.

“I got a scholarship at a music college at Brighton Institute Of Modern Music, it was awarded to me by Carleen Anderson who was the lead singer in The Brand New Heavies. It was amazing and I am eternally grateful, it gave me the opportunity to play with other musicians and write music.

“I met incredible musicians and we all loved Country music and we went into a rehearsal room and made music and all of a sudden we became Emma King and The Heartsets and we loved it with every core of our being. We would go and play gigs and even played at LePub in Newport which was an amazing gig, I remember that well.”

Emma is living proof that hard work and determination can make dreams come true. “As soon as I was old enough to get jobs and save my own money and start a band I would go over to Nashville. I think we took six or seven trips as a full band until someone heard us and signed us over there. We had this amazing eight year journey making music and travelling across America, playing The Bluebird Café and everything I had always wanted to do. I was waking up pinching myself because the dream I had when I was ten, I was living it.”

There’s a track on Emma’s brand new album called ‘18 Hours’ that recalls those years spent travelling around the States. “That song is about a specific journey actually,” explains Emma. “When we were all in America travelling across here, there and everywhere we had the oldest van that would break down weekly. We all had to learn what was under the hood and sort it out because nobody was coming to help.

“One time we had a show that was eighteen hours away, and at that point not everyone’s licences were valid to drive, only Richard’s was at that time. So poor Ritch, as well as doing everything else had to take on an eighteen hour drive alone and it was a nightmare journey, but it’s always worth it to get to the point where you are all on stage together and create music and have that moment. You would drive that eighteen hours again even though it costs a fortune and you lose money touring, we do it because we love it and what it might give one person in the audience.”

Fundamental to Emma’s musical development was original band member, van driver and future husband Ritch Spence, as Emma explains. “Ritch still writes with me now, we are married and we have a little girl, which has made the music making so much more important for us all as a family unit. He produced the new album and we are very much a partnership and do it together which is incredible. I cannot sing his praises enough, he doesn’t get enough credit. He is one of the most talented instrumentalists, writer and producer, you know when you meet those people and they can just do everything – he’s that guy!”

The title track of Emma’s new album Pocketful Of Sun was inspired by her young daughter, Eloise, who has high complex needs, as Emma explains. “The whole record really is inspired by our daughter, she has just turned four. Eloise is non-speaking, autistic and she also has something called Pica where she will eat any object she finds. But she is a bundle of light and energy and she has taught us so much.

“As musician’s we are taught to listen and to communicate in different ways, but as soon as she came to us we’ve had to listen and communicate in an entirely different way. She has taught us to listen harder and we are learning so much about autism and sensory processing, but she is a bundle of energy and joy and we would not change her for the world. She inspires us to write and create music and it’s a beautiful thing.”

Incredibly for some people, those kind of emotional stresses can be channelled in a positive way and the sheer joy that Eloise brings to the family is clearly evident throughout the entire album, the recordings capture the highs and lows of devoted caregiving parents. “The past four years have been a lot of hard work personally,” declares Emma. “To have that whole journey documented and saved is really very good, and also to listen back as writers as well. Normally it’s really hard to go back to your music and listen to it, but I listen back to this one with pride and I actually enjoy listening back.”

The sunflower scattered fields of the song ‘Pocketful of Sun’ is an inspirational tribute to her beloved daughter, sunflowers are the symbol of empathy and inclusivity for those with hidden disabilities. “The title came first”, says Emma. “Eloise to us is a pocketful of sun, she is the embodiment of this whole album. So in the music video to this song you’ll see a sunflower emblem and that symbolises hidden disabilities so there’s lots of different things in there. But it’s a song for the summer, it’s about the celebration of youth and energy and hopefully a song that makes people smile, and also ask questions.”

Emma King has the ability to move you to tears one minute, bring a smile to your face the next and make you gaze in awe and sheer wonderment at where the incredible journey of the last four years has taken her. Through an intimate exploration of life’s many challenges melded with heartfelt lyrics and soul-stirring vocals, Pocketful Of Sun is a collection of twelve songs that prove to be compelling and uniquely uplifting.

Quote from the sleeve notes: “To our pocketful of sun, you amaze us every single day. You’ve taught me that communication spans far beyond words & entering your beautiful world has been the most magical time of my life.”