Excuse Me, Who Are You?: Yelling Over Twinkly Guitars

New Year is a time to look to the future and reflect on the past, so this feels like a perfect moment to meet one of the bands spearheading the current Midwest emo revival; namely, energetic screamo outfit Excuse Me, Who Are You?

Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin, the band also known as EMWAY launched on the scene in October 2022 with the EP ‘About That Beer I Owed Ya’. It's a confident, inventive, and emotionally raw debut that is well worth checking out.

With Hayden Johnson on drums, Stuart Benjamin on guitar and vocals, Kyle Kinney out front on lead vocals, and Jackson Pertzborn on bass, Excuse Me, Who Are You? dropped the LP ‘Double Bind’ back in May [2024].

‘Double Bind’ showcases EMWAY’s talent for blending nostalgic ‘90s vibes, complete with killer riffs and arpeggiated melodies redolent of the genre’s golden age, with lyrical impishness and musical eclecticism that are uniquely its own.

Riding high, Excuse Me, Who Are You? recently signed to burgeoning indie label PNWK. With EMWAY starting an exciting new chapter, not to mention a new year, we thought the time had come for them to spill their beans on who they are and what's coming in 2025. We got in touch.

Frontman Kyle and guitarist Stu very kindly took time out from their happy holidays to chat with us about the band, its history, its highlights, and how EMWAY came to be part of the PNWK family. For yelling, blowing, funky drumming and lashings of Meat Jelly, read on!

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Hey, Excuse Me, Who Are You? Please tell us who you are.

KYLE － We’re a Midwest emo, screamo band, yelling over twinkly guitars for the most part.

How did you all meet?

STU － We’ve all known each other for a long time. Hayden and I grew up together. I met Kyle at my very first job in 2010. I met Jackson shortly after starting college.

Please tell us how EMWAY started.

STU － We started after my old band, Meat Jelly, parted ways. At first it was me on guitar, Hayden on bass, with Jamie [Goodrich Ryan] on drums. Jamie plays on our EP and was also in Meat Jelly. He ended up leaving after the EP. Hayden was about to leave as well, but decided to stay if he could hop on drums. His main instrument is drums.

Kyle was in another band with Jamie at the time, and had been helping Meat Jelly with recording stuff. We asked Kyle to try out on vocals, singing 'Tadpole' by Stars Hollow. I knew they’d crush it even though I’d never heard them sing before.

We then asked Jackson, the bass player from Meat Jelly, to join. He already knew how to play the EP so it was kismet.

Head Cave Tee skull print graphic tshirt

Describe for us the personalities in the band. Who’s the diva? Who’s the worrywart?

STU － Kyle is the worrywart, trying to get to the venue on time, and is a diva about the band’s punctuality.

KYLE － Stu is loud and can be heard from a ways away. It’s very hard to lose him anywhere. He’s also a diva often enough.

STU － Jackson’s our wildcard. He can be found at venues climbing a tree, building a snowman, or running off somewhere on his own. He may also be found playing Stardew Valley in the car.

KYLE － Hayden is the soft spoken member that keeps to himself, mostly at the bar having a drink.

That's a whole lotta Meat Jelly. You probably hate having to explain this, but please tell us about your name. Our Charlie’s into anime and reckons it’s a Perfect Blue [1997] reference.

STU － Yes, our band name is a Perfect Blue reference! Jamie and I found it randomly and watched it at a sleepover in, like, 9th grade. That shit had us tweakin! It really stuck with me.

I thought it would be cool to incorporate some samples from that movie in some of our songs. That scene where it keeps repeating “Excuse me, who are you?” is such a memorable moment. I have an addiction to TV and film so it's definitely going to bleed over into our art.

What is EMWAY's secret sauce?

KYLE － What sets us apart is likely the yelling. Yelling over midwest emo guitars just isn’t done as much these days. That and the crowd interaction at our live shows.

STU - I’d like to add that each one of us comes from a different musical background, that somehow got each of us to this point. I started off doing nu metal and old Chicago blues covers. Jackson used to do prog metal type shit. Hayden played drums with Clyde Stubblefield; that’s James Brown’s ‘Funky Drummer’ and the most sampled drummer in history. He also happened to be from Madison.

You recently signed with your new record label, PNWK. Can you tell us how that came about?

STU － Let’s just say it's not who you know, it's who you blow.

An infallible audition piece! Tell us why you went with PNWK.

STU － I love their whole outlook on the scene and on what the relationship between an artist and a label should be, as opposed to the shitty reality in the music industry right now.

They’re really out here providing a decent foundation for artists to create and grow. Working in the nonprofit arts industry myself, that is the best way to support the arts in your community.

Describe for us your typical songwriting process.

STU － It's mostly Kyle and me writing the foundation of a song, then bringing it to the band to structure and iron out the finer details.

For our first EP, Jamie and I worked on the songs solo for a while before Hayden and Kyle joined. Kyle did the lyrics. 'Double Bind' was made from songs that Kyle brought to us shortly after joining.

Tell us about your first gig as EMWAY.

STU － Our first gig was on the street in Madison. After COVID I started a weekly concert series, called State Street Jams, which did free live shows every Saturday on State Street in Madison. Its like a big open courtyard on the University of Wisconsin campus.

I started those around the time that EMWAY started. That was September 2021. It went great. I love playing outdoors and Madison is a great fucking spot to do it. We should do it again.

Do any gigs stick in your mind for not going so well?

STU － The worst fucking gig we ever played was a show in Chicago on a fucking bike path on the side of a river under a fucking bridge! We were on our very first tour. I’m the one who booked the show, so I was like nervous as hell, knowing it was almost too DIY to be true.

The person running it had a mobile battery that they brought out to the spot to power all the amps and shit. The first band was amazing. EMWAY was second. We had a surprisingly decent crowd of people. We started the set with 'Chicken Cock'. Everything was great. Then, about 30 seconds into the song, the battery died. The person running the show had forgot to charge it the night before!

Because I’d booked the show, I was so embarrassed and ashamed. I won't name names, but the person who I set that up through did me very dirty and made me look like an ass to people I care about. That is not okay.

Let’s talk of happier things. What’s been your biggest highlight so far?

KYLE － Our biggest highlight is being able to be a part of this DIY emo scene to some capacity. We came from just doing this for fun together and we have done so much that we would’ve never thought was possible.

Do you have a favourite track to perform live?

KYLE － 'Chicken Cock' means a lot to us. It’s one of the first songs where we heard people yell the lyrics back at us live.

If you could be in any other band at any time, which would it be?

STU － I’d love to replace Eric Clapton in Cream, because a) that band fucks, and b) Eric Clapton is a fucking dick.

Clearly Clapton's not one, but who are your musical heroes?

KYLE － My heroes are honestly my friends in other local bands. I look up to them immensely and have learned so much from them over the years. Specifically, the members of Tiny Voices, Endswell, and EMWAY.

Give us 3 albums everyone should own.

STU － 'West Side Soul' by Magic Sam. I’m a huge blues fan. I think if you’re going to learn guitar you need to start with the blues. Blues is the spark that lit the fire for where we’re at today.

Also, 'No Ceilings' by Lil Wayne. Literally every song on that album is so fucking recognisable.

And 'Frampton Comes Alive' by Peter Frampton. I could not imagine a world where I didn’t have this album.

Knowing what you know, what advice do you have for someone starting out in music?

STU － You should be practicing right now.

Pithy and profound. What’s the best way to start the day?

KYLE － With coffee or matcha, nothing to do, just playing guitar, and getting a classic greasy breakfast.

What’s something you think everyone should do at least once?

STU － Smoke a cigarette while taking a shit.

As opposed to taking a shit while smoking a cigarette, which tends to be less welcome. What’s something you will NEVER do again?

KYLE － Umm… Is it good or bad that we can’t think of anything?

We’ll let folk decide that for themselves. You’re on Death Row; what are you having for you last meal?

STU － Lobster bisque, two dozen oysters, 12oz ribeye steak Oscar style, fat lobster tail.

What a way to go! Big thanks for chatting with us and answering our questions.

STU － It’s been a pleasure. Your clothes are really cool and I am very broke. Can I please have some?

KYLE － Love the bands you cover! Also eyeing up your very well-curated playlist that could use some Madison-based emo.

Have no fear, we'll be adding you to The Winchester Jukebox when we upload this. What's next for EMWAY?

STU － We’re hard at work on a new project. Lots to do, but we’ve got some heat coming!

KYLE － We have some really exciting shows lined up for the first half of 2025. We play a stacked show in Chicago on 8 January, as well as Burn Bright fest in Milwaukee in February.