I first discovered emo music while watching some random old YouTube video—a Q&A with a group of teen boys. One of them mentioned that his favorite band was Sleeping With Sirens. I thought the name sounded really cool and it sparked this vivid image in my head, so I looked them up on Spotify. The first song I played was If You Can’t Hang. After that, I completely fell down the emo rabbit hole—Warpped Tour bands, those super cursed (but iconic) BryanStars interviews… it’s definitely a core memory for most emo kids, I’m sure.
From there, I got really into screamo and heavier stuff too. It’s kind of funny—before I found emo music, I didn’t really have my own music taste. I just listened to whatever my parents had on. So in a way, discovering emo was also the first time I ever really connected with music that I found on my own.