That is JT Woodruff, the ultimate emo wife guy.

In this episode of the Make Me a Fan series, Lizzie selects five tracks from Hawthorne Heights to prove to Brian that the band is more than just early-2000s scene stereotypes. They discuss the band's history, their modern evolution, and whether Brian is ready to join the fandom.

If you had five songs to convince your friend to love your favorite band, what would you choose? In this episode of the Make Me a Fan series, Lizzie tries to convert Brian into a Hawthorne Heights believer.

Despite being in the thick of the mid-2000s scene boom, Brian originally wrote the band off as a skeptic. To prove him wrong, Lizzie brought 5 specific tracks spanning their entire discography to see if she can change his mind: "Ohio Is For Lovers," "Niki FM," "Saying Sorry," "End of the Underground," and "Cardinal."

We break down the undeniable edge-core grip of "Ohio Is For Lovers," revisit their Victory Records TRL era with "Saying Sorry," and look at their modern evolution. Plus, we talk about the nostalgia of the local scene, whether "Ohio Is For Lovers" was destined to be the soundtrack to every Matt Cutshall meme on the internet, and why frontman JT Woodruff is the ultimate "emo wife guy."

Can five songs overwrite 20 years of scene stubbornness?

Episode Chapters:

00:00 - The Make Me A Fan Challenge

03:15 - Breaking Down Ohio Is For Lovers & Scene Stereotypes

15:40 - Cardinal & Their Modern Sound

22:20 - Niki FM: JT Woodruff is the Ultimate Emo Wife Guy

33:10 - Saying Sorry & The Victory Records Era

44:30 - End of the Underground & Brian's Final Verdict

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It was never just a phase. We connect the Myspace era to today's waves.

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"I would argue that Sempiternal is their re-debut album. It pivoted to something that's a little bit more poppy for the mainstream general audience... it very much was a rebranding of them in a way."

This week, Brian and Lizzie dissect Bring Me The Horizon's pivotal 2013 album, Sempiternal. They discuss the addition of Jordan Fish, Oli Sykes' shift to clean vocals, and how the band laid the blueprint for modern metalcore.

A decade after its release, Bring Me The Horizon's Sempiternal remains a monumental record in emo history and modern metalcore. Brian and Lizzie sit down to review the album that transformed BMTH from a raw deathcore act into global rock superstars. They analyze the massive impact of Jordan Fish joining the band, bringing cinematic synths and EDM influences that completely reshaped their sonic landscape. The hosts break down Oli Sykes' evolution into clean, Linkin Park-inspired vocals and review standout tracks like 'Can You Feel My Heart', 'Shadow Moses', and 'Sleepwalking'. From the pop punk level of catchy hooks embedded in their heavy breakdowns to the nuanced electronic soundscapes that paved the way for the current 'baddiecore' movement, this episode covers it all. Did Sempiternal single-handedly save a stale scene, or are there valid critiques of its straightforward lyrics? Tune in to hear the Emo Social Club's final verdict on this definitive release.

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It was never just a phase. We connect the Myspace era to today's waves.

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"There's video evidence of me being like 16 years old playing to zero people in a coffee shop. So I'm like, trust me, the grind has been there forever."

David Osterhout of Bike Routes sits down to discuss the viral success of "World Apart," opening for Hawthorne Heights and Young Culture, and a surreal encounter with Bruce Springsteen.

David Osterhout of South Jersey's Bike Routes is having a massive breakout year, but don't call him an industry plant. He sits down with Brian and Lizzie to talk about grinding for six years in front of empty coffee shops, the sudden TikTok explosion of "World Apart," and a surreal Portland bookstore encounter with Bruce Springsteen that led to an E Street Band collaboration with Jake Clemons on the track "Delicate." David details the band's roots in the rich New Jersey DIY scene, the lead-up to the new album "Prairie," and the reality of transitioning from local acoustic gigs to full-band tours with Young Culture and Hawthorne Heights. Later in the episode, Brian and Lizzie stick around to unpack the recent scene controversy surrounding the Chaotic Good marketing agency. They discuss the reality of modern music promotion, the mechanics of mass clip creation pushing songs into the algorithm, and why the internet is suddenly obsessed with calling every rising pop-punk and emo band a psyop.

"It's one of those moments where I've planned my whole life, like if I ever run into Bruce Springsteen, I have to say this, this, this. I just walked up and I was just like, can I shake your hand?"

"My dreams came true the first time we played a show out of the state of New Jersey. That was a ceiling for me. I was like, the second we play a show across state lines, we're good."

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It was never just a phase. We connect the Myspace era to today's waves.

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"Teen angst doesn't go away just because you get older. I think as an adult, you have less and less ways to relieve that stress of everyday life."

Multi-platinum artist Bryce Vine might be known for massive hip-hop crossover hits, but his musical DNA is pure Warped Tour.

Multi-platinum artist Bryce Vine might be known for massive hip-hop crossover hits, but his musical DNA is pure Warped Tour. From hunting down Blink-182's Dude Ranch on the radio as a kid to obsessing over the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtracks, Bryce has always been a scene kid at heart. He sits down with Lizzie to talk about blending those early pop-punk influences into his mainstream sound, navigating the reality of industry expectations, and what it’s actually like collaborating with scene heavyweights like John Feldmann and Travis Barker. Looking ahead to summer, Bryce talks about his placement on the Warped Tour 2026 lineup and getting to play alongside legacy acts like Third Eye Blind and New Found Glory. Stick around after the interview as Brian and Lizzie unpack the modern festival landscape, debate the mixed online reactions to the recent Warped Tour announcements, and question whether today's scene artists still get unfairly pigeonholed by outdated genre expectations.

"Teen angst doesn't go away just because you get older. I think as an adult, you have less and less ways to relieve that stress of everyday life and the things that are going on in your head, and then you just end up overthinking."

"There's a lot of pressure in the music industry... you kinda gotta consider it in a different way. So I really try to tell up and coming artists not to worry too much about that and just lead by example by putting out music because it's what makes me feel good."

"I just wanna make dope s***, and I think my fans get that. So if it's a punk song this time, then they learn all the words because they're invested now."

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It was never just a phase. We connect the Myspace era to today's waves.

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"It's been a slow burn. It's not like a commemoration of a time that we blew up... It's just an album that became more successful later on."

Microwave sits down with Brian and Lizzie at the Salt Shed during their Much Love 10-Year Anniversary Tour. The band dives into their slow-burn rise to success following the 2022 Story So Far tour, the hilarious reality of crashing in Hot Mulligan's dorm lobby, and why they relate more to Jimmy Eat World than Midwest emo. Plus, rapid-fire reviews of new releases from The Maine, Enter Shikari, Bilmuri, and more.

Microwave is in the hot seat this week as Brian and Lizzie sit down with Nathan, Tyler, Tito, and Luke live from the Salt Shed to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of Much Love. Despite what their Wikipedia page says, the guys aren't actually influenced by Midwest emo, and they break down tracing their true sound back to Jimmy Eat World rather than Cap'n Jazz. They discuss what it has been like to watch Much Love explode in popularity after their 2022 run with The Story So Far, validating their slow-burn success in the scene. The band also reminisces about the unglamorous realities of early DIY touring, highlighted by a hilarious 2016 story where they slept on the floor of a freshman dorm lobby while Hot Mulligan's roommate vacuumed around them. Following the interview, Lizzie gets sassy as she and Brian dive into rapid-fire reviews of the latest tracks dropping ahead of the spring and summer tours, sharing their unfiltered thoughts on new music from The Maine, Bilmuri, Enter Shikari, and more.

"In 2016 on The Wonder Years tour, we stayed at Chris from Hot Mulligan's freshman dorm. We assumed it was like a house, and we showed up and were sleeping in the lobby. I woke up to somebody just vacuuming right next to me."

"We weren't robbed of any of the experiences of developing a band. Some people, their s*** blows up when they're eighteen, and then they have the pressure of having to follow that up and do something just as good immediately."

"We kinda got grouped in with bands that are more directly influenced by Cap'n Jazz and American Football and Midwest emo. Our influence is more like Jimmy Eat World type stuff."

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"For me, it's just like I write the song so that I could get it off my chest, and I think it's the coolest thing in the world."

LØLØ stops by the club to discuss her jump to Hopeless Records, the power of hyper-specific lyrics, and double standards for women in pop-punk.

Canadian artist LØLØ joins Brian and Lizzie to talk about her upcoming album, god forbid a girl spits out her feelings! She explains why treating her songwriting like a personal diary actually helps fans connect more deeply, rather than alienating them, and what it was like making the move to a new label.

The conversation also tackles the reality of being a woman in the alternative scene. LØLØ breaks down the double standard of women getting criticized for writing 'I hate this man' tracks, while male pop-punk artists have built entire careers on the exact same premise.

Plus, Brian and Lizzie debate whether Ashlee Simpson's Autobiography era actually qualifies as an underrated scene record.

"For me, it's just like I write the song so that I could get it off my chest, and I think it's the coolest thing in the world."

"I feel like a lot of women are writing that kind of song, honestly. And I see a lot of people commenting like, oh, like, imagine a guy wrote this about a girl."

"That kind of stuff is important as an escape when there is so much going on in the world."

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We are the Popeye's chicken biscuit of the metal scene. People can't take us because they choke immediately. The first bite, they're already on the ground gagging... You can't f*** with UnityTX.

UnityTX is the Popeyes chicken biscuit of the metal scene—if you aren't ready, you're going to choke. Jay Webster and the band join Lizzie right after their set at Bottom Lounge in Chicago to get real about the current state of heavy music, the BIPOC hardcore experience, and dodging the Octane-core formula.

Lizzie sat down with Dallas heavyweights UnityTX at Bottom Lounge in Chicago for an unfiltered conversation about the reality of modern heavy music. Touring alongside Varials, the band digs into the writing process behind their track 'Heinous' and how they intentionally fuse horrorcore, 90s rap, and the heavy grooves of Korn and Meshuggah without falling into the predictable Octane-core radio trap. As a predominantly BIPOC band bridging hardcore punk and hip-hop, they open up about the frustration of 'torch passing' in the nu-metal revival—explaining the massive difference between genuine support from acts like P.O.D. versus surface-level nods from the Limp Bizkit or Papa Roach camps. Stick around after the interview as Brian and Lizzie yap to debate who actually holds the top three spots in the new wave of nu-metal.

"I feel like on this record, we didn't cater to, like, trying to get on the radio. We didn't cater to try to, you know, make the heaviest breakdown... We just wanted to make music that feels timeless for us."

"That's what nu metal is to me. That is, like, the ultimate combination of cultures. UnityTX is really good at doing that, and everybody wants to acknowledge it only when it's cool."

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"Listen. If 9/11 didn't happen, we wouldn't have My Chemical Romance. We wouldn't have Twilight. We wouldn't have this entire Tumblr core era of girly pop."

We took the podcast to C2E2! In front of a live Chicago audience, we are unpacking the pipeline between My Chemical Romance, early 2000s pop-punk, and the comic book industry.

Lizzie officially steps into her role as our resident Gerard Way historian to explain how The Umbrella Academy and The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys took the intricate, non-linear storytelling of MCR and translated it into graphic novels that spoke directly to scene kids.

Plus, we talk about the bizarrely perfect era of 2000s superhero movie soundtracks, and yes, we actually connect 9/11 to the creation of My Chemical Romance and Twilight (we told you it was a live show).

What we cover on the panel:

• Why The Umbrella Academy is essentially a family trauma story dressed as a superhero comic

• Gerard Way’s transition from the Black Parade era into comic book writing

• The emo lore behind Patrick Stump and Max Bemis entering the comic space

• Why movies like Daredevil and Spider-Man had memorable scene soundtracks

• The infamous 9/11 to MCR to Twilight domino effect"

"Is Umbrella Academy an emo comic book? I would argue yes. It's acknowledging family trauma and abandonment in a creative way that makes people draw that inwards, just like listening to My Chemical Romance or Paramore."

"The Danger Days era was a vibrant, loud shift... having these big bright colors and being whimsical again. It's joy as an act of resistance."

"There were a lot of artists and a lot of songs that I found specifically from comic book movies of the early 2000s because there was clearly some crossover of, like, well, if you like Spider-Man, you're gonna love Dashboard Confessional."

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