Renowned music journalist, critic, and podcast host Andrew Sacher has just wrapped up his new book Emo Revival: Community, DIY, and Rebirth in Post-Hardcore and Emo (2008-2018), a classic piece of work that deals with the revival of the style of ‘90s emo genre. The book is set to be released on September 8 through CLASH Books, and the distribution will be handled by Consortium. Ahead of the release, the author had a conversation with New Noise Magazine to discuss the many aspects of the book such as the writing process, the challenges, the title of the book, the upcoming plans, etc. Read the whole interview below to know more about it:

Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start and go about shaping ideas into a completed chapter?

For this book in particular, the thing that really drove the process was interviewing all the bands, hearing all the ways their stories intersected, and then finding ways to anchor the book around those moments. The whole “emo revival” scene was really driven more by community building than by a genre of music, so I tried to always bring things back to the communal aspect while also telling the stories of so many pivotal bands, albums, shows, tours, record labels, etc.

In your own words, what is “Emo Revival?” What is the reason behind the title of the book?

The answer to this question will be hotly debated until the end of time. But I would say “emo revival” originally caught on as a way to describe bands that were specifically “reviving” a style of ‘90s emo that disappeared when emo got popular in the 2000s—bands like Algernon Cadwallader, Snowing/Street Smart Cyclist, Grown Ups, Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Joie de Vivre, and others reviving what we now call “Midwest emo”—but then when the mainstream music press caught onto this whole scene/community, “emo revival” became a catch-all for basically any melodic, punk-derived, underground guitar rock band that didn’t fit with mainstream indie rock, including bands like Title Fight, Touché Amoré, La Dispute, Joyce Manor, Tigers Jaw, Hop Along, Modern Baseball, Foxing … The list goes on, and the book covers as much of it as I could.

I would add, though, that even the non-Midwest-emo bands in the book had more musically and ideologically in common with the ‘90s than with the 2000s, so “emo revival” is a fitting term for all of it. It’s also just catchier than “fourth wave emo” or “the new wave of post-hardcore,” both of which have also been used to describe a lot of the bands in this book. I like it as a title for the book because it is extremely literal and a little mysterious all at once.

How long did it take you to complete this book? How long did you research for it?

Way longer than I thought! The actual process of writing/interviewing took about three years, but—excuse the cliché—I’ve been researching for it for most of my life. I started writing for BrooklynVegan in 2010, and “emo revival” became my main beat for the site by 2011-2012. I closely followed and wrote about the rises of most of the bands in the book in real time, and my personal journey with emo always felt like “emo revival” even before I knew to call it that. I was the annoying teenager in 2005 insisting that American Football and Cap’n Jazz were “real emo.”

What challenges did you face while writing the book?

How much time do you have? So many challenges, but honestly, the hardest part was narrowing everything down and figuring out what had to get cut. There were so many other stories I wanted to tell, and a lot of tough decisions had to be made. For the fellow completists out there, stay tuned for some online bonus content.

Are you interested in any other genres apart from emo?

Of course! My favorite band is The Beach Boys (though some people call Pet Sounds the first emo album), and I can’t really think of any genres I’m not interested in.

Now that the book is completed, how do you feel about it? Is there any plan to write a sequel to it?

The feedback for the announcement alone has been great so I’m just feeling excited to get it out into the world. I don’t have any plans at the moment for a sequel but, like I said earlier, some bonus content is coming.

Preorder Emo Revival: Community, DIY, and Rebirth in Post-Hardcore and Emo (2008-2018) here.