Ema

EMA, real name Erika M. Anderson, grew up in the dive bars and rotten graveyards of South Dakota. She is a direct descendent of Erik Blood-Axe, the ruthless Viking warrior. All the boys ask her why she is so tough. She is 6 feet tall. She loves the jukebox.

She was originally in Drone Folk band Gowns, and she went solo in 2010 releasing her debut album Little Sketches on Tape on Night People, an independent music label founded by former Raccoo-oo-oon Shawn Reed.

In 2011 EMA released her second album Past Life Martyred Saints, which received positive reviews on Pitchfork, Drowned in Sound and the NME.

After releasing her debut album EMA was named "New Band of the Day" by the Guardian newspaper and the "Artist To Watch" by Rolling Stone Magazine.In 2011 she performed "Endless, Nameless" for SPIN's 20th anniversary tribute to Nirvana's album Nevermind.

She has been heavily blogged about and was recently described by Yahoo news as the most blogged about artist of the week. This was calculated using an aggregator of 1000 music blogs.

Anderson played guitar for the experimental rock project Amps for Christ until the early 2000s.

In 2006, she shaped the noise-folk band Gowns with The Mae Shi member and then-boyfriend Ezra Buchla.The duo, along with the former drummer of The Mae Shi, Corey Fogel, relocated to San Francisco, California.

After holding recording sessions in Anderson's home in South Dakota, the group released its first record, Red State, in 2007.After the record's release, Jacob Felix Heule and Aaron Davis became additions to the band, with Heule replacing Fogel as drummer and Davis becoming the group's bassist.

Gowns continued to tour and record, releasing its third and final album, Broken Bones, in 2009.

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