All Good for singer on the rise

Val Emmich likes change - with stage, screen and weather

Balance is important to Val Emmich. That's why the soft-spoken singer-songwriter-actor hasn't left the East Coast for Los Angeles.

"I need to be somewhere where the seasons change," Emmich said during a telephone interview from his Jersey City, N.J., apartment. "I don't want sun all the time. I want a little bit of everything."

It's a philosophy that extends to his career. Emmich, 29, has been featured on the ABC series "Ugly Betty" as the protagonist's boyfriend, and has also appeared on the NBC smash "30 Rock." On the bigger screen, he scored the lead role in the film, "Fighting Fish," which is on the festival circuit.

And then there is the soft-spoken Emmich's bread and butter: music. He'll showcase tunes from his latest CD, "Little Daggers," Monday at the Pour House Music Hall.

"'Little Daggers' is a cohesive collection of catchy pop-rock. "The reason for that is because I did it on my own," Emmich said. "When you have other people in the room, there's give and take, which can be a great thing. But this time I trusted my own vision. I did whatever I wanted and it was very focused."

The songs have hooks, but there is plenty of depth to such moving tunes as "Hurt More Later," "Down" and "Got a Habit Now."

And even though Emmich is enjoying considerable success as an actor, he is venturing into the studio next month, a mere half-year after "Little Daggers" dropped.

"I'm finicky," Emmich said. "If I have an idea about an album I have to work on it then. I can't let the music ideas hang around and work on another project.

"I want to do different things every time I record. With this last album, I sang a lot in my lower register, which I didn't do so much in the past. Maybe this time I'll mess with speed variations like the Beatles did."

As much as Emmich enjoys acting, it's obvious that music is still his passion. "I've always loved making music, but I'm having fun with acting," Emmich said. "I've had some great opportunities."

And, as he admits, the exposure from his "Ugly Betty" role has been huge. "I reach more people on television than if I do 300 nights in a row at Madison Square Garden," Emmich said. "I didn't want to play a musician on 'Ugly Betty,' but it worked out. It's a great role. I just didn't want to screw it up since there are so many great actors on that show."

Emmich's run on "Ugly Betty" is coming to a close, and he's OK with that.

"I like film more than television acting anyway," he says. "When I did 'Fighting Fish,' it was more like when I was making a record. You take time out of your life, you do it and you leave it behind."