“I'm just thankful that I was the right thing”—Bradley Walden on Emarosa’s new life

EMAROSA may have achieved the highest first-week sales of their career with Versus, but the path to get there was plagued with potholes. The most trying of obstacles was losing precious years to finally find themselves a new frontman in Bradley Walden. AP spoke with Walden for his first-ever online interview on how his association with the band came to be and how it's everything he wanted it to be.

Let's start at square one with Emarosa's search for a new vocalist. How did your name come up?
BRADLEY WALDEN: As it started out, I was in a band called Squid The Whale from Detroit and every now and then I would put up some YouTube cover; anything I could just to get the music and my voice out there. This dude Stefan—who is Emarosa's merch guy over in the U.K.—actually saw one of the YouTube covers. I don’t know why, but he saw it, and he actually sent me a message on Twitter that said “Hey, I want to pass your video along to some of my friends who are looking for a singer. Would you mind?”

I don't remember the specific conversation, but I was like, “I'm in this band, but feel free to spread it. Sure, go for it.” He did and I was literally in rehearsal with my old band when I got this e-mail from Jordan [Stewart, keyboards]. It was like “Hey, it's Jordan from Emarosa.” As soon as I read that, I just felt like… I don't know the feeling. It's kind of like when your heart drops, but in a good way. I was a little blown away. [He said] “We got your video from our friend Stefan and we're very interested in talking to you. What's your current situation?” And I was like “Yes. Wow. This is awesome.” At the time, I was so overwhelmed by the offer to come jam, that I took it. I told my band that I was gonna jam, so I went down to Lexington, Kentucky, and it was fun, it was cool, and I accepted the position. Then I got home, met up with my band and got back on tour. I felt like I wanted to stick it out with Squid a little bit longer. I felt like I owed it to them.

You weren't going to try and do both at the same time? That was never an option for you?
It kind of was. The option came up for me to do both. I knew that one way or another, one of them was going to suffer. If I needed to do one of them, I needed to do one of them wholeheartedly. Especially during that time, Squid was up-and-coming and they needed all of my attention if they were ever going to happen. Emarosa had been, for lack of a better word, pretty dead for the past four years. So I knew that was going to take all my attention. But there was no way I could see myself doing both and being true to either one completely. So I ended up doing this tour with Squid, I contacted Emarosa, I said “You guys are great, but I have to stick it out with Squid. I owe it to them, they're my friends.”

Fast-forward a year, and Emarosa's booking agent [Dave Shapiro] contacted me and asked to reconsider. I was on tour with Squid, we were just not vibing; things were not going well in the band. I told Dave, “Yeah, I'll definitely reconsider.” I jammed once again, and I know they were skeptical because I had backed out—and rightfully so—but it was about from that point on where I was like, “Okay. I'm going to finish this tour with Squid and that's it. I'm going to go do Emarosa.” That's the story. It was a long time. Lightning doesn't strike twice and when I got the call from Dave that made me reconsider. I definitely felt like there's a reason this is happening.

How big of a fan of the band were you before you joined?
I was only a fan of the self-titled record. I had never really gotten into Relativity and This Is Your Way Out; it just wasn't my kind of music. Honestly, I love the instrumentals on the self-titled one. I'm a fan of that record and coming in, we would try writing songs and then they'd practice some of the old songs just to jam. I'd be pumped, like “I already know this one!” But also, that's why it took so long after I joined to actually put the record out, because I wanted to make sure that all the novelty of being in that band was gone.

I needed to take the time to actually get to know the dudes and be in the band, rather than just some guy they picked up and is now singing for them. I needed to build a relationship with them before we started writing our own music. It took a lot of patience. Obviously, I had been in the band a long time before the record even came out. There was a whole year of just being in this band and writing. It was a huge test of patience and perseverance, especially for them. I love this band, and being a part of this record, I'm an even bigger fan now watching the people in this band come as far as when they went on hiatus. It’s so memorable they didn't give up. They didn't do a Kickstarter or ask for money: They worked at Jimmy Johns and kept writing music until the right thing came along. I'm just thankful that I was the right thing.

Did you have to move?
I actually went and lived in Lexington while we were writing, so I did relocate. Now, since there's a little more freedom with the record out, I spend a lot of time in Nashville and in Northern Indiana getting family time in between tours.

You're kind of a nomad.
I really am. I can live out of a suitcase, no problem. My parents were military, so it doesn't feel normal for me to be in one place for too long.

Another thing about whenever you officially joined—there was no announcement. People eventually figured it out. Jonny Craig outed you on Twitter, but that was something you denied at the time.
If I remember correctly, when he said that, I actually had not accepted the position at that time. I think that was maybe during the time when I wasn't singing. I don't really remember; I have the worst memory. Maybe. I really wasn't worried about it. I'm a firm believer the music will speak for itself. All these people who were skeptical, worried or had something negative to say—even people who were excited—I just knew eventually the music was going to speak for itself and I didn't need to say anything. I didn't need to boast about it.

My concern going into this band was, “Okay, there's a huge shadow over this band. We need to break through that.” It's essentially a new band. People are like “Well, why didn't you change your name?” It's like, did you change your name when you went through puberty? It's the same thing. This band is just growing up and maturing. I didn't bother me that I couldn't be like, 'Oh, I sing for Emarosa now.' It wasn't about the attention or exposure at that point in time. We buckled down, we wrote songs, we recorded them. We're a band. We're not a reality TV show. The most important part was the music.

You take being a frontman seriously. How do you take care of yourself to be in this band?
Over the past couple months, I really got into yoga, Crossfit and nutrition, because tour takes a lot out of your body. I actually give voice lessons while I'm out on tour so I'm always practicing. I warm up every day. I cool down every day, before and after shows. I put myself on a real no-soda, no-sugars strict [regimen]. I take it very seriously because at the end of the day, it's a career. Don’t get me wrong: I love it, but you need to put in the work. It's not just showing up onstage and putting in work there. There are other areas people don't understand as far as being in a band. It's definitely a lot of taking care of your body—and mentally, especially with this band. [Laughs.] I personally don't handle the online criticism well, but there's a lot of mental stress you have to break through also.

How do you adjust to going from a band like Squid, and being in this position right now where all these fans want a part of you?
I take a couple tips from a couple people on Twitter I enjoy. I see the way they handle it, like Stephen Christian from Anberlin. He does social media really well. Hayley Williams from Paramore, she does it. Also, I like CM Punk. I love the way he handles it, because if someone's a jerk online, those people are just trying to get a reaction out of you, so just block 'em. There's always going to be people that try to just get to you for the sake of getting their attention. I'm slowly getting better at adjusting and handling that.

I meant it in a positive manner, because you're there for these fans. Not everyone in bands of Emarosa’s size is doing that.
I'm still pretty new. I mean, I don't have hundreds of thousands of followers. I really am glued to my phone. My family is like, “You're always on your phone!” It's hard to not be when I really just want to talk to all these people.

Like you just said, they're your career now.
Exactly. They're my lifeblood. These are the people that are going to be supporting the record. Sometimes I need space from it, so I take it. Day to day, people listen to our record and are like “Man, this song really made me feel something.” What am I supposed to do, just ignore that person? I want to talk to everybody. I have a feeling I'm going to burn myself out eventually, but until that happens, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.

The vocal lessons aren't your typical side hustle, when everyone wants to do their own clothing line, you want to teach people. When did this idea come about?
I took two years of lessons and it was great for me because I hate the whole scale of classic singing. I try to take the more realistic approach. Each person is different. There are kids that are trying to learn how to sing—or even grown ups—who I'm giving lessons to. They don't want to sing Phantom Of The Opera; they want to sing stuff that's in the scene. There's different things that I teach, like don't sing from your nose. It's something cool I can do on tour to help support myself. Everybody knows even at the level we're at, you're not exactly making a house payment. It's something I'm good at. I'm not good at selling t-shirts.

Are you anything besides a frontman?
Oh, yeah. I play piano. I play guitar.

I don't think a lot of people know that.
I don’t play live—yet. I write a lot of melodies with piano, actually. I'll transpose our songs to piano from guitar and it helps me to write my melodies from there. I don't think a lot of people know. I can't drum for shit, so you can put that in there.

Let's talk about Jonny Craig. Was there pressure to replace someone who worked so well with the band, vocally?
To an extent—I don't want to down the guy or speak ill of him. We're different people and different vocalists. I was definitely cautious at first about it because I could have came in as Whitney Houston and people still would have been like “This isn't as good [as Jonny].”

I think people misrepresent what good actually is and they really attach music to a time in their life. Music is nostalgic. It helps them feel good or whatever. Their last record with Jonny came our three or four years ago. Sometimes people don't want to let go and they misrepresent what's good for what is comfortable.

In my honest opinion, after really sitting down with the record and really listening to it and going across the board, I 100-percent believe this is the best Emarosa record. This isn't me being confused, this is looking from a musician's standpoint, from a songwriter's standpoint, especially. I feel like it's just better. I feel like the vocals are better. The musicianship is much more honed in. The old records, they just wrote a bunch of parts, threw it together and Jonny would just mumble over it. Then ER [White, lead guitarist] would write lyrics and they'd have a song. This is much more an actual band.

As far as Jonny goes, I don't worry about what he does or his bands or the past anymore. Because [we] literally just had the biggest first-week sales ever in the history of this band. That speaks for itself. This band hasn't put out a record in four years; they were dead for three years. We come in, we drop this record and it does the biggest numbers they've ever done? That's it. Game over. There’s nothing else to be said. There's no comparison anymore. I'm not worried about it anymore. I was before, because it was the unknown and there was an uncertainty. I don't love everything I write. There are things I don't like on the record. Overall, I'm super-proud of it. I don’t stress about the past of the band.

What's your relationship with Jonny? Is there one?
We don't have one.

Do you want one?
No. I don't think that he's a person I would want to have in my life. He's doing his own thing. I don't have anything bad to say about him. I don't have anything good to say about him, either. I would rather just not even talk about him.

Fair enough. Throughout the release stages, suddenly Lukas [Koszewski, drums] and Jonas [Ladekjaer, guitar] were out of the picture—literally, their promo shots updated to a four-piece without explanation. What happened?
They both were on the record. They just are, you know, trying other things in their life right now. They both said if we ever want them to write, if we ever want them to jam or if we need help or whatever we need, the door is always open for them. They both decided around the same time—they're not making music or anything elsewhere. Lucas is pursuing a modeling career. Jonas is planning on moving back to Denmark and going to school. There weren’t creative differences or anything like that, it was just a matter of doing other things in their life. I just think that they need to take a sabbatical. They're still very good friends. If we ever wanted them to write, they'd absolutely be a part of that.

When was their last show?
The last show on the Chiodos tour, I believe was their last.

How come you just went about it with a new promo picture instead of a written statement?
That's what they decided. They didn't want to cause a ruckus, especially with the record coming out. Honestly, we want to draw as little attention to it as possible. We don't want people to get the wrong idea—they were a part of the record—there's no bad blood. Everything is cool. They were just ready to do different things.

Who's been replacing them on tour?
On drums, it has been Branden Morgan from Misery Signals. He's great. There's been a couple people that we've had come out with us, but there's no permanent fill-in for guitar. We're going to remain a four-piece because I feel like right now, people need to re-familiarize themselves with this band. We're very comfortable with being a four-piece and having fill-ins on tour like we just did on this small Versus run. We did it for Riot Fest and it worked out great. All the fans are loving it.

For the ones concerned with your upcoming Yellowcard tour, will you have a second guitarist playing?
Yes, absolutely. We definitely need that second guitarist. The songs sound just as good live. I personally like some of our songs better live than I do recorded.

Let's talk about Versus. Why be such a tease with it when the fans already waited so long?
What do you mean “a tease?”

You released new songs really slow compared to your labelmates. Then you did the tortuous Instagram teasers.
Well, we had a timeline for the record. There were a couple behind-the-scenes calls for things that needed to be ironed out before we could release some songs. We put out “Mad.” We needed that song to get out there and get people interested.

How long was the record done when “Mad” came out?
I think it was done the end of last year, beginning of this year. The record was done a really long time. We wrote a lot of it in the studio. When we released a song and saw how overwhelming the positivity was, we just knew it was go-time and that we needed to get that song out there and [have] people to spread the word. Too much music at once would have just been over-saturated. A lot of it is marketing.

You were in the studio with Brian McTernan, and those guys had already worked with him before. What was the experience like for you?
Working with Brian was so amazing, for me personally. For the band, it's really stressful, because he'll tell you if he thinks something sucks, and he's not shy about it at all. Not everybody works well with that kind of environment, but I thrived on it. We were definitely on the same wavelength of what we wanted out of this record. Ultimately, I love that guy. We became really close. He definitely took it to a whole new level. I honestly believe if we hadn't gone to Brian, this record wouldn't have happened.

I'm going to guess that you guys recorded more than what's on Versus. I don't know if you can confirm or deny that.
I can't confirm or deny. What makes you say that?

What makes me say that is how popular deluxe reissues and bonus tracks are.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those things are really popular. I don't know. We'll see what happens.

I saw a still from the music video.  It looked fancy as hell. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

I felt like I was on the Titanic. We were in Orlando. We did a video for the song “I'll Just Wait.” We did another video that we're going to release later, probably more towards the Yellowcard tour. It was awesome—this huge, fancy place—they had us all dressed up. It was a good time. I just saw the final version the other day and I'm really excited for it.

That song from the first video, “I'll Just Wait” and the other ballad-type song, “Same Tight Rope,” are two of my favorites from the record—and also your grandma's, I noticed!
Yeah. [Laughs.]

Do you have a lot of support from your family?
Oh, dude! I mean, yeah, I've been doing this for like eight years. It's so cool for me because I remember the first time I sang in front of my mom was at some saloon in a small town in Indiana. She was so excited—she didn't know I could sing. Fast-forward to last weekend, where she's seeing me sing at Riot Fest in Chicago in front of 60,000 people. It was definitely a moment in my life that was like, “Okay. I stepped to it. I'm doing it. I'm going for it. I'm following the dream.” They're so supportive. They're so glad that I'm happy. I literally have the most supportive family.

You charted today for the first time ever in your life. What was that like?
I remember watching it when the record when up to pre-order on iTunes. It was, like, number 11 on the Alternative Charts. It was so awesome watching all the positivity. We knew a few days ago that our first-day sales were double what the last record was. That was so incredible. It's been such an uphill battle, and not that a number is going to validate the last eight years of writing music, but seeing the numbers being the best this band has ever done, it's hands-down such a validation. I can't really explain it. It feels great for me personally to do, as a musician. At the same time, there's a part of me that loves to stick it to the people who thought, “There's no way Emarosa will ever be important again or relevant.” Go ahead and say that again, 'cause now you're bobbing your head to our songs.

What's next?
Next is the Yellowcard tour. I know we want to go overseas next year. I would love to play Warped Tour. There are still plenty of things on the bucket list. I feel like Emarosa is back and is going to be here for a long time.

So when you say you're back, you don't think it'll be another three or four years until something new comes out?
Oh, no way! ER and I have already started writing. We haven't even talked about it as a band, but I would love to have another record out by the end of next year. I don't know all the business and politics that go into it, I just know this record is the best record that Emarosa has ever put out, but I don't think that it's the best record that we're going to put out, because we were just scratching the surface of getting to know each other and writing these songs. Now that we've opened ourselves up for this record, there's nothing that's off the table, we can write whatever we want. The vibe in the band is so rad right now, I can't even explain it. Everyone is so ready to get going and they want to write again. There's this new life that's been breathed into the band. We're absolutely moving forward. We're already writing new music and planning tours for next year.

Is it just going to get better, then?
Everything I've done in the past eight years has been a step up from the last. I guess the day when I feel like I didn't make something as good is the day I should probably stop. Until that happens, I'm just going to keep going. alt