EMMIE 2024 Issue: The Drive Issue

COLLAGE BY BAILEY KRAUSE AND ELLIOT NOVAK

FOR THE RECORD

WORDS BY EMMIE STAFF

ART BY ELLIOT NOVAK, MADELINE SCHULTZ & MACY CHEN

SOMETHING TO GIVE EACH OTHER,

Something To Give Each Other

Something To Give Each Other

Something To Give Each Other

RADIO STATIC INTELLIGIBLE,

SCRAPYARD,

Avenues of Widespread Consumption, Radio Static Intelligible

Avenues of Widespread Consumption

Radio Static Intelligible

Radio Static Intelligible

Voice Memos From Me To You IDMTHY SCRAPYARD, a

Radio Static Intelligible.

SCRAPYARD. SCRAPYARD SCRAPYARD IDMTHY. IDMTHY SCRAPYARD

Cool Dry Place

Blue Raspberry

Blue Raspberry

Blue Raspberry

BLUE RASPBERRY,

Saviors

Saviors

Dookie

American Idiot, Revolution Radio

American Idiot.

SAVIORS, DOUBLE BIND,

Double Bind

About That Beer I Owed Ya

Strange Days

Saviors.

About That Beer I Owed Ya

Double Bind

Double Bind

Double Bind

Double Bind

Gene-

Super Nintendo

Alt.Account,

Alt.Account.

Alt.Account

THE GRACKLY GLARE OF INTERFERENCE BROADCAST ON EVERY STATION-- WHY BOTHER HAVING STATIONS? WHY BOTHER BRAGGING TO

…dead end?

…dead end?

-- ISABELLA KAFKA

ART BY MACY CHEN

WORDS PHOTOS & ART BY PAIGE KEARNEY

New Trick

The Make It All Show

Chaos County Line

Chaos County Line

The Make It All Show

Chaos County Line

Angel and Lulu Prost are not like other duos. The two siblings from St. Louis eat, breathe and are: Frost Children.-

during their tour is like a battle in war or missions in a--

taking in what is occurring in the world at the moment, and -

Looking at their last album alone, SPEED RUN, one hearsciate.their fans.

released at the end of 2023 and more stuff in the works

ANGEL

LULU

WORDS BY CORI DYNER

ART BY MACY CHEN

PHOTOS BY CAMILA TRIMBERGER-RUIZ

The emergence of new music styles dominated the 2000s. With the garage rock revival, rise of nu-metal, birth of a new indie rock style and more, the Y2K era of music is extremely notable. this: your favorite songs, upbeat and amped to the max. The creators of the nightcore genre put it perfectly, “We are previously existed, the duo added their own style to nightcorecally applied to trance or Eurodance songs and the style stuck.inence of the genre online. Nightcore boomed in undergroundued to grow.dreds of thousands of edited versions of your favorite songs, all sped-up and pitched. These videos all have distinctively highedit takes it a step further, including two anime-style catgirls with

The use of these images match the fan culture surrounding the genre, with fans of anime overlapping with nightcore fans. But

the tie of nightcore to anime goes even further to 2000s internet meme culture.

that you have seen some version of anime girls dancing to a particularly fast paced and upbeat electronic dance song. Theand high-pitched version of the song. The original version has the same electronic dance elements and upbeat energy, but not took the internet by storm, is a nightcore edit. -

high-paced and high-pitched sound.

The edit with the iconic “Cara-

traction and took off as a meme. The dance matches the edited would get tired after one minute of dancing, but the three animetirety of the song. Each element of the video works together to viewer.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, or nightcore rose once again under a new name: sped-up versions.

as nightcore edits. The original versions are sped up by a percentage and pitched, giving a breath of fresh air and energy to already-loved songs.

viewers as the original versions. These edits blew up on the app were, similarly, sped-up versions.

“We are the core of the night,

genre boomed in popularity online, with producers expanding from eurodance and other electronic dance genres. They creatbecome more mainstream than before.

nightcore eventually made its way to rhythm games. The popular rhythm game, osu!, is one of the most prominent games featur-

that it later became permanent, allowing all osu! enthusiasts to experience nightcore themselves.

The inclusion of nightcore in osu! furthered the feedback loop between anime and nightcore that was already in motion for years. There is great overlap between fans of osu! and anime, is clear. Anime fans brought nightcore to osu! and even more nightcore edits were generated as a result.

Though traditional nightcore edits are found off-and-on online today, the golden age of the genre ended.

Nightcore lives on today through other music genres, like songs are equally processed as nightcore and features throwbacks to the 2000s. This comes as no surprise, as nightcore is commonly cited as an inspirationated with the hyperpop genre, was inspired to edit her vocals has expressed how pitch-shifting her vocals allows her to fully express herself in her songs.-

cal material, is reminiscent of nightcore.

Though these genres trended in 2020, they are following the footsteps of their predecessor and are beginning to fade in popularity. The internet is developing at an even higher-speed nature. Trend cycles come and go at rapid rates and the entire lifecycle can happen in only a month. As we go full throttle toward the next big thing, nightcore could be left in the dust once again.

There is no telling what will happen years from now. Will these

CC: -

JF: -

GU:

Jesse Frolik:

Gavin Uhrmacher:

Heidi Anderson:

GU:JF: HA: GB:HA:

GU: JF: -

Charley Caton:

GB: -

GB: HA:

GB:

CC:

Javier Montoya: JF:

HA:

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JM:

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WORDS BY JESSE FROLIK, PHOTOS BY ELLIOT NOVAK, ART BY SOPHIE SCHULTZ & MAKEUP BY MACY CHEN

JAVIER MONTOYA, GUITAR

HEIDI ANDERSON, BASS

GAVIN UHRMACHER, VOCALS

GRIFFIN BERONIO, GUITAR CHARLEY CATON, DRUMS

Following the “Turnstile boom” in 2021, hardcore has reached new heights with a fresh sense of ultra-inclusivity and growth. One of the rising leaders in this melodic hardcore uprising is One Step Closer who hails from Wilkes-Barre, Pa. a city that boils over with musical talent. With bands such as Title Fight and a new generation of musicians look to this success with the most prominent being One Step Closer.

“I just want to be in, like, top three bands that come to mind.

for it to be Title Fight, One Step Closer, etc.,” explains vocalist Ryan Savitski.

Fronted by vocalist Ryan Savitski, One Step Closer is completed drummer Connor McAuliffe. Combining aspects of hardcore, emo and shoegaze without an inkling of arrogance, the band is unapologetically themselves. Wearing straight edge on their sleeves openly since inception, the band takes joy in this fact and how fundamental it is to their existence.

changing,” said Savitski.

at their X-Ray Arcade Milwaukee show on March 12th. With energy quintessential to a hardcore show, the band slammed the venue with deafening noise while still checking up on the compassionate and humble.

The show I attended at the X-Ray is part of their 22-date triple headliner tour across America with good friends and contemporaries Anxious and Koyo.

could just rock and have fun, you know, play to our fans and

play to people that just care and just make it the coolest thing ever,” said Savitski.

After some member turnover in 2022, the band released the EP Songs for the Willow showing a shift towards more melodic and slightly slower songs. Now in 2024, they have released their lead single “Leap Years” for their upcoming album All You Embrace.

“I think losing the members, like it sucked and everything, but I think the band itself is at such a healthier place now and everyone is really stoked. I think we have people that really add a lot

all progressed as musicians and really put in some work to make this record the coolest thing we possibly could do,” said Savitski.

“The reaction to the new single has been incredible I think. I for like, 12 hours,” said Savitski.

away from home while the place you love changes. While previous lyrics focus on these traumatic experiences and trapped feelings, All You Embrace pivots to welcome change and learn how to live with it.

“Man, I think when we were writing this record the overall theme of the record is kind of like change. And just like how you kind of cope with life changes, environment changes, and even career changes and stuff like that,” Savitski said.

One Step Closer is driven to be the next anointed prince of the genre. Following their Wilkes-Barre heritage and the release of All You Embrace on the horizon, the band is set up for lead-foot acceleration.

Leaving off with this sense of growth from the band Savitski ex-

everybody else has grown as musicians and I think we really pushed it to the limit on this one, which is cool.”

WORDS BY EASTON PARKS, PHOTOS BY ELLIOT NOVAK, ART BY ERICA KALLAS

WORDS BY ARTHUR MACHADO, PHOTOS BY ELLIOT NOVAK, ART BY ERICA KALLAS

WORDS AND ART BY MADELINE SCHULTZ

PHOTOS BY ELLIOT NOVAK

The Battle at Kiganjima Island

Growing in the Midwest, random drives are a lifeline for the bored high school community. Grab your friends, pile them up in a car, give them a vague destination and boom — begin your land cruise. This random drive was just like any other: we piled into my friends old Jeep Patriot, set course for the county highway, laughed at stupid vanity plates and shared some tunes.

I had just begun listening to Weed, the Vancouver-based music project of Will Anderson and Kevin Doherty and needed to hear more. After a quick spin of the volume knob, “Set Me Back” came on and immediately blew the backseat chatter out of the window. Distorted riffs, furious drums and angsty but airy vocals became the focal point of this random drive, until the backseat

headbanging was distracting his driving. I understood; our taste in music till that point had been atmospheric Cocteau Twins -

nergaze was maybe inauspicious to the easy listening members of the backseat. I reluctantly handed over the aux cord to the disembodied and dark hand reaching over the console.

Since then, Weed disbanded, Anderson went on tour with Matt Berry and the Happy Diving crew, Hotline TNT formed, I moved to Madison, and Hotline TNT dropped their most accessible and polished record to date “Cartwheel.” A perfect mix of the jangly guitars the back seat loved and while keeping the chaotic overdriven noise the front seat required. Despite this being their

TNT sound from the frantic shoegaze of early Hotline TNT EPs into the noisy but ethereal indie pop of today.

Lyrically, Anderson explores his interpersonal life, lamenting over love lost and drawing brief sketches of life at its most show. These sketches come together to form delicate macaroni mosaics of modern angst: hopeless romantics lost in the digital age and burned-out ex-rockers assimilating into dead-end jobs. Hotline TNT is an indie rock band from Brooklyn, N.Y. which embraces harsh distortion just as much as Tom Petty-esque power pop structures. An integral part of the modern day “indiegaze” scene (Wednesday, TAGABOW,) Hotline TNT offers their own unique sound to those who love both early My Bloody Valentine and heartthrob classics Teenage Fanclub.

A crucial piece of the Hotline TNT sound is their commitment Vancouver and Brooklyn local scenes, bringing the punk ethos with them anywhere they go. For Hotline TNT, this might look

like playing cheap strat-copies from Japan or pushing a lone their absolute limit. In a testament to this, Hotline TNT per-

Interlay and Mio Min Mio. The crowd, a sort of coming together for the Isthmus hipsters of Willy Street and the 20-nothing ethos that Hotline TNT carries with them.

I got the opportunity to talk to Will Anderson and Matt Berry while they were in Idaho on their US tour.

Ian Johnson: you on the album?

Will Anderson: Yeah, I mean, I just liked the way Ian (Silicon Prairie) records. The Silicon Prairie albums always turn out really cool so I wanted to get his DNA imprinted onto the Hotline

I was looking at your Spotify playlist you made for the new Cartwheel album, and I saw a lot of really fun songs on there. You had “Motorbike” by Momma on there and we were talking earlier about working with their producer.

WA:

toured together as well so we had a nice relationship from that. I was kind of hearing those [Momma] songs a lot. Allegra Weingarten sings on one of the songs on this album.

directly, what do you think the importance of a social media presence is to an up-and-coming band?

WA: -

these days. I use Instagram and Twitch as a way to kind of express my creativity and you can just make it whatever you want. Some people use it to post infographics and express also just part of the entertainment of being a fan on the internet.

Matt Berry: I think that social media is pretty detrimental totainment industry to any extent; you play music and you want

people to hear it, then you have to be a part of it. You might as well have fun with it. You might as well enjoy yourself and not get too caught up in the game of like” you know, use it as a means to reach people if you can.

WA:ing other things, but that conversation is pointless. Yeah, still playing smaller venues and continuously put in effort of maintaining the DIY practices and ethos while also achieving success?

WA: As the band has grown, it gets a little bit harder to play those kinds of DIY shows, in all the cities we want and certain cities that I would love to play DIY shows in the DIY world forever. Because, if the band is growing, and so many people want to see it, and a lot of people are involved, you kind of just have to move to a more the DIY world and ethos is very important to me, and camps as long as possible. And if tomorrow Third Man dropped us, we would just go back to whatever we did before; self-release the records and all that shit.

On “Out of Town” you sing, “sounds too easy; played through Peavey” which I thought was a cool amps in basements.

WA: around. That lyric is about a guitar amp that was in this had it and we were playing the guitar together. that you make a majority of things on GarageBand. So, advice to better bedroom musicians just starting out?

WA: in my opinion, if you go back to the early stuff, I think songs too. I usually start with some guitar chords and tryit to sound, just keep tweaking it until it sounds the way

WORDS BY IAN JOHNSON ART & PHOTOS BY CAMILA TRIMBERGER-RUIZ

WORDS BY EMMERY CLEMENTS ART BY PAIGE KEARNEY

A History of Engines’ Accompaniment

Although the roar of a killer V8 engine is music to my ears, any good trip in the car requires an immaculate soundtrack. Connecting my phone to the Bluetooth in my the unpredictability of the radio is the only other option. including having enough space in the car for the radio to place a radio in a car, he could certainly market his of the venue, he blasted the radio like a high schooler try the primary phonograph manufacturer of the time.

a luxury accessory, costing nearly a third of the price of the car itself. Although the economy certainly played a

improve upon the initial system, but all versions required extra needle pressure to prevent skipping during a drive record players do not belong in cars in reality. tapes.

Despite general concerns, cars (and their radios) proved ty. Aside from the general lack of enthusiasm about a featured the unique ability to automatically search for stations.

Even as radio drastically improved, Chrysler decided to variety available for drivers today, only Columbia pro

drivers to plug portable CD players into their cars, an ers.

begging my mom to let me control the CD player in the okay? Despite my personal attachment to CDs, tech subscription to radio set up the freedom expanded upon through streaming services.

is no doubt that the decades of technological innovation the music of our choice.

WORDS BY IAN JOHNSON ART BY CAMILA TRIMBERGER-RUIZ

WORDS BY JESSE FROLIK

PHOTOS AND ART BY ELLIOT NOVAK

Many bands spend their weekends playing shows in basements and at DIY venues around town, making noise into the wee hours of the morning. Other bands embody what it means to be DIY around the clock. One such artist, the synth-heavy solo project of local Madison musician and DIY advocate Cam Scheller-Suitor, is Friendly Spectres.

Friendly Spectres is a lot more than a single musical idea. For Scheller-Suitor, the project has become a way to experimenttic guitar to assorted synths and even screams and shouts, he song. “I just sort of started from scratch and went for it. It Scheller-Suitor explains.

room with only three audio outputs: a vocal mic, a guitar and often live-mixing the backing with a drum machine and loop urge to create and get in front of an audience, which he started getting traction for in 2018 with his acoustic-solo-project-turned-band, Bob Loblaw. “Friendly Spectres kind of just evolved out of the Bob Loblaw band ending and wanting a Schellor-Suitor says, “I just made my band exist in my comdown rhythm as the drummer of Madison emo band, Dear Mr. Watterson. Whether solo or collaborative, Schellor-Suitor pulls inspiration from each project to innovate sound and put on a great show.

Promised Land, the most recent release of Friendly Spectres, to experiment and challenge himself. While still clearly full of Make Some Good Memories and Then Forget, thesizer that drives each verse into a cacophonous chorus. He music was going to look like, he explained “I think the only thing to expect is that every release will probably be a little bit

In the area of experimental music, the live aspect of DIY music seems to be just as important to Scheller-Suitor as all the time spent recording. In DIY spaces, artists are given the opportunity to express themselves like nowhere else, especially with how willing the audiences are to hear something different. Scheller-Suitor describes the perfect DIY show attendee as “down for

the East Coast during his Spring 2024 tour, he saw audiences willing to experience the unexpected.

The community is what makes it possible for Friendly Spectres, and similar smaller artists, to travel state lines and play to packed crowds and friends all across the country. When I asked who makes this possible, Scheller-Suitor recounted the many artists that he has made friends with on their own tours coming through the Midwest. “People in the DIY community Scheller-Suitor says, “same goes to them if they ever want to come back to Madison, the doors open as far as me trying to

with it. “In my opinion, you really have to enjoy the work of to venues to get even a response back.

No stranger to the work himself, I would be remiss to not men-tice space for Friendly Spectres, Dear Mr. Watterson and local shoegazers Interlay, the hot and sweaty room moonlighted as a DIY haven for traveling artists to perform, “we made it work

be a hip-hop/hyperpop bill, an electronic synth punk bill or all the local homies playing together regardless of genre. With the help of fellow bandmates and local volunteers, Schellor-Suitor helped to foster a venue for people who enjoy the live music experience as much as him, “we were all able to have a space where people could come and enjoy music and

follow Schellor-Suitor into new avenues where people can engage with live music absent of barriers.

When I explained the title of this edition of EMMIE, The Drive Issue, I asked Scheller-Suitor what drive means to him in continuing with the DIY ethos. “I think drive, to me, means staying

explains, “Out of the sense of purpose. Oh yeah, I guess I have a sense of

obvious to people surrounding Friendly Spectres than themself, but this intrinsic

time experiencer of Friendly Spectres. Everyone has that drive in them to create something exciting and new, and

and seeks out that drive in every given opportunity.

STORIES ABOUT OUR OUTDATED MUSIC TECH

The best thing that ever happened to my music taste was when my grandpa bought my two cousins and me each a brand new Nintendo DSi sister, who was around twenty at the time, loaded up a fresh SD card full of whatever songs she-

ing to music on a Nintendo DSi

iPod - birthday, my parents gave me the greatest gift my young mind could ever imagine: an iPod Nano Tiny, metallic pink and engraved with my name on the back, that Nano

Nano until it died, even digging it out when I wanted to feel like a little kid on the bus again, escaping from the reality of going to school and cherishing every

WORDS BY EMMIE STAFF

ART BY MADDIE BAGGENSTOSS

iPod in my pocket and called one person over at a time to share my khaki-laden peers gathered, suspicious enough that the playground monitor raced over to see what iPod

songs off of and download them onto a hand-me-down iPod Touch before this tragedy, in the depths of my iPodmember the looks my family gave me when the grainy audio started blasting from my iPod Touch subscription isiPod Mini -

When I was eight, my aunt gifted me her hot pink iPod Nano iPhone

covers I thought looked cool (mainly because I had no idea how to add more songs to it, otheriPod, my only music choices were the discs

I got this kitschy karaoke machine for one of my birthdays (which was actually a super awesome , and for some reason, my mom thought that if we signed up for survived, but alas, my personal karaoke machine was lost forever to the graveyard of -

SRF-16W, a occasions where my library fell short, I would plug my headphones into the old Walloved that little radio, and it was really those moments that made me interested in owning tangible

and Dan and Phil pillowcases, she drew the emo line at anything with too much black or too

Day in the seventh grade, a fellow Catholic school emo presented me with a burned CD of all of

Paper Jamz guitar the red strat-style Paper Jamzical media device collection belongs to my Panasonic stereo cassette player, a birthday gift from between the vintage feel of vinyl and the somewhat still relevant compact discs, though recently arsenal, I felt unstoppable, the ability to listen to some of my favorite albums ever with some of

ABBY_HOLIDAY_BY_MIA_DELFRATE

ALLEGRA_KRIEGER_BY_AIDEEN_GABBAI

ALEXALONE_BY_BAILEY_KRAUSE

ABBY_HOLIDAY_BY_BAILEY_KRAUSE

ART_BY_MADDIE_BAGGENSTOSS

CAUSE_AND_CONTROL_BY_EMILY_ISENSEE

AWAKEBUTSTILLINBED_BY_ELLIOT_NOVAK

BUG_MOMENT_BY_ELLIOT_NOVAK

DANNY_BROWN_BY_MACY_CHEN

EQUIPMENT_BY_ELLIOT_NOVAK

FLESHWATER_BY_CAMILA_TRIMBERGER_RUIZ

FAYE_WEBSTER_BY_PAIGE_KEARNEY

FAYE_WEBSTER_BY_PAIGE_KEARNEY

HEAVY_LOOKS_BY_BAILEY_KRAUSE

KATY_KIRBY_BY_AIDEEN_GABBAI

PINK_HALO_BY_MIA_DELFRATE

PINK_HALO_BY_BAILEY_KRAUSE

HEY_ILY!_BY_CAMILA_TRIMBERGER_RUIZ

HOOK_BY_MACY_CHEN

TINY_VOICES_BY_ELLIOT_NOVAK

THE_BEACHES_BY_BEATRICE_LAZARSKI

PEACH_PIT_BY_AIDEEN_GABBAI

THURSDAY_BY_CAMILA_TRIMBERGER_RUIZ

BRUISER_WOLF_BY_MACY_CHEN

SHE’S_GREEN_BY_CAMILA_TRIMBERGER_RUIZ

RIOTNINE_BY_ELLIOT_NOVAK

RIOTNINE_BY_ELLIOT_NOVAK

Through the publishing of our three student-run journals and magazines, the Publications Committee of the Wisconsin Union Directorate provides a creative outlet for UW-Madison students interested in creating poetry and prose, reporting on music or delving into food. We celebrate creativity on campus by providing hands-on experience in publishing, editing, writing and design.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Publications Committee Director: Katerina Stuopis

Publications Committee Advisor: Robin Schmoldt

Associate Director of Marketing: Autumn Payette

Associate Director of Programming: Heewone Lim

Associate Director of Access & Outreach: Brianna Rau

All the artists featured in the issue

Illumination Journal, The Dish Magazine, WUD Music, Jamie Coletta, Beanie Lawrence, Thax Douglas & Wisconsin DIY