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This is later with Lee Matthews The
Lee Matthews Podcast more what you Hear weekday

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afternoons on the Drive. Chris Bain
is a New Brunswick, New Jersey born

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Brooklyn based music journalists. He's written
for Vulture, Stereogum, Alternative Press,

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and Billboard. He's got a new
compilation out that is called Where Are Your

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Boys Tonight? And it is all
about the evolution and the explosion of emo

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music from the early two thousands,
if you remember that period of music My

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Chemical Romance, Fallout Boy Paramore.
Chris, Let's start first of all with

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what emo music is? Hey,
Yeah, So the book, the book

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Where Your Boys Night is in oral
history of emo's boom throughout the two thousands.

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You know, emo means a lot
of different things depending on who you

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ask. It could be a lot
of things. For me, you know,

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it could be more indie stuff like
American football and capa and jazz.

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Also bands like My Chemical Romance Paramore, even wrap stuff like a Little Piece.

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So emo is music that has some
kind of roots in hardcore punk,

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but is often more vulnerable, more
melodic, and it's often really performative and

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over the top, which I send
to enjoy and do the bands they all

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kind of kind of become characters in
their own little world and then they acted

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out on the stage, don't they. They sure do, especially if they're

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Chemical Romance. I mean, I
thought some mighty wait for the book and

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that was really rewarding to talk to, you know, arguably the biggest band

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from the scene who came from my
home state of New Jersey. And I

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got to see those guys three times
last year on their Union tour and the

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costumes Erard was in a different,
different, different persona, a different look

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for every show I saw them in
Jersey twice and once out of when we

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were young Festival in Vegas and Yeah, Sons the story of My Chemical Romance

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from their starting basements in New Jersey
playing like Wembley Stadium in the UK.

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Pretty special to get that down in
the book. And the name of the

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book that he has written is Where
Are Your Boys Tonight? The Oral History

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of Emo's mainstream explosion from nineteen ninety
nine to two thousand and eight. Eight

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Chris Payne, did you try to
get what's in? Hey? Sorry,

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I'm back, Okay, just went
off. Oh I didn't know you were

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talking to I was gonna I was
gonna ask. It seemed like the evolution

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of emo music at this point was
was a thirst and maybe even a hunger,

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because the sound up until that point
was becoming very not for the emo

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artist, but for just general music. It was a very manufactured sound,

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the boy bands, the the highly
marketed music. Yeah, I mean I

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got to talk to some music executives, some record label people from the late

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nineties early two thousands to really paint
the picture in my book, and around

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the time when a couple of the
emo bands who made the first jump from

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the underground to the mainstream. So
we're talking Jimmy, we're with the middle

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dashboard, the screaming Infidelities. You
know, it was really a time of

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you know, proper pop music like
nineteen nine, two thousand, Backstreet Boys

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and singing Britney Spears, and you
know, once the teen pop kind of

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fizzled out, and I think a
lot of the kids you know, who

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are the exact same age as me. You know, I was born in

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December of eighty eight, so this
was like prime time for me getting into

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my teenage years. I think once
the teen pop kind of fizzled out and

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kids were growing a few years older, maybe looking for the next thing that

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would make them feel a little edgier. Well, you know in Steps Pete

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Wentz, the Fall Boy, in
Steps, Gerard Way and My Chemical Romance.

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But there you go. Yeah,
And I think it's it's applied a

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need because you started hearing it.
I mean I was even playing it in

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mainstream top forty radio. Yeah.
I mean it's really cool because you know,

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I spent seven years as a writer
at Billboard before I started writing the

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book, so you know, keep
an eye on the chart and seeing how

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these bands crossed over was always really
interesting to me. I mean, I

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like, I remember growing up,
you know, watching fall a Boy not

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only take over rock radio but pop
radio with like Sugar, We're Going Down,

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Dance, Dance, and then being
at Billboard when I first started as

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like an editorial assistant there in twenty
thirteen, when they came back with their

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album Stay of Rock and Roll and
you know my songs, know What You

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Did in the Dark Centuries, all
those big hit songs. It was.

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It's pretty special as a kid growing
up in the scheme in New Jersey seeing

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all these bands have their big moment, and then as an adult working,

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you know, in the music industry, working as a music writer, seeing

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them come around again. So talking
to people like Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump

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from Fall Boys for the book chronicling
all that, you know, they really

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opened up and that was July special. Where Are Your Boys Tonight is the

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book. It's the oral history of
emo's mainstream explosion from nineteen ninety nine to

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two thousand and eight. Chris Payne
is the author and the the what the

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title Where Are Your Boys Tonight?
Is there a reference? Is that in

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reference to something in particular? Oh? Yeah, the Fall Boys song It's

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from their first album's called Grand Theft
Autumn. Where is Your Boy? It's

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the very catchy chorus that song.
And yeah, so it's my chemical Romance

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on the cover and Fall Boy got
via the nod in the reference and Where

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Your Boys title. But aside from
those two bands, some of the other

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big players in the book are Paramore, kind of at the Disco, Taking

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Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World,
they used Dashboard Confessional and really what these

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bands? Because I was such a
diehard fan of them growing up, like

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reading music magazines like Alternative Press and
Spin and Rolling Stone as a kid,

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I was just like obsessed with this
stuff. So thinking about other fans my

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audience for the book, I really
tried to speak out stories about these bands

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that hadn't been told before, things
they had never been asked about, hadn't

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been asked in the present day,
you know, the sort of things you

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couldn't get from reading a Wikipedia entry
or going back to an old interview from

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like oh six. So I'm really
excited that I think that if you're anyone

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out there is a fan of any
of the bands I just mentioned, I'm

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pretty confident in saying that there's at
least one story about them that you haven't

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read before in the book. And
as a music journalist, I mean it's

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that's that's that's difficult these days you
have to compete with Wikipedia, and you

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also have to find ways to describe
what the what the sound is. Yeah,

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I mean, fortunately, even though
Wikipedia is a good beginning stores of

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information, usually the literary craft the
prose of Wikipedia, it's usually not the

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best. So writing the book entirely
in oral history, so it's all from

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interviews, almost all of which we're
done by me over the past couple of

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years. The book is structured almost
like reading a screenplay where it's just you

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know. Pete Wentz says this,
Patrick Stumps says this, Fall Boys manager

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says this. Then Brendan Yurei from
Panic at the Disco talk So I really

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tried to capture what it would be
like listening to all these people from the

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band just in a room talking to
the reader. Where You're Boys Tonight,

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The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion
nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and eight.

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Chris Payne, the author, and
thank you for joining us. Chris,

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Yeah, thanks so much, and
everyone. Yeah, you know,

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I'm a first time author, so
tells are so important, so I appreciate

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so so much anyone who checks out
the book. It's on sale tomorrow wherever

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books are sold. And you can
follow me on socials Askee Pain on a

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Plane, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks
so much. Thanks for listening to Later

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with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive

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Live weekday afternoons from five to seven. And I Heeart Media presentation