In my 40 years of creativity I've done and tried many things: singing, songwriting, playing guitar and drums, film scoring, filmmaking, and stand-up comedy. Throughout all of it I've written, filling countless notebooks with journal writing, stories, and essays.

Having and keeping a creative practice has not always been easy, but, for me, it’s not optional. When I’m not engaged in some creative pursuit I feel like I’m not fully living. The spark of creating fuels me. It’s how I make meaning.

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
— Thomas Merton  

SOME BACKSTORY
When I graduated from UCSB with a Business Degree, my parents bought me a suit - the 'interview suit'. After one particularly concerning interview (it looked like they might offer me a job) I was listening to KDVS, the Davis college station, and a song by True West came on. The music was cool. I’d been in a band with one of the members before I went away to college. I was jealous. The next week I ran into him, and two months later I was in the band, and in a van, setting off on tour. I felt like I dodged a bullet.

Over the next three years we recorded two albums, performed in 45 states and 12 countries, and opened for REM on their Fable of The Reconstruction tour.

After True West disbanded I spent five years in New York City, writing songs and performing as a solo artist, with the goal of getting a record deal. That didn't happen, but something better did. I met Erica and got engaged.

In 1994 we moved to Berkeley. We wanted to buy a house, so I got a desk job at a biotech company. When I wasn't at work, I was working on music: writing songs, performing, recording. Always with the goal that I could one day do that full-time.

For my 40th birthday, as a present to myself, I decided to go for it, and I quit my job. Somehow I would bring in enough money playing music. When I gave notice at work, I changed my outgoing message:
“This is Steven Emerson, I will be out of the office for the rest of my life. If this is an urgent matter, or a non-urgent matter for that matter, please call anyone else who still works here."

I spent the next decade performing at private events playing jazz standards in a nice suit (not the interview suit). I met George W. in the backyard of a Silicon Valley CEO's house, and Sammy Hagar at the launch party for Cabo Wabo Tequila (he high-fived me when I told him my band in high school covered one of his songs).

One morning I was approached on the playground of my kid's school by a parent that worked for an advertising agency. He asked if I wanted to submit a song for a Rolling Rock beer commercial. I did, and it was selected. The spot, called Beer Ape, got a lot of attention, and before long I was a full-time composer for ads, video games, and eventually feature films.

Currently I’m working on a TV series about the human condition, and playing gigs with my son when I can. And writing. And playing tennis.