I'm Emrys Hanley. All of my songs are about love in one form or another. Learning to love myself; love for the natural beauty of the world; but mostly passionately unconditional romantic love. I've been looking for true love all my life, but many of my past relationships have been painful and full of drama. Not that I'm a victim. I made my own choices, and believe me; I've made some ridiculously stupid ones. I also know first hand that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am now in one of the happiest relationships I could ever dream of. So I've explored the extremes of my emotions, and we all feel the same things when you get right down to it.

Sometimes people tell me they feel as though my songs were written about them. Maybe it's because I've made my bed everywhere from a mansion to a graveyard, from the biggest cities to the remote mountains. I went to a different school almost every year of my young life, sometimes two in the same year. I've associated with every kind of social group from geeks to seedy criminals to the wealthy and the popular. The captain of the football team once shattered every knuckle in his massive hand when he punched me in my thick skull, and I was the one who got suspended.

I've dined with hit movie screenwriters and famous actors, shaken hands with an American president, worked for weeks at a time for movie stars who never even knew my name, been picked up hitchhiking at fourteen only to discover my traveling companions were pimps and prostitutes, dropped off in the Tenderloin at four in the morning and had to use my wits and be rescued by an angel in the form of a vigilante to avoid being beat up by crackheads, had my life saved by a homeless drug-addicted ex-con, shared stages with superstars, laughed at a speed-freak mugger who threatened to either hit me with the baseball bat in his right hand or spray me with the can of pepper spray in his left, pursued older women who didn't want me, been pursued by younger women I didn't want, moved to L.A. with stars in my eyes and humiliated myself while auditioning for a boy band, been on stage in my underwear and looked good, been on stage in someone else's underwear and looked awful, barely survived a house fire wearing only my underwear, and worked with two platinum record producers who turned out to be sleazy stereotypes.

When I had almost given up on recording the shiny album in my head, I met Dale Ockerman (Doobie Bros.) With help from his wonderfully talented friends, we created what I had been dreaming of. The fact that my album is here now makes every crazy thing in my life, up to this point, somehow make sense. I think I can finally forgive myself for all the idiotic things I've done and move on to joyfully sharing my music with you. It is my sincere desire that it makes you feel...everything that you need to.



Emrys