Emery (band)

Emery is a Post hardcore band from Rock Hill, South Carolina currently based in Seattle, Washington.

History

The band, as described on The Question Deluxe Edition DVD, was named after a first grader that the lead singer met in college. They were formed early on in Rock Hill, South Carolina but moved to the West Coast in search of a better musical environment. The three members in the band at the time, Toby Morrell, Matt Carter, and Joel "Chopper" Green, actually left Rock Hill, South Carolina for Seattle on Sept. 11, the day of the terrorist attacks; they found out about it on the way. Current drummer Dave Powell originally played in the Indianapolis-based metalcore/hardcore band The Bowels of Judas. The rest of the members are from the bands Sachul, Joe 747 and Simply Waynes.

Emery is currently signed to Tooth & Nail Records. They have performed at the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois and Spirit West Coast's "Rock the Park" festival in Chino, California. Along with such festivals, they have performed on the Vans Warped Tour lineup while being featured in the Warped Tour documentary, Wake Up Screaming. They also performed in Hot Topic's Sub City Take Action! 2007 tour along with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, A Static Lullaby, and Kaddisfly, which began in February 2007 and is going to forty cities across the U.S.[1]

Emery headlined their first tour, entitled the Grab Your Guns Tour, from September 13, 2005 to November 5, 2005. The other bands on the tour included He Is Legend, Gatsby's American Dream, Gym Class Heroes, and As Cities Burn.

Sales of their last album, The Question, topped 200,000 units, while their debut album The Weak's End is currently over 100,000 sales.

In the spring of 2006, Emery co-headlined the Tooth and Nail Tour with their labelmates Anberlin. In May 2006, they supported Story of the Year on their Australian headline tour. They then spent the summer of 2006 on the Vans Warped Tour.

In late 2006, Emery participated in the Nintendo Fusion Tour with Hawthorne Heights, Relient K, Plain White T's, and The Sleeping.

Emery's latest album is named "I'm Only a Man" and is set to be released October 2, 2007.

"I'm Only A Man" leaked to the internet on September 29, 2007.

Christian

All of the members in Emery are Christians, but the band is reluctant to be labelled a Christian rock band. Although the band has a Christian outlook and mission, their concern is that being labeled as "Christian" will hinder their ability to reach their audience. In an interview with now defunct HardcoreChristian.com, Devin Shelton stated,

I know for a while it was a big fad to like have a lot of Christian bands were just Christian guys in a band so I mean first and foremost we’re Christians above anything else ... obviously ... the band is going to come and go and it will be over one day and that’s just the way it goes. It’s just like any other occupation. We are Christians first and foremost and therefore it has to impact what we do everyday as our job and in our lives so I mean… everyday we’ve got tons of Christian fans that their like, "Hey you guys are the best Christian band blah blah blah or one of the best or whatever," and that is fine, but we gave up on trying to draw that line because it’s pretty much you have to get out of the stigma of being labeled a Christian band where non-Christian people will listen to you because if you play in only Christian venues or you play with all Christian bands all the time you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot for as far as having a career goes and even as ministry speaking ...

... I mean there is a place for that. There are bands out there like worship bands and stuff that are great at that and I think they are called to do that but we definitely are not called to do that. We tried it, we played in churches before and we have played with a lot of Christian bands several times and we felt really really out of place, we kind of felt like, it was almost like God was saying this isn’t what you guys are supposed to be doing. Not that it was anything bad or anything like that but we just didn’t have that spirit of fulfillment that we feel like we do have now because we relate so much better to people, to crowds like this than we do youth group crowds.[2]

In an interview with SuburbanHorror.com, David Powell stated in response to a question about playing with secular bands:

DP: Yes, we’ve played with several. We prefer it. For the purpose of our band and the motives behind it, playing with only Christians and to only Christian fans is pretty pointless. I don’t treat people differently if they are Christian or not. We do what we can - You know, they had me do the interview because I am the worst talker and they thought it would be funny- We do whatever we feel lead to. With words, we can say anything and the crowd will get excited. Living it is different. I’d much rather people SEE that I am a Christian than HEAR.[3]

Members

Toby Morrell - vocals, bass
Devin Shelton - vocals, bass, guitar
Matt Carter - guitar, vocals
Josh Head - keyboards, vocals
Dave Powell - drums

Former Members

Seth "Beef" Studley - drums
Joel “Chopper” Green - bass (now of The widow jenkins)
Joey Svendsen - bass

Discography

The Columbus EEP Thee (EP), 2002
The Weak's End, 2004
The Question Pre-Sale Exclusive (Acoustic EP), 2005
The Question, 2005
The Question Deluxe Edition, 2006
I'm Only a Man, 2007
I'm Only A Man Deluxe Edition, 2007

Emery has released covers and original songs on these compilation albums:

Punk Goes 80's - Holding Out for a Hero
Happy Christmas volume 4 - (Ho Ho Hey) A Way for Santa's Sleigh
Taste of Christmas - The Last Christmas
Tooth & Nail: A Near Fatal Fall - To Whom it May Concern
- Note: This is not the same version as the one on The Columbus EEP Thee
Punk Goes '90s - All I Want
"Negative Nine (Acoustic)" – album unknown

Reviews

AbsolutePunk.net reviews The Question

External links