Love Letter to a Record: Emma Volard on Wayne Snow’s ‘Figurine’

July 1, 2022

Music Feeds’ Love Letter To A Record series asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share stories about how the music they love has influenced their lives. Here, Emma Volard confesses her love for ‘Figurine’, the 2021 release by Nigerian-born, Berlin-based artist Wayne Snow.

Emma Volard is a Naarm/Melbourne-based future soul artist with one foot in the club and one foot in the vintage shop. Volard’s debut album, Deity, is out now via The Operatives, the Naarm-based label that also works with Billy Davis, Jordan Dennis, and Yung Shōgun. Volard is launching Deity at Melbourne’s Northside Records on Friday, 15th July.

Emma Volard on Wayne Snow’s Figurine

Despite having only existed in this world for one year, this album has profoundly influenced my musicianship, my love for music and has reshaped my eye for composition. Every little element is so intentional, from the ticking clock at the start of the title track, ‘Figurine’, to the vocal samples pulsing deeply in ‘Number One’.

From start to finish, Wayne Snow takes you on a sonic journey, swinging between genres, organic and electronic sounds, capturing the space between pain and immense joy.

I was halfway through producing my own LP and in-between lockdowns when I heard this LP. I couldn’t quite believe what I was listening to. You know when an album flows so perfectly from one song to the next? Yet, it was the humanness that was so evocative; breaks in the voice, phone-recordings-turned-songs, imperfections.

This record taught me to push boundaries and to try new methods in my music, and to trust in my own wacky ideas. It was definitely a source of solace during the lockdown. I have distinct memories of walking down the Yarra trails in Abbotsford with a bounce in my step to this album. It had the ability to bring me out of my own thoughts and let me just have a boogie.

Whether I was sipping on a vino in the backyard with my housemates at sunset or by my lonesome in my bedroom with a wheat bag on my belly, this was truly the soundtrack to my lockdown. In my opinion there’s only winners on this album, but if I were to choose a favourite track it’d be ‘Faceless’.