Emery Discusses Louder Than Life and Aftershock, Touring, and Band Longevity on PipemanRadio

0:05 Hey, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio, and I'm here with. Devin. And Dave. From the band Emory. Nice. Here at Aftershock. Aftershock. How many of the Wimmer festivals have you done? This is our second one, right, Dave? Yep, we did Louder Than Life, and this is our second this year. Did you do Louder just a couple weeks ago, right? Yes. So you're like back-to-back versions of Danny Wimmer festivals.

0:47 I'll give you a cool little story. I think it's worth talking about. So our booking agent said that the guy who I think books the artists for the fest was kind of an Emory fan. and so he said would you guys make a video just singing the party one of our songs that he likes and kind of put his name in it or something like that so we did it and then a couple weeks later we had a couple of offers for the festival wow so it was really cool we're just like oh that's awesome. That is what's cool about the wimmer festivals i've been doing them since the beginning and like wimmer just loves to like find talent anywhere like no matter how it is and That's why I want to ask you, too. Now, you did Louder. You're here at Aftershock. How does Danny Wimmer treat the artists?

1:39 Excellent. I mean, everything from catering to the backstage setup to the crews and the stagehands, everything's unbelievable. So especially for us and our band, we're very DIY, and we try to travel with minimal or limited crew. So it's amazing, and we can show up. It's like a mini vacation. And that's so important, in my opinion, especially like you're talking mini crew. So you need to depend on their crew. And there's a lot of festivals that that doesn't work out too well. But I never hear, in all the years, I've never heard an artist say a bad thing about Wimmer and Wimmer festivals. So that says it all to me. Yeah.

2:20 Well, and if you think about it, too, like, You know, for us, we've been a band for a long time, and we have family, we have kids, you know. And so leaving them, even for a weekend or this or that, we feel obviously very honored. But leaving them is difficult. You know, you're missing stuff and you're doing things. So I think the fact that they make it a really comfortable environment for the artists and you get to just kind of chill and enjoy yourself, it almost feels like a little mini vacation for you. Totally. You know, like Dave was saying. And so it's really cool that we get to experience that. Because back in the day, it was rougher. Right? I mean, remember Warped Tour? Like, dragging gear across. Half a mile of gravel? Yeah, I want to hear the Warped Tour stories, because that's also tough, too. I do Warped Tour, like, and back in the day, I couldn't even schedule interviews because you didn't know when bands were playing. So I'm going to imagine what it's like to be a band and not know whether you're going to be first or last when you wake up in the morning.

3:13 Yeah, it was Warped Tour, especially the ones we did heavy were 05 and 06. And yeah, you didn't know. You'd wake up. Sometimes you play as soon as you wake up. Sometimes you play later. Sometimes your stage switches. So it was really hard to have any type of rhythm or flow. But yeah, so this festival is not like that. But I will say Warped Tour, the festivals that we've been doing lately too for Warped, even though I know this isn't for Warped, have been excellent as well. I think it's different now. Yeah, I think... Because I just did Montreal, and I found it, for my side of it, better, you know, in respect. Mexico City was incredible.

3:54 I was approved for that, but I was like, I don't know, I need to take a break, because I've been doing festivals since March, like, almost every weekend, so I was like, It's the same lineup pretty much. Maybe I'll take a break. Yeah, I get that. How was it? It was excellent. We played Long Beach, which was great, absolutely great. It was what we expected. It was a cool area. And then Mexico City was like, oh, hopefully it's good. But we got there, and the area was just great. There was a lot of canopy. tons of fans and the backstage area was just awesome it was just so awesome and so yeah this year's this is the first time we did like a Warped Tour Hall of Fame anniversary show like years ago and that was really fun we got to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and stuff and then this this has been the first time we played a Warped Tour event basically this year since then which has been incredible.

4:43 Yeah so. Now opposed to then which do you like better about how not about how it's organized because it's different now you actually have an idea when you're playing now. I mean it's hard to say one's better i think back then at that time it was incredible it was more it felt like more work um and yeah it felt like a lot more work and more chaos but i think that's what made Warped Tour and a lot of other early festivals and just touring back then what it was. You don't know what to expect. You're younger. You don't get hurt all the time. You can walk really far to the stage or load in or take your stuff.

5:24 I wouldn't say one's better. I think getting older, there's this more relaxed, professional element that's really nice. I think that's the industry in general, man. I'm from the 80s. When it was a lot of debauchery. And now, like, my friends are like, can you get me backstage? I'm like, there's nothing going on. Back there, dude. Like, it's like, yeah, exactly. You're going to have more fun out front. You know? It's not the age. You might get to sit down a little bit longer, but yeah. Right? There's not a whole lot of crazy stuff going on back here. Maybe trading pictures of children and. Grandchildren depending on the band, you know?

6:07 Exactly. So... What keeps you going after all these years? That's a good question, you know, because it matters. Like, that's the stuff we think about, you know, like what keeps us going. It's not just that it's just routine and habit. It's like it has to be fun. Yeah. You know what I mean? It has to be fun or else it's not worth it because we are missing some things at home that are very valuable as well. And so I think the fact that we've been together for so long and like we, we really do understand one another. We're like brothers. And so it's, we, we respect one another's boundaries and feelings and we're able to kind of make it work.

6:51 It's easier I think once you get older, cause you don't have that like, teenage stupidity angst and like you kind of understand things a little better you know and and less of you have to be exactly like me or you're wrong like you know you like this band you're not my friend anymore type of shit which we had in the 80s yeah and. You also realize how special being in a band that has some success is so again and then just managing that relationship and then even when you're getting started or whatever you might get frustrated with each other and all this stuff but then you've had this relationship for such a long time so you start to realize how special it is and then on top of that so that's just internally and then you have fans that are still coming out after this long and all this stuff that are still paying money to come see you so between those two things i mean that's a big factor or a big.

7:44 Uh you appreciate because absolutely you may not when you're younger yeah So what else you want to tell the listeners about that you got coming up? And then you just dropped a new single on 9-11, right? Yeah, we did. And then our album came out right in September, too, I think. So it's been, was that right? August or September? So, yeah, it's been out for a couple months now. It's been great. I mean, it's different. Like, that's one thing we've always tried to do is, like, kind of just try different things and have fun. It's the way it should be. Yeah, don't worry about what people think you are. But we want to celebrate the fans, too. But you know what I'm saying? Yeah. So we had that come out. And so that's been great.

8:25 And we're touring with Chiodos and Under Oath. So we're busy, which is good. So, yeah, just check us out, emorymusic.com. Love it. And, yeah, to your point, if you play what you like and what you want to play, you will gather your tribe anyway, so it's still for the fans. But if you're just going through the motions and you're not doing it, the fans aren't going to appreciate it anyway. So kudos to that. Yeah. And plus those albums exist. They're still there. You can listen to them and we still play those songs so we can explore and experiment and do different things and keep us vibrant and alive. You know, I heard somebody do an interview. I can't remember who it was. And they said on the note of what you just said.

9:07 Yeah. Like if you want to listen to that album, it's still there. Just go listen to it. Why do I have to write the same album again? Yeah. You know, so I'm with you. Yeah, we respect their opinion, but for us, it's like, this makes sense. You know, just be who you are. And especially change of life and age. Absolutely. Joe from the Vandals used to tell me all the time, like, you don't want to hear a 50-year-old writing a punk rock song because it doesn't make sense. Right. It's a different phase of life. He's kind of right. He was an angsty teenager, now he's an attorney who's like, you know, a respected person, like It's kind of hard to come up with the same kind of songs.

9:48 Yeah, you're right. Inspiration changes constantly. No doubt. And it just hopefully keeps you fresh. Well, it's keeping you guys fresh. It's keeping you guys at aftershock and louder than life. Absolutely. Absolutely. And thanks a lot for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man on W4CY radio.