Meet Val Emmich: Jack of All Trades Artsy!
In this month’s newsletter, we recommend the acclaimed books of JC Heights resident Val Emmich to add to your at-home reading lists. We also can’t say enough about his music. Besides being a highly successful TV actor (Vinyl, Ugly Betty, The Big C, and a stint as Tina Fey’s boy toy on 30 Rock), Val is a prolific singer-songwriter who has released more than 12 albums. His last album, the beautifully personal and plaintive Tizzy (2019) documents his year-long experience in therapy, confronting personal demons while approaching the height of professional success. We had the pleasure of virtually talking with Val about his career, himself, his beloved family and how, like all of us, he is coping.
There is so much warmth and honesty in your music and your books. I think your art, all art is a great salve for people right now. What writers, musicians, etc. are you into right now?
The artist — and I do mean artist — that I’m drawing the most comfort from right now is Howard Stern. I’m a longtime fan of his show but especially now I feel reliant on his presence in my life. His honesty, vulnerability, and intelligence, mixed with his affection for the absurd and trivial, is helping me feel less alone. He’s currently doing his SiriusXM show from his house and having his guests appear over Zoom. There’s a new intimacy to his show and it was already just about the most intimate experience you could have. Many people still have this image of Stern as merely a shock jock but he’s turned into something totally different and it’s inspiring to see.
Speaking of inspiring. After writing Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel, I know you went out and spoke to high school students about depression, anxiety and drew from your own experiences with these issues. Certainly, those issues can increase for all of us these days, whether we are prone to them or not.
The main theme of Dear Evan Hansen that I tried to highlight for the teens I spoke to was that you’re not alone, which is a lyric from a song from the original Broadway musical. Specifically, the idea is that you are not alone in feeling alone.
That’s an important message for this moment. This pandemic isolates each of us and cuts us off from connecting to others. That can spell trouble for people like me who struggle with feeling alone during “normal” times. In my talks with teens I discussed the difference between perception and reality. The perception of me, for example, was that through their eyes I’m this successful person with various achievements coming to their school but the reality, which I walked them through, is that it took years of failure and self-doubt and struggle to get where I am. The same failure, self-doubt, and struggle I still experience daily. Just like that perfect selfie you see on Instagram was the best photo out of the other twenty less-flattering ones the person took. Perception versus reality. People with anxiety and depression, as well as teenagers in general, sometimes have distorted perceptions.
So, in times like this it’s important to try to get to the reality. Compare two days. On day one, immerse yourself mainly in social media and the news. On day two, instead go for a walk, read a book, cook a meal, video chat with someone you love. Pay attention to how you feel on either day. The idea isn’t that one way is right and the other is wrong. It’s just about understanding that what we do and what we see shape our perceptions and realities and maybe by realizing that we can make choices that will make us feel better. In other words, some of this stuff is under our control. That should be empowering.
So true. What feels disempowering is watching all these folks on the front lines baring the burden, along with the victims of course. People right now have such an overarching want to help, which is hard to do from home, which is where we should be.
I feel a strong longing to be useful in a time like this and I’m still trying to figure out how I can best do that. My first job is to keep my family safe and positive. The next thing I can do is to social distance and stay at home as much as possible. This seems like a small and inconsequential thing but it’s the best way for all of us to honor the people on the frontlines of this battle. Doing our best to not get sick and not unintentionally or unknowingly get others sick puts less stress on those in the most stressful positions of our society. I realize not everyone has the privilege of staying home but those who can. Apart from that I’m hoping to offer some emotional support and sense of connection through the art I make. I'm currently recording a new song at home that's about the current situation and my plan is to release it as soon as possible. It’s not anything close to what the brave workers in the hospitals and supermarkets are doing, but it’s what I can do. I’ve always drawn comfort and relief from art and if I can do that for others I’d really like to.
Yes, exactly. I know you are home with your family [Val and his wife, Jill have two young daughters]. Do you have any ways to encourage creativity at home with families - well, not just families, everyone. Besides binge watching.
I think it’s important to realize that it’s normal for kids and adults to experience a wild range of emotions during an unprecedented time like this. Step one should be to tell ourselves that that’s okay. It’s okay to feel down one minute and strangely giddy the next. As tragic as this moment is, there are positives for those of us lucky enough to be home with our kids. We may never spend as much time with them as we’re spending now. We can teach so much just through our own moods, attitudes, and actions. For me, that means doing my best to bounce back as quickly as I can to positivity when I inevitably get sad. It’s all about the recovery. I’ve been cooking a great deal and involving the kids with that. My wife and I search online for different kid-friendly activities. We do big puzzles as a family that can last a week. I play music in the house to set the mood. We take online classes for yoga, knitting, theater. Lots of FaceTime and Zoom with friends and family. And then, some days I read too many pessimistic news articles and I don’t want to do anything and neither do the kids. On those days I stare into space and drink too much wine and the kids watch too much YouTube and Disney and consume insane amounts of sugar. Oh well. That’s okay with me. We are trying to get through any way we can.
But back to binge watching. Any recommendations?
I’ll skip the obvious (Tiger King). The best show I’ve seen in ages is Patriot on Amazon Prime. It’s a few years old and had only two seasons. It’s not for everyone. Part dark comedy, part spy thriller. It’s also beautiful art. My wife and I loved Cheer, a Netflix docuseries about college cheerleading. The tenth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm was definitely balm for the soul in these worrisome times. And I’ve been thinking of going back and rewatching the Sopranos from the beginning, because why not.
And of course, you are still working. I know you are working on a new novel.
My new novel is called Maybe We’re Electric and is scheduled to be published in 2021. We’ll see. Who knows what the world will look like in a year. It’s the story of two teenagers, essentially strangers, who are forced to spend a long night together during a snowstorm and who come to learn they are connected in ways they didn’t foresee. The book is also very loosely about Thomas Edison. Not in a historical fiction way, but about his accomplishments and legacy from a modern standpoint.
Can’t wait to read it Val, and thanks for something to look forward to. Best wishes to you, your family and to all!