The New Jersey native is a bit of a modern-day renaissance man: He’s a musician, actor and a novelist. Val is truly a jack of many trades and has proven himself a master of anything he takes on. A creative soul, he is inspired by the world around him. He takes bits and pieces of life, love and spirit and pours them into his work, be it in his writing, his acting or most importantly, his music(Chicago pride 11/08). As Val puts it, “..life confuses me, and saddens me and makes me scratch my head, and gives me a stomach ache, makes me laugh and I took it all in and the only way I know how to deal with it in some way is to spit it back out through music.”

Val Matthew Emmich was born and raised in Manalapan, New Jersey. “I was always a big music fan from a very early age and I took piano and saxophone lessons growing up. But I hated practicing and eventually quit those instruments. I asked my parents for an acoustic guitar and they bought me a cheap Yamaha acoustic one, but I never played it. I was too impatient to learn how.” He also loved sports and was on the soccer team in Manalapan High School. At the age of 15 sophomore year of high school, he was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and had to give up all strenuous activities. He picked up the guitar again and finally learned, because he had nothing but time on his hands. “I was forced to be patient. I had to have medicine dripped through my arms three times a day and couldn’t do much else. I still hate practicing though. That hasn’t changed. And I never went back to organize sports. From that point on, it was music. Writing songs is the reason I love music. That sense of creation and communication.” (acebizshow 11/08)

He attended Rutgers University, majoring in English, Philosophy and American Studies. He was in various bands such as Awake Asleep and Ben Trovato with long time friends Eric Micali, Harris Katz, and P.J Adamo. Acting was more of an afterthought. To pay off student loans, he work in a use book store. Where a co-worker, who’s son was in The Sopranos, suggested that he try acting to pay for school. She put him in touch with her son‘s manager and has been his acting manager since. “I completely fell into it. I started going on auditions having never acted in my life and had some early success, landing a few national tv spots and getting paychecks” (gothamist 11/2008). Emmich was in some ad campaigns such as Got Milk? Burger King and AT&T Wireless.

Ben Trovato band

He stopped acting and in 2001 he teamed up with Andy Gesner to start Artist Amplification group and recorded more music. Emmich recorded an independent EP entitled The 15 Minute Relationship, inspired by Liz Moore’s Self-Help book. Then in 2002, his first full length album, ‘Slow Down Kid’ was released. With the help from a long time friend, Matt Schumann they filmed the first music video for “Shock” in a friend’s basement where Val had stayed. A second video was filmed, ‘Privacy Attracts a Crowd’ which earned recognition. Val was the first unsigned artist to have a music video to appear on MTV’s Total Request Live. He continues to have a strong relationship with MTV. The airing of “Privacy Attracts a Crowd” gained interests by major recording labels. He signed with Epic Records. The label didn’t think any of his existing songs were strong enough to be the single so they asked him to write more. He wrote thirteen songs altogether just to make that one. Epic re-released “Slow Down Kid” in 2004 only adding four new songs. You can lose yourself and what you believe in from all the pressures. Val later explained the relationship with signing with a major deal. “In the beginning, it was never that big of a decision, because it’s always subtle. It’s never overnight. First it’s like: ‘Oh try writing with this person’ and then ‘extend that chorus’. They wanted me to write a single for radio and I gave them 14 songs and they chose one and spent money that was supposed to be for my second record to record that one song and I handed it to the president and he said, ‘eh, I think you should keep writing,’ and I said to myself, ‘No way, I’m writing another note for these people.’ They were making me chase my tail, ya know? That’s when I realized that they wanted something that I couldn’t keep guessing on and I had to focus on what I want”(Aquarian 2/2007).

photo by Dave Sgalambro

“Sunlight Searchparty” included the song “The Only One Lonely” which won the best video category at the 7th annual Independent Music Awards in December 2007.

Earlier in the year, he played along side as Tina Fey’s boy toy, Jamie, in 30 Rock’s episode “Cougars”. Not only did he become eye-candy for older women but the role gained him a loyal following in the gay community. Later he became involved with “No on Prop 8” ad with Kathy Griffin. In 2008, he locked lips with Lucy Liu (his first make out scene, nonetheless) on the short-lived show, "Cashmere Mafia".

In the summer/fall of ‘08, it proved to be a busy time for Emmich. He played lead on his first feature film, “Fighting Fish”(due out for release 2010). Emmich described his role challenging and very different from any acting project he ever done. He was hesitant to call himself an actor before he got the role and wasn’t sure if he even liked it. But after the film he caught the acting bug. In concern as being typecast as a pretty boy romantic lead, his answer was, “Well, I might have been scared of that before this film but this guy is a regular Joe. He’s not good with women. I changed my look for it. I think it will go against any kind of type that I’ve been. But yeah, let’s put it this way: I don’t need to play anymore “cute guy seductress” roles.”