Having interviewed a fair number of bands by this point (and as mentioned in my last), it’s clear that origin stories aren’t made equal. Case in point: snowblinder, where half of the four-piece could’ve been considered sworn enemies before becoming bandmates. Not in any dramatic sense, but in a way that anyone who mains fighting games like Street Fighter will understand. When you spend enough time trading losses with a stranger, you develop a relationship, whether you like it or not.
That unlikely bond became a catalyst, with most of the group finding their way to the same project through a series of twists and detours of their own. By the time all four of them were finally in a room together, the pieces fit.
The band describes themselves as “emo kids that discovered reverb, writing songs about girls that never existed,” and their music lives up to it. Their sound is a more shoegazy take on emo — groovy and melodic in a way that makes me think of Circa Survive — and would fit naturally on a bill alongside Charlotte’s blankstate. That sound is on full display on peach, their debut EP released in November 2025, which arrives fully confident for a band still in its first year of playing shows.
I met up with the full group at Stanczyks in Durham before their show with With Clarity, Subvertigo, and ColorMeKrazy! to get the full scoop on their time playing together.
What’s something y’all have been listening to lately?
Miguel (guitar): Joyce Manor just came out with their newest album [I Used To Go To This Bar], and that’s been really doing it for me. It’s cool because I always thought their music was “drunken angry guy” music, whereas this feels more like a guy who has finally sobered up for a little bit and had time to think.
Cameron (drums): I’ve been listening to a lot of Alpha Wolf lately, which is very out of genre for what we play. I’m going to see them at a festival in a few months, so I’m trying to get myself ready for it. I’m definitely more into the heavier, more energetic side of the scene for my daily listening.
Jonny (lead vocals/bass): I’m a weirdo; I don’t listen to a lot of music. But lately, I have been listening to Dayseeker just because of their unreal vocal range. All you’ve got to give me is a good build and good vocals, and I’m sold.
Mason (guitar/vocals): Ever since I started playing in bands in this area, I haven’t been listening to a lot of big established acts. It’s all been local bands. Bittersuite out of Boone is really good. Subvertigo, who we’re playing with tonight, is really good. Harm out of Charlotte is probably one of my favorite bands just in general. Frontside is great. There are more, but those are what I’m bumping the most right now.
When you think about first getting into music, who was the first artist you each remember discovering and obsessing over?
Miguel: Linkin Park on the family computer when I was six years old. I’m a big anime fan, so a lot of my music taste came from that. Even listening to J-rock. When I got super into anime, I’d hear a theme song and be like, “oh wait, that’s a whole band in a different country with a whole discography I can listen to.” Between internet culture and anime culture, that’s where my music taste started.
Cameron: For me, it’s definitely got to be Led Zeppelin. They’ve been, from the start of me playing music, the first band I just had to listen to all the time. Even now, though I’m more into the heavier metal side of music, I still have to listen to them almost daily just to scratch that itch. I grew up in a very classic rock household, so I was heavily exposed to them, Pink Floyd, and The Rolling Stones growing up. Those are the three that have stayed with me the most.
Jonny: Mine’s super niche. Our Lady Peace is from outside of the DC metro area, where I grew up; they were big, but not massive. The first CD I ever bought was their album Gravity. I was obsessed with it as a kid.
The first band I ever got into and learned the lore — like, “I know who everybody is, these are my favorite people” — was The Wonder Years, because I’m a big Dan Campbell fan. And then Bilmuri is obviously an obsession of mine now. It’s like I need to study that absolute shitpost culture and marketing scheme, because it is the best.
Mason: Flyleaf, for sure. They were almost exclusively the only band I listened to from probably age 11 through 13. It was right around the time I first started learning bass, and they were one of the bands I was like, “I have to learn all of their songs.” One of their albums came out in 2012 [New Horizons] — the last one that Lacey was on — and when it dropped, there were no bass tabs online yet. I was like, “Well, I still have to learn the whole thing,” and that was actually how I learned to learn music by ear. I tabbed out that entire album in the first week of it coming out. It was super fun.
How did y’all come together as a band?
Jonny: It’s probably the most convoluted, crazy origin story. Originally, I moved to North Carolina in the 2021-2022 time frame. I got on Craigslist looking for a band and found 11 to Midnight in the Midlands, which is where I met Cameron. Cam and I would jam on the side a lot because we were bored and looking for stuff to do.
Cameron: We lived so close to each other, so it was easy to do our own thing.
Jonny: And then one day, I was like, “I really want to do another project. Just traditional emo, crying-over-pretty-guitar type stuff.” It was me, Cam, and our bassist at the time, Chance. We called the group Sportsball. We wrote three songs, and then just kind of stopped getting together. When Chance left, we picked up Mason as our bassist, and I re-pitched the idea with Mason there. Mason was like, “Hell yeah, I want to jam out and play some trad emo, like Modern Baseball style stuff.”
While we were doing that, I had really gotten into Street Fighter 6. It had just come out, and I had just lost my job, so I spent a lot of time in my RV playing Street Fighter. One of my buddies from my hometown, Danny, had a Discord server where he was like, “We’re going to have fight nights, and everybody’s going to get together and play.”
On the first night, Miguel shows up, and he and I become bitter enemies in the game because he plays 100% rushdown Ken, and I play 100% immovable object Zangief. Just getting to know him through fighting — because that’s how you get to know people in fighting games, by hating each other — I found out that he played guitar. One day, we were getting together and I messaged Miguel, “Hey bro, Mason’s coming over later. We’re going to play some weird trad emo stuff. If you want to play guitar with us, just come through.” He said, “Okay,” and then the rest is history.
Miguel: I was born and raised in Raleigh. I met Danny through Super Smash Bros. tournaments since his roommate was a mutual friend who also played. Somehow, I met Danny that way, became really good friends, and he and I would always work on music on the side, but never really do anything serious.
When Jonny asked me, I was just like, “Well, me and this dude hate each other enough already. There’s no way starting a band together could make it any worse.” I said okay, but I was so nonchalant about it. Countless people had asked me to join projects, and it’d go nowhere after two weeks. But then after our second or third practice, I was like, “Okay, I think I should actually take this one seriously.”
Cameron: Before this band, I wasn’t a drummer. I play guitar, and I still do, but learning drums and playing with these guys has been so much fun.
What was the timeline from when you got together and started working on songs, to building a set list, playing shows, and now working on the EP?
Mason: It was about half a year to get the set list down and nail the original batch of songs. We formed around June or July of 2024. We started playing shows in March 2025, though not very many, because we were super focused on writing the EP and getting it recorded. And then we recorded it in September.
Miguel: I’m good friends with Kevin La Chiana from The Wild; he also does the Get Sad Y’all emo nights as a DJ. Their guitarist, Michael Greason, had just started recording bands, and Kevin showed him some footage of our shows. Breeson reached out and was like, “Hey, really like your guys’ sound. If you want to record, let me know.”
Working with him definitely made the recording experience really easy, especially for a band just starting out and investing in their first EP. When he first sent the mixes back, I was like, “It’s insane that this is us.” I couldn’t imagine the four of us making anything at that level.
Mason: He’s my favorite producer I’ve ever worked with, for sure, and I’ve worked in some places. I’ve guest-played on a worship album, we recorded at one of the most expensive studios in Durham, and it was a miserable experience. But Greason made it so painless. He was super accommodating with all our work schedules since we were in and out all week. Most of us were working, so whoever was free would come in to finish their parts. It was like rotating shifts based on availability.
Miguel: That’s the really fun part about this scene: there are so many people who are both in a band and doing other things like production or promotion side of things. Being able to shine a spotlight on it is awesome. Even just coming to a new venue like Stanczyks, the community vibe of the North Carolina scene is definitely getting stronger. It’s really cool watching it grow back after the lockdown.
Who have been some of your favorite artists to play with?
Miguel: We played New Year’s Eve for the Get Sad Y’all party they threw with FoundiT. They’re such a good band and all chill people. Some of us had played with them before in previous bands, so definitely shout-outs to them.
Cameron: Great group of guys. Great music, great people. Always wanting to show up and support.
Miguel: Den of Wolves is awesome. And Harm from Charlotte, shout-out to them, because they got us in contact to book for our first Charlotte show in June.
The Get Sad Y’all emo events are really cool because Kevin tries to bring two sides of the scene together — our kind of sadder stuff alongside a heavier band like Den of Wolves — to show people who come out to those nights the range of what’s happening. I feel like that’s a good gateway for people who don’t really know where to start with shows, and him putting local bands on before his DJ set is a great way for people to start discovering that scene.
When you look at the rest of this year, what are some goals y’all have?
Jonny: I have a personal goal of finding literally any in to the Richmond scene. I’m originally from Northern Virginia, and it would be really nice to play a show that my folks can actually come to. Every music venue, every promoter I knew has either moved on, moved to a completely different state, or the venue is gone. It’s the egg I can’t crack, and I want to find it so bad.
Miguel: Playing out of state is definitely the high goal right now. We have a couple of other shows scattered around North Carolina, so it’s cool to have that going. Now let’s build on that and expand.
Mason: I would love to set a goal of getting a solid skeleton of an album done. We’ve definitely been writing since probably November-ish. We have probably a whole other EP’s worth of songs written. They’re not all done yet, but we have three that are done-done.
Cameron: I have a personal goal kind of like Jonny’s, but mine is to finally upgrade my drum kit. It’s almost 25 years old. It used to be my brother’s before it was mine, and I’m super grateful to him for letting me have it. It works, but now that we’re doing this more seriously, I’d like to finally make that upgrade.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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