It took thousands of gigs and many sleepless nights, but Emily Retsas has built an enviable career since moving from Adelaide to Los Angeles almost five years ago, playing bass for the likes of Kim Gordon, Fiona Apple and Phoebe Bridgers.

Scrolling through Emily Retsas’ Instagram, it’s easy to be awed by the musician’s success.

Strewn throughout her grid are images showing her playing bass in indie rock star Phoebe Bridgers’ band, with whom she has toured, played live on late-night sketch show Saturday Night Live (SNL), and recorded on the critically acclaimed album, Punisher.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, Emily has also played with art-rock monarch Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, as well as cult singer-songwriter Fiona Apple and vocalist Shirley Manson of Garbage.

This is a version of every aspiring musician’s American Dream, and it was achieved by a musician from very humble beginnings. Emily hails from the tiny seaside town of Smoky Bay, located between Ceduna and Streaky Bay. The sleepy settlement recorded only 279 residents in the 2016 census. On the day we speak, Emily greets us from her current home of Los Angeles, a city with a population of almost four million.

Emily moved to LA in 2017 with the sole purpose of becoming a session musician. “To play music,” Emily puts it bluntly, pushing a strand of platinum blonde hair behind her ear. “I hate to say it, there’s no market for session musicians in Adelaide, really in Australia. Everyone has the joke that an Australian tour is three days, and maybe they come to Adelaide. Maybe.

“So if you’re playing three dates, arguably your tour is probably going to take a week, so you get paid for what, a week? And that’s it? That’s not really a sustainable business model by any means.”

While there is a lack of local opportunity, Emily says there’s no deficit of talent in Adelaide. Despite living thousands of kilometres away, she still collaborates with local musicians, such as Nakatomi’s Emily Smart and Blush Response’s Alister Douglas.

After almost half a decade spent living on the United States’s West Coast, Emily fills her time working non-stop as a bassist for other outfits. This doesn’t leave much time to produce her own music, but she doesn’t mind.

Even with a stacked recording schedule and a CV listing some of popular music’s most respected names, Emily admits to the occasional bout of imposter syndrome. She calls it a “creative curse”.

“I think that’s how a lot of people feel,” she says. “But it makes being stuck away from my family and working crazy jobs throughout my 20s kind of work, which has been nice.”

Emily moved from Smoky Bay to Adelaide after graduating high school, intending to study neuroscience at university. It didn’t stick.

“I hated it,” she says, laughing. “And so I just worked hospitality jobs.”

Emily slowly built a résumé in the music and events industry, working as an event coordinator for Rundle Mall with the Adelaide City Council, as a production manager with St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, as well as in various capacities behind the scenes at Soundwave, Big Day Out and Falls Music and Arts Festival.

She also landed judging roles with the Adelaide Fringe Festival Music Awards and the South Australian Music Awards, and worked as a mentor at Northern Sound System, teaching girls rock‘n’roll basics.

Eventually, Emily hit a “glass ceiling”. She wasn’t satisfied working multiple jobs that she wasn’t wholly passionate about. And when her best friend died, her whole life was brought into sharp focus.

She decided to try to make a living as a professional bass guitarist, which meant moving to the other side of the world.

“If you want to be somewhere and be in the centre of what’s going on, LA is the centre of the music industry [and] of contemporary music,” she says.

“The way I approached LA when I moved here was that I was lucky enough to be here and I took it really seriously. I said yes to almost every gig that anybody offered me and played every gig that anybody offered me, and just really tried to meet people that way.

“Maybe the music wasn’t really to my taste, but if I’m being professional and putting my best foot forward, you never know what kind of gig it’s going to lead to.”

Emily started playing bass guitar at age 15 and founded a grunge-pop band called Nutmeg with some school mates. Once in Adelaide, she played in countless outfits, including Koral and the Goodbye Horses and High Violet.

Because of the wealth of experience she’d built gigging in Adelaide, Emily had the talent to deliver when she was offered gigs in LA. Eventually, she was scouted and recommended by musical directors to perform with industry veterans.

Playing alongside Kim Gordon, who inspired Emily to pick up bass in the first place, was an indelible moment.

But, “everything is fleeting,” Emily says.

“People see one band or an SNL thing and they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re successful’,” she says. “But at this point, I just like that I get to play with my friends. Honestly, I get to hang out with my friends and sometimes maybe we’re on TV.”