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photo: Ashley Osborn

Pop-punk artist Games We Play, a.k.a Emmyn Calleiro, has finally made his highly anticipated debut with the release of his first studio album, Life's Going Great. The record sees Calleiro confront the emotional whiplash of his early 20s. In less than two short years, he went viral, signed to his dream record label, found a mentor in Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz, and toured the world supporting his idols, including Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, and The Band CAMINO.

But as his artistic life rose to new highs, simultaneously, his personal life came crashing down, experiencing a major breakup, leaving Los Angeles, returning home to Nashville to live with his parents, and struggling with self-image. These highs and lows formed the basis of Life's Going Great. The album was originally set to arrive last year, but as things began taking a turn for the better again, Calleiro realized it wasn't done and decided to go back to the studio to finish telling the whole story. Now, with introspection and a tad less sarcasm, life really is going great for Calleiro.

The Noise talked with the rising alternative artist about the album, what it was like to meet his heroes, and the people who helped bring the project to life.

The record's title is Life's Going Great. Why did you choose this title, and how does its meaning translate into the record? Unless you thought it just sounded cool!

Emmyn Calleiro: This year, honestly, has been hard. Yeah, the hardest year of my life.

Oh?

I mean, the music is going great. "Life's going great" is kind of just a sarcastic statement. There's like one funny song on the album, but they're all really bummy songs, and they're all very, very in-depth storytelling songs. So, if anybody gives the whole record a spin and listens to the words, it's pretty clear it's sarcasm. But yeah, it's like – ok, I used to work at Target and I always ask these people who didn't like their job, "How are you doing today?" And they were, like, "Never been better. Living the dream or something," but it was pure sarcasm. That's what Life's Going Great is.

Tell me about the early days of the record. Did you set out to make an album, or were you writing new songs and realized that you had this emerging body of work?

I wrote these songs all in 2022; it's really popular in LA to meet up with other songwriters and write, so I did that all of last year, and none of that really had direction. But in January of 2023, I thought, "Ok, I need to take this more seriously," though there are some unbelievable songwriters I've gotten to write with, I wanted to write this record with people who know me and know what I'm going through. So, the process started in January, and we got a couple of songs. We then got the song "So Bad," and we got the song "All My Untalented Friends" in the first week of 2023. Then, I don't know, I kept writing, and nothing really hit. Then I went on tour in February, and that's where a lot of my life stuff hit the fan. So, right after that tour, I returned to Nashville and started working on the record, and basically, the whole record formed itself in March and April because there was so much I was going through. I had so much to write about, and I threw away all the other songs because once I got the meaningful stuff out, I was like, "Oh, this is what I need to be talking about."

You had a stronger sense of what you actually wanted to say with your music.

Yeah. And if you've heard earlier Games We Play, except for, like, "I Hope You're Happy," a lot of my music is just funny. And I do act like that on stage, but once I started writing sadder songs, I realized this was important to share with people.

I'm sure people appreciate your vulnerability and showing a different facet of your identity. What was the last song you wrote for the record, and can you share how you felt when it was done? How did that feeling compare to when you finished the first song, "So Bad?"

"So Bad" was cool because that was written when we started talking about all this cool stuff going on for me. I was going on tour with Fall Out Boy, and I announced All Time Low, but I was going through the thick of it in my head with a lot of depression. I wrote that song about not being able to feel anything. That's what "So Bad" is about; it was cool. I showed the demo, and my manager said, "Whoa, this is something." My manager is James Nanos; he's like my dad, and whenever I get the Nanos stamp of approval, I feel very good. So once he said that I said, "Oh, we're rockin’." And then the last song I made on the record was "Pretty Boy." So after the All Time Low tour in March or April, I flew to London to record the album. We recorded eight songs, and then I had two that I was iffy about, but my trip was done. So I went back home, and I was like, I need one more to call it an album. We threw in a pretty funny interlude, which I'm pretty excited about, but I don't know, I went on another tour, and midway through the tour, I was like, I need one more, and I don't want to settle for one of the songs I don't feel great about. So I was on another tour with All Time Low, and there were just two days off in a row. I flew home, and I wrote with one of my best friends, his name is Danen, and he's like outside of the music industry. He's one of my best friends, and he knows everything that's going on in my life. I felt terrible about some stuff that happened in my life and felt pretty inferior to another person, and we wrote "Pretty Boy." When we were done, I heard it back and said, "This is great. This is like a song on the record." It was weird and not a rock song at all. It sounds nothing like any other song on the record, and it's fantastic. It's probably my favorite song on the album.

"Pretty Boy" resonates with me deeply, and I loved and cried to "Too Young." Outside of the songs you've mentioned, which previously unreleased track on the record is your favorite?

Oh man, I mean, I love those. I will say that Pete Wentz's favorite song and Nano's favorite song is "Girl Shaped Crater." It's a love song, and it sounds a little bit like Blink-182. There's a line on it that's my favorite line on the whole record. It goes, "If you don't have a god complex, I'll give you one." That song means a lot to me.

There are so many impactful musical moments on this record. Is there a particular moment on the record that makes you incredibly proud when you listen back to it, whether it's an instrumental breakdown or a guitar solo? Whatever "music moment" means to you.

Like, the deepest one, or the one I like the most, and I feel it's weird to say this about my own music, but right before the second chorus of "Girl Shaped Crater," it's just that line again, "But if you don't have a god complex, I'll give you one," but we play a lot more instruments behind it, and it's really intense. It's much louder, and I'm kind of crying as I’m saying it, and it sounds like it. Also, in "Oh So Blue," that song is about having really shitty friends that end up doing you wrong and I had somebody do me wrong pretty hard. Right after the bridge, there's a crazy portion of me just hitting the cymbals as hard as I can and I remember plugging a microphone into a really intense guitar amplifier.

Arguably, that's not where they go.

No, they're not. [laughs] It was so distorted and loud, and it hurts your ears, but very deep amid that record, I don't know if I should say this, but I'm gonna say it. I call out the guy who did me wrong. If you listen, you can hear it pretty clearly. If you don't listen, you can't hear it.

Well, now I'm sure everybody will be paying attention to that one part! As you mentioned, you worked with people you knew and felt you could trust with your creative vision. Can you shout out some of those people and tell me how those creative relationships came to be? What makes for a great creative collaborator?

Most of my process is a little weird. I dropped out of school when I was 14 years old, so my grammar and ability to produce sentences is a little not good. But I like music and feel music, and I love making melodies, so what I do is I'll make the song, and I'll hum to it. I have the lyrical content, but I just don't know how you put it into the lyrics. Like, I know what we will write about. So I usually go to my friends to help me with that. The two people that I made this record the most with are John Harvie, who is an incredible artist, and he definitely showed up the most amount of days. He has the most cuts out of anybody on this record, and I'm just so thankful that he did that with me. And then this other guy, Danen Rector, who's one of my best friends. Them two got a lot out of me. And then there are the three others. I hope I remember everybody. There's this guy Spencer Jordan, with whom I wrote all the sad songs, so I wrote "Round & Round" with him, "Girl Shaped Crater," and "Too Young." Dan Swank, who plays guitar with All Time Low, and Michael Whitworth, a crew of five people plus me, got all the songs out for this album.

That's quite a support system! I have to ask because you've been catapulted into a new level in the scene over the last year or two. Outside of this fantastic album's upcoming release, you signed with Pete Wentz's label and then toured with Fall Out Boy. I know the phrase is, "Never meet your heroes," but how has this experience been working with and growing as an artist under the wing of arguably one of the community's most iconic bands?

Pete's great. I met him randomly. I once had this big song, "I Hope You're Happy," and I was meeting managers because I needed one. I needed one who's been through what I've been through before. I just went to this meeting and Pete Wentz was there. Nobody told me he was coming. And I remember I got my phone out and I texted my friend. And I was like, "Oh my God, like, Pete's here." Mind you, he was five feet from me, and I said this for my voice memo. I don't know, Pete's cool. It's so funny because you grow up hearing that name, especially when you play music like me, I don't know; he's just a very normal dude. He's been through a lot of the stuff I'm going through now, so I'll text him all the time about life stuff and music stuff. Like, I'll ask him, "Pete, have you been through this? What do I do? Is this normal?" So that's been great. It's amazing to have somebody like Pete, who I can feel genuinely cares. And I have asked him to do so much stuff with me, and he's never said no. And I remember – well, he did say no to one. Or he didn't say no; we just never did it. 

What was it??

He would be down to do it. If I asked him for real. I asked him to cover the song "Breaking Free" from High School Musical with me, where I dress up like Troy, and he dresses up like Gabriella and we make a music video. I asked him for that and it wasn't a "No," he just never saw the movie. He didn't know what I was talking about, and I was like, "Dude, if we do this, it'll break the internet."

I need to see this done ASAP!

Besides that, I've asked him to make so many videos, and he's so down. Maybe I'll do that one day.

You really should! I promise we'll be the first to comment and repost.

Hell yeah! [laughs] Anyway, I'm really thankful for everybody, like those five people I wrote the songs with, my managers, Nanos, Onterra, and Pete. It's just this year, a lot of stuff happened to me that, a lot of the time, that generally would make somebody quit touring for a while or a lot of other stuff, and I feel like I wouldn't have been able to do it without the continuous support and belief in me. So I'm very, very thankful for all of them. 

I won't pry too much about your life right now outside of releasing music, but on the days when it's especially hard, what do you do for yourself to stay grounded and give yourself some grace?

I started exercising. Since I've been on tour – I tour in a van with my three friends and we drive a lot in the middle of the night when we have to. We play it safe, but it's tough. It's tough to take care of yourself as well. So now that I'm finally off tour, I'm just trying to live a healthy life now. I go to therapy now. 

Those all sound like good things.

Yeah, so I go to therapy now. I walk now and I take antidepressants now. And I mean, I've only been on it. I've only done this for a little while now because it's literally like since I've been home from tour but I feel I will be doing better.

What would you like to experiment with regarding production, instrumentation, or genre fusing in the future? What would you like to tap more into in future releases?

I like "Pretty Boy" a lot and it's a really weird song on the record. It's more of a pop song, and it's chiller. This record's a lot more chill than my last record, and I like it. I don't know. I want to sound real. There are a lot of acoustic guitars on this record. I want to sound like a band that pulled up, plugged in, and started playing like a rock band. And I think I'm going to be working more in that direction.

If you could say anything to the version of you from the beginning of the Games We Play journey, what would you say to him?

This is to current Emmyn, too, because sometimes I'll have moments of realization, but most of the time, it's not — I don't know. Keep doing it, and remember, people care. It's so funny. I just played a couple of sold-out shows in another country, which is so crazy. 

Bonkers.

I'll walk onto the stage, and I'm like, "Holy shit, who are all these people?" But, before that, I'm not processing that anybody's there for my band. I remember that the show was sold out before we even showed up. I'll keep asking, "Is anybody out there? Is anybody there?" And my tour manager will be like, "Emmyn. The show sold out." So, just to be confident.

Do you have a message for anyone reading this interview, whether they're fans or people who just clicked? Do you have anything to say to anybody reading this interview who might be going through something similar to what you're going through?

Well, first, if you're reading this, listen to the album. There's a lot of bummy stuff on it, not to make people bummed, but it's just to be like, everybody goes through this stuff sometimes. Second, once you get bummed by listening to the record, come to the tour because that's way less bummy than the record. And then three, thank you. Thank you for reading the article. Thank you for coming to the shows, for listening to the record, and for supporting me because I try really hard, and this band is the only thing in the world that matters to me. So the fact that they're listening to it is a big thank you.