EmRock: Tearing Up the Emory Underground One Step at a Time

By Brigid ChoiSo you’ve picked up a copy of Frequency. You’ve read a couple articles you enjoy, and you turn around to share them — when you realize you’re surrounded by students, not music lovers. Who will you talk to about these new albums? Who will you jam with?“I think the music community is sort of in pockets, so it can be hard to access,” said freshman Bennett Kane, guitarist, bassist, pianist, and singer. “There are people that are interested in different genres of music, but it’s hard to get into, say, the group of people that like electronic music, versus the group of people that like rock music, versus the group of people that are doing stuff with the music department, classical music. Finding people is the most difficult part of playing music at Emory, if you’re interested in playing music outside of class, so EmRock is good for that.”Yes, there is Frequency, where music communicates between writers and readers. Then there’s WMRE, where music passes through an electronic medium between DJ and listener. Finally, there’s the music department, where music is a lecture between teacher and student. While these organizations are fantastic ways for musicians and music lovers to convene, none of them provide a safe house for musicians to jam and for music lovers to have face-to-face geek outs and music trades.“EmRock is a group of musicians who plays rock music, gets together, and plays together, and plays events together,” Kane explained.True, this semester, EmRock focused on musicians’ needs over those of the music enthusiasts. They adopted the DUC Down Under for jam sessions, twice a week, while they prepared for outside gigs — Emory’s and others’ — as well as EmRock’s own events.EmRock’s musicians have performed at the Sustainability Fair, the Unity Month Kickoff, Pride’s Drag Show, events hosted by Hillel, and the Lunar Banquet.“Kasper and the Friendly Goats performed at the Lunar Banquet, but actually, that’s going off into another thing,” explained Katrina Chen, guitarist, singer, keyboardist, and president of EmRock. “EmRock thrives on whoever’s in-volved, so we get all these musicians, and they meet new people and they form bands, and they play together, and it’s great ... but then they grow up, and they go off to be in bands of their own. So Kasper and the Friendly Goats actually got that gig all on their own.”Kasper and the Friendly Goats formed through EmRock and won the EmRock-hosted battle of the bands, Emory’s Got Musical Talent. They performed alongside other groups formed through EmRock (along with solo artists) and other groups on campus: Band Absolute, Momentum, AHANA, etc. Judges of the competition were Barry, the lead singer of The Silver Comet (and also the excellent barista of Blue Donkey Coffee at the weekly organic market); Jonathan Warkentine, guitarist and representative of EmRock; and Dr. John A. Lennon, composition professor in the music department.Besides Emory’s Got Musical Talent, EmRock also hosts Rock ‘n’ Relax, a smaller monthly gig outside of Cox Hall. They have also held workshops (guitar, vocals, with bass and drums in the near future). As for the non-musicians, Em-Rock held a Scott Pilgrim vs. The World screening, a Guitar Hero/Rock Band game night, and, during finals week, a Secret Santa mixed CD.“Usually we do spend a lot of time focusing on the musicians, because we have to organize practices and jam sessions and opportunities for them to perform,” Chen said. “It is a little harder to focus on the music enthusiasts, because everyone’s pretty much a fan of music. I haven’t met someone that said they hated music, and I’d probably be very devastated if they did.”Wouldn’t you, reader, feel the same way? Don’t we music lovers and musicians deserve our own space? We’re more than a magazine, a radio station, a classroom: we are a community, spaced out, without a safe spot to share our thoughts and our music. EmRock gives us the start of the home that we deserve.