emily the band

emily the band is a three-piece queer girl group based in Peoria, Illinois, composed of Emily Antonacci (vocals, ukulele, songwriting), Cami Proctor (guitar, vocals, melodica, arrangements, composition), and Abbey Haste (drums, percussion). They have played sad-girl ukulele pop at venues in the Peoria area, Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington-Normal, Galesburg, and more since April 2021.

In early 2017, Emily and Cami hung out for the first time, and Emily played her song “poison” for Cami. Cami was immediately interested in Emily’s songwriting, and the two soon began to collaborate on musical projects together. Their projects began as playing songs together at school assemblies and sporadic gigs around Peoria. As they grew closer as friends, Cami witnessed the stories behind Emily’s songs firsthand. Something about the two of them just made sense. Emily brought the stories and the lyrics, and then Cami found a way to translate those stories into sound. By June 2019, Cami began creating the studio arrangements for Emily’s original music. The first song they released was “messy” in September 2019. The song was produced by Connor Billard, who soon convinced Emily to record an EP. 

Originally titled “honey,” Emily’s debut EP was composed of six of her original songs and planned to be recorded on her breaks from college. After recording “tokyo” and “melt” in January 2020, Emily returned to school but was soon sent home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team decided to release “tokyo” as a single and put the EP on hold until it was safe to return to the studio. 

By the time they reconvened, Emily had written three new songs and switched them out for three of the originally planned tracks on the EP. The release's title switched to “living room,” named after the EP’s first track. The reenvisioned EP’s sound palette consisted of melodica, fretless bass guitar, acoustic guitar, ukulele (of course), and a bit of string section magic by The Accidentals. After over a year of recording, the “living room” EP became available on all streaming platforms in April 2021. 

Emily, Cami, and Abbey Haste joined forces to play their first set as a trio to commemorate the release. Emily’s connection to Abbey was through Cami, as Cami and Abbey have been members of The Blank Stairs since 2017. The three friends became “emily the band,” and they have been living their rockstar dreams ever since. Within the first six months of their first show together, the group has played headlining shows across Illinois and supported acts such as The Accidentals, Sarah & The Underground, and New Souls. With sets full of original songs and covers of Olivia Rodrigo, beabadoobee, and qq, they strive to show audiences that there is a space for everyone in the music industry. 

Peoria Music Live Photos