Rising emo pop-punk band Arcadia Grey has just released their latest album, Casually Crashing. The album has earned them thousands of streams so far and a place on Alternative Press's list of nine emo bands to watch. You can learn more about them in our exclusive interview with Cooper and Nat!
Can you describe your songwriting process and how you approach writing lyrics?
Cooper: Our process has varied with time and circumstances. At times, a very simple piece of the puzzle was brought to the group and expanded upon together. In other times, a song would already be quite fleshed out, and it would be our personal responsibility to either learn, or alter, our intended parts of a demo. As the drummer, I haven’t really pursued writing lyrics. However, I have had my influence on some songs by adding my own experiences and helping with advice, and sometimes revising lyrics into more pointed and/or fitting language for different sections of our songs.
Are there recurring themes or messages in your music that you feel are important to convey?
Cooper: Sometimes, I’m honestly interpreting our messaging more than I am delivering it. I do know that a big part of our music’s theming revolves around the Catharsis of stress and trauma. Sometimes we do this through humor, sometimes we do this while wailing and raging, and sometimes we can barely handle it and just cry. We all have our own traumas, there’s no competition between them. But we know we have each other to lean on, and we refuse judgment of each other.
Nat: I feel like a lot of themes tend to circle back to our identity and how we are viewed by our family. Either with our gender and queerness or just the paths we choose to take. We really try to put an emphasis on found family.
Can you share a bit about the production process for your latest album? Any interesting stories or challenges you faced?
Cooper: Being in a place dedicated purely to creation was really interesting to experience. I think Headroom Studios really focused on pushing our strengths, even if we weren’t mic'd up at the moment. There was a real commitment to this thing we were trying together.
Nat: In the process of trying to fix the problems that occurred during LP1s production, we stumbled into new problems. But that's not all, Cooper is right. Headroom Studios was an environment that really cultivated creativity. And it really allowed us to just focus on the record. Kyle Pulley was an instrumental part in making this record sound the way it does. He truly understood these songs through and through, and that allowed us to be on the same page. He had valid criticism and advice and was just a fun person to make a record with. And he introduced us to Ha lal, and gave us the best philly cheese steak I've ever had.
What are you most looking forward to with your Fall tour?
Cooper: While the point of touring is to play music live and share that irreplaceable experience, most of the time you aren’t doing that. I'm lucky that I get to go on tour with people I can call my closest friends, I’m lucky that I can trust them, and I am lucky that the people I tour with, I can look forward to going with. I can’t wait to experience life with people I love and find new people to experience life with!
What’s it like for you to perform live? Do you have any memorable experiences or favorite moments from past shows?
Nat: I feel like it's an itch I'm always trying to scratch. I feel like when we go through these long stretches of not performing, I get hangry. I just feel unfulfilled. But when we get to play, it ROCKS. I put everything I have into it. On our first support tour, we opened for Glass Beach playing to these huge crowds. I made it a point on that tour to be our best every night. I was throwing my body around, going my hardest every night. On the 5th night of tour we opened with "moshpit girlfriend" and I went for this leg kick. And my pants just tore down the crotch in front of like 400 people. Our TM was on it, and she brought some tape out to me. I got the whole crowd to turn around while I was on stage and I mended my pants up and continued on. I cracked a few jokes about needing to buy some new pants, and needless to say merch sales and tips were UP that night.
Cooper: It feels like just raw fun. Like all barriers go away, everything melts together, there’s some retrospective purity in it. Like, it's isolated as its own moment. I think it's good that we’ve played so many shows now that picking out memorable experiences is such a long list, I like when Nat and Cora jump off whatever they can find on the stage, including in the past, my Drum Kit.
How has the emo genre changed since you started, and where do you see it going in the future?
Nat: I feel like we were a bit early to the game. We were in this weird transition moment. 4th wave emo had kinda peaked. A lot of bands in that scene had either hit peak fame or broken up. And the scene that we know today, most of these bands hadn't formed yet. So we were kinda making our way through the scene and meeting all these older bands and kind of contributing and connecting with the bands that we know now. But honestly, I feel like we are in peak 5th wave. It really started to grow in 2020 and in the last two years, I think it's a full-blown cultural moment. It's cool to be a part of it from the start, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Cooper: I was really introduced to Emo with the start of Arcadia Grey. While we did have some common tastes, Cora and Nat had a lot more knowledge of the genre and its heavy hitters. I think there’s a lot more online presence with the scene and the fans, and I think more expression and outlets for expression exist now. It also seems that sometimes, bands can really rise to success, sometimes very quickly, and part of that I believe is due to the growth in popularity Emo has seen in the ‘post-pandemic era’. Though, I don’t really think it's fair to say we are truly post-pandemic, people seem to refer to it as such.
How do you connect with your audience during live performances, especially considering the emotional nature of your music?
Cooper: As the drummer, I am the furthest removed from the audience during our live performances. I think I feel inspired every time I play, with the goal to put on the best show I possibly can for the people who graciously decided to spend their time, and often their money, watching me. The Stage would never exist without the Audience, they are two in the same to me and inherently are always connected by that.
Nat : We sing about pretty depressing stuff so it's easy to think our shows would be depressing, but we keep the energy alive. Humor is written into our songs. We banter a lot, and I try to always engage with the audience. Either doing callbacks, or sometimes just getting them to spin around in a circle. But most importantly, it's the stage movement. I love to jump and kick and spin, and just be zany. Because if we look like we are having a good time, then maybe the audience will, too.
Can you share any personal experiences that have significantly influenced your music or lyrics?
Cooper: We have a lot of music about college. Particularly, the gripes we each hold with our experiences in and around college. Personally, I dropped out of college, which helped me write on Dwight 512. Dwight focuses on the aspects of dropping out of college, and while Nat who wrote the song originally did drop out at one point, they did go back and finish. So, I had some good experience to pull from, especially with the effects that dropping out of college can have with your familial relationships.
What do you do outside of music to find inspiration and keep your creative juices flowing?
Nat: So, I'm actually a freelance filmmaker. I'm constantly creating, shooting music videos, writing, and working with clients. I'm always knee deep in a creative process, and this is how I keep everything going. I find that playing guitar and writing songs is my relaxation from film, and film is my relaxation from music. And I feel like everything I learn from one is always being applied to the other.
Lastly, hype yourselves up—why should people check out Arcadia Grey?
Nat: I love to say this, but it's sad music you can bop to. If you are ever feeling alone in this world like you don't belong, you aren't understood, then I hope you can feel a little less alone when you listen to us. That's our goal anyway, and to have a little fun along the way.
