This is later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews Podcast more what you Hear weekday
afternoons on the Drive. Chris Bain is a New Brunswick, New Jersey born
Brooklyn based music journalists. He's written for Vulture, Stereogum, Alternative Press,
and Billboard. He's got a new compilation out that is called Where Are Your
Boys Tonight? And it is all about the evolution and the explosion of emo
music from the early two thousands, if you remember that period of music My
Chemical Romance, Fallout Boy Paramore. Chris, Let's start first of all with
what emo music is? Hey, Yeah, So the book, the book
Where Your Boys Night is in oral history of emo's boom throughout the two thousands.
You know, emo means a lot of different things depending on who you
ask. It could be a lot of things. For me, you know,
it could be more indie stuff like American football and capa and jazz.
Also bands like My Chemical Romance Paramore, even wrap stuff like a Little Piece.
So emo is music that has some kind of roots in hardcore punk,
but is often more vulnerable, more melodic, and it's often really performative and
over the top, which I send to enjoy and do the bands they all
kind of kind of become characters in their own little world and then they acted
out on the stage, don't they. They sure do, especially if they're
Chemical Romance. I mean, I thought some mighty wait for the book and
that was really rewarding to talk to, you know, arguably the biggest band
from the scene who came from my home state of New Jersey. And I
got to see those guys three times last year on their Union tour and the
costumes Erard was in a different, different, different persona, a different look
for every show I saw them in Jersey twice and once out of when we
were young Festival in Vegas and Yeah, Sons the story of My Chemical Romance
from their starting basements in New Jersey playing like Wembley Stadium in the UK.
Pretty special to get that down in the book. And the name of the
book that he has written is Where Are Your Boys Tonight? The Oral History
of Emo's mainstream explosion from nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and eight. Eight
Chris Payne, did you try to get what's in? Hey? Sorry,
I'm back, Okay, just went off. Oh I didn't know you were
talking to I was gonna I was gonna ask. It seemed like the evolution
of emo music at this point was was a thirst and maybe even a hunger,
because the sound up until that point was becoming very not for the emo
artist, but for just general music. It was a very manufactured sound,
the boy bands, the the highly marketed music. Yeah, I mean I
got to talk to some music executives, some record label people from the late
nineties early two thousands to really paint the picture in my book, and around
the time when a couple of the emo bands who made the first jump from
the underground to the mainstream. So we're talking Jimmy, we're with the middle
dashboard, the screaming Infidelities. You know, it was really a time of
you know, proper pop music like nineteen nine, two thousand, Backstreet Boys
and singing Britney Spears, and you know, once the teen pop kind of
fizzled out, and I think a lot of the kids you know, who
are the exact same age as me. You know, I was born in
December of eighty eight, so this was like prime time for me getting into
my teenage years. I think once the teen pop kind of fizzled out and
kids were growing a few years older, maybe looking for the next thing that
would make them feel a little edgier. Well, you know in Steps Pete
Wentz, the Fall Boy, in Steps, Gerard Way and My Chemical Romance.
But there you go. Yeah, And I think it's it's applied a
need because you started hearing it. I mean I was even playing it in
mainstream top forty radio. Yeah. I mean it's really cool because you know,
I spent seven years as a writer at Billboard before I started writing the
book, so you know, keep an eye on the chart and seeing how
these bands crossed over was always really interesting to me. I mean, I
like, I remember growing up, you know, watching fall a Boy not
only take over rock radio but pop radio with like Sugar, We're Going Down,
Dance, Dance, and then being at Billboard when I first started as
like an editorial assistant there in twenty thirteen, when they came back with their
album Stay of Rock and Roll and you know my songs, know What You
Did in the Dark Centuries, all those big hit songs. It was.
It's pretty special as a kid growing up in the scheme in New Jersey seeing
all these bands have their big moment, and then as an adult working,
you know, in the music industry, working as a music writer, seeing
them come around again. So talking to people like Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump
from Fall Boys for the book chronicling all that, you know, they really
opened up and that was July special. Where Are Your Boys Tonight is the
book. It's the oral history of emo's mainstream explosion from nineteen ninety nine to
two thousand and eight. Chris Payne is the author and the the what the
title Where Are Your Boys Tonight? Is there a reference? Is that in
reference to something in particular? Oh? Yeah, the Fall Boys song It's
from their first album's called Grand Theft Autumn. Where is Your Boy? It's
the very catchy chorus that song. And yeah, so it's my chemical Romance
on the cover and Fall Boy got via the nod in the reference and Where
Your Boys title. But aside from those two bands, some of the other
big players in the book are Paramore, kind of at the Disco, Taking
Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World, they used Dashboard Confessional and really what these
bands? Because I was such a diehard fan of them growing up, like
reading music magazines like Alternative Press and Spin and Rolling Stone as a kid,
I was just like obsessed with this stuff. So thinking about other fans my
audience for the book, I really tried to speak out stories about these bands
that hadn't been told before, things they had never been asked about, hadn't
been asked in the present day, you know, the sort of things you
couldn't get from reading a Wikipedia entry or going back to an old interview from
like oh six. So I'm really excited that I think that if you're anyone
out there is a fan of any of the bands I just mentioned, I'm
pretty confident in saying that there's at least one story about them that you haven't
read before in the book. And as a music journalist, I mean it's
that's that's that's difficult these days you have to compete with Wikipedia, and you
also have to find ways to describe what the what the sound is. Yeah,
I mean, fortunately, even though Wikipedia is a good beginning stores of
information, usually the literary craft the prose of Wikipedia, it's usually not the
best. So writing the book entirely in oral history, so it's all from
interviews, almost all of which we're done by me over the past couple of
years. The book is structured almost like reading a screenplay where it's just you
know. Pete Wentz says this, Patrick Stumps says this, Fall Boys manager
says this. Then Brendan Yurei from Panic at the Disco talk So I really
tried to capture what it would be like listening to all these people from the
band just in a room talking to the reader. Where You're Boys Tonight,
The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and eight.
Chris Payne, the author, and thank you for joining us. Chris,
Yeah, thanks so much, and everyone. Yeah, you know,
I'm a first time author, so tells are so important, so I appreciate
so so much anyone who checks out the book. It's on sale tomorrow wherever
books are sold. And you can follow me on socials Askee Pain on a
Plane, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks so much. Thanks for listening to Later
with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven. And I Heeart Media presentation