EMERY - "While Broken Hearts Prevail" EP - Biography 2008

Emery has been a band since forming in South Carolina in 2001. Their local scene was pretty quiet at that time, so the band decided to move to Seattle, WA. That move soon paid off as record labels came calling within a year. Emery decided to sign with Tooth & Nail Records and released their label debut, The Weak’s End, in 2004. They released their second full-length, The Question, in 2006, and followed with I’m Only A Man, in 2007.

Emery’s latest recorded effort, While Broken Hearts Prevail, will be released October 28. The EP includes new material as well as material that has been in the band’s repertoire but never recorded. Singer/Bassist Toby Morrell talks of the impetus for the EP: “We had two years between our last two albums and we thought that was too long of a time, so we want to put out music every year. We worked so hard on our last album and put so much time that when we wrote this, we just made it fun and easy and the songs reflect that.”

Judging from the new songs posted on the Emery MySpace (myspace.com/emery), this EP is some of their most energetic and hard charging music ever. Among the eight songs is an older song, Always Depends, which is one of the first songs the band wrote but never recorded. Morrell relates “We wrote that song back in 2001 as we were moving from South Carolina to Seattle. We took three cars and used walkie-talkies to communicate. We wrote the riffs over the walkie talkies.” Following the organic theme of the songwriting, the band rented a beach house to record in and guitarist Matt Carter acted as producer. “When we recorded drums, we put all these mattresses against the wall, and I was nervous that we would get kicked out, but this old hippie couple was next door who ran their own radio station, and they thought it was cool.”

Emery has embarked upon at least three national tours per year, sharing the stage with such artists as Chiodos, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Silverstein, Alexisonfire and Hawthorne Heights. Besides Morrell, the band includes Matt Carter (guitar), Devin Shelton (vocals/bass), Dave Powell (drums) and Josh Head (keys/vocals).