Ontario, CA · emo

Arm's Length

2 upcoming festivals ↓

Ontario emo revival with a knack for the exact line that lands hardest — huge choruses, harder feelings, and a scene-beloved catalog that punches far above its weight.

Arm's Length formed in 2018 in Quinte West, a small city in southern Ontario, Canada, built around guitarist and vocalist Allen Steinberg alongside brothers Jeremy Whyte on guitar and Jeff Whyte on drums. The band came up through the region's DIY and house-show circuit before finding a wider audience online.

Their music leans on the emo revival template, twinkling guitar figures, sudden tempo shifts, and vocals that move from a mutter to a shout within a single line. Arrangements favour build and release over polish, letting quiet verses open space before a chorus arrives at full volume.

The writing is unusually direct, built around plainly stated admissions of grief, guilt and self-doubt. Audiences tend to shout the lines back word for word, and the band's live shows have become known for the sheer volume of crowd singing that meets them night after night.

Records released through Wax Bodega carried the band beyond Canada, and bassist Benjamin Greenblatt joined the lineup in 2022. In February 2025 Arm's Length signed with Pure Noise Records and announced their second album, There's a Whole World Out There, released that May. A US tour followed to support the record.

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emo