Lexington, KY · post-hardcore · pop-rock

Emarosa

2 upcoming festivals ↓

Kentucky's own — post-hardcore turned silk-smooth pop-rock, playing home turf with one of the scene's most distinctive clean vocals.

Emarosa formed in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2006, initially under the name Corsets Are Cages before settling on the name they kept. Guitarist ER White is the band's sole remaining founding member, and the group signed to StandBy Records to release an EP, This Is Your Way Out, in 2007.

Jonny Craig joined as vocalist that same year, and the band drew attention for his vocal range within post-hardcore and alternative rock. Their debut album, Relativity, arrived in 2008; the self-titled follow-up in 2010, made with rhythm guitarist Jonas Ladekjaer, was Craig's final record with the group.

After Craig left, the band toured briefly with Tilian Pearson on vocals before a period of inactivity. Bradley Walden took over as vocalist in 2014, and the group's subsequent records moved steadily away from heavy guitars toward a cleaner, synth- and rhythm-driven pop-rock, with falsetto-heavy melodies closer to mainstream pop than to the scene they came from.

Their third album, Versus (2014), reached No. 61 on the Billboard 200. Signed to Hopeless Records, they released 131 (2016) and Peach Club (2019), then Sting (2023) on Out of Line Music and High Horse Heaven (2026). The shift is pronounced enough that their earlier and later catalogues sit awkwardly beside one another in a set.

Read more

post-hardcorepop-rock