Without question one of the stars of 2007 in our eyes has been Emma Pollock. The ex Delgados singer has toured heavily throughout the year in support of her debut album ‘Watch the Fireworks’. This schedule included many festivals such as Indian Summer and Connect in Scotland, and Truck and V South of the border.

With Emma back in Scotland for a few pre-Christmas shows, she took the time to look back at the past twelve months in the company of R13’s Andy Reilly, so what were her expectations going into 2007?

“I guess these things are difficult to quantify, especially in music because what makes a successful album can be judged in so many ways. All I really wanted to do was try and get the album out as effectively as possible and reach as many people as possible. The album wasn’t mixed until the end of January but I had a good idea of what it would sound like and I was happy with it and I just wanted to get out there and play and spend as much time on it as possible. I’ve certainly done that, I’ve been to America a lot, played a lot of UK shows and I’m happy with it all.”

This record has been a long time in the making, since Emma said she’d been writing much of it back in 2005.

“Pretty much from the moment I knew the Delgados had split, I had a couple of songs but I really started writing after the band had officially split.”

With the album completed and ready for it’s late summer release, Emma Pollock set about the task of spreading the word. Like for so many artists trying to build a reputation, it was the festivals where she really made her mark. First
Indian Summer, where she occupied the opening slot, in the same way her old band had done at the Glasgow Green Festival back in 2000.

This was an extremely well received set, but with a home crowd there being entertained, this was always likely to be the case. How she’d fair at V, with it’s predominantly mainstream line up and audience, would be the really interesting moment. As
this review shows, although the numbers for an early evening spot on the smallest stage weren’t great, she more than held her own.

Reflecting on the summer, it’s clear that given how wet it was for most of us, it seems Emma Pollock got lucky for when she was on stage.

“I wish I could say I had the power to influence such matters. We were really lucky, even down South as well, we played Truck Festival and although it was rained off at first, we had a good time when we eventually played. I really enjoyed Indian Summer and Connect, they were smaller festivals and it was a much nicer experience. I’ll never forget when the Delgados played Glastonbury years ago and it took me half an hour to walk between stages and thinking “this is not fun.” Whereas at smaller festivals, especially at Connect when you have the location, that was a lovely place to put a festival although I heard that not many people enjoyed the walk from the car park to the camp site! Carrying all their camping equipment in that mud would definitely have been grim but the location was brilliant. I’m not sure what the future holds for that festival but I certainly enjoyed it. Also, we were a late edition to Connect, we were first on the second stage on Saturday and I only got the phone call the day before. We got a good crowd considering no one knew we were playing.”

Beginning with that appearance at
Connect, September was a busy month for Emma Pollock, with the album getting released, and shows including a special gig to open the new BBC Scotland building. Read a review of that night
here, a performance that was described as “sensational. In the space of three live performances since mid-July, Emma has gone from "yeah, the ex-Delgados singer” to one of the artists of the year!”

Although both artists are very different in their style, one of the reasons why we’ve taken to Emma Pollock and Frank Turner is their no barriers approach, be it playing live or talking to fans or us, one cog in that music press wheel. Mostly when you ask somebody for their plans for 2008, you get the “touring, writing, touring, recording, festivals, release album” shopping list of an answer. All fine and dandy of course, but it’s nice when an interviewee has more important things on their mind.

“At some point in 2008, I’d like to get a better car, I really love classic cars. I’ve got quite a boring car at the moment and I’d like a BMW.”

Go on, be more specific, you know you want to! “Okay, a BMW 3002, that’s the model, it’s a 70s car."

Her debut album is
reviewed here and is one well worth picking up if you haven’t already checked it out. You can read the full interview with Emma
here.

You can see the rest of the list of featured artists
here.