Artist Interviews
Interview with Emma Fradd on Catholic indie label Enemy Love Records, new music, faith & more
MuzicNotez: First off, it’s an honor to be doing this interview with you Emma, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us. What motivated you to start creating music? What age did you begin?
Emma Fradd of Enemy Love Records: When I hit high school, Year 8 music had us learning basic guitar, bass and drums. I picked it up really easily and became obsessed, I’d play in my bedroom everyday after school. I remember going to the local music store and putting this cheap electric guitar on lay buy (Americans call it lay away) – my parents surprised me one Christmas and finished paying it off. Things were so much better before Amazon!
Who were your musical influences, idols, or bands growing up that have helped mold you into the musician you are today? Or helped mold the music that you create?
Emma Fradd: I was huge into Nirvana, Metallica, Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins growing up. My music sounds a little different than grunge or metal but I suppose the similarities include intricate guitar playing (Metallica) and interesting lyrics (Nirvana, Pumpkins).
Label Insta: @enemyloverecords
Instagram: @emmafradd
Label Facebook.com/enemyloverecords
Facebook.com/EmmaFradd
As a proud Catholic, your faith strongly guides the music you make. But in an interview with your brother (Matt Fradd) on Pints with Aquinas, you mentioned that your music isn’t explicitly Christian like other stuff in the genre, more nuanced or subtle. How would you explain your music?
Emma Fradd: I would say my music is anywhere from alternative to surf rock to percussive acoustic with fingerpicking. I wouldn’t say my genre is Christian’, but because I am a Christian it naturally comes out in my music whether explicitly or not.
Your latest track is ‘Plainest Self’ with Neil Smith, which is a beautiful song! What inspired this song? What’s it mean to you?
Emma Fradd: : I wrote the song when I first started dating my now husband, David. You know when you first start dating someone you show them your good side as much as you can but then inevitably all the other parts come out. We dated online for 13 months before we met in person due to COVID, so I just couldn’t understand why he continues to date me, why he liked me? I found it very strange. Through prayer I came to realise I am the same way with God. I know God loves me, I hear it all the time but the degree in which I believe it is the degree in which I am free to live in it.
You have an indie catholic label with your husband David, ‘Enemy Love Records’, how did that start? What’s your label’s mission? Tell us more about it.
Emma Fradd: Well we don’t operate like other labels do. Essentially we find good music written by Catholics and promote it, we set up gigs for these musicians and we offer recording and production to some artists also. When David and I first met he wanted to get my take on a Catholic Record Label, my response was “That’s a bad idea because Catholic music is bad” and while I sort of stand by that statement in the sense that it is rare to find unique music written by Catholics, I will say that we have found a handful of great musicians that are indie / r&b / rock / funk rather than the regular ‘folk’ or ‘worship’ genre.
What are some other new releases through your label that you’d like to push?
Emma Fradd: My husband David Kruse is releasing a funk album in April called ‘Midnight Punch’ you can hear two of the singles off that album now on any streaming services (Double Down and Phantom Fears). I’m probably bias but the album is out of this world amazing.
An artist we worked with in the past Valere from New Zealand recently released an EP called Gold Dust – she is R&B/electronic.
And one of our favourite artists Margaret Knapp from DC recently released a single called I Need Him – this one is a bit more explicitly about Jesus.
As a musician yourself, and co-owner of an indie label, what do you think it takes to succeed as a music artist in 2025? What advice would you give to independent artists to find success?
Emma Fradd: Trying to ‘make it’ as a musician is incredibly hard. I haven’t even ‘made it’ so it feels strange giving advice, but from what I can see, artists need to gig, gig, gig. Build up a fan base and continue to cater to them, tour with other bands to expand their reach and put out music regularly to keep fans engaged. On to pof all of this, praying about what kind of musician God wants you to be, and asking him what success looks like would be wise, also.
Your label has a larger purpose than to just promote good music, but to also evangelize and the ministry. Music has a powerful ability to connect with people, so it’s a perfect match. How does your label go about doing this? Any evangelizing stories through your music or your labels music that stick out?
Emma Fradd: David and I believe that it is so important to evangelise musicians. The music scene is incredibly secular and I know countless Christian’s who tried getting popular in that scene and ended up ditching their faith to promote secular values. We offer retreats to musicians where we don’t even touch our instruments, but rather focus on stillness and depth (rather than breadth) with Jesus in the Eucharist.
A couple of years ago we were running a retreat for a group of parish musicians in Adelaide, South Australia. At the end of the retreat we have people share what they got from the retreat and one woman shared that she had been in music ministry for over 20 years and this was the first time she had been given a retreat because of her role. This was a parish musician, her role is to lead the congregation into Worship of God. How can we expect musicians to give what they don’t have?
What else are you working on? What can we expect to see and hear from you in the future?
Emma Fradd: We are currently building a studio in our home in Steubenville, Ohio. Once that is finished, we look forward to working with artists and recording some new music for them. We are also always writing and always looking to gig.
Anything else you wish to say about yourself or your music? Any message for your fans?
Emma Fradd: We created a playlist on Spotify of our favourite Catholic artists that you can check out here:
If you like what you hear please consider following these musicians on socials and even purchasing some merch. Streaming platforms make incredibly difficult to make any money so it’s best if we can show our support where we can.
Share this post on your socials & more! The most popular feature each week gets extra promotion on our home page and in our mailing list!
Find more great new music here
