With about two hours until the start of their show at Irving Plaza, Jackson Foote and Emma Lov Block were tucked away backstage, a ring light illuminating their faces in a private dressing room as pre-show photos were taken. Foote gives the photographer a charming boyish grin, while Block tilts her head back, and throws the camera a sultry look.
The duo first came together under the guidance of Carl Stark and Evan Rodgers after meeting in a songwriting class at the State University of New York at Purchase College. Block was a freshman and Foote was a senior, the two were randomly paired, and the rest is history.
Both Block and Foote fostered their love of music at a very young age.
“My dad was in a rock band that was really big in Boston,” said Foote. “And my mom and him met at the Berklee College of Music. My mom is still a songwriter,” said Foote. Foote’s brother is currently on tour with the duo as well, as their drummer.
Block on the other hand came from more of a creative background. “I was exposed to music at a very young age,” said Block. “Both of my parents were artistic and I was obsessed with musical theater and rock. I made my dad dress me as KISS more than once for Halloween,” continued the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni.
In fact, it was Block’s father who helped the duo come up with the name and logo they use today.
“We first came up with terrible names like ‘Foote Lov’ or ‘Emma Jackson’, which sounded like a country song,” said Foote with a laugh.
After gaining popularity on “No Promises”, the song that the duo had written for Demi Lovato and Cheat Codes and creating the perfect name, Loote decided to pull the trigger and release their own music, about a year and a half ago.
Like any pair of budding artists, Loote has their own pre-show rituals down to a tee. “You know it’s funny – right before the show, we have our own things that we do, and right before we get on, we come together and get pumped up with each other and hug it out,” said Foote. “But I like to, well I don’t even think it’s meditating, but I like to sit down and take a couple minutes and just breathe, and focus and clear my head of all distractions and picture the performance and what I want to do. And that to me – I need to before a show. It helps with breathing too because I’m out there running around, singing, and if I’m calmed down and my breathing is centered, I’ll have a better performance.”
Block’s ritual differs a little. “I usually do my own makeup and hair. Today, I have my awesome makeup and hair person doing it, Amanda she’s amazing,” said Block gesturing backstage. “I guess a lot of my pre-show ritual is taking time for myself to do that and getting it done and I don’t have to think about everything when I’m doing it. The other thing we both do is we both have our vocal warmups, and we each do different things. I was a vocal major in high school, and we used to do those warmups for fifteen minutes before each class.”
The duo recently teamed up with Joe Jonas to release “Longer Than I Thought”.
“I came in with this concept, and it’s funny because when I explain it to people, I tell them the explanation is literally just the lyrics of the song,” said Foote. “I moved to New York after college and you expect your life to move forward into a new phase, but the reality is some things in your life stick with you from the past. In this case a prior relationship; my ex was living in the city and I was not really able to shake it and move forward. I showed it to Emma, and she was going through the same thing. The craziest part about it was when we got on the phone with Joe, and he said ‘I have an ex in New York’. And we said, alright well get in the studio then, we’re doing this.”
Loote’s collaborations with household names such as Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato are becoming easier, as the duo gains more and more popularity.
“Actually it began because our label happened to be good at facilitating it especially with [him],” said Block of Jonas. “And also Nick (Jonas) and Demi are all under Philly Mac, and Philly Mac and Island happen to have a good relationship. So it was really easy for him to get the song in the first place because of that, and then we all just got on the phone and talked about it.”
Many of the songs released by Loote describe what the musicians are going through at the moment.
“‘Your Side of the Bed’ was exactly like that,” said Foote. “One thing we really try to get across is that most songs feel like they’re a really declarative ‘black and white’, really strongly this way or really strongly the other way. A lot of [ours] are saying that we feel really strongly conflicted and not really sure if we’re over something or not or if we feel okay with it. And that’s why we have these songs like ‘Your Side of the Bed’ that feel celebratory and anthemic, but at the same time hesitant and conflicted.”
Block agreed. “We are at a point in our lives that we don’t know the answers, we can’t possibly feel black and white, because we don’t know black and white necessarily. We know that they exist, but I don’t feel one hundred percent one way all the time. I’m never going to be in love, all the way, with someone forever. That’s not how people work. That’s not human beings are, we’re really complex.”
Block continued. “It’s about having music out that other people can relate to and be like ‘oh my god thank you, somebody else goes through this same thing’. I don’t think a lot of people talk about that. We all just walk around with all these things that we don’t address and I think it’s important that we do address them.”
Credit: Meredith Truax