Alternative rock artist Em Franklin has released “Suffocation Blue,” her latest single and the most fully realized statement yet from an independent artist who has spent the past year quietly building one of Nashville’s more purposeful creative operations.
The track centers on the emotional experience of anxious attachment — specifically the perspective of the partner left waiting, rather than the partner seeking distance. Franklin traces the song’s origins to a childhood shaped by an absent parent and a fear of abandonment she says has carried forward into her adult relationships. She began writing it last May and spent the following months developing it alongside a band and production team she assembled largely from scratch.
That process was not without difficulty. In the year leading up to this release, Franklin cycled through four key collaborators, multiple producers, and a long string of dead ends before landing on her current lineup: guitarist Cole, drummer Aidan, bassist Jack, producer Clarence, and photographer Adrian. Filmmaker Lucas of Last One Standing Film came aboard to direct the accompanying music video.
The result is a song Franklin has described in unusually practical terms — not as a bid for mainstream recognition, but as an attempt to reach a specific kind of listener. “I’m not aiming to be a Billboard Hot 100 artist or gain millions of streams,” she said recently. “I’d rather fill a 300-person room a few times a month than sell out stadiums touring the globe.”
Franklin relocated to Nashville from Cleveland, Ohio, where she spent her early years around live music through her father’s band, working merchandise tables and absorbing rehearsals from the wings. She initially arrived in Tennessee with a position at Schneider Electric in Franklin and a plan to pursue music on the side — a plan she abandoned quickly once she recognized it would not hold. “I found out I wouldn’t be satisfied halfway in,” she said.
Her previous single, “Resent Me,” laid the groundwork for this release. “Suffocation Blue” builds on it with sharper production, a more defined band identity, and a clearer sense of what Franklin is actually after — music that names feelings people have been quietly carrying without a language for them.
“Suffocation Blue” is out now on major streaming platforms.