Josh Dempsey

“Jim Adkins: ...There was a girl who wrote us, explaining how she felt like an outsider at her school because the punk rock kids wouldn't accept her, even though she liked us and a lot of the really obscure bands we toured with. And I just thought 'It's not worth your time to trip on this. Punk rock is and should be inclusive. That's the one thing I know. No matter what your definition of punk is, everyone would say that it's inclusive, it welcomes outsiders. Freak flags welcome. Wave 'em around. These chicks don't get it at all, don't waste your time trying to get their approval.' That's where the main idea for the lyrics to 'The Middle' came from.”
― Chris Payne, Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

“Matthew Ismael Ruiz: ...There might be people to this day who think In Reverie is important, but to me it was important in understanding the way music fandom works. I felt like they had a responsibility to not be awful because they were my favorite band, they were some of my friends' favorite band. Like, I can't even go to your show, because you'll play most of this new record, and I'll get maybe three or four songs that I actually like. This sucks.
But the more distance you put from that, you realize, how can you expect a band to stay the same way they were when they were fifteen, sixteen? Or twenty? Or twenty-three, twenty-five?”
― Chris Payne, Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”
― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

“Maria Sherman: ...I also wonder if people who are loyalists to this music--ride or die Warped Tour every year--I imagine at a certain point they were sick of seeing bands they love blow up to an enormous size and no longer feel like their own. Not that you have to be younger to experience that but . . . there's such a feeling of ownership of this music that you connect to deeply. And after a while it's like, 'Okay, well it got too big. I'm out.”
― Chris Payne, Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008