Remember the Silver is the debut studio album by New York by-way-of Pennsylvania musician Emily Yacina. Written over the span of two years and recorded / co-produced with Eric Littmann (Julie Byrne, GABI, Yohuna) Remember the Silver represents a fundamental shift in Yacina’s approach and method to bringing her songs into the world.
Across it’s 12 songs Silver weaves an intimate and prismatic picture of the spark of new love, the way grief clings to the spirit and the small moments where magical things still feel possible. Gone is the lo-fi home-recorded feel that long-typified Yacina’s previous work, confidently making way for a welcomed clarity that allows every corner of her first-rate songwriting to shine through.
The title Remember the Silver is lifted from a book by Dana Redfield about alien abduction where the subject uses the line as a private mantra to remind herself of how her experiences are real, despite the disbelievers around her. Similarly the songs on Silver exist as reminders of experiences throughout a life cloaked in the kind of emotional subjectivity that, when looking back, can feel almost unreal in their beauty or loneliness. They’re monuments to the complexity and the realness of love, and the beauty or isolation that can be amplified by its conditions.
(Photo Credit: Emily Yacina)
Hear First is Talkhouse’s series of album premieres. Along with streams of upcoming albums — today’s is Emily Yacina’s Remember the Silver — we publish statements from artists and their peers about the mindsets and impressions that go into, or come out of reflection on, a record. Here, Yacina shares some words on her haunted childhood home, the metaphysical, and her new album, which you can also listen to right here.
—Annie Fell, Talkhouse Senior Editor
I grew up in a very old house in Pennsylvania that I’m sure was a little haunted. My Dad, sister, and I would sometimes experience activity like objects moving, voices whispering to us before bed, and footsteps. I think growing up in that environment, while also feeling safe, conditioned me to be ultra-open to things unseen and eventually led me to my own spiritual journey later in life. Remember the Silver was greatly inspired by that journey, but also the overlap that happens between the metaphysical and reality. In retrospect, a lot of my life has felt like those two forces dipping in and out of each other.
The overarching theme is accepting the feelings you gain from an experience, even if they don’t make sense right away. The feelings or ideas that I tried to honor through making this record are inspired by grief, sexuality (and asexuality), relationships, mental health, and being alive during a climate crisis point. I hope whoever listens can find their own meaning in the songs, and I’m eternally grateful to have had the chance to be able to create something like this. Thank you for listening.
— Emily Yacina
You can pre-order Remember the Silver here. If you’re in the New York area, you can catch the release show Saturday December 7, at Union Pool.
(Photo Credit: left, Caroline Pigou)
