spotlight
Val Emmich is truly a jack of many trades and has proven himself a master of anything he
takes on. A creative soul, he is inspired by the world around him. He takes bits and pieces
of life, love and spirit and pours them into his work, be it in his writing, his acting or, most
importantly, his music. Little Daggers, his first release for Bluhammock Music, is a warm yet
intense ode to human emotion and reality, produced and engineered by Emmich himself.
No stranger to the music industry, Emmich’s got five albums under his belt. He’s also toured
extensively with artists like Dashboard Confessional, Butch Walker, Gavin Degraw, The
Honorary Title, Better Than Ezra and others. Emmich’s not happy if he’s not creating--which
may account for the fact that not only is he a musician, he’s also a novelist (he just recently
finished his first book) and an accomplished actor who’s been quietly flying under the radar
until now. Emmich is currently playing Betty’s new next-door neighbor on Ugly Betty.
No stranger to the gay community either, Emmich has been getting raves for his music—
and for his considerable physical charms—all over the gay web. Emmich also campaigned
heavily against California’s Proposition 8, appearing in a PSA with other stars like gay fave
Kathy Griffin. Here, the singer talks about Little Daggers, his burgeoning acting career and
how it feels to be the gay community’s “hunk du jour.”
San Diego Exclusive
Valskdle
Emmichqs
by peter galvinThe Boy Next Door
Rage: Little Daggers is a great pop record. You’ve written some really catchy melodies. Have you always written pop songs?
Val Emmich: No, I’ve written a lot of different kinds of music. This is actually my fifth CD. I was on a major label
for a while, and they wanted me to write with other writers and come up with a pop hit. I played ball with them
for awhile, but if I went any further, I would have ceased to be myself. Writing with other people was a great
learning experience and I made some great friends through the process, but trying to sit down and purposely
write a hit is a mind-boggling concept with little reward. That put me off the idea of pop for awhile.
Rage: So how did you get back to it?
VE: My next phase was to grow a long beard, get a place in Woodstock, live in the house by myself, and just
write music. Living on my own in the woods was an amazing rebirth. I just played because I wanted to. Some
songs were 7 minutes long, and some songs didn’t’ have a chorus. And some were poppy. It lead to making
this record. With Little Daggers, I wanted to make an extravagant pop thing. Pop can be a dirty word—dumb,
disposable and cheap. I took that as a challenge. Could I make smart pop? I hope I did that.
46 RAGE monthly | DECEMBER 2008
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