Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Why? What do you want people to know about you?
I’m a singer-songwriter, film composer, and violinist. Born in Milano (Italy) I was exposed to music very early by my parents. At 4 I started taking piano lessons and shortly after, at 6 years old I started playing the violin. I soon realized I wanted to be a professional musician when at 8, after starting a composition class I discovered my greatest passion: songwriting.
At 10, I got accepted into the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Milan for violin and viola, where I consequently studied for 9 years. During my teenage years, inspired by my love for The Beatles and folk songwriters I also started to teach myself guitar. In between orchestra rehearsals and concert hall recitals I started developing my sound and in 2010, after participating at the Berklee Umbria Jazz Clinics in Perugia I got my first Berklee 5 week program scholarship for voice.
After a few experiences at the Berklee College Of Music summer program, in 2015 I was finally old enough to audition for the undergraduate program where I got accepted for violin with a scholarship that allowed me to get a degree in Film Scoring. Right before going to college I got called to audition for the 8th edition of X-Factor Italia with Mika, Fedez, and Morgan as judges and got to the Chair Challenge which allowed me to perform at the Forum di Assago in Milan.
During my 4 years at Berklee, I got to perform in every major venue in Boston with artists such as Jacob Collier, Wang Leehom and MARO. Between 2015 and 2020 I took part in more than 300 recording sessions as a violinist, vocalist, and composer. I graduated in 2019 and shortly after I moved to Los Angeles where I worked as a performer, music teacher, and intern assistant at Warner Bros for film and tv composer Trevor Morris (Vikings, Olympus Has Fallen, Vikings: Valhalla).
In December 2019 I performed at the Discos Diablito Festival in Mexico City with my band. In 2020 I released my first single “Call Me By Your Name”, produced by Reunionese producer Matheo Techer. At the end of the same year, I relocated to Milan where I released her second single “Sober”, produced by Australian producer Jim Alxndr.
In 2021 I started working for sync companies such as Marmoset, Closer Music, and Madden Flow Entertainment alongside French producer Noé Zagroun, with whom I’ve been collaborating and writing for my current musical project. Our latest single “Paradise” came out on January 14th, 2022. I was one of the finalists of Radio Deejay OnStage in August 2021. Since then I’ve been managed by Umberto Labozzetta. In March 2022 I relocated to Paris where I’m currently working on my upcoming music.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I’ve always been very eclectic in my abilities and choices. I liked playing classical violin but also singing pop songs, I studied to be a film composer and in the meantime, I was writing Kpop and Reaggeton tunes, I played in orchestras in concert halls and also sang in stinky old bars.
I’ve never been afraid to do too many unrelated things at once and I think it’s one of the things that I find to be more unique about my path. There is a big tendency to put people in categories and boxes while ignoring that one can be many things at the same time.
I’ve always appreciated this ability of mine to do very unrelated things (especially stylistically) and even though many people tend to disagree and believe it’s better to fall in one specific box, I think having different skills is one of the greatest assets that one could have.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you’re doing what you were born to do.
I think it was a random afternoon at my producer’s house. We were working on a new song and everything was happening so naturally. It was the kind of day where everything you write just flows well. I was singing the lines I had just written into the mic and I realized I was really doing what I was meant to do and that brought me an immense amount of happiness.
During my many years doing music I never really found myself having doubts but for sure at that moment, the realization that I could really create something out of the blue made me feel at peace.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had to go through and how did you grow through it?
When I graduated from Berklee in 2019, only 6 months later we were hit by the pandemic. Like everyone in the world, I had to face a lot of challenges and problems and ultimately I had to move back to my country of origin (Italy). It wasn’t easy re-adjusting. I had always wanted to escape the world I came from and had moved to the US so my career dreams could come true and when I had to go back to everything I always disliked I felt like a total failure.
After months of not feeling so great and feeling like my life was a complete disaster, I started working on music again and started making plans for it to be heard which really helped me get back on track. The path is still long and on many days I struggle to have the necessary strength but luckily music always brings that energy back to me and helps me overcome every challenge!
Who are the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could elevate your career or business? Why these specific individuals?
I think my top 3 are Quincy Jones, Rachel Portman, and Max Martin. Quincy Jones because he’s the musical genius behind some of the greatest musicians of all time and he’s the kind of master that really cares about young artists and their musical development and it would be a dream to be able to be noticed by him.
Then Rachel Portman, who is my favorite woman film composer and one of my biggest musical inspirations. She was the first woman to ever win an Oscar. In a widely male-dominated industry she earned the highest recognitions and inspired many young composers like me to follow the dream of scoring for big movies, it is thanks to people like her that I chose to study to become a film composer and it would be a dream to be able to just be in her presence.
Last but not least I dream of working with Max Martin, possibly one of the most genius songwriters in the history of Pop. If I could only write half a verse with him I think I would feel pretty accomplished for the rest of my life.
Drop your social media links.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giuliaemilydukes/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/72TtvbZkiOQgqw6CPZJvxM?si=o3-4zy02QOCG0825_cKWTg
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@giuliaemilydukes?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/EmilyDukesMusic
