Emily Nokes is a writer, artist, music critic and musician. She has been the singer of the feminist pop-punk band

Tacocat Tacocat is an American punk rock band from Seattle, founded in 2007 and consisting of Emily Nokes, Bree McKenna, Lelah Maupin, and Eric Randall. They gained popularity in 2014 following the release of their second album '' NVM'', engineered by Co ...

since 2007. She is also the music editor for Bust Magazine, and the former music editor at The Stranger from 2012 to 2015.

Early life

Nokes is from Butte, Montana and started writing songs when she was a child. She moved to Seattle when she was 19 to become a graphic designer. She attended The Seattle Art Institute where she met the bandmates who would later form Tacocat.

Career

Music

Nokes is the lead singer, tambourine player and a songwriter for

. Her creative process involves writing down snippets of ideas in a notebook and workshopping them with other bandmates into full songs.

When it’s time to start making new music, my bandmates usually get together and hash together instrumental ideas that they’ll show me via phone recording or practice jam. I then just start thinking about melodies and seeing if any of the lyrics fit, keeping the feeling of the music versus the feeling of the lyrics in mind, though I don’t mind (and sometimes prefer) sad-sounding music paired with silly lyrics or upbeat music paired with darker lyrics. It’s a fun little jigsaw puzzle for each song! Sometimes it snaps together right away, sometimes you have to tinker with it for weeks.

As part of Tacocat, Nokes has received recognition from peers and critics alike, including

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

and

the AV Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

La Sera La Sera is an American indie rock band formed by Katy Goodman, the bassist for Vivian Girls, in 2010. They have released four albums and toured internationally. History La Sera, whose name means "the evening" in Italian, started in 2010, with Goo ...

's Katy Goodman has called Tacocat "the best band in the world."

Politics

Nokes identifies as a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

and her songs address topics from catcalling to menstruation. She is an activist for queer, anti-racist, and anti-transphobic causes, especially with regards to art:

We need to demand more from everything all the time — for women, for queer folks, for trans folks, for people of color, and for everyone else who lives outside of the standard-issue, mostly-white/mostly-male representation across all platforms of expression.

Personal life

She is a

Libra Libra generally refers to: * Libra (constellation), a constellation * Libra (astrology), an astrological sign based on the star constellation Libra may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Libra'' (novel), a 1988 novel by Don DeLillo Musi ...

, has a grey cat named Tinsel, and lives on

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

, a neighborhood in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. She has said that if she weren't in a band, she would want to be a candy taster.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nokes, Emily Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American magazine editors Women magazine editors American women editors American women music critics American music critics American punk rock singers American women artists American women writers Feminist musicians 21st-century American women Women punk rock singers