Modern Family’s Aubrey Anderson-Emmons Opens Up About Music Debut (Exclusive)

Aubrey Anderson-Emmons –– who is best known for playing Lily Tucker-Pritchett all 11 seasons of Modern Family — is stepping into the world of music for the first time, releasing music under the name Frances Anderson.

In an interview with TooFab, the 18-year-old opened up about transitioning into music following her many years acting on screen, and broke down writing and recording her debut EP, Drown, which drops this Friday.

“I have grown up in a household where I’ve listened to so much music. I took piano lessons growing up. I took vocal lessons from the age of five,” Anderson-Emmons shared. “I mean, I took a break in middle school, but my goal for when I was younger, actually, I really wanted to be on Broadway. Obviously, I didn’t have time for that because I was on a TV show, but I really wanted to do that. And I was really into Annie and Matilda, so I really wanted to sing and perform live growing up; not necessarily writing my own music.”

“And then in the past few years, while I’ve been in high school, I joined the music program, and I just figured that I love writing so much, and I keep a journal with me usually at all times,” she added. “I’m really big on reading, too. I feel like I pull a lot of inspiration from reading and little quotes that I read. I’m always up in my Notes app writing things.”

“So I feel like it’s more of a new discovery, writing music. … I’ve been recording music for less than a year. It’s been a journey, recording versus writing — the process is really, really different,” Anderson-Emmons explained. “And I mean, I know some people will record and write at the same time, but I’ll go into the studio having basically the whole song kind of planned out and then adding instruments and layers and things like that. So it’s been a new and interesting process for me.”

The aspiring singer went on to explain why she decided to release music under a stage name, sharing how she chose Frances Anderson.

“Frances is my middle name, and it was named after a family friend. I feel like my music gives off nostalgic vibes or I’m a very nostalgic person overall, so having a name after an old family friend of my parents, I really liked that,” she said, before adding with a laugh. “It’s also a little bit shorter than Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, so there’s that one, too.”

“I wouldn’t say that Francis Anderson is like a really an alter ego. I mean, she feels a little bit different,” Anderson-Emmons explained. “She feels a little bit younger than me, considering all this music that I’ve written about was stuff from my childhood, things from high school. And I graduated high school early this year, so it feels like she’s a little bit younger than me. She’ll grow beside me.”

The actress released her first single, “Telephones & Traffic,” in May, and dropped her second song, “Don’t Forget Me,” the following month. In Frances Anderson’s artist description on Spotify, Anderson-Emmons wrote in part, “With my first single as well as my EP, I focus on giving off a childlike nostalgic feel that is true to how and who I grew up with. My face is known to many yet I am not known at all.”

When asked what she wants people to know about her, Anderson-Emmons said, “I think I just want people to enjoy my presence and enjoy my music. I mean, if they don’t, great, too, and they can unfollow me. I just hope that I give … I try to be as authentic as I can on social media.”

“I like posting little photo dumps or doing little get-ready-with-mes and talking to cameras, and just posting songs that I like to learn and things like that,” she continued. “I hope I just give people little pockets of joy, you know what I mean? And throughout their day. And also that they can enjoy the music if they like the type of things that I make. That’s all I can hope for.”

While she draws on experiences from her childhood for her music, and almost gives fans a behind-the-scenes peek at what was going on in her life as they watched her grow up on-screen on Modern Family, Anderson-Emmons said she’s yet to reflect on her time in the limelight through her music — at least not yet.

“I was in a meeting with a record label the other day, and they asked me, ‘Have you written about your experience of Modern Family or written a song about it or anything at all about being in show business?’ And I was like, ‘No, I haven’t,'” she recalled. “I might. It might happen one day, and I feel like that would probably kind of blow up a little bit if I did. But yeah, [my music] is definitely what happened behind the scenes, really focusing on childhood and really away from the LA/Hollywood side of things. I definitely go there with my music.”

Meanwhile, Anderson-Emmons also opened up to TooFab about her indie-folk sound, while also naming some artists who inspire her.

“I feel like I grew up listening — or throughout high school and middle school — I grew up listening to a lot of indie music, like Claro or The Neighborhood or things like that,” she shared. “But when it comes to the folky side, one of my best friends in high school, actually. I saw her last weekend, and we all went to a show together. She’s a mandolinist — folk artist through and through. That definitely affected my playing. And in high school I played in my music band. I played in my music class, and it’s very contemporary, and we’re allowed to play whatever we want, but we do get assigned to bands, and she was a part of my band. So I think that definitely affected that for sure.”

“I like Sierra Ferrell. She’s great. I’m trying to think of folk artists,” she added. “Oh my God, I listened to so much Hozier growing up, too, that most definitely. I feel like the little bit of folkiness that I have, per se, if you could say folk at all, it would come from that kind of stuff.”

She shared that she’s more inspired by people who are in her “day-to-day life” rather than people “you see on your screen,” such as her own mother, who is also a musician. However, Anderson-Emmons does still have a few dream collabs in mind, including Audrey Hobert and Laufey.

Check out the full interview at the top of this post to see more from Anderson-Emmons, including the process behind recording her first two singles!

Anderson-Emmons’ EP Drown will be released on August 8 on all platforms.