Salty skin

“I was playing a show at the Ruby Room about six months ago,” says acoustic songstress Emily Drew, “and an electrical current of some sort came through my guitar strings and I had to stop playing in the middle of a song because I couldn’t move my fingers on my fretting hand. It was so weird and embarrassing because I was onstage staring at my hand and trying to move my fingers, going, um, ‘I think I was just electrocuted.’ Not one of my finer moments. No pun intended.” Drew’s debut EP, The Finer Things, drops this week.

The record’s a collaboration with New Orleans transplant Alexander Dausch and was recorded at Kearny Mesa’s Signature Sound Studios and at Dausch’s Studio Studios in Golden Hill. Reminiscent of Ingrid Michaelson and local light Tristan Prettyman, the six-song EP rings San Diego–centric, despite Drew having only arrived here a few years ago. Lyrical inspirations include surfing, yoga, and “Salty Skin,” a track she describes as “an upbeat ballad about love in the waters of San Diego.

“Most of the songs were written during my first few years in San Diego,” she says. “Living here has definitely had an impact on my music. More happy songs! It was during those years I realized that the finer things in life are not things, but moments and the people we spend them with. However, songs like ‘Dreaming Away’ [are] about my struggle to get to this point in my career. So, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. You get to see every side of me on this EP.”

When Drew appears October 10 at Tin Can Ale House, “I’ll be part of something bigger myself...it’s my first gig with my new band!”