Lee Emi (Emilee Petersmark of The Crane Wives) releases her debut solo album, DESTROY EVERYTHING.
An album shaped by identity, DESTROY EVERYTHING looks to the past before finding a way forward.
Written during the isolation of a global pandemic, a rare kidney disease diagnosis, and a search for belonging as a Korean adoptee raised just north of Detroit, DESTROY EVERYTHING lives up to its name. Lee Emi takes apart the different pieces of her life before putting them back together on her own terms. Even her solo name is part of that process.
“My original name was Lee Sang-Eun, but I was always afraid to use it. For this project, we’re going to burn down what doesn’t serve us anymore and mix the Western and Eastern culture.”
Lee Emi
After more than 16 years with The Crane Wives, Lee Emi began searching for her roots, reflecting on a childhood spent feeling different from those around her, even among other Korean people. In 2022, she took her first trip to South Korea, visiting the city where she was born and connecting with others in the local music scene.
In 2019, The Crane Wives went on hiatus, followed by the end of a long-term relationship that had become intertwined with nearly every part of her life. The future she had imagined, from becoming someone’s wife to moving and leaving the band, suddenly looked very different. Lee Emi was left to figure out where to go next.
Then came the pandemic, alongside a diagnosis of a rare kidney disease that made isolation even more necessary. She also experienced the loss of an uncle to COVID, unable to attend his funeral. ‘Smoke in Empty Rooms’ comes from that period, capturing the particular pain of being separated from loved ones and having only a phone to bridge the distance. It’s an experience many will relate to.
Lee Emi also digs deeper into what it means to know and embrace your truth, including her sexuality.
“I identify as pansexual or bisexual, and growing up in a conservative Catholic community meant I didn’t have an opportunity to explore that. As a queer adult playing music for a lot of queer kids, yeah, I feel this responsibility to embrace that identity, to be more open about it. I just wish I could protect all those kids in the audience at Crane Wives shows because I see this vulnerability that exists in them that I didn’t allow to exist in myself when I was that age.”
Lee Emi
Learning to be seen means allowing every part of yourself to be visible, no longer hiding the things that once felt easier to downplay. That willingness to embrace herself is a driving force behind this solo project. Lee Emi reflects:
“A big part of this project is being able to embrace the things that make me unique. As a woman of color in the folk realm, I used to want to blend in and fit in those primarily white spaces, to downplay my sexuality, my heritage. But the most exciting thing about this project is embracing the things that make me me.”
An album of deconstruction and rebuilding on her own terms, DESTROY EVERYTHING pushes through the crumbling bricks of isolation, illness, grief and doubt to make room for a version of Lee Emi that no longer needs to hide.
Live dates:
Nov 6 – Columbus, OH @ Skully’s
Nov 7 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Cafe
Nov 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
Nov 10 – Towson, MD @ The Recher
Nov 11 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
Nov 13 – Albany, NY @ The Lark
Nov 14 – Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom
Nov 15 – New York, NY @ Racket
Nov 17 – Buffalo, NY @ Iron Works
Nov 19 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Nov 20 – Ferndale, MI @ Magic Bag
Nov 21 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Backroom
Nov 22 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Follow Lee Emi on Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | Website