Interview with Joel Green (Chopper) from Emery

Emery . Interviewer Joshua Hay . New York . 2005 . label: Toothandnail

Emery - Walls

Punk76: Who am I talking to and what do you play for Emery?
Chopper: My name is Chopper and I play Bass for Emery.

Punk76: My first question for you is: What is The question?
Chopper: It’s our new record. It’s kind of a philosophical background. I don’t really know you got to buy the record and read the insert to find out.

Punk76: Where did the name Emery come from?
Chopper: Actually our singer Toby was a student teacher at college. He was getting his degree in education. When he was doing his internship he had a kid in his class named Emery. That was at the time right before we were going to move to Seattle and try to be a real band. We were throwing around names and he mentioned Emery. We all liked it, it was short and it sounds good.

Punk76: What are your biggest musical influences?
Chopper: I’m a big fan of Sunny Day Real Estate. As far as Bass playing goes their bass player was a huge influence on me. This style of music, this genre that we are in. As far as that band went he really made the song move. Whereas most bands do a lot of flashy stuff on the guitar, Sunny Day Real Estate was really laid back on the guitar and letting the bass melodically driven band. They were one of my biggest influences I can go on for days but we will leave it at that.

Punk76: Where do you think the future of your genre of music, screamo or whatever people want to call it, is going nowadays?
Chopper: I don’t know I am really curious to see. I always figured like you know this whole screamo thing was going to be a fad thing that will last however long it will last like any type of music like hair metal for example. No one wants it to die out, but I believe the only true forms of music that will last are going to stick around are like jazz and classical and they have been around, jazz has been around for over 100 years and classical has been around forever. I can see myself fin 20 years being an old man like now saying remember Iron Maiden. I still listen to Iron Maiden and they are still relevant to me. Remember Poison and Motley Crew and listen to them and they are sort of relevant nowadays, without the impact of 20 years ago and it is still fun to listen to and you dig it and I imagine in 20 years I will put in our CD or Anberlin and sing along. And say those were the days There has been a lot of good music that has come out from this whole scene, I think music is going to change it always has and it always will and it either will evolve or die out and if it evolves it will turn to something else to who knows what? I would be interested to see what this genre is like in 5 years if it is still around.

Punk76: What do you think about "Spam"?
Chopper: "Spam" the food? Its not bad. Its o but like you know if I was somewhere and they served Spam vs. "deli sliced ham" and cheese I would of course eat the ham and cheese. If I was at somebodys house and they were serving spam and I was a guest I would dig it and I would eat it. It tastes pretty good. If you pan fry it its alright.

Punk76: Ive been to shows by you before and they were always great. I think that it was great that you would talk to fans about if you ever want to talk to us and you mention your religious beliefs with Jesus are you ever afraid that it would alienate any fans?
Chopper: You always run the risk of alienating people when you mention these things. That’s one thing that is extremely personal for people, their beliefs. If they are completely Anti-Christian they will be very outspoken about it. And then there are people who don’t know and are curious and they are a little weary and scared and those are the kind of people if you get in their face and come over aggressively they will second guess it and become uncomfortable and I don’t want any part of that. You have to be firm in your beliefs and not be overbearing and not put it in peoples faces and that not a way to get any beliefs across, political beliefs or spiritual beliefs. I am a vegan. I have friends who work for Peta and they take an easy approach to people and they take it easy and don’t ask people to watch this video about cows being slaughtered. Its hard for some people to take and if you aren’t ready for it you get really bothersome feeling and it makes you step back . As far as us proclaiming our beliefs on stage. It is who we are and a lot of our Christian fans always emailing us about hey I saw you wherever and you were totally talking about your faith and I saw you again and you didn’t say anything. Its not cut dry its something we talk about when we feel we need to. Its very personal and very real for us and therefore its not a process for us.

Punk76: What are your guys plans for the next year?
Chopper: We are trying to tour as much as we can. We want to do a video and then tour more and tour afterwards and we would like to tour in some other countries; Europe, Asia, that kind of thing. We definitely have plans of going oversees and we get lots and lots of emails from overseas fans. I’ve been writing a bunch back and saying hopefully 2006 . The plan is keep doing what we are doing and hopefully becoming more successful.

Punk76: Do you have any questions for me?
Chopper: Nope.

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