Morgan Freed
Appearances
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Okay, all right. We're playing music, right? Yeah, I know. All right, here we go.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
This, I mean, it was really good out there, but this is like kind of a slower one, actually. Yeah.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
There's like a joke on the internet. It's like a real emo copypasta. I don't know if you've seen that floating around, but it's like this copypasta that's like, real emo only consists of the DC emotional hardcore scene of the 19 and the late 90s screamo scene.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Well, I mean, but it came from hardcore. It came from punk. It's just something that evolved into what it is now. And some of the songs that you heard tonight, those are, I wouldn't call them emo songs, but they are adjacent in the fact that they kind of all came out around the same time. And I think that that's an important thing that all these emo purists forget is that it was such a community.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
an artist didn't sound like them when you started this did you still think it would be continuing on in 2025 at this point did you have a concept of that no not at all so this is year 11 like we never that's ridiculous it's crazy we made a rule after a year after our anniversary show in december year 10 that we were just not going to talk about the years anymore because
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Because then people might be like, I don't want to go to that old person party. But yeah, dude, no, not at all in the slightest. I remember there was a conversation that we had where we were like, wouldn't it be cool if we could pay our rent with Emo Night? And now it's like our full-time job.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
They're like kids that DM us. They're like, I can't wait till I turn, you know, some parties we have that are 18 plus, but here, you know, it's 21. So like people are like dying to turn 21 to come here. It's like the first thing that they're going to do once they become legal drinking age. And I think that that is crazy. That's a crazy thing to me.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
I don't know. There's something about this genre that is... that people just really latch onto and they really fight for it. And there's a lot of debates about the word emo. I can't think of another genre that people fight about as much as emo. And I think that is because they care about it. Everybody has whatever they've determined emo is to them.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
And if your idea of emo is different, you're wrong and people will argue with you about it until they're blue in the face.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
people just really care about this i am one of those people that really cares about this it was kind of like the last moment where like there was a real music scene before like we all became permanently online emo was the thing you had to go find physically find the people that you felt you know we're already dealing with people that for the most part are teenagers they feel uncomfortable
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
They're learning to grow up. We didn't have all the answers at our fingertips. So you had to go out and physically find your people. And I think this music and the adjacent music really helped guide those people in the direction that they kind of choose for the rest of their lives. And that's why I think that we have everybody from 21 to year 42. You don't need to repeat it.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
You know, so it's like, I think that that's why, I think it's the last genre before the internet. I think there's a lot of reasons why it is big. I can't ever put my finger on it, but I do think that it is here to stay. People say like, oh, it's just a phase. Like, I don't know, 25, 30 years doesn't really seem like a phase. A phase is like two to three years. Yeah. Yeah.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
We had this party, this idea for this party at the exact right time in Los Angeles. I was 24 when we started this. I'm now 35. And there were a lot of people like myself who had moved here and they were kind of getting their start in the creative industry. And they were the people that were kind of the artsy weirdos in their high schools. And this music is kind of the thing that I think,
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
everybody turned to when they didn't feel like they fit in in their high school. And then all those people grew up and they were still artsy weirdos.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
And then they moved to LA and they started working in film and they started working in like, you know, different genres of music, but they all had this moment that tied everybody together, whether you're from Ohio or you're from Utah or you're from Arizona. I think everybody had a similar sort of adolescent experience with this music where it felt like a safe place.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
It wasn't just through the songs themselves, it was the whole scene around it, like going to shows and connecting with people and all of it.
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
Dude, I mean, when we got to play Coachella, that was wild. That was crazy. We got to play Coachella in 2022, and they put us on the dance tent, like in the Sahara dance tent at 6 p.m., which is like the best slot. It's a great spot. Yeah. And it was just fucking crazy. And we got to bring all of our heroes with us. So we got to bring like Jacoby from Papa Roach and the guys from 303 and...
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
hello goodbye and plain white teas and all these like people who have never been considered or even thought about playing coachella they got to play with us and like that feeling of being like the ones who are kicking down the door of like entering spaces that traditionally didn't allow sort of like our music scene that that felt good and you know like this is all extra for me
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
You know, like, every day, I'm like, should not be here at all. So this is all great. The whole thing is really surreal, right? And the fact that, like, I think we did a net positive for music and culture in general. What spawns out of it, I have no idea. But, like, we...
Flightless Bird
Emo Music
really do it because we're like we really love this stuff really love the people this is like kind of all i know so for me it's this is great this is the top moment of my life what we're doing right now with you stay tuned for more flightless bird we'll be right back after a word from our sponsors