She is a familiar face to anyone who’s seen The Orielles live over the past couple of years… and now Emily Zukowski, aka Modema, has stepped forward and released a track of her own.
Unsurprisingly, Emily has also been working on her own material, something she’s been busy with for years, and Running Back is her debut single, released on Corridor of Dreams.
‘Running Back’ finds her perched between the worlds of club textures and experimental pop, occupying the same space as ML Buch, Jenny Hval & Caroline Polachek. Working behind the counter at Manchester’s Piccadilly Records opened a gateway into the various realms of electronic music, a rich diet of hyperpop, ambient & electronica feeding into the project’s complex futuristic sound.
Self-produced alongside Joel Anthony Patchett (The Orielles, King Krule, Jane Weaver), Running Back is a patchwork made up of fragments of vocals atop somnambulist synth lines & scattered drum patterns. The basslines fluctuate from gentle melodies to pulsating rhythms.

The track shares with The Orielles the same level of impeccable production qualities. And Emily is adept at layering calming, well-modulated, velvety vocals on a rich foundation of sparkling synths.
“I think this is a reflection of my scrambled inner monologue – it’s a patchwork of thoughts and feelings rather than a story,” explains Emily. “I guess generally it’s about a fragmented feeling of self and trying to maintain a connection with others and the world in general. The opening line ‘You’re in two’ refers to the mind being split in two – feeling like a multitude of things rather than a solid whole. And ‘running back’ is about returning to a feeling of finality and wholeness.”
Modema debut single: Running Back on Corridor of Dreams, out now
Top photo: ©Giulia Bonnometti
Second photo at Green Man: ©Olivia Rosen