Sound Advice: Avalon Emerson

Join Avalon Emerson on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process. In this episode, we discuss her dream-pop band the Charm, new album ‘Written into Changes,’ working with producer Bullion and more.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile.

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On this episode of Sound Advice, we’re talking to Avalon Emerson: internationally-renowned DJ and producer and, since 2023, the voice behind dream pop band Avalon Emerson & the Charm. Avalon talks to us about the unique dynamics of making club bangers and bedroom pop, and shares insights into her inspirations, her travels and how she keeps it all organized. We also talk about the evolution of the Charm — from introspective, COVID-era solo project, to ecstatic full band — and the making of her second album, ‘Written into Changes,’ which she wrote in Essex, UK with fellow producer Bullion.

Along the way, Avalon offers her perspectives on collaboration, overcoming genre stereotypes and developing new skills, including songwriting. Plus, we find out some different ways that she’s used her SoundCloud profile over the years. If you’re interested in music production, artistic versatility and organising your music, this conversation is full of valuable lessons.

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LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING AVALON EMERSON:

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LISTEN TO “WRITTEN INTO CHANGES” BY AVALON EMERSON & THE CHARM HERE

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Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

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The Genesis of Avalon Emerson & the Charm’s Bedroom Pop Sound 

• In 2026, Avalon Emerson is at an interesting crossroads in her career: operating between the club and festival circuit, where she established herself as a dance DJ and producer; and as Avalon Emerson & the Charm, her indie pop project, now on its second album, 2026’s ‘Written into Changes.’ You can find out more about the making of the title track on her episode of Voice Notes here.
• Here, Avalon talks about how she oscillates between the two sides of her musicianship, how she came up with the idea of the Charm and why she decided to keep her own name as part of the project.
• After the release of her 2025 self-titled debut album under this new identity, Avalon came to realize that the world of dance music that she’s been embedded in for over a decade can often be “very solitary.” Here, she talks about how her long-standing process as a dance producer differs from the developing processes of the Charm; the latter in collaboration with studio musicians, a live band and Bullion, a fellow electronic producer who loves pop music. 
• For Avalon, the process of being part of a songwriting entity that works towards performing live has been a revelation for her dance music brain: “It’s this amorphous thing,” she says, “where we’re all working on a goal together.” 
• We go way back to the beginning of the decade, and back to the days of pandemic lockdown, to explore the roots of the Charm. The project started as a “COVID album," she says; of making music quietly on her headphones, in her bedroom. When she finally toured the debut album post-lockdown, she realized that, in order to truly amplify the record, she needed to up her dynamics. 
• This realization followed her into the writing of ‘Written into Changes.’ With Bullion, she’s inspired by a rolling list of interesting pop music, where she gets ideas about lyrical songwriting and gaining confidence in her own singing voice, as well as hearing how pop music can be twisted in new directions.

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Moving Between Dance Production and Pop Songwriting Mindsets and Processes

• As the Charm develops, Avalon has made some astute observations about the creative processes and sonic developments of dance music. Here, she describes how much of dance music culture communicates a “tackiness,” that she thinks is a double edged sword. On one hand, it’s a fun, camp and enjoyable experience that has a sense of humour, which she loves; and on the other, that tackiness can feel like an obstacle course for producers, to try and avoid cliche and genre tropes in order to make original, engaging music. 
• Here, she talks about how she tries to respect that free-wheeling core of dance music while also aiming for a “cleverness” in her productions and arrangements, and how she likes to side-step conventions in order to build an effective club track.
• One of the works that exemplifies these ideas is 2025’s “Perpetual Emotion Machine.” The title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the pumping-up of emotions with a dance music crowd, and how those emotions can easily spill over into an intensity that renders the camp fun of dance music as flat and overwhelming. “Everything is so intense all of the time,” she reflects: “DJs have to be willing to go there, but also to maintain some lows with the highs — otherwise, nothing feels impactful anymore.”  With that in mind, Avalon gets into more detail about where and how her music is heard, and going between the dance and pop state of mind as a creator.
• For the creation of ‘Written into Changes,’ Avalon headed to a secluded studio and living space outside London to work with Bullion and studio musicians. She gets into more detail about a pivotal piece of work that helped her transition from her dance DJ/producer mindset and her pop songwriting and singing mindset: a book, ‘How To Write One Song,’ by Jeff Tweedy.
• As part of this studio time, Avalon learned how to craft a song from scratch — from lyrics, harmonies and melodies, to transitions between verse, bridge and chorus. Here, she shares some of her personal revelations about finding confidence in creation. “We mythologize art so much that we forget that it’s a set of skills,” she says sagely. “There’s an art to technical things, too, and learning is the most exciting thing about life… I think you can learn anything.”

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Using SoundCloud In Her DJing, Producing and Album-Creating Modes

• Avalon has been on SoundCloud since the very earliest days of the platform, and of her career. Here, she talks about the different modes in which she uses SoundCloud and how it's helped her to organize her musical life. From uploading her DJ mixes and being able to connect with new fans on-platform, to downloading mixes via the SoundCloud app for offline listening, her DJ life has been boosted by the platform.
• As a songwriter and producer, she’s also used features such as file downloads and private tracks and playlists to share ideas, listen on the go and keep track of her productions. 
• When Avalon was starting out in San Francisco’s dance music scene, she was throwing parties in a warehouse that she lived in and was trying to make edits of tracks for her DJ sets. To test these, she uploaded a track per month to her SoundCloud profile; generating a buzz around her name and growing her audience, while getting feedback on her progressing production skills. Here, she talks about how important that period was to her confidence as a producer. 

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The Freedom of Moving Through Genres, Her Live Tour and Advice for Artists

• As a dance DJ/producer who moved from San Francisco to break through in Berlin, Avalon has encountered a long-running theme: that DJs and producers who operate within a single genre or scene often get rewarded, career-wise, for honing in on a particular sound and mood; an easy categorisation that often leads to regular bookings and name recognition. 
• For Avalon, though, she’s always been more interested in the spaces in-between scenes and sounds. As she tells it, it’s made for a longer road as a career, but ultimately, it’s been more rewarding and freeing for her creatively. 
• In order to do this, she’s been a well-organized artist when it comes to categorizing her music for DJ sets. Here, she talks about the kinds of technologies and techniques she uses to keep her music tagged for the right style, mood and genre, and in ways that make sure she can commit to that level of organization without getting overwhelmed. 
• Now that she’s made her second album as the Charm, Avalon shares some words of wisdom about the music-making experience. “Don’t professionalize it,” she says. “Music should be communal, and not reserved for a class of professionals.” Everyone who’s interested in making music should try to do so, regardless of whether it leads to career milestones or not. 
• That freedom of expression extends to how she’s putting together the new live show for ‘Written into Changes.’ To end, she talks about what the band and staging looks like, and how she feels ready to take on the next tour. You can find out more about Avalon Emerson’s tour dates here.

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Links and Extras

Follow Avalon Emerson’s journey on SoundCloud.
Press play on Avalon Emerson’s 2026 single, “Written into Changes.”
Follow Bullion, who produced ‘Written into Changes’ with Avalon.
Go back to where it all began with Avalon’s breakthrough track, “The Frontier."
Check out Avalon’ 2025 release, ‘Perpetual Emotion Machine.’
Explore some of Avalon Emerson & the Charm’s wide-ranging influences, including The Magnetic Fields, Cocteau Twins and Saint Etienne, to name a few.
Listen to the New Era Indie playlist on SoundCloud.
Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

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Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

_{CREDITS Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin}