Interview: Emarosa

Before the first date on their headlining UK tour, Alter The Press had the chance to sit down with Emarosa to discuss their new album, their favourite albums of 2010 and the future of the band, as well as the support for the tour coming from young upstarts All Forgotten and Glaswegian screamo outfit Yashin.

ATP: Could you state your name and role in the band?
Jordan: I'm Jordan, I play the keys in Emarosa.
Will: I'm Will, I play bass in Emarosa.
Jonny: I'm Jonny and I sing in Emarosa.

ATP: Where does the name Emarosa come from?
Jordan: We made it up more or less, we just walked up to a friend and when he heard it he couldn't tell what sounded like and you couldn't asscociate it with something else.

ATP: You guys are bringing along Yashin and All Forgotten, how did you come across these guys?
Jordan: We toured with You Me at Six and All Forgotten is friends with them, and we've stayed friends with You Me At Six and they said "hey, check these guys out." Yashin was suggested by our agent who goes to their shows.

ATP: Your band has been described as post hardcore meets soul?
Jonny: I guess the reason I sing so soulful is because I grew up with Motown.
Will: And we all listen to different stuff, like my favourite bands are; David Bowie, The Beatles, Joy Division. We're kind of all over the place.
Jordan: The original demos of the self-titled album were pretty folky and we learnt a lot writing that type of an album but we got back on path though.

ATP: Jonny, you just reunited with Dance Gavin Dance, of course you were on the first album 'Downtown Battle Mountain' and now you're recording a sequel. How is that coming along?
Jonny: The musics done and after this tour is over I'm going straight to Portland to finish off the vocals with hopefully a March release.

ATP: Are you bringing out another solo album?
Jonny: Yeah, hopefully it will come out around the middle of next year.

ATP: You've not picked a single or shot a music video for the new album, any reason for that?
Jordan: Time constraints, we would like to but I think there's a good chance that it won't happen until Spring of next year. It's almost like this albums gonna be at the end of its cycle.

ATP: Why is the record self-titled?
Will: We kind of felt like this was more of a band effort and it was the first album that we have written as a band because Jonny joined halfway through relativity. So it was kind of a more collaborative effort and we all spent time together.

ATP: Have you started on the third album at all?
Will: We have a song, we're playing around with different ideas at the moment. We'll always play around but we'll still be Emarosa at the same time. We add to our influences and try out new ideas and try to get better at what we do I guess.

ATP: So it's drawn to the end of 2010 and a lot of people are picking their album of the year, what would yours be?
Jordan: I've been listenening to the new Kanye but everybody would slate me for that.
Will: I think Kings of Leon was 2010?
Jordan: And 'Man on the Moon Part 1' (Kid Cudi) came out last year too? I was disapointed by that 'Man on the Moon 2', I thought the music was great but he didn't deliver well, probably Kanye.

ATP: What's your favourite song to play live?
Jordan: I like playing the new stuff, probably 'A Toast to the Future Kids'.
Will: 'We Are Life.'
Jordan: I actually like 'Pretend.Relive.Regret.'
Jonny: 'The Game Played Right.'

ATP: So what's next for your band?
Jordan: We're gonna go back to the US and do a headline tour.

ATP: Any confirmed supports for that?
Jordan: Not Yet, After that, Jonny's gonna work with Dance and we'll probably do a record another support tour in the States. We're gonna try to get back over to the UK in the summer and hopefully a new album in the fall.

'Emarosa' by Emarosa is available now on Rise Records.

Emarosa on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

George Gadd