Em initially named the project “P’like” as a contraction for “pretend like”, but on releasing the project’s second EP, Empathetic Apathy, she decided to remove the apostrophe, changing the project name to simply “Plike”. Em’s debut album, 47th Helen, tells the story of Helen, a woman whose psyche has fractured due to painful traumas in her past. Confined to a psychiatric hospital, Helen’s different personalities tell of her struggles with depression, addiction, fear, and self doubt. The inspiration for the album’s concept was born from Em’s own struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition that affects 7.7 million adults in the United States.

When Em began production on Plike’s second EP, Empathetic Apathy, former Bishop Buzzkill bandmate and fellow electronic music producer ASH joined Em to collaborate on two new brand new Plike tracks, “Tripped Script” and “Lessons in Futility”. Empathetic Apathy incorporates a variety of musical styles, a few of which include trap, witch house, and trip hop, as well as elements from genres such as dubstep and drum & bass. Em’s signature childlike toy pianos, cinematic strings and ethereal vocal sampling entertwine with ASH’s expert synthesis engineering and sequencing to form a strangely hypnotic dance of light and shadow. While Empathetic Apathy is not a conceptual album in the same vein as 47th Helen, it paints a vivid picture of many of the struggles we face living in modern day society, touching on topics such as female inequality and America’s deeply embedded fear of nuclear war.

The inspiration for Plike’s third EP, Empty Mirrors, came from Em’s lifelong fascination with paranormal phenomena. This conceptual EP seeks to explore the world of the unseen and the unexplainable; a world of haunted houses, bricked up rooms, and the ghost stories we grow up hearing as children. Each track atmospherically embraces the things that frighten us, mesmerize us, and fill us with a sense of childlike wonder.

Plike’s fourth album, Red Queen, White Queen, is a journey into the darkest shadows of the human psyche. It attempts to explore our deepest inner conflicts, such as societal pressure to conform, while at the same time shining a bright light on the stigma that surrounds those who suffer from mental illness and the damage that it causes, such as suicidal ideation and dissociation. Em’s longtime collaborator ASH worked with Em on the album’s final track, “Headroom”.

Plike’s fifth release, Bending Spoons, is a poignant menagerie of dark lullabies. Em’s most personal release to date, Bending Spoons seeks to understand the complex psychological damage of traumatic experiences that lead to a fractured sense of self. Em and ASH worked together to produce the album’s final track, “Archangel”. Both hauntingly beautiful and intensely disturbing, director David Lynch’s description of his film Fire Walk With Me as “cherry pie wrapped in barbed wire” is a perfect summation of this emotionally raw and richly atmospheric EP.

While in the early stages of producing 47th Helen, Em realized that a singular female vocalist would be essential to the album in order to effectively portray the voice of the protagonist. After an extensive search, the uniquely prominent vocal stylings of VEELA, courtesy of Black Octopus Sound, were chosen to maintain the album’s consistent theme. VEELA’s ethereal vocals were also used in the creation of Empathetic Apathy and Empty Mirrors. Red Queen, White Queen features Scottish vocalist Holly Drummond, as well as the breathtaking vocalizations of world-renowned vocalist Francesca Genco. Plike’s fifth EP, Bending Spoons, features the hypnotic vocalizations of Zara Taylor and soprano Linda Strawberry.

The Mad Madam’s latest masterpiece, “Dark Room” was released on May 25th. She is currently back in the studio, dividing her time between crafting sound design and composing music for the upcoming independent video game, Momo Ichigo, collaborating on new projects with some of her favorite artists, and working on another album due out in late 2018.