Val emmich: The boy next door

"Little Daggers" is a great pop record. You've written some really catchy melodies. Have you always written pop songs?
No, I've written a lot of different kinds of music. This is actually my fifth CD. I was on a major label for a while, and they wanted me to write with other writers and come up with a pop hit. I played ball with them for awhile, but if I went any further, I would have ceased to be myself. Writing with other people was a great learning experience and I made some great friends through the process, but trying to sit down and purposely write a hit is a mind-boggling concept with little reward. That put me off the idea of pop for awhile.

So how did you get back to it?
My next phase was to grow a long beard, get a place in Woodstock, live in the house by myself, and just write music. Living on my own in the woods was an amazing rebirth. I just played because I wanted to. Some songs were seven minutes long, and some songs didn't have a chorus. And some were poppy. It lead to making this record. With 'Little Daggers,' I wanted to make an extravagant pop thing. Pop can be a dirty word--dumb, disposable and cheap. I took that as a challenge. Could I make smart pop? I hope I did that.

What do you usually write about?
Things that I see as problems in my life. Things that irk me. Usually, it's a negative emotion because the positive emotions make me go out and live. For this record, I wanted the songs to be about love. The most interesting thing to me is that everyone is struggling to make love work, and repeatedly, no matter how many times they fail, they keep going. They just want it.

I love the song "Down." It's a little more offbeat than the pop sound of the rest of the album. I'm impressed by the vulnerability of the lyrics.
That's a more moody kind of song, like the kind of thing I used to do. It's about giving yourself to someone completely. There's a real beauty to servitude in relationships. It's scary, isn't it? But it's a real attractive thing, too, to have that kind of innocence to say, 'I will be what you want me to be.' It's a crazy thought, but it's very selfless.

How did your acting career develop?
I was a sophomore in college, and I was working at a used-book store. My boss said, 'Did you ever think about acting?' Her son was doing some acting on 'The Sopranos,' and she thought I could make some money doing it as well. It's very funny - someone telling you that you could make some money acting, like a pyramid scheme. Sure enough, I met her son's manager, did a cold read, got sent out on some auditions, and landed a commercial. While my friends were waiting tables, I was getting residual checks.

So, how do you balance the music and the acting?
A couple of years ago, I put so much pressure onto my music. In fact, I stopped acting because I didn't want anything to challenge my image as a musician. I just don't give a shit anymore now. If I can do them both, then I should. The moral of the story is that, so far, it's all led to something really good. I made a record I really like, and I'm on TV, which will hopefully end up helping the record.