If you grew up obsessed with 2000s emo and post-hardcore (hell, even just Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance), the sound that ever,ending has perfected might feel like running into an old friend.
The Greensboro quartet trades in the kind of post-hardcore and emo that hits hard with each verse and goes harder in the chorus. Distorted guitars and blasting drums frame a scene for in-your-face vocals that swing between vulnerable and ready to blow the roof off. Lyrically, there’s an emotional potency that makes it clear the underlying inspiration comes from a place of genuine feeling, which is probably why it tends to stick.
They’ve been building that sound since 2020, when vocalist Leo Kaiser started the project as a solo outlet during a particularly rough pandemic year. Since then, the four-piece band has grown steadily around him. Now with a solidified lineup, a deep catalog, a new EP dropping on May 8th, and their first out-of-state tour on the horizon, ever,ending has built up momentum that shouldn’t be missed.
What have you been listening to lately?
Dallas (guitar): Last night we went to a show at Split Level in Greensboro. We saw five really cool screamo bands: Survival Tactics, potosí, FAFO, ythgrp, and Sunshower. It was Sunshower‘s EP release show. They’re all super sick, that’s a great scene over there.
As far as other bands, I’ve been getting into a band called Dowsing. They’re kind of Midwest emo adjacent, probably ten-plus years old. And of course, my boys Title Fight, always got to rep that.
Leo (vocals): Within the local scene, one that always sticks out to me is blankstate. Obviously they’re awesome, super nice, and their musicality is just so fun. And always got to support DIT. They’re probably the most fun band I’ve seen live. Their energy, man. I wish they got a little more love because they deserve to be super big.
Who was the first musician you remember discovering and claiming as your own?
Leo: I wish I was in my room so I could grab my vinyl collection, but Linkin Park takes the cake right away. I don’t remember the first song I heard by them, but my first real memory was “What I’ve Done” from the Transformers soundtrack. I knew that’s what I wanted to be. Whenever I’d go to my friend’s house we’d play Guitar Hero or Rock Band, and every single time I’d say we’re doing a Linkin Park song. They sparked my love for music and everything alternative. I don’t know where I’d be without them.
Dallas: The first bands I fell in love with were from riding around with my dad when I was a little kid. He had Nirvana‘s Nevermind on CD, so that got played on repeat. Some Offspring CDs, a little Staind, Green Day. It started off with 90s stuff. Going through elementary and middle school I listened to a lot of what was popular at the time, and then one night I rediscovered Fall Out Boy, and that really did it for me. Them and Three Days Grace, while very opposite sides of the spectrum, kicked off my desire to make music myself.
What was that first step in learning instruments and writing music?
Dallas: It was maybe a year or so after I rediscovered Fall Out Boy and Three Days Grace that I decided I wanted a guitar. For the better part of that year, I spent a lot of time learning guitar before I even had one. I finally got one for my birthday, and I think that preparation helped a lot because I already had a good idea of it and was ready to go.
I learned a lot of those old songs — Green Day and stuff like that — but it took a while before I ever found people to play with. ever,ending is actually my first band, because where I’m from in Eden, about an hour away from Greensboro, there aren’t many people doing this. I found the band through the UNCG Snapchat stories and pulled up to a rehearsal one day. It was really the first time I’d ever jammed with other people too, so it was a first for everything.
Leo: I was pretty much always playing piano since I was a little kid, but around fifth grade, I decided the piano wasn’t cool and classical music wasn’t going to win a talent show. So my parents took me to Guitar Center and I picked my very first guitar off the wall.
We got a business card for a guitar teacher named Ed, and one summer he decided to do a whole production weekend where he and I sat down and fully produced two songs from scratch — writing the lyrics all the way to getting in the booth and plugging in the guitar. Just being able to take a song from an idea to a fully fleshed-out thing you can enjoy sparked a light inside me. I knew right then that this is what I wanted to do forever.
What’s the origin story of ever,ending? How did you all get started?
Leo: There was a long time when this was just a solo project. My freshman year of college I was a business major, and then COVID hit. I fell into a real depression and started thinking seriously about what I wanted to do with my life, and the answer was pursue music. So I started with a single called “Overwhelmed” that I put out on SoundCloud and got around 10,000 streams. That felt like a real sign to keep going.
I transferred to MTSU in Nashville for audio production, which is a great school, and I started producing my EP, Deadman Wonderland. That was the first real full project I put out. I eventually moved back home and kept releasing songs while working, without much of a plan other than to keep at it.
By 2023 I started playing shows, and I quickly learned that performing as a solo acoustic artist makes it difficult to get a crowd moving. So I posted an ad on UNCG — I’d just freshly enrolled there — thinking it was a pretty liberal, alternative school and I might find some musicians. That’s around when Dallas came in.
Dallas: A friend of mine at UNCG showed me the Snapchat story that Leo had posted, knowing I’d been looking for people to play with. What he posted was something along the lines of calling out for Midwest emo musicians, and I was like, “I’ve never seen anybody else asking for that exactly.” So we started texting.
It was a little scary at first because Leo’s wrist was injured at the time, so he told me I might have to learn the songs and play them on guitar at the first show, which was like a week or two away. Thankfully, the songs weren’t overly complicated — which doesn’t mean they weren’t good songs, they’re bangers — and it worked out well.
The first time I came to his house for a rehearsal, I’d only seen old photos of him. He walked out of the garage and I genuinely didn’t recognize him. Back in those photos, he had long, 70s hair-metal blonde curls; when I showed up he had short black hair. I looked at him and said, “Who are you?” [laughs]
Leo: I actually didn’t meet our bassist, Lorenzo, until the first show we played. Dallas had only known about him in theory, too. We pulled up to the venue, and he was standing there talking to me, and Dallas had no idea it was him. His first time meeting Lorenzo was literally at our first gig.
How do you maintain such a consistent release cadence?
Leo: Backlogging has been an absolute lifesaver for us. After “Lead Paint” came out, we went through a three-month period of just writing. We decided we weren’t going to release anything new, just sit down and focus on writing as much as we could. That has really helped us when it comes time to release, because we’re not stressing about writing or perfecting a new song. We just have these songs ready to go. We have so many demos.
Dallas: We’ll just meet up and not even plan on making a demo, but we’ll leave four hours later with a new song. We’ve never had problems writing. I’d never written anything before joining this band, and we can just go from idea to idea to idea. We could put out a 20-song album if we wanted to produce it all.
Leo: Lyrics, on the other hand, take a little longer. I’ve been writing songs since I was about 16 — I’m 24 now — and a lot of those old songs I was never able to sing, but they were still pretty good. So if I ever struggle to find lyrics that feel right, I go back through my archive of old material and see if something works.
It’s an interesting process to piece together old songs that were totally unrelated to create something new, almost like its own kind of art. And I also think sometimes you write things before you’re ready to release them. “Roulette”, which has around 12,000 streams on Spotify, is a good example; I wrote that about three years before we put it out. I just wasn’t emotionally ready to share it yet. Pretty much every song has that kind of emotional attachment for me.
Looking back on last year, what was a top highlight for each of you?
Dallas: I’d say it was the band really gelling together as a live act. Not so much in terms of writing, but performing. We’ve all gotten so much better at playing with each other and we’ve made some changes that have really improved our live sound.
I made the switch from bass to guitar, which is my main instrument, so I feel like I can bring a lot more to the band both in writing and live. And Leo was playing guitar at first but now he just sings at all our shows, which allows him to put a lot more emotion into the performance.
Leo: 2025 was a year of growing pains, no pun intended. We went through about four drummers and a couple of bassists once Dallas moved off bass. Finding your core members is always an uphill battle, especially with drummers.
The moment that really sticks out is when we first played a show with Brady, who’s the drummer in Glass. He’s in a bunch of bands but he’s an incredible drummer. That show in New Bern was our first time playing with him, and sometimes you can just feel the music differently. We’ve played these songs countless times, but playing them with Brady gave such new life to everything. For me, as someone who’s been singing these songs for three years, it’s exciting again.
What are some goals you’re looking forward to for the rest of the year?
Leo: We have a tour in progress that we’re planning. This summer we’re doing a good lap around North Carolina and South Carolina; it’ll be our first time really playing out of state. It’s not the biggest achievement in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a step in the right direction, and I think it’s important to celebrate those small steps. As an artist, you can get so lost focusing on how far away you are from the big picture that sometimes it’s just those steps right in front of you that matter most. I know something’s going to go wrong on tour, but we’ll figure it out together.
Dallas: I feel the same way about the tour. It’s a small step but it’s a really big step to us. And there’s a lot to look forward to right here this month too. We’re going to be playing with blankstate. and Fifth Floor in Greensboro, and I mean, how can you not be excited about that?
But yeah, this year we have a lot more shows with a lot of really awesome artists and bands lined up, and I’m super excited to meet all of those people, become better friends with them, and play as many shows as we can. We’ve put a lot of emphasis on playing more this year than last year.
Who are some of your favorite local or North Carolina-specific artists and bands that you’d want to give shoutouts to?
Dallas: White Reverie. We’ve played with them, and their singer Noah has actually played drums for us before. We love them and playing with them, they’re all such cool guys. Their energy is always at a hundred — every single time they bring it.
We’re also going to be doing a show with ColorMeKrazy!, who are really awesome and incredible.
Leo: INFINXTY is absolutely awesome. They’ve got this super unique, early 2010s MySpace-core sound and I love that for them. ColorMeKrazy! is absolutely awesome too, especially their new song “ERROR_”. It’s pretty much an anti-AI song, and I think for an indie local band to be putting out a song like that — supporting the message, being vocal about it, and still saying “This is human art” — I really respect that. Leaving For Arizona is another really cool band that fits right into that Midwest emo wave sound.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Leave a Reply