Em Beihold is an incredibly self-aware artist, on record and in an interview. During our chat ahead of her first-ever Houston show later this week at House of Blues, the rising pop artist actually referred to herself as “Numb Little Bug Girl,” a reference to her breakout hit which is getting Grammy Song and Record of the Year buzz. The megahit takes an unflinching look at mental health and the beauty of the song – besides its glue-sticky melody and impactful lyrics – is its massive popularity. The timely song expressing some universal vulnerabilities has nearly 200 million streams on Spotify alone.
With all that to unpack, we started our phone chat by asking Beihold about fencing. That’s right, the combat sport involving swords.
“I started writing songs when I was seven but I started fencing when I was eight. It was kind of like those were always my two things growing up. I was very competitive and I would go to the Junior Olympics and North American Cups and compete a ton,” Beihold said. “It was also the way I would kind of bond with my dad because he’s been doing it for like 40-plus years so he would teach me and give me lessons in our driveway and stuff.
“And then going to college I made the decision that I wanted to do NCAA competitively, so music kind of took a side seat and I competed in college. The amount of training that you do in college is intense, it was basically a part-time job.”
She qualified for the NCAA Championships twice, she said, “which was crazy and unexpected because only 24 people in the country do for my particular weapon and gender.”
She said her blossoming music career has kept her from much fencing lately. She’s been busy, in case you haven’t noticed. She’s a TikTok sensation, made her TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, is being talked about as a frontrunner in the Grammy’s Best New Artist category and is currently on tour with King Princess, the show headed for House of Blues Houston this week. As of this writing, her only Texas show has been a gig at House of Blues Dallas, but Beihold was quick to note she has before fenced in Houston.
“In fencing, I learned a lot about persistence and dedication because you don’t always want to show up to practice and be active on days that you don’t feel like working out, for instance. It’s kind of the same with music. You’re having sessions with people and you’re not always necessarily in the mood to write a song that day, but it’s just about flexing a muscle and practicing and you get better by doing it. I think just learning how to work hard is definitely consistent between both.”
We asked about the work that went into “Numb Little Bug,” one of seven tracks on her stellar debut EP Egg in the Backseat.
“I had a song last year called ‘Groundhog Day’ and it started going moderately viral on TikTok, not to the same level as ‘Numb Little Bug.’ But at the time I was on anti-depressants and I didn’t realize they could kind of mute the highs of things. For some people they completely work, but that was just my experience.
“A bunch of labels were reaching out and everything I ever wanted was happening and I didn’t really feel anything,” she said. “I was talking to my mom about it and I was like, ‘My dreams are coming true but I’m not happy and I don’t know why.’ And she said that it was ungrateful for me to say that. I was like, no, I’m still very grateful, it’s just I chemically am not feeling anything.
“I was thinking about our conversation and driving around in L.A. one day and just came up with the chorus in my head. ‘Do you ever get a little bit tired of life, like you’re not really happy, but you don’t wanna die, like you’re hanging by a thread but you gotta survive, ‘cause you gotta survive.’ I just took a little voice memo of it and then as soon as I got home fleshed out the first verse and first chorus and it just kind of came.
“I think my favorite songs that I write are ones that are just hiding in my head somewhere,” she added. “I didn’t really think hard about the lyrics, it was like what I’ve been meaning to say.”
It was something fans have been needing to hear, too, it seems.
“I’ve met a few people on tour actually who come up to me afterward and tell me that they were suicidal before hearing the song and that they realized by the lyrics that they weren’t alone in what they were feeling and that it’s normal. And that they also went out to seek help,” Beihold shared. “I give them a hug and say, ‘I’m so glad you’re still here.’ It’s incredible that a song could do that. I didn’t write it with the intention of it necessarily connecting to people, it was just my experience. But the fact that someone could actually get help and it could change the course of their thinking is the biggest impact I could have possibly had from anything.”
Another similarity between fencing and a growing music career is learning to deflect or block against attacks. We asked how she’s parrying against some of the dangers of sudden music success. For instance, in “Goo,” the opening song of the EP, she sings “I’m good enough for your 911s, but you bring her for all the fun.” It’s a line that we connected to the danger that Beihold might get pigeon-holed as the “mental health pop artist.” We asked if she’s worried her full repertoire of songs will get overshadowed by tracks like “Numb Little Bug” and “12345,” which take open-eyed looks at anxiety, depression and panic disorder.
“I don’t know if I want to be pigeon-holed in mental health, but I do want to be known for just saying it how it is. I love pop music and I grew up on it but lyrically a lot of it is very much the same and I just don’t want to do that. I want to be different. I’ve always been very blunt just in my life and my friends say it’s a good thing and a bad thing,” she said with a laugh.
Speaking bluntly, Beihold has put herself at the forefront of a generation of young artists unafraid to sing about issues once sidestepped by pop music. She said her influences got her started on that path, fellow pianists and artists like Lily Allen, Fiona Apple, Sara Bareilles and particularly Regina Spektor.
“I DM’d Regina Spektor two years ago and she responded. I don’t actually think she had any idea that I was ‘Numb Little Bug’ girl,” said Beihold. “I was at a friend’s show and I had to leave because I started crying that she had just seen my name. I’m not the type of person that’s a huge fan girl and goes crazy over people but I think if I met Regina I would faint probably.”
Beihold is on her way to being added to that echelon of vaunted female pop artists. She’s writing new music set for release in 2023. She’s found great success and, we noted, with great success can come even greater anxiety. How has she managed going from the kid fencing in her driveway with her dad to a potential Grammy winning artist with nearly a million TikTok followers?
“It was a real learning curve real fast, I’ll tell you that. It’s funny that you say that because I’ve been saying I wrote a song about anxiety and then kind of got pushed into one of the most anxiety-inducing situations,” she laughed again. “You know, all of a sudden I was playing big radio stations where I’ve only been playing at my piano in my room.
“I definitely grew and learned and made mistakes,” she said, sounding self-aware and assured, what she hopes for all listeners of her music. “I think I came out of it understanding so much more and being more confident in myself.”
Em Beihold performs Thursday, November 3 as support for King Princess at House of Blues Houston, 1204 Caroline. With Dora Jar. Doors at 7 p.m. for this all-ages event. $30.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
