Biography of Emily's Army

Emily's Army

Emily's Army is a punk rock, garage punk, pop punk band from Oakland, California. The band formed in 2004 when Max found out his little brother Cole and their friend Joey were forming a band called 'The Raining Souls'. It is rumored Joey is the one who wanted to start a band after he and Cole watched an inspiring film I believe is called School Of Rock. They found it very inspirational, and Cole decided to pick up guitar. They didn't have a bass player. Max, who was in his first month of guitar lessons, decided to switch to bass. After two years they changed their name to 'The Clocks!' That name didn't stick because they soon discovered there were a lot of bands with such name. Then Max and Cole remembered their cousin Emily, who was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis in 1998. Emily had a foundation run by her mom, which was called Emily's Army. So Joey, Max, and Cole decided to take on that name to help raise awareness. In 2008, the day before Emily's Army's first show, Either Max or Cole broke an arm or finger (it's out there that Cole had broke an arm) I believe it was Cole because I think they mentioned it in an interview once. Joey was in English class with Travis and practically begged Travis to fill in for the show. Joey told Travis that they needed him to play the show that day of the show (according to Travis in an interview, Joey chased him down the school yard). Later that day, Travis played for the band and learned the songs and has been a member of the band ever since. Jakob once played bass for Emily's Army at a show. When Travis went for surgery back in 2012, Joey's dad, Billie Joe Armstrong filled in for Travis at their show at 1-2-3-4 Go! Today the line-up is pretty much the same except Max switched from bass to regular guitar, Seb plays bass, and Travis has parted ways with the band summer of 2014. They try to avoid the whole 'Green Day JR' and 'Mini Green Day' label because they are different, they are not Green Day. Emily's Army has released their first album 'Don't Be A Dick' on June 14, 2011. The producer was Billie Joe Armstrong. The album took only four days to record, as they didn't try to perfect their instruments. They also appear on the back of Green Day's '21st Century Breakdown' on the graffiti wall. To them, working with Joey's dad and have him produce their albums, they consider themselves extremely lucky. The fact they got to record in a nice studio. In fact, Billie has even given them pointers (such as to speed up, or slow down, but never tried to change how they played). Joey always tries to impress his dad when he plays. He thinks it was really good for them to record their first album with Billie because he pushed Joey to the next level as a drummer. Now as we all know Emily's Army has changed their name to 'Swimmers' and as Joey had made a statement, their music tastes have changed so their style, and everything has changed as well.