That galvanisation has come at the perfect time. With passion for the brand of emo The Used helped popularise as high as it’s been in years, festivals like When We Were Young (where they delivered a show-stealing set) stoking it further still, and a new generation of bands influenced by Bert and the boys raising the bar, it’s about harnessing that momentum to keep moving forward.
“I used to cringe about that term ‘emo’, but I think we’ve swallowed it,” Bert laughs. “We are emo. The resurgence it’s having is crazy. It’s not surprising, though. Music comes in waves. And it’s a perfect time for it. This music has always been about feelings and emotions: the things that fell tragic in people’s lives. Love is tragic. Death is tragic. Everything in-between can have that sense of tragedy, too. Everyone wants to feel something right now. That’s exactly what emo delivers.”
In that, it’s important that the genre keeps its focus in the present rather than getting too nostalgic.
“It’s cool that a lot of people are getting their bands back together, making new records, or re-recording old ones,” Bert nods. “But we’ve been an emo band for the last 23 years. We never stopped. We never broke up. We never went anywhere. I could be bitter about that, but music is music, man. Ultimately, seeing people return after so long makes us grateful that we never left.”
Don’t expect The Used to go anywhere anytime soon. While a few conventional milestones loom on the horizon – 2025 will mark a quarter-century as a band, the next album will be number 10 – Bert signs off by stressing that none are as meaningful as continuing to open-heartedly create.
“I look back over the 100-plus songs in our catalogue and it’s a lot to take in. But I’ve been thinking a lot lately of the quote about how artists have the choice to try to make just one or two truly great pieces of work, or to keep going and make hundreds or thousands. It feels like we’re already on the tip of the latter. It feels like we could go back into the studio with John Feldmann right now and write a completely different record. We’re always ready to. Some artists make those two or three great pieces, then selfishly don’t do a fourth in case it’s shit.”
A flash of that old mischievous grin.
“We’re not a band who’s afraid to throw our hat up and say, ‘Hey, look what we did!’ We’re not a band that’s afraid to make shit!”
The Used's new album Toxic Positivity is released May 19 via Hassle
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