Emilee Petersmark brings Lee Emi to Lawrenceville

Emilee Petersmark will play a Lawrenceville venue next month under her Korean surname.

Petersmark, vocalist for The Crane Wives, launches her solo project Lee Emi on Nov. 6 in Columbus, Ohio, and travels to Thunderbird Music Hall on Nov. 7. The East Coast tour continues through Nov. 22 in Chicago. Cal in Red opens the Lawrenceville date and serves as Lee Emi's backing band. "I'm way too old," she said of sleeping on floors between shows, adding she would take a pay cut for a bed at night.

Her debut solo album, 'Destroy Everything,' arrived earlier this month. The record examines her search for identity, isolation during the covid-19 pandemic, health issues and other personal subjects that did not fit The Crane Wives catalog. Petersmark said the material required its own space. "I think I really needed this project to be something that could stand on its own and live in a separate world than what I've made with The Crane Wives," she said.

The title track addresses discarding what fails to satisfy. Petersmark connects that impulse to forest fires that clear old growth so healthier forests can emerge. The album's other songs include 'Clean Slate,' a meditation on restarting that she wrote drawing on her Suzuki method piano training, which she began at age 3.

Petersmark was born in Seoul and adopted at a young age. She said she was given a Korean name at birth but spent almost 40 years reclaiming it. Placing the surname Lee first follows Korean naming order. "Lee Emi was my way of reclaiming that and being able to embrace that part of my identity in this space," she said. She spoke by Zoom from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The solo record has been in development for about 10 years. Work intensified during the pandemic while The Crane Wives were on hiatus. The band stepped back in 2019 after touring for four to five years and performing to empty rooms. Bass player Ben Zito, who also manages the band and produced its recent records, opened his studio to Petersmark and her family so she could record. Petersmark was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease during that period and spent time in and out of the hospital. She produced an art book of self-portraits and illustrations from the isolation, released alongside the album. The Crane Wives are on a winter break while Petersmark tours. She said she is already writing material for a second Lee Emi album and plans to play some of it in November.