About Emma Valentiner — Musician, Marketer & Creative Misfit

// The music

Garage pop didn't
start with Darling, static.

I've been the girl in the band since I was barely out of my teens. It started with The Preons back in Seattle — scrappy, fun, my first real shot at being in a band, performing on their Pretentiousness of the Standard Model EP and playing the best house party I've ever, ever been to. From there I joined The Melody Unit in 2003, stepping in as girl vocalist right before we recorded Songs for a New American Century (2005) — a dreamy, space-pop record that picked up a review in SomewhereCold calling me "equally gifted and more sultry." I'll take it. After landing in Montreal, I joined Saola Rock in 2015, a project that leaned harder into the rock side of things — we put out one EP together, Easy Target.

These days it's just me, writing, producing and releasing as Darling, static: garage pop with a little attitude, built on 80s pop bones with a punk heart, heavily influenced by the Go-Go's, Pixies, Elastica, and Descendents. New songs are out regularly on all the streaming platforms — it's the most "me" thing I've ever made, and I'm having more fun with it than with anything I've done before. Like, ever.

Curious about the earlier stuff? Here's the SomewhereCold review, the Discogs entry and AllMusic page for Songs for a New American Century, and the Saola Rock Bandcamp if you want to hear where things were before Darling, static.

About Darling, static Hear on Bandcamp

Emma performing onstage with The Melody Unit

// The marketing & creative side

Twenty-some years of
campaigns, content & strategy.

I got my start in advertising and copywriting back in 2004, and I've spent every year since then getting deeper into content and SEO. I've been Content Lead at Intel, Director of Strategic Content at CanIRank, and I'm currently with Scorpion, building strategy and visibility for regional home services clients. No b.s., real results, and I still genuinely like the work.

From SEO industry podcasts to a recent opportunity to speak at Google's Austin, TX HQ, I talk shop fairly often. I've also been quoted in places like The Wall Street Journal (2019 — yes, the one about underwear in an interview-prep piece; ask me about it sometime).

I used to spend a lot of my creative energy elsewhere, too: photography that showed up in spots like Tiffany & Co. and Strangers in Transit, the occasional voice-over gig, and — once, memorably — organizing a 200-person flash mob through downtown Montreal. These days, though, that energy mostly goes toward Darling, static.

See the marketing work Get in touch