Tag Archives: Emery

Feb 16 2012
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I Hope This Song Starts a Craze

Punching Penguins

“ARE YOU LISTENING?!” -Emery (Walls)

If you happen to be in Boiling Springs, South Carolina on Thursday, February 23rd, you just may have the night of your life. It is not only the very first show at Sound Stage Music Hall (www.facebook.com/soundstagemusichall), but former Tooth and Nail band, Spoken, will be playing for only eight dollars. And definitely do not miss the grand opening of Sound Stage Music Hall on Sunday, February 26 with Oh the Calamity, East West, Kaleb Alexander and more. So, get there early because it is sure to be a packed house of ridiculous proportions.

And in case you missed it, here is the interview that my boy, Kyle Cheleotis, from Upstate Recordings and Management did with GoUpstate.com (http://www.goupstate.com/article/20120209/ENT/202091002?tc=ar).

Things like this don’t come to the Upstate or Boiling Springs often. It is time for some much over-due recognition of the phenomenal bands that are bubbling in the underground. So, please come out and support this effort. This is the beginning of something spectacular in the Upstate, and you should be there with chanting arms.

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Jan 06 2012
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I Hope This Song Starts a Craze

To Whom It May Concern

“But it’s the life I dreamed I have/ The love I find in my grasp/ The words I could share with someone/ Those thoughts keep the breath in my lungs/ That tomorrow my hope will become to feel a love that can’t be undone/ And save a wretch like me” -Emery (I Never Got To See The West Coast)

The lights were cloudy and, and the energy was intoxicating. The entire night was more vivid than anything that I had encountered in so long. A former simple band that became larger than life and a tad embarrassing swept the stage of the Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte, North Carolina for an evening to not be forgotten. The bass player stepped forward and spoke words directly into my heart, “I know that some of you are really struggling right now. I know that right now that you think this is it. You think that it doesn’t get any better than right now, but I promise that it does get better. And if you hold on, in a few years, you will look back and be so glad that you stayed.”

That night in Charlotte was a serious turning point for me. I was sixteen and so confused. I never thought about taking my own life, but I remember being depressed and feeling like I was falling into a big black hole. I was trying to figure out life, and who I was in relationship to it all. I just didn’t know what to do or who to talk to. If you ever mentioned depression to adults or classmates, most of the time, they would think that you were crazy. But that night, I felt like I was not so alone, and that someone had been there before. Someone knew my pain.

I found To Write Love On Her Arms (http://www.twloha.com/) almost six years ago through a friend. I remembering reading The Story (http://www.twloha.com/vision/story/) and wishing that this non-profit could have existed when I was sixteen. Their mission statement is simply, “To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.” A huge part of the explosion of TWLOHA has been the large support of many bands. Because at it always does, it starts with music. Music changes lives.

I just read an article about a fifteen year old girl that committed suicide because of bullies at her school. It shattered my heart that some people who will be greatly insignificant in a few years to this girl were able to destroy a life. I wish that she could have held on longer, so that she could see that tomorrow is another day-a day that she could take back and make her own.

You never know the people’s lives that you will change or effect. So, as we move around, meet new friends, say good-bye to old loves, and follow our dreams, we should make sure that we are always leaving people better off than when we found them; we should be writing love on everyone’s arms.

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Oct 10 2011
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Song Birds

Thrift Store Love

“I’ve kept the best parts and play them in my mind.” -Emery (Disguising Mistakes with Goodbyes)

The thick summer air whirled through the vents of Allison’s Granny Mobile as we sped through the back roads of Vacaville. She shouted over the radio, “Remember when B sent me “Sparks” by Coldplay and said it was mine?” I simply nodded. She shot me a look and screamed, “I found out that he sent the same song to his ex-girlfriend when they were still together.” I howled, “WHAT? He re-songed you?” She pounded the steering wheel and fumed, “Yeah, he did. Jerk.”

I have always been one to keep certain songs for certain people or times in my life. Sometimes, the songs find me, or I find them. But they are there and seem to be waiting for those people especially. And there are some songs that are so incredibly dear to me that I don’t want someone to ruin them. Believe me. It has happened. Sometimes, it hurts less or more than it used to when that song comes on your playlist. Sometimes, you delete certain songs from your computer. Then sometimes, someone comes along and gives new meaning to an old song, and it is even better than you remember. So, keep the best memories in the back of your mind, but don’t be afraid to let someone new in. Because more times than not, they leave you and your memories better than when they found you. And as for the ones that re-song you, you’re better off without them anyway. Because nobody needs to be left with old Copeland lyrics, not even the girl who went back to California and never came back.

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Aug 05 2011
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I Hope This Song Starts a Craze

Find A Way To Do What You Love To Do

“Let’s write the songs that they want/ I thought they’d love us, but they don’t” -Emery (Do The Things You Want)

If you are lucky, you remember vividly the day that you were punched in the gut and fell madly, deeply in love with music. Music was always a flirtation for me. It was always surging through me, but something burst in me that night when I was introduced to Brand New. When I first watched “Before the Music Dies” (http://www.hulu.com/watch/62945/before-the-music-dies), it struck me just how much that little band, and music in general had changed me. Every album that Brand New released was completely different than the last, and I embraced it. I loved their music and wanted them to change. As a fan, I allowed them to change.

Perhaps, I love them even more because they are so elusive. You are not allowed to take pictures at their concerts, they tried desperately to get dropped from a major label, and Jesse even wrote a completely new album after one of their albums leaked on the internet. It is sacred to them and that makes it sacred to me. They don’t write music that they think people will like; they write music that they love. Other people do not need to validate their art; they validate it for themselves. They create because they were made to create. They found a way to do what they love to do, and I hope that you find it too.

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