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photos: Moe Horta

What happens when you interview nearly every band playing the third annual Emo’s Not Dead Cruise? You get the world's longest emo interview ever. Seriously. Does someone have a contact at Guinness World Records? We think a few records were broken on that boat (for example: The Used having 291 crowd surfers on the final night out at sea confirmed via frontman Bert McCracken).

Anyway, to see what some of your favorite bands had to say about performing on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, tanning naked, tips on not getting seasick plus all things emo, be sure to read below! 

If you want to join the Emo's Not Dead party next year, make sure to sign up for the 2026 presale here.

STATE CHAMPS:

Who’s set are you most excited to catch at sea? And who in the band is most likely to get seasick?

Derek DiScanio: I thought we kicked it off great with Boys Like Girls as the first set of the trip. I thought that was a great way to set the tone for the vibe of everything. Everybody who was on the cruise was there watching, so that was really cool.

Evan Ambrosio: Chiodos. I didn't see them yesterday, but I would like to see Chiodos for sure.

Tyler Szalkowski: Yeah, I think it’s Chiodos and The Used for me.

Ryan Scott Graham: I'm stoked for Saosin. I'm stoked for The Spill Canvas and Lydia, because I've never seen Lydia. I feel like I've seen everybody else, which is why I'm so excited specifically for those three.

Derek DiScanio: I heard there might be a special guest that'd be worth seeing as well. So that will be fun.

Tyler Szalkowski: Who is most likely to get seasick? Out of us, my money would be on Derek because recently he's been getting carsick in the car, which is like some real geriatric old man shit.

Derek DiScanio: Maybe I’m getting old, but I'm the youngest in the band, so that means you guys are older.

Tyler Szalkowski: Yeah, well, your brain is old.

Derek DiScanio: But I might be. I do get carsick now, but I haven't felt anything other than being hungover. 

Ryan Scott Graham: I'm chilling. I feel like this is nothing.

Evan Ambrosio: I feel great so I'll say Derek as well.

Ryan Scott Graham: I think if you get seasick, you're a coward.

Derek DiScanio: Alright, well, we'll find out. Stay tuned.

What are you guys most excited for in terms of your three sets? And did you prepare differently knowing that this was for a cruise?

Derek DiScanio: We did. We're excited for all three unique sets that we have to do, but we did have to prepare and try some things that we've never done before. The one that I'm most excited for is Champs karaoke with the fans, where we're going to be able to bring any fan up. They can sign up for a song, pick their song of choice, and we'll hand them a spare mic - or them and a friend, maybe - and, yeah, just let them kind of do my job for me. It's going to be easy for me.

Ryan Scott Graham: Yeah, it must be nice pal.

Tyler Szalkowski: That's probably the one that I'm most excited for, too. 

Ryan Scott Graham: We've talked about doing it for a long time, and we just never have. But all three sets are different. We're doing a headliner, you know, pretty straightforward. We're doing a fan-picked set, which is what we're doing tonight. So the fans submitted the songs that they wanted to hear, then we put it together. And then we're doing the karaoke set. So it was definitely, you know, we had to prepare for a lot. And then we're also going on tour immediately following this. That's a different set list. 

Derek DiScanio: Yeah, we have like four different setlists. 

Ryan Scott Graham: Yeah. We had a lot to brush up on.

Evan Ambrosio: Rehearsals were confusing. I'm not sure what songs are in what set.

Tyler Szalkowski: I have no idea. I'm just kind of going to read the paper.

Derek DiScanio: We will prosper once we see the setlist.

Evan Ambrosio: Yeah, it's gonna be great.

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you're not performing?

Derek DiScanio: Probably the casino. I spent a lot of time there last night, and I have some money to win back, so I'll be back there tonight. You guys?

Ryan Scott Graham: Bar and hot tub.

Tyler Szalkowski: Yeah, I like being all the way up on, like, the pool deck. It's nice up there.

Derek DiScanio: It is nice up there. It's a great place to watch bands from the balcony of the pool deck.

Evan Ambrosio: Yeah, you can find me on the jogging track.

Tyler Szalkowski: For how long? 

Evan Ambrosio: Well, I didn't want to say the pool, which is obviously where I've been. I’ve been spending more time on the pool deck than I thought I would. So I wanted to change it up and not say the room because it's boring, you know?

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise - when did you discover emo music and when did you realize this is something you wanted to pursue yourself?

Tyler Szalkowski: Well, you see, I was on Myspace. And I got into heavier music by way of, like, Linkin Park, Slipknot and Disturbed through, like, Columbia House Records mailing CDs to your house back in, like, the mid 2000’s. And then I got on Myspace and I started discovering, I think From First To Last [which] was the first ever, like emo band. I mean, I don't want to do the discussion about like, what is emo and what isn't, but like..

Derek DiScanio: Because then it depends how old school emo, you know, like...Taking Back Sunday and New Found Glory then brought in the Victory Records era of Hawthorne Heights and Bayside for me. Hawthorne Heights is a big reason I think.

Tyler Szalkowski: They're definitely another one too. Yeah.

Derek DiScanio: And then the Myspace era of anything and everything in between.

Evan Ambrosio: I had my older brother, who's six years older than me, he introduced me to a lot of these bands back in the early 2000’s when he was, you know, in high school. So it's kind of cool. My first show was Thursday and it was kind of cool to be introduced to those bands at an early age. So it's kind of cool to see bands on this cruise that I kind of grew up with, and now we get to play alongside them. It's really special. It's very cool.

Ryan Scott Graham: For me, it was eighth grade. I got invited to a local show and before that I didn't really listen to a ton of alternative music. Just what was on the radio maybe. So I got invited to a local show and seeing people kind of my age and a little bit older, kind of gave me the confidence to be like, “Oh, these people are not any different than me.” You know, like they're cool and I want to try it. I want to buy a guitar. I want to do this. So that's all it took was just like seeing somebody that looked like me doing it. And that was cool. So from then on, I found Pure Volume, found, I don't know, Fall Out Boy and Daphne Loves Derby and like some of those early Pure Volume bands. I was emo from the start. Straight up. Like as soon as I found Pure Volume, that was the music that I liked.

Tyler Szalkowski: I don't think I ever had a moment where I decided I wanted to commit my life to emo, because I don't really think we're an emo band. But I definitely used to want to be in a band and wear makeup like From First To Last. I wanted to wear eyeliner and eyeshadow.

Ryan Scott Graham: It’s not too late. 

Derek DiScanio: We have emotion, but most of our stuff is happy.

Ryan Scott Graham: We’re emo adjacent.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre forward?

Derek DiScanio: I think it's important because it lets anybody be any kind of person they want to be. All the time. There's no judgment with it. You can kind of find people that feel the same way as you do, and then, you know, find their outlet through this music in this world. Like I've run into so many people that are like, “I used to come to this cruise alone, and now I have a group of 50 [friends] now that we all go every single year,” and I think that's what's most important about this community in this world. It brings people together. So that's a big part.

Tyler Szalkowski: Yeah, I mean, to pretty much repackage what Derek said - just the idea that you might have all these intense strong feelings and emotions, especially when you're like in your formative years, and then you see kind of like what Ryan said earlier – people who are just like you, dealing with the same thing, and finding that sense of solace that you're not alone in those feelings and stuff. Like, it's no secret that the emo scene is a little odd, right? Like everyone's very unique and, you know, they don't necessarily fit in other places. And I know a lot of people are going to return home to a desk job that they probably hate. They probably hate their coworkers. So they get to come here and they get to let loose and be around people that they see themselves in. I think that community aspect is really important. 

And what can we do to push it further? I mean, we are on a boat in the middle of the fucking ocean, and this thing sold out before we were even announced. So I don't really know how much further it needs to go.

Ryan Scott Graham: I think it’s done a good job of forwarding itself. 

Evan Ambrosio: I think people should start more bands and play more music and pick up instruments to keep it going. Really. I mean, it's a perfect way to express yourself and like they said, it's an incredible community. I think the best way to keep it moving forward is for younger people to start playing music and playing in bands and expressing themselves. I don't know, that's kind of what helped us grow into what we are. And it's been the best thing ever. So more bands equals the better the scene will be.

Any final words?

Evan Ambrosio: Please listen to State Champs by State Champs.

Ryan Scott Graham: Yeah, we put out a record a few months ago, and it feels like a year already, but it's only been three months. So if you haven't listened to it, go check it out. It's great. And if you have. Thank you. Thanks for having us on the fucking boat.

THE USED:

Who’s set are you most excited to catch at sea and who in the band is most likely to get seasick?

Bert McCracken: We like the secret band. Locus Ultra. 

Dan Whitesides: I thought you were talking about the other secret band. 

Joey Bradford: No, that is the secret band. That’s what they’re called.

Dan Whitesides: Oh, well their real name is ***CENSORED***

Jepha: Dude, it's a secret!

Bert McCracken: There he is! 

Dan Whitesides: You got that, motherfucker?

Who in your band is most likely to get seasick?

Dan Whitesides: I'm going to just go with you, Bert. 

Bert McCracken: Yeah I get a sick tummy sometimes. 

Dan Whitesides: He usually diarrheas and throws up every other flight.

Bert McCracken: The flights get me, man, I can't help it.

What are you most excited for in terms of your three sets and did you prepare differently knowing this was for a cruise?

Jepha: We prepared three setlists, but we kind of had them already prepared. We have a list of about one thousand songs that we know and are rehearsing constantly.

Joey Bradford: At least a thousand.

Dan Whitesides: It'll be fun. We're playing In Love and Death in full tomorrow, and that'll be fun.

Jepha: Don’t tell anybody because that's also a secret. We thought it'd be fun to prep all of In Love and Death to play for this since we're doing it all this year too. It'll be fun. 

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you're not performing?

Jepha: Right inside of my hotel room playing games all day. 

Bert McCracken: The rooms are very nice, that's for sure. Yeah, but we've been hanging out here at [the artist pool deck], we've been hanging upstairs. 

Joey Bradford: The top deck. 

Bert McCracken: Yeah, we're going to hang out in the cigar bar.

Dan Whitesides: I hung out on my balcony naked. I'm not fucking lying. I just pulled down my pants and just got a suntan.

Bert McCracken: Nice.

Jepha: I don't intend on leaving my room unless I need to. I'm enjoying it too much.

Bert McCracken: Always got games to play.

Jepha: I’m always like, “I gotta beat this game.” You don't understand.

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise, when did you discover emo music and when did you realize this is something you wanted to pursue yourself?

Bert McCracken: It was like 1997 when I heard Sunny Day Real Estate. And I fell in love immediately. It spawned a whole new kind of collection of bands that I'd never heard of. Like Texas Is The Reason, Rage Against The Machine, Jets To Brazil. 

Dan Whitesides: All those kind of [heavy music] bands kind of disbanded or broke up and started these emo bands. It was so different. Texas Is The Reason, Promise Ring, Jimmy Eat World was even...

Jepha: What was Grade considered?

Bert McCracken: Like emo / hardcore.

Jepha: Was Grade kind of emo?

Bert McCracken: Yeah.

Dan Whitesides: And Braid.

Joey Bradford & Bert McCracken: And Braid.

Dan Whitesides: There's so many fucking bands back then...

Bert McCracken: Great emo bands from like the late 90s. 

Jepha: Like Nirvana. Faith No More

Dan Whitesides: Definitely inspiring. It made you want to start a band.

Bert McCracken: Yeah. When I first heard Sunny Day Real Estate, I knew I had to make music like that.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre forward?

Bert McCracken: I think music that's heartfelt and..

Joey Bradford: Honest. 

Bert McCraken: People kind of recognize that honesty and that pureness of the music. And I think that emo kind of captures that perfectly. Whether it's “boo hoo my girlfriend, weep weep woo…”

Jepha: Or pee pee.

Bert McCracken: Or pee pee poo poo.

Dan Whitesides: You gotta keep it fresh too and be original. I feel like if you're just trying to do what somebody else already did, chances are you're not going to be around for a while.

Bert McCracken: We always try to think a little bit outside the box of emo, but kind of stay true to our roots as well.

Any final words or anything you’d like to plug as we wrap up?

Dan Whitesides: Biscuits. 

Bert McCracken: We have a really fun tour coming up. We're playing the first three records, three shows in each city. So I hope you can make it.

Jepha: If not,***CENSORED*** Yeah, well, I don't know if we’re allowed to announce that.

Bert McCracken: ***CENSORED***

Jepha: Never mind. Ignore that part. But if you missed that, go to Australia because we're playing there for a month. We're playing this record pretty much this whole year. All three records for this whole year. 

Bert McCracken: Wild. Now that I'm thinking about it, I’m scared.

Jepha: If you want to come hang out with us, we’ll be in your city for a week. So.

Bert McCracken: Yeah, come find us. We'll be at the bus. All 13 of us. 

SAOSIN:

Who's set are you most excited to catch at sea and who in the band is most likely to get seasick?

Beau Burchell: I was most excited to watch The Used. Fun fact I also used to work for The Used. I used to do monitors for them years ago. And who is most likely to get seasick? I would say Alex.

Alex Rodriguez: Nooo, I never get sick. I don't get nauseous. 

Phil Sgrosso: Vodka kills all the germs. 

Alex Rodriguez: Yeah, it's a disinfectant. I would say if anybody's going to get seasick, I would say Beau. Beau is prone to illness. 

Beau Burchell: I will get actual sick. But not seasick.

Chris Sorenson: He’s like a child that can command it because he doesn't want to go to school.

Beau Burchell: But when it comes to boats, I'm very comfortable on boats.

What are you most excited for in terms of your three sets and did you prepare differently knowing that this was for a cruise?

Phil Sgrosso: We did two different setlists. So fans who were coming to the second show had a few little surprises. I think you guys have the third show, which is the unplugged songwriter thing, storyteller kind of thing. But overall, yeah, just throw a little variations in there to keep fans having fun.

Chris Sorenson: I think I was super proud of the intro song that we chose, which was, Tarzan Boy by Baltimora. That was still a little sneaker hit from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3. Tarzan Boy. 

Alex Rodriguez: Given, like, we're on a cruise and it's tropical and kind of has vacation undertones to that song. I feel that was apropos, if you will. 

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you're not performing?

Chris Sorenson: Oh, Beau can answer this one and I agree.

Beau Burchell: The sauna and the spa.

Chris Sorenson: Well, three of us got sauna/spa passes, and two of us did not. 

Phil Sgrosso: Driving the boat. 

Chris Sorenson: Captain Phil here. 

Beau Burchell: That is true because you have the next two days off. If there's any rough water, we know it's because of Phil.

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise - When did you discover emo music and when did you realize this was something you wanted to pursue? 

Chris Sorenson: Oh this is a loaded question here. Okay. This is a big time loaded question. 

Beau Burchell: This is polarizing.

Chris Sorenson: Because we're a little older. And to us, one might agree that our definition of emo did not include any bands on this cruise, including ourselves. Which is fine. We could be adapted. But I think growing up, emo to me was bands like The Promise Ring, Mineral, Jimmy Eat World, The Appleseed Cast, The Get Up Kids, maybe American Football.

With that said, we grew up listening to these bands and obviously we were influenced by these bands and I'm sure most of the bands on this cruise that are within our age group would have also been [influenced]. Maybe unbeknownst to us, we just carried the torch. But yeah, we've played a lot of these emo named things and we never called ourselves an emo band, but obviously we are. And so here we are, and we're going to embrace the emo-ness. 

Beau Burchell: Yeah. I think throughout our career, we've always kind of not really cared what kind of music people would call us. Any sort of genre or box that people want to put us in, if they're embracing it and it's coming from a way of like, it's something they're enjoying. It really doesn't matter to us, like what we're called, as long as the music is connecting with people. 

Chris Sorenson: We can't even say the band name right, so.

Phil Sgrosso: We prefer progressive tech death. Power sludge. 

Beau Burchell: Gothic ska.

Phil Sgrosso: When’s that cruise?

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre forward?

Cove Reber: I think JT [Woodruff, Hawthorne Heights] said it pretty well. You know, when we were younger and we wrote the records that got us here, we were just pouring. At the time we wrote the self-titled, like 19 years of my life went into that record. 

And then in the second record, you only had that window to write about. So I think the thing that makes it special is like, those records that we poured our hearts into, at the very beginning, are the records that kept it going from American Football, Mineral, and Jimmy Eat World. Bands like that. Like we kind of kept that torch going.

And I think that, you know, music is all emotional. But for emos to have something to hold on to... like, there wasn't a lot of hope back in early 2000s within music. And I feel like emo has kind of brought that culture of like, “Alright we can all just hope things will get better together.” And maybe if we're all together, it'll be fucking actually better for us all. So I don't know if that answers the question, but that's what you get.

Phil Sgrosso: I think there's a song title in there... Something To Hold On To. There you go.

Chris Sorenson: It's been 19 years since the last one, so no more excuses. We're ready to make another banger. We’ll just put another bug on the front.

Cove Reber: Just a different beetle.

Chris Sorenson: Yeah, a little cockroach. You can't get rid of us! We won't die! Here's the cockroach album! 

Any final words?

Chris Sorenson: Thank you to those who wish us well and those that don't, can go to hell. 

BOYS LIKE GIRLS:

Who’s set are you most excited to catch at sea and who in the band is most likely to get seasick?

Gregory James: So it's interesting you know, obviously we grew up on a lot of these bands and are friends with a lot of these bands. But there's one group that I have been a fan of for a really long time that I've never seen live or met. And that band is Lydia. So I'm hoping to definitely catch them today or tomorrow. Love to see them for sure.

Who in your band is most likely to get seasick?

Gregory James: Martin

Martin Johnson: Yeah, I feel like shit. I had an experience. So we played the sail away part of the performance. So basically we started to play as the boat started to move, and I felt like the entire ship was spinning for about 60% of the show. I looked back at John and he goes, “Dude, you look green. Are you okay?” I was like “I don't know where I am, bro.” 

But we're pretty rehearsed, so I like to think that it was hard to tell. I snapped out of it towards the end of the performance, and I did start to enjoy myself towards, like, the last three songs. It was kind of like, “This is really pretty, the sun is setting, it feels good. I see the water. I'm with my best friends.” But I definitely was still having the feeling of being uneasy. 

It's interesting. I used to be pretty bulletproof in regards to fear, but I'm not doing well on moving things. Like I'm not doing well on planes. I used to do really well on planes. I would knock out right away. The second my daughter was born, I get on a plane, and I felt scared. Last night I could feel the boat moving in bed and I was like, just grabbing on to it. Like I was so fucking scared in there. So, yeah, I feel a little better today. I'm getting my legs, which is good. It's kind of like, you know, you do the Macy's Day Parade in New York. And you're on this float and it's moving. You have this alternative perspective, and you feel like you're king of the world.

There's an element to that that feels really good because, you know, you're never going to be able to have that perspective ever again. I did feel that way on stage yesterday on the deck. It was like, “Oh, this is a perspective on the world that not many people have.” So I think you can find gratitude in that for sure. I don't know if I'm a boat guy, but I'm really enjoying myself.

What are you most excited for in regards to your three sets and did you prepare differently knowing that this was for a cruise?

Martin Johnson: I think we didn't prepare differently at all. I think a rock and roll show is a rock and roll show. A club that's like a closed off club or a festival stage; I think you play it the same way. Man, I love playing with my best friends no matter where we are. I think we're pretty locked in right now. We had a big year last year. We played, like, 125 shows or 128 shows last year. So I feel so pretty locked in with the guys. Like, I feel that we're playing pretty good. 

Gregory James: Whenever we get up on stage, I always look for the one person who looks like they might not know our music or are seeing us for the first time, and I get really excited about winning that person over, or those people that are there that are experiencing Boys Like Girls for the first time. That would be my “what” I think for the next two performances. 

Martin Johnson: Yeah, I enjoyed that yesterday, when the deck wasn't spinning, interacting with people. It was very abundant that they hadn't seen our band play before. I like the underdog. The underdog thing feels good.

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you're not performing?

Jamel Hawke: My cabin 

Martin Johnson: Hibernating

Gregory James: The blackjack table and the sun deck.

Martin Johnson: We were at the blackjack table last night and I was really excited to gamble. And some guy had too many adult cocktails, and he said that we were bringing bad juju to the table. So I told him to fuck himself, and I left the casino. John gave him $10 to leave the table after I left the table. I wish that I had known that, I would have stayed. But I'm excited to try my luck again.

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise, when did you discover emo music and when did you realize this was something you wanted to pursue yourself?

Martin Johnson: It's interesting. When we were young enough that this was becoming a very isolated genre and kind of something that people were identifying themselves with, at the time, it was very synonymous with fashion. I was in high school, so if you were in a punk or a ska band, you were almost like rivals, right?

And I was in a ska band at the time called The Touchtones. I was working at Hot Topic in Salem, New Hampshire. And I remember the defining moment where I was like, I don't think I'm in a ska band anymore, right? You're wearing like the checkered suspenders and you're doing the thing and you're kind of synonymous with the pins and the [skanking] and the whole thing. You're like 14, right?

So, I remember, you know, the class of 2002. I graduated high school in 2004 and I remember the records that came out in 2002 - Taking Back Sunday, The Starting Line, the first Used record, the Dashboard Confessional MTV record, there's a Midtown album that I was listening to a lot. I think Sticks and Stones by New Found Glory might have come out. 

There was like a big class of 2002. The debut albums of 2002, for me, were the defining factor of being like, “I think I'm going to be influenced by this set of like ten albums in my writing.” I didn’t know that when you're young that there's like a conscious thought about that. But I do think that looking back, those albums were definitive, for sure.

John Keefe: When did I realize I wanted to do this? I can tell you exactly the moment. It was in fifth grade, and the band director came into the school. And this kid named Aaron Jaros got to play the snare drum. And I didn't get to play the snare drum. And when I heard the snare drum for the first time in person, it was a Ludwig snare drum, I was just in immediately.

Martin Johnson: Was Aaron Jaros good at playing drums? 

John Keefe: No he just got picked. It was like they try the different band instruments and I was absolutely hooked and I wanted to do it. And we didn't have the money to rent the snare drum. It was like $45 or something like that. So like a lot of money at the time. So there was that moment. And then I did end up playing, and I had an opportunity to play for Shania Twain at the Comcast Center or Tweeter Center. Great Woods back in Massachusetts in front of like 20,000 people. And I just thought that was the fucking cat's ass. That was the coolest thing I've ever done, and that's what I wanted to do. So we did.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre further?

Martin Johnson: I think genres kind of form out of the abyss based on, like, certain factors in music and culture that culminate in this sort of a movement. And so you think about the way that music was in the early 2000s, late 90s and early 2000s, it was sort of like a response to punk, and putting in storytelling and the human heart. I think that when you really look at culturally impacting genres of music, the one that is celebrated on this boat is probably the last one before the social media age.

So the importance of that as a culture was one where people were going to music shows, VFW halls, and people's basements to experience community. There were obviously music choices in genres before social media, which is now very playlist oriented. So everybody's listening to different things. And then kind of like fashion culture and [how] it is based on sort of like either a political belief or an age group.

Back then it was based on liking similar music. So, you know, you liked similar music, then there were people that you were all congregating with in this crappy American Legion so that you could not be alone. And I think that this genre's importance is based on the fact that it was really the last one. 

At first I was kind of confused by the nostalgia movement that surrounded it. I think every genre has a nostalgia movement. You know, there were 80s nights when we were kids, and that was sort of like, I got it, but I also didn't get it. And then there's like 90s nostalgia boy bands and stuff. 

I think this is like potentially the last cultural movement that is attached to a type of music that will be able to be celebrated in this capacity. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there was, in the kind of EDM culture of the mid 2010s where people will find nostalgia in that. There's something that, to me, is a little bit different about that. Because this, whether you participated and to what extent, it was a culture and it was a community of people. You can talk about the specific bands and the type of subject matter that was sung about, but it was also a little more than that.

NORMA JEAN:

Who’s set were you most excited to catch at sea? And who in your band is most likely to get seasick?

Cory Brandan: I would say for me, it would be Saosin. I saw them in Stardust. Incredible. And Locus Ultra.

Grayson Stewart: I'd say for me also, Locus Ultra, because we're going on the road with them in like two days. So, yeah, it's cool to know the band that you're going to be with.

Cory Brandan: They're opening for us.

Jeff Hickey: I would say Saosin. Oh, and Locus Ultra.

Matt Marquez: My favorite that I wanted to see was Emery's The Question set. That was like the number one thing for me to see. And also meeting the guys from Locus Ultra.

Cory Brandan: Whoever they are.

Jeff Hickey: Whoever they may be. 

Grayson Stewart: I'm really excited to get to help out a new band. Use our platform, you know?

Who in your band is the most likely to get seasick?

Jeff Hickey: Clay.

Grayson Stewart: Clay.

Cory Brandan: Yeah, that would be Clay Crenshaw also known as Clark Kent.

Grayson Stewart: C-L-A-Y

Jeff Hickey: I don't know why that is, but it just seems like the right answer. I mean.

Grayson Stewart: Clay is the one that fell into the drum set from the boat rocking.

Matt Marquez: Clay is kind of the Bad Luck Brian of the band. If you ever seen that meme.

Cory Brandan: Because we started playing, and that's when the boat started moving. Like right before we went on stage. That's the first time I felt [sick].

Jeff Hickey: I didn't feel it that much. I was moving a lot last night though, so maybe it was just like I was just disoriented all over.

Cory Brandan: Cove, when he was watching us, he was like, “I'm just going to look at Cory. He looks stable and I just won't pay attention to the boat moving.” I was like, “I didn't feel stable, bro.”

What are you most excited for in terms of your three sets? And did you prepare differently knowing this for a cruise?

Cory Brandan: Yeah. So we definitely learned over 30 songs to do this. Every set was completely unique. And also for our first set, the intro set to “Norma Jean on a boat,” was our very first acoustic set. It was full band. We rewrote a bunch of songs, so that was really fun, and we kind of discovered that it's really cool and way cooler than we thought it was going to be.

That's something you might have to do again in the future possibly? 

Cory Brandan: Every compliment that we've gotten is, “Hey, y'all need to do that. Make that your next thing.” So we were like, “Okay, maybe we need to take it seriously and like actually record it or something.” That was a lot of fun to do. There really wasn't enough time in the day to learn three entire sets though. It was pretty rough. I think we went harder than anybody else on that because we just didn't know that you can, that it's okay to repeat a song or two.

Did you guys have no repeats?

Cory Brandan: No. None. The only one would be a song called "The Planet." That was it. But we had an acoustic version of it and then the regular version. So they're totally different, totally different songs.

When did you discover emo music and when did you realize this was something you wanted to pursue yourself?

Cory Brandan: Emo music was early-mid 90s. And emo music back then was different. And that's kind of a cool thing about emo is that it changes over time. I think that we're due actually for another incarnation of emo to surge. Because it was totally different. Like emo at first, it was basically like hardcore bands that would just do these really, really quiet sections. And it was all like, do it really quiet, and then out of nowhere, do it really loud. And it was awesome. Bands like Indian Summer. I think the first band that I don't know if they would even call themselves emo - Sunny Day Real Estate. That band blew up.

And the thing is, if you saw a Sunny Day Real Estate live, they were fucking heavy. It was heavy live. Diary is heavy. It's a heavy record. But I think they really brought it to more of a mainstream, I guess you could say, without the help of radio or whatever. But there's so many bands, like 7” bands, you know? Like emo was a thing that was new like, “Oh, we're emo now.”

It's like, if you needed to get your girlfriend back, you started an emo band and you could write the songs in like a week, play a show the next week, and it would be fine. And it was just like, hit some little notes on your guitar and then do it loud.

Jeff Hickey: I would say for me, similarly, I got introduced to emo through like the hardcore [scene], because that's what it used to be like. I discovered bands like Saetia, Orchid and later City of Caterpillar and things like that. And then, of course, bands like Jimmy Eat World; the Clarity record is still probably one of my favorite records. I think it's very much a defining emo record, especially for the later waves of emo.  But yeah, I mentioned City of Caterpillar - I remember seeing them live in 2002 maybe. And, you know, it was just a small punk rock show playing on a floor, like 20 people.

And then they broke up, and then they stayed broken up for almost 15, 20 years. And they recently put out a new album, started touring again, and I went and saw them maybe two years ago on this tour cycle of that. And it kind of blew my mind because I kind of assumed...I go see bands these days and everybody's my age, like 37, in their 30s, like we're all just old people seeing our old people bands. But I showed up, and the show was sold out and it was like a lot of younger kids. Like my wife and I were like, “Whoa, we're like the oldest people here.” I thought it was super rad.

When did you realize that this was something you wanted to pursue as well?

Cory Brandan: For me, I feel like being in a band, there's a series of, I guess, permissions is what I call it. Like, you give yourself permission to do things, and a lot of times that comes from you [being] inspired by something else or something that you love musically. And you think, “Oh, I didn't know I was allowed to do that. Okay.” Like going to old punk shows in the mid 90s, like ‘94 was a big year for me, I'm kind of old now. But yeah, that was a big year. It was going to a show in the small town that I live in. It's seeing bands that are just my friends and they're great. And just thinking, “Oh, I didn't know you were allowed to do that.” You know? Like me and Jeff, we've talked about this before, like, “I don't know what that is, but I want to make that sound. I want that sound to come out of speakers with me doing it.”

Matt Marquez: That's how I was when I was younger. I went to a venue called The Showcase Theater in California with a friend. We had no idea who was playing. We just decided to go, and one of the bands playing was The Bled. And this is like early 2000s. And I was like, wait a second. Like, I was brought up on classic rock music and stuff.

And I was just trying to figure out, like in a late bloomer kind of world of like, “What am I? What do I like? I don't even know what's inspiring to me. I know what I like listening to.” But I always felt like what I like listening to doesn't always equate to what I might want to play. But then I saw The Bled play a show for the first time ever, and I was like, “Okay, that's it.”

Cory Brandan: Actually seeing someone else do it. Like your age. That is really when it clicked. Because when I was younger, we would pretend, we would listen to records. I have three brothers and we would, like, literally hold broomsticks and pretend we were the band. You know, we're like 8 or 9. But like, it seems so out of reach. It's not real, you know? Like, that's not something you can do. But then when you go to a punk show and someone's just yelling in the mic, you know, because they're serious about what they're saying; that's why they had to yell. It wasn't, like a vocal style, it was, “I have something to say and I'm gonna yell about it.”

I was like, wait, you can just do that? Like it was mind blowing to me as a teenager. There's intention. And I think that seeing that just changed my perspective on it. Like, it doesn’t matter, you can just get in a room with your friends and invite your other friends. You do a show together. And I think we need more of that actually, these days. I don't see as much of it with the younger generation, but hopefully they figure it out.

Where did you guys spend the most time on the boat when you weren’t performing?

Matt Marquez: The buffet.

The ice cream machine?

Matt Marquez: Actually, that is some of the best ice cream I've ever had. Like, it was just vanilla ice cream. But I told my wife, I was like, it's like puffy or fluffy. I don't know. I would also mainly eat on the very back deck of the buffet, the outside deck, because I felt like it was such a secret place because there was hardly anyone back there. Granted, there's bands playing so everyone is watching bands, but I go back there and there's always a seat. You can literally sit at the edge of the ship and eat right next to the water flowing by you. It just was like the best thing ever.

Cory Brandan: It's definitely pretty cool to play a show and be able to go right to your room and take a shower. Like that is something you can’t do at a venue. Like you have a green room, but you can't...like I could just go to bed right now. So just having your own room is cool. Artist lounge is cool. We meet here every day before we would go on stage, like an hour before set up just to talk about the set, get our minds right about it. So this is a really cool vibe in here.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre further?

Cory Brandan: I have an answer for this. Emo is important because I felt for a long time that entire generations of music were being skipped by, I guess what you would call mainstream radio and things like that. Emo was...they opened the door to that. Bands like Jimmy Eat World and My Chemical Romance - those bands blowing up to arena size level.

I remember at the time thinking, this is weird because years have gone by where this music was not being looked at and totally ignored. It was all underground. So those bands opened the door for bands like us to do a little more aggressive version of emo, and I think that's important because the mainstream music, up until that point, was just kind of regurgitating itself over and over and over based on what was popular in the 90s. Like grunge and alternative music and stuff. And it was just kind of getting a little stale and I don't know how to explain it.

Matt Marquez: Emo kind of opened a door for bands to create moments in their songs. Like there's awesome songs, but then I listen so deeply to music, so I always notice a moment that might be only 10 or 15 seconds of the song. But there's a moment that’s like... kind of touching on the mainstream thing, I never caught moments in [mainstream] music like the way you do with emo. It creates these certain moments that are just the most impactful thing out of the entire song, but I have only noticed it in the emo world.

Cory Brandan: It's definitely not a phase. It wasn't a phase. Maybe the hair, but I think we should bring the hair back. I kind of miss it.

EMERY: 

Who’s set are you guys most excited to catch at sea and who in the band is most likely to get seasick?

Devin Shelton: We're good buddies with Hawthorne Heights, so it's always fun to just kind of hang out with them and see their show. The Used. State Champs is another fun band we like to see, so I think those will be good. 

Toby Morrell: Yeah, we're good friends with Aaron Gillespie, but he's super sick right now, he’s real bad. So we're kind of worried about him, but hopefully he's gonna be able to pull through and play.

Devin Shelton: Who's most likely to get sick?

Toby Morrell: Aaron Gillespie *laughter*

Devin Shelton: We're all pretty good out here. The first Emo’s Not Dead Cruise we did, it was on the West Coast, so it was a little choppier. So I definitely felt a little something. I think a couple guys got some migraines and some nausea, but....

Toby Morrell: Probably Josh [Head] honestly, our keyboard player, he gets kind of sick. He has a very weak constitution.

Matt Carter: He's a weak person. He gets headaches and germs just get him. His bones break and tendons and stuff. Just bad genetics.

What are you most excited for in terms of your three sets and did you prepare differently knowing that this was for a cruise?

Devin Shelton: I would say I mean, we're playing our second album The Question later today, and we're a little nervous about that because, I mean, probably half that album we’ve hardly ever played live, ever. So it's just kind of, kind of getting that muscle memory back and understanding where you're going and kind of getting comfortable with that again. So that one, you know, we had to kind of rehearse a little bit extra for that one. 

Toby Morrell: That one has more anxiety. The acoustic set is going to be the most fun because it’s just relaxed. Like we have a good time. We do the songs and story shows. Later this year we're doing the winery, playing some of the city wineries acoustic, and it's going to be fun. So that's just a really fun show to do.

Devin Shelton: But we're just here to kind of chill and to play a couple shows.

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you're not performing?

Matt Carter: Well, we spend a lot of time in this artist lounge. We go to the buffet, we go to the spa. Those are three places. We don't spend a lot of time in the room, but we're looking for, you know, places to hang out and get a long conversation going with no time limit to it. That's the fun part.

Devin Shelton: Yeah, we like to hang.

What’s your go to at the spa?

Devin Shelton: Oh, the circuit. So like, you know, each side has their steam room. We like the cold dip. There's a shower and then a dry sauna. You kind of go out with your wives or girlfriends and just kind of hang in the hot tub and the hot towel chair, so we love it. We love that whole vibe. The whole process is nice.

So since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise, when did you discover emo music and when did you realize this was something you wanted to pursue yourself?

Matt Carter: We're a little bit late as far as discovering it. It went all the way through high school and into college before we really, you know, we weren't teenagers with an emo scene. We were starting college in the late 90s and then, you know, discovered it through that. So we were 21 years old, getting skateboards, learning to ollie, finding out about indie music and emo and said, “that's for us.” And that was in about 2000, you know, ‘99 or something.

Devin Shelton: We grew up with just radio music and, you know, in the South. And so we didn't really even know that existed, that kind of underground indie stuff. So once we did and we realized you could play shows and maybe make a little bit of money, like 100 bucks here and there, it was like, “Oh, well, maybe we'll just give it a shot,” you know?

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre further?

Toby Morrell: Well, honestly, emo music, it feels like the last leg of rock music being important. Like, I actually think it's the last thing, like the last stronghold of rock music in a way. It feels like even this resurgence – I was like, “Oh man, this really does mean something.” And emo music is such a wide genre. When our band was at its most popular, we were on Tooth & Nail, which was kind of considered a Christian label, but then it goes all the way to just punk, and you know, the exact opposite idea.

So I love how wide of a spectrum emo can be. And then also it just feels like it's really good rock music that still is impactful. Like, you know, I hope people do latch onto this. All I ever listened to was rock music, and now it feels like you don't ever hear it on the radio, you know? You don’t really hear it anywhere. So I'd love to hear some new fresh blood come in and add to this scene for sure. Yeah.

Any final words?

Devin Shelton: I mean, we got some shows for 2025. Like I said, we're performing The Question, our second album, pretty much all year long, and we're trying to make our rounds around the country and stuff. 

HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS:

Who’s set are you most excited to catch at sea and who in the band is most likely to get seasick?

JT Woodruff: Usually Emery, because you kind of never know what's going to happen during their set. And we like to watch them to try to see if we can make them laugh during their set. We just played with Saosin and so we're excited to see them again. And The Used is always great, but, you know, there's a lot of awesome bands playing in every single quadrant of this ship, so I'm sure that we’ll catch somebody somehow.

Matt Ridenour: I like to not have a schedule. And as I walk, I hear something and I go, “I wonder what that is?” And then I watch that.

You go where the music takes you.

Matt Ridenour: Exactly. I like doing that.

Who in the band is most likely to get seasick?

Matt Ridenour: Probably me. 

JT Woodruff: We just talked about it. 

Matt Ridenour: We just looked out a window for a bit too long, and the person in front of the window was not moving. And I'm like, we have to figure this out because this is shocking. So probably me.

JT Woodruff: I'm built like a tank, I ain’t getting sick.

Matt Ridenour: I also can't ride roller coasters because I'll just get sick. So I have a feeling that carries over to cruise ships.

JT Woodruff: The only thing that gets me sick is Whataburger.

What are you most excited for in terms of your three sets? And did you prepare differently knowing that this was going to be a cruise?

JT Woodruff: I think I would say that we're probably most excited for the fact that all three sets are entirely different, and they all have a totally different feel to them. You know, our first set is a greatest hits set, so we get to choose what we think the fans want to hear. And then a couple of ones that we want to play. Acoustic... you never know what you're going to get with us acoustic because we kind of do it on the fly. We kind of have, I guess, I would say loose arrangements and you never really know. But it's our time to kind of break down the songs and tell stories and have a lot of fun with the fans and kind of give them a little bit more of ourselves.

Matt Ridenour: Also on the acoustic stuff, we could also mess up at any time. So when you get done with that and you didn't mess it up, which is what usually happens, you feel really good about it.

JT Woodruff: You feel like the champion or something.

Matt Ridenour: You feel like you accomplished something. I was just excited about yesterday's set because we got to play a bunch of songs we haven't played because last year was all 20 year stuff. So we got to play like seven songs we don't play.

JT Woodruff: That we hadn't played in probably a year and a half or so.

Matt Ridenour: So, that was fun to actually play those for once.

JT Woodruff: And then, you know, The Silence in Black of White is obviously playing our first record, which Matt just mentioned we have been doing for the past year. But we've put it to bed for two months, or something like that. So we might mess that up. You never know. But, it's always good to play that record because it brings back so many memories of when, you know, the first time we played it, we were playing little tiny clubs or playing any show that we could possibly get our hands on, with any band. And then, to be flashing forward, you know, 20 years later and playing it on a cruise ship, it's just something that you just never thought was going to happen. So the unusual nature of it is what makes it special.

Matt Ridenour: And we also played that all last year. This cruise show [performance] of that record is the last. That's it. So that's exciting. Every time I play one song I'm like, “that's the last time I'm playing that one.”

Where do you guys anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you're not performing?

JT Woodruff & Matt Ridenour: The spa.

JT Woodruff: Yeah, we always try to get there. Sometimes our schedule kind of makes it a little bit freaky. But to be able to look out and be in a world class setting, and just decompress and relax after, I don't know, shit, after a long 20 years. You might look out into the abyss and it stares back at you and says, “you know, you've been doing this for 20 years?”

Matt Ridenour: Also, most venues we play have like a plastic table and a bag of chips. This one's kind of cool that it has a spa in it.

JT Woodruff: It feels regal and elegant.

Matt Ridenour: it kind of feels nice to be like, “Oh, I'll just go upstairs to the spa.”

JT Woodruff: I kind of feel like maybe this is what blink-182 always feels like.

Matt Ridenour: Probably. We've been on a couple shows. They got it nice.

JT Woodruff: Yeah. This is our peek into that lifestyle because we're like basically sewer rats in the emo scene, but it's awesome. We spend all of our time there.

I mean, you've got a buffet. What more could you ask for? 

Matt Ridenour: Yeah, I got caught. I got caught last night getting an ice cream at one in the morning.

JT Woodruff: Busted

Matt Ridenour: Yeah, Dave from Emery goes “caught ya!”

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise - When did you discover emo music? And when did you realize this was something you wanted to pursue yourself?

JT Woodruff: Very good question. When did we discover emo music? I mean, this is controversial. 

Matt Ridenour: It was mid 90s. I had a friend in high school feeding me like Fugazi and Anniversary and Jejune. Yeah. Sunny Day [Real Estate], Jimmy Eat World, stuff like that. So I had a couple friends that were into that stuff. So that's when I discovered it or whatever. I know in high school I was very close to getting “emo kid” as a vanity plate. Looking back, I'm very glad I didn't.

JT Woodruff: When I first kind of found music, I was more into, like, punk rock at the time. Because Green Day had just come out and that was kind of my portal to looking into music outside of the area that I lived in. So eventually, you know, I started a band and I was on my first tour, and one of the bands that we were playing with wanted to go to the record store to try to steal a Saves The Day record. And I was like, “I've never even heard of that band”. He played it and I was like, “what is this?” He goes “this is emo music.” So that would have been like 1998? And then it kind of snowballed into things like Matt said, things like Sunny Day Real Estate, The Get Up Kids. I first saw The Get Up Kids on a music video on 120 Minutes on MTV and that kind of started a new passion for finding all that stuff. But really, it was the first time I heard somebody kind of pouring out their heart and their heartbreak, in their music. Whereas punk rock was more like, you know...

Matt Ridenour: Fuck authority. 

JT Woodruff: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Matt Ridenour: But I felt like when I was listening to, like, The Get Up Kids or even to Thursday’s Full Collapse a little bit later, like, I feel like everything I was hearing was like nothing I'd ever heard before. Sunny Day [Real Estate] was completely different...and they're all kind of wrapped into one, but they're all so different.

JT Woodruff: They all definitely are entirely different. But it is kind of that old adage that you have to give something a label, you know? Because like, even like punk can be broken down into pop-punk.

Matt Ridenour: It kind of all sounded the same at some point. Like, Look Out stuff sounded the same. Emo - I felt like that was just a genre that people were just doing whatever they were doing, and it was just so different.

JT Woodruff: We were always like, what is it? What does it mean? Does it mean that you're, you know, you have introspective lyrics? Does it mean you have slowly meandering guitars? Because it was all together.

Matt Ridenour: I always thought it was jangly guitars. Clean guitar.

When did you guys realize this was something that you wanted to pursue yourself?

JT Woodruff: For me, it was 1998, and it was because of an emo show. Like, I was already in, like, a kind of a shitty pop-punk band. I was living in a small town in West Virginia where I grew up. But I just discovered, like I said, Saves The Day. 

So I wanted to see them live and found out that they were playing at a closed down McDonald's, which is hilarious. You know, probably a 300 person show. And Saves The Day was the headliner, Through Being Cool was just kind of starting to pop into the scene and really starting to spread like wildfire. And then kind of an older emo band called Piebald was on it, and I'd heard them. But opening the show was New Found Glory, and I'd never heard of them.

No one had ever heard of them yet, but they came on and, like, blew everybody out of the water. And it was like, “Holy shit, I forgot I was here for Saves The Day.” Even though they were awesome, New Found Glory, you know, like, you see just five guys, like, blazing a pop-punk trail that blended everything together.

And it was just apparent that it was incredible. But at that show, I saw who would become two of my favorite bands, and I'm like, I've got to do this. And it's funny because it was a 300 cap closed down McDonald's and, you know, like they showed up in vans in a snowstorm. And I'm like,"I've got to do this." Your parents would be so mad if you said, “I just saw a bunch of guys stroll out of a van to get into a closed down McDonald's to play to 300 people.” But it was special.

Matt Ridenour: And also, I mean, our scene in Dayton at the time, it was like, really good. But 2000 is when I kind of went to shows there. And the local bands were awesome, actually. So I don't know if I went there and was like, “Oh, this is a career.” But I wanted to be a part of that in some way, whether it was going to shows or playing a band. But it was a very cool time there, for sure.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre further?

JT Woodruff: I think emo music, we talk about this a bunch, but why is it important? It's important because it's entirely unique. And it gives people a home. But also the lyrical content is usually somebody singing about something that is very conflicted, some sort of problem that they're either going through or made it through. It's not always about heartbreak, but it always feels like it's about heartbreak.

But most importantly, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. And that's kind of what separates it. It's always hopeful and introspective and some lyrics can be like you're reading poetry or reading a book, so they kind of last a little bit longer than a pop song. So I think it's going to always be around.

We're seeing people come now that are 12 years old that look like we looked 20 years ago. So they're restarting the culture. Like how the millennial fashion has made a comeback. And then the 90s fashion had made a comeback. It's all doing that again. But it's like people literally flat ironing their hair, dyeing their hair, wearing bracelets and stuff like that.

It's like, so, reinvigorating to the scene to make it kind of rise again, you know, because all music ebbs and flows. It's like the tides. It changes. And then there's an entire sea change where everything flips full circle, which is kind of the beauty of it. But when we thought about this 20 years ago, we didn't realize that we were inside one big microcosm of a groundswell of a change in music, you know? We were kind of the reactionary band to like stuff that was too poppy. People needed something with an edge again.

Matt Ridenour: And nu-metal also, it's a little anti nu-metal.

JT Woodruff: Yeah, it was anti nu-metal and anti like, corporate pop-punk. Not that there's anything wrong with fans like Blink and Good Charlotte and like Simple Plan and Mest and stuff like that in that time period. But it was really poppy. So this was the thing that kind of came in that was just a little dirtier, almost like grunge kind of did with hair metal back in the 90s. It kind of pushed it aside for a minute and had its moment, but then it all came right back together again. And all of these bands were relevant for different reasons.

Matt Ridenour: Also, we were definitely like flyering shows. It was something really organic and like scenes were everywhere, like local scenes everywhere. And they kind of joined up for like the big show or whatever in the major city and like, and at that exact same time, the beginning of social media. So it's kind of the end of organic, raw passing fliers, passing CDs, mixtapes. And then Myspace, that just whole connection thing. I think it's just going to cement it forever personally. And that's the end of reality, the beginning of the internet. It's kind of the coolest parts of both for a minute.

JT Woodruff: It was hitting a generation at the right exact time. Like you said, the introduction to social media, finding yourself within a new platform, finding your favorite bands by people just sharing around. Myspace was the first time that you were able to digitally hand somebody a flier or digitally show somebody a new band and they're like, “Oh my God, this is the best thing I've ever heard.” Immediately put it in their top eight. Their friends see it. And it's just it was so organic like that. So that's the kind of thing that makes stuff last forever. It's not always the songs. It's always a time and place thing, too.

What can we do to push the genre further?

JT Woodruff: It does come down to the younger generation and the older generations kind of coming together to like, live in, in this little cultural moment together. It's about the bands sticking together. It's about the fans continually supporting the bands to allow them to, like, be funded. And then it's about young kids getting that inspiration to form new bands inspired by their favorite bands.

Matt Ridenour: And we have to not, as the older crew, we can't not like the new bands. Like we listen to Hot Mulligan. We like that. We can't be jaded.

JT Woodruff: It takes perpetuating that to have a future for it. It takes cultivating it, seeing a kid and then having a conversation with that kid and understanding that he knows about Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity just as much as he knows about the new The Story So Far record or something like that.

That is what it takes. It takes people who like the old stuff. They like the new stuff, and then they're trying to create something within their own world. All these influences. And it takes them talking about older bands to their friends, and it takes us talking about younger bands. So that way it paints everybody in this positive light. That's how the scene always maintains.

Matt Ridenour: The cruise is a good example. I don't think any band on this cruise, I don't get the vibe that anybody thinks they're competing with the other bands on the cruise. I just think we're all just like, “Oh, we're all on this. This is cool. What's up? I'll come see you.” It doesn't feel like competition and that's what I think is the most important.

JT Woodruff: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So it's less about billing, more about being included, and just being a part of the conversation, and that's all anybody wants. That's all anybody wanted 20 years ago. That's why all these guys have kind of maintained the exact same mentality.

THE EARLY NOVEMBER:

Who’s set are you guys most excited to catch at sea? And who in the band is most likely to get seasick?

Ace Enders: Well, first easy one. Jeff's probably most likely to get seasick.

Jeff Kummer: 100%, 100%. But I have a lot of patches and a lot of backup materials to get me through this. I'm cooking with grease right now, so I'm good.

Ace Enders: As far as the sets go, I mean, it's like catching up with all your old friends. Like, we've toured with so many of these bands 20 years ago. So, everybody really. If I had to pick one.. it's so hard to just pick one. I'm definitely excited to catch a Hawthorne [Heights] set, for sure. I haven't seen them play in a long time and I'm excited to see one of those. The Used [too] like, I mean, so many [bands].

Jeff Kummer: Yeah. I would like to see Saosin and I'd like to see Hawthorne Heights. But pretty much I'm seeing everyone, so it doesn't really matter.

What are you guys most excited for in terms of your three sets? Did you prepare differently knowing that this was for a cruise?

Jeff Kummer: We did prepare differently. And we are excited about a specific set that'll be tonight.

Ace Enders: Yeah. I think tonight’s the most exciting.

Jeff Kummer: I think we decided a week ago that we're going to do a The Room’s Too Cold album play. So, it's kind of like an unofficial announcement, and we're just going to go with the flow and choose what set it's going to be. It's going to be tonight and it goes into midnight. We thought it was perfect to just hit The Room’s Too Cold then. So that's pretty exciting. And, really just getting the opportunity to play all these different songs in front of the same people. You can't play this many songs on a headlining tour. You have three different sets that are 75 minutes or an hour. So whether it's acoustic, whether it's full band, we get to really, you know, just go through it all, and we have a lot of songs, so it works out in our favor for sure. 

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you're not performing?

Jeff Kummer: He *points to Ace* is going to be in the gym. Every moment that he's not performing, he's got to get yoked up.

Ace Enders: Dude! He’s gonna like rip me for like...

Jeff Kummer: I'm not ripping you! You're a good looking man who has a good physique, which I admire. That's why I don't even go to the gym, because I'm never going to get there anyway. So what I'll do is I'll just hang out in the cocktail bar. And I found out there's a cigar bar lounge, too. So I'll probably go in there and the pool and outside for a few.

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise - when did you discover emo music and when did you realize this was something you wanted to pursue?

Ace Enders: Since I was a kid, I've always been drawn to a more feely, vibey, type of music. And emo, when that started to become, like, really popularized back in, like the late 90s, that's when it really started to click for me. So, like, I mean, all those bands that like, all started to happen at the same time. I guess I always knew that, “alright, that's where I belong. That's where I fit in. That's for me.” Because generally, that's what I've always written like, ever since I was in high school. And it just made sense. So, yeah, really the only no brainer thing, I think that I've ever, ever encountered in my life was, deciding – not even deciding – this is in me. This is what I make. It's kind of how it goes.

Jeff Kummer: It's finding a sense of self that was, at that time, it was like, it's really special even to think back on now. I mean, bands that really ushered me personally into that realm – like Saves The Day, Jimmy Eat World, Hey Mercedes – these are bands that Ace and I connected big time over. And, it's just cool to see a lot of them still active and just going. You always have that special little thing in your life that you can always go back to and tap into.

Ace Enders: It's different. I remember my first time listening to Jets To Brazil, even realizing the lyrical content and how it just was a completely different vibe. And I knew that's what I was. I love it.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre forward?

Ace Enders: I think it's important because it's so open as far as what it actually is. It doesn't sound like one thing. It doesn't feel like one thing. I think the main thing is the intention behind what it is. And that's sort of the thing that I've always tried to put out there as well. It's like that intention is pure, and I think how we continue to grow that is we cultivate and continue to just cherish and really, hammer home that the intention that we put behind it is all very authentic, real, and hopefully grows, continues to grow from there because there is a need for that right now in life. Not to get too serious with this answer, but I think there's a real need for it. And, staying connected to that is a really important thing, especially for me, you know, for the youths.

TAYLOR ACORN:

Who’s set are you most excited to catch at sea? And who in your band/camp is most likely to get seasick?

Taylor Acorn: Oh, gosh. I'm probably the most likely to get seasick. But, so far, I've been pretty good. Haven't gotten seasick yet. I am so excited to see State Champs. They’re some good friends of mine. Very, very excited to see them. Don't get to see them very often. Obviously, Boys Like Girls because I toured with them and their set is phenomenal. Every time I'm like the biggest fangirl when I get to watch them. I got to see Saosin yesterday and they were on my bucket list also. So probably those three.

What are you most excited for in terms of your three sets and did you do anything differently to prepare knowing this was for a cruise?

Taylor Acorn: You know, I think the set that I was looking the most forward to was the one [that] actually we just played. It was an acoustic set. I haven't been able to do one of those in a really long time. And it's just fun when it's intimate and you get to chat with the people during the set, and everybody seemed like they were really loving it, which was awesome.

We definitely wanted to keep the theme of our set up tempo and fun. It does have a nice little, like, wave, hehe we're on a ship. But it does have a nice little roller coaster kind of feeling. We definitely have a lot of up-tempo songs. But this is the longest set that I've had to play in a really long time, so I started cycling a few weeks ago to try to get in shape. I knew I had to start getting my body ready. So yeah, that's kind of the only thing, but it's been awesome. It's been awesome so far.

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you’re not performing?

Taylor Acorn: Oh, probably out on the deck in the sun. I need to get a nice tan. My mom is at home and she's watching my cat. She drove out to watch my cats for me. So I told her. I said, I'm going to come back with a nice tan. You watch. It's probably not going to happen, but I'm going to try my best.

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise - When did you discover emo music and when did you realize this was something you also wanted to pursue?

Taylor Acorn: Oh, man. I mean, I found it really on my own. I'm from a really small town where a lot of people listen to a majority of country music. But I was on LimeWire, and I was kind of sifting through, and I found A Lesson In Romantics. And then I found [Mayday Parade’s] like first EP Tales Told By Dead Friends and literally fell in love with that. And then ever since I had started listening to them, I started dabbling in other bands. Found the band Every Avenue, which I was a big fan of. And it just kind of spiraled from there.

You know, obviously All Time Low and Boys Like Girls were really big on the radio when I was in, like, elementary school and middle school. So, it was just kind of around. I think the pivotal moment for me was when Hayley Williams came on the scene and just seeing how powerful she was on stage and her presence. You know, being a female in music in general is so tough. It just really made me feel so inspired. And I really wanted to be like her. I was like, “I want to be like her one day!” And it kind of feels like we're doing that right now, which is really awesome.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre further?

Taylor Acorn: I feel like there are so many things that we go through that we're so afraid to talk about. And I think that was the one thing that drew me so, so much to the scene in general, was being able to speak on mental health and feeling like you can speak on that freely and connect with the music that way. And, I think that that's so important. I mean, we need to be able to be open and honest about how we feel about things. And, you know, it's gotten me through so much. And so I think, you know, continuing to push that and push that narrative. And also allowing a space for people to feel like they can be themselves and they're welcome.

That was also a huge thing for me, too. I always kind of felt like a little bit of an outcast. I was never great at school. I was kind of shy and off on my own. And so for me to be able to go and listen to a band like Mayday Parade and hear things that they were saying and be able to resonate with it so closely was something that was really important to me.

And I really want to be able to do that for other people. Thankfully, I think people are still really into it, which is really cool. So I think if we continue just being open and honest and authentic, that's the biggest thing.

Any final words?

Taylor Acorn: I'm just so thankful to be on this ship and to be able to spend this week with so many amazing fans. I mean, you don't really get this kind of setting very often. So to be able to intermingle and actually chat and show people that you're also a human as well, it's really cool. It just kind of brings it down to a level where we all really get each other. And I really appreciate that. And also being able to share the same stages with some of my favorite bands on the planet, I mean, there's nothing that's cooler to me than that. 

SCARY KIDS SCARING KIDS:

Who’s set are you most excited to catch at sea and who in your band is most likely to get seasick?

Albert Schweizer: I'm most excited to see either The Used or I really enjoyed Chiodos' set. That set was cool for me.

Pouyan Afkary: For me, it’s Saosin and Lydia.

Chad Crawford: Saosin all the way. They sounded spot on perfect. It was awesome.

Who in your band is most likely to get seasick?

Pouyan Afkary: Surprisingly, I think, me. 

Albert Schweizer: Yeah, I was going to say you.

Pouyan Afkary: Which is weird. I don't get sick. I'm like, usually the strongest member of the band emotionally and physically, so. But the sea is my one weakness. It's my Achilles. It's my Achilles stomach.

What are you guys most excited for in terms of your three sets? And did you prepare differently knowing this was for a cruise?

Chad Crawford: Yeah, actually, all of us learned two full albums for this. And we've never done, like, a full, long, acoustic set. So I was actually really nervous about the acoustic set, but it turned out awesome. I think it was really special for all the people that joined us. We just kind of explain the story of Scary Kids in a really cool and emotional way. It was awesome.

Pouyan Afkary: I think, as Chad was mentioning, we were touring on one of our albums, the Self-Titled album. But The City Sleeps in Flames, and the arrangements for the acoustic had never been done with this group before. So for the acoustic set, we had to create brand new arrangements. So there was a lot of stuff for us to figure out, but we're really excited with how it turned out.

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the boat when you're not performing?

Pouyan Afkary: So I mean, this is the last day, right? I was hoping to spend most of my time in the spa, but I didn't. And I think we spent most of our time in the karaoke lounge.

Albert Schweizer, Chad Crawford, and Pouyan Afkary: Karaoke lounge, for sure.

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise, when did you discover emo music and when did you realize this was something you wanted to pursue yourself?

Albert Schweizer: I always tell everyone this story. I was a kid when they first released I’m Not Okay - My Chemical Romance. I saw the premiere on MTV, and I was like, “I want to be that guy.” So then from that moment on, I just tried to figure out how to make it happen. And now I'm on this cruise, and it's crazy. It's like a dream come true.

Chad Crawford: You know, when we were first playing, I didn't realize that we were an emo band. We were just kind of playing music that just kind of came out and, I guess, it is pretty emotional music. But I’d say, probably the early 2000s. 2002. When we were touring with bands like Motion City Soundtrack and stuff like that. I remember playing some old shows with them, it was a lot of fun.

Pouyan Afkary: I don't think we really called it that back then.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre further?

Pouyan Afkary: The most beautiful thing about this ship and what Emo’s Not Dead has done, is that they’ve built a community. And I think that's true for not only the ship, and what Matt and Gavin and the rest of the amazing team here have done, but also the emo scene in general.

I think it's all about community. And I think the saddest component of emo music taking a brief hiatus before coming back, was that all those people who used to connect with over music, you didn't have that opportunity to do that anymore. And coming back on the ship, it is back in full force. So that's really exciting to see.

It's really exciting to see people come together singing these songs that they love from the bottom of their hearts. And us seeing that in the crowd. But then also us sharing that experience from the crowd, right? Watching the bands that we love, with other bands that we love, and fans of this music, it's really great.

Albert Schweizer: Emo music is important to me because when I was a kid.. I'm a little younger than both of them, sorry, guys. I felt like I was an outcast. I didn't have anyone. I didn't have any friends. I didn't know where I was going in life. And then I found this music and I really connected with it and it took me on a journey. I've met most of my heroes now. So that's so crazy. And now I just feel like we're all a giant family and we all belong together, so it's so cool.

Chad Crawford: Yeah, I think it's really important for us, especially because in high school, it was a way for us to just really express ourselves and our teen angst. And we were just not really thinking anything of anything except that moment of being on stage and just writing cool songs with our friends and just having the most fun as possible is awesome.

Any final words?

Pouyan Afkary: Emo’s Not Dead rocks. Let's do this again. Party on.

Chad Crawford: See you guys next year. 

THE SPILL CANVAS:

Who’s side are you most excited to catch at sea and who in your band is most likely to get seasick?

Nick Thomas: I mean, I've seen them, but I'm still excited to see them but probably a tie between Saosin and The Used, those would be my two. Also Lydia. Those three. I'm at a tie for those three.

Landon Heil: I would say The Used for me. 

Chris Campbell: I would say The Used and Norma Jean. 

Who in your band is most likely to get seasick?

Landon Heil: I thought it would be me. Or Evan.

Evan Pharmakis: I'm great. I feel wonderful

Landon Heil: Bad luck just seems to follow Evan at times. So if anybody, it would be him.

What are you guys most excited for in terms of your three sets and did you prepare differently knowing that this was for a cruise?

Nick Thomas: I think personally, the rock sets, the rock shows, with the full band, either one of those I'm most excited for. I played acoustic this morning. It was incredibly awesome. But I definitely crave the rock show.

Did you prepare differently knowing this was for a cruise?

Evan Pharmakis: We did two different sets just to kind of switch them up. So, like, the first rock set will be a decent amount different from the second, in terms of kind of vibe and how they build. That was kind of a preparation

Nick Thomas: We didn't include any nautical covers or anything. So maybe we missed the mark on that.

Evan Pharmakis: Missed the boat on that. 

Where do you anticipate spending the most time on the ship when you're not performing?

Nick Thomas: Oh, man. Where I personally thought I was going to spend the most time on the ship while not performing would be either in my room or the casino. And that seems to be tracking so far.

Evan Pharmakis: Yeah, I would say the great outdoors area. I actually really like sitting on the back of the ship at night and seeing the stars and watching the trail, the water behind us. So I was doing that last night. It was really nice. So I think I'll be out there a bunch.

Chris Campbell: Same it's a great vibe back there. That or the pool deck. I mean, the vibe is huge out there. It's awesome. 

Landon Heil: Yeah, I'd say my room and the casino and the buffet.

Since this is the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise, when did you discover emo music and when did you realize this was something you wanted to pursue yourself?

Nick Thomas: Wow. That’s a great question. When I discovered emo music, I must have been 13 years old. I discovered emo music through bands like The Get Up Kids, Texas Is The Reason, American Football and Mineral, all of those bands. I loved that I’d never heard anything like that. I have always wanted to play music since maybe I was 11 or 12. I just always wanted to play music. It just so happened that I loved that kind of music and now we're here. 

Landon Heil: The first time I heard the term, I was reading an article about The Juliana Theory. I was probably 14 years old. I was reading this article that said “emo.” And I was like “emo? What is this?” And then I kind of dove into it a little more. 

Nick Thomas: And now we're going to be playing Australia with The Juliana Theory this year. How crazy is that?

Landon Heil: Full circle.

Evan Pharmakis: And they're doing Emotion Is Dead.

Why is emo music important and what can we do to continue pushing the genre further?

Nick Thomas: Oh, that's a great question. I think emo music is important because it obviously stands for, to me anyway, it stands for emotional music. I think a lot of music is emotional, but in particular to be labeled as such, I think that it's vital to be aware of your emotions, to be able to connect with the music in such an intense way.

Like I always think of it as, for our band specifically, it's not our music. It's OUR music, like as a whole, the community. And I think that it's just kind of a universal language and a tool.... I mean, there's nothing like it, it's like magic. And I do think moving forward, I think that continued acceptance, in every way, whatever differences we may have, it’s the great equalizer. So I think just more acceptance and continuing to open the doors even wider.

Any final words?

Evan Pharmakis: You want me to talk about how Vanna’s coming back? So me and this guy [Chris Campbell] down here played in a band for many years called Vanna. It was like a metalcore band from Boston. And it retired in 2017. We weren't with it for many years before it ended, but the original lineup is coming back, so that's coming back soon. No one knows about that yet. I'm just going to put it out there.

The Noise exclusive, right?

Evan Pharmakis: Yeah for sure. That's the scoop. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty cool. We've got that trip coming up to Australia with The Juliana Theory. That's going to be awesome. We have new music coming out. We're working on new music. So another record is in the pipeline. A lot of cool stuff on the way.