For Emery, there’s not much they haven’t seen.
After almost 15 years of making music together with five successful albums under their belt as well as a shiny, new record that just hit the shelves—they are road-tested troubadours. Yet, everyday they push themselves to explore the edges of their indie rock genre and still find themselves anxiously awaiting the fans’ feedback for their new album You Were Never Alone, which dropped on May 19.
Constantly searching for different ways to stay inspired and keep their beloved sound alive with the energy and passion of their early days, Emery’s approach to this new album is a step backwards— in sound, that is. Entirely stripped of the almost over-produced sound that dominates the popular music world right now, You Were Never Alone is rooted in the raw energy and powerful simplicity of a live show.
“It felt like it would be a breath of fresh air to make it sound like a band just playing in a room. While it doesn’t really sound that way, it feels more that way,” commented Emery guitarist Matt Carter.
As incredibly soft and muted moments are thrown into the fray with loud bass-y songs and intermittent screaming, their new album feels adventurous, if somewhat bizarre, yet entirely palatable with a pop/rock-reminiscent feel. With the infectious energy of songs like “Go Wrong Young Man” and the subtle tones of those such as “Rock, Pebble, Stone,” Emery stay true to their melodic, post-hardcore roots while still adding some ear-catching surprises for long-time fans and new listeners alike.
“From the beginning we set out to be crazy and shocking, making people’s heads turn a little bit— where it’s heavy and pretty with time changes in the music and other bizarre things that we eventually tie all together making it very catchy,” Carter explained. “It’s what we always want to be—catchy and complicated and unexpected.”
This new album is not only a departure from a heavily produced sound, but it marks Emery’s entrance into the independent artist scene. Finally parting ways with Tooth & Nail, the Seattle-based label that’s been with the band from the beginning, Emery have created their own coalition of bands called BadChristian. Inspired by the incredible community at Tooth & Nail and the rising independent artist scene, BadChristian is a label like no other. Instead of the old-fashioned label format, it operates as a network of bands, including Abandon Kansas and Kings Kaleidoscope, who help promote and distribute each other’s music. In response to this innovative approach, Carter stated, “We like to dream big and think big.” While the business model allows for most of the functions of a regular label, it is an incredibly unique and contemporary set-up.
It’s quite the feat to have six albums and a supportive fan-base after 15 years, even more so to still be touring aggressively in this stage of a band’s career. Emery, currently on the road for a 10-year anniversary tour celebrating their second and well-beloved album The Question, are incredibly aware of how fortunate they are for their continued success.
“For our community, it means a lot. It’s like ‘Wow, we’ve been in a band for ten years. That’s crazy.’ And the fans feel the exact same way. They’re like, ‘Woah, ten years ago I was in high school, and now we’re married and have kids.’ They can connect with that. That’s why it’s powerful to do this,” Carter described.
For a group of music veterans like Emery, they don’t even blink at the new music scene. In their eyes, it’s not about trying to stay relevant: it’s just about evolving to stay inspired by their own music. Often, groups can lose themselves in the popular music scene when they try to write for what’s selling. As Carter commented, “Trying to be relevant is probably not the best way to stay relevant.” After years of band members constantly changing out and consistently striving to define their Christian-influenced lyrics from Christian music, Emery know their sound—probably better than most bands.
Almost since day one, Emery have been fortunate in stumbling upon their dream moment, their this-is-what-it-is-all-about moment, early on in their career. About a year or two into the band’s journey, they saw an emo-punk band play in a college town in Ohio, where thirty people of no relation to them— other than they loved this band’s music— showed up full of excitement for the night, for a band they just loved for the love of music. “I thought that if we could ever do that. If we could ever play in Tucson, or in Philadelphia, and dozens of people knew who we were, for no reason other than they liked our music, then that would be my goal,” Carter recalled. That moment of thirty true fans came sooner and in a more surprising, crazy fashion than they could ever imagine when, as the opener on the Tooth & Nail tour in 2004 at the first show after releasing their debut album, the crowd sang their songs back to them.
“That was it. I was done. I was happy,” Carter continued.
Some people live for traveling. Some people live to come home. Some just live to play their music, adventuring into the unknown. Emery is a band that never stops moving, and they’ve found themselves a rag-tag team of bandits— excuse me, band-mates—to keep on keepin’ on with the music.
