Christian rock band Emery just released their first album in nearly five years, You Were Never Alone, and lead singer Toby Morrell chatted with BREATHEcast about the early success of the record, the return of Devin Shelton, and their crazy music videos.

You Were Never Alone is Emery's first independent record off of their self-made label Bad Christian. This is partially the reason why it has been so many years between this record and the release of We Do What We Want. During this time they took the opportunity to build the brand of the label and figure out exactly their next plan of attack.

"I think the biggest thing is that we have to do every possible thing on our own now...when you are on a label they kind of just handle advertising or promotion. They help you get a few things so it's a double edge sword in a way," he shared the new task of essentially self-employing themselves. "You get to decide everything but that also involves a lot of work so you have to figure out, how to do all that with creating an album that you love."

However, Morrell is not complaining because he relishes in having much more freedom. It also allows them to come up with different venue sources and ways to promote the band. "We get to do things that we were never able to do before."

He continued, "It's honestly been great, I can't really complain because even though it's hard work, which is what our band has always been about, it's working and the album's doing really good, so we're excited."

(Photo : Fresno Media)

With the band having the Bad Christian brand, it has helped them expand beyond the reach of their conventional music audience. Their podcast has all sorts of guests, and with that comes all sorts of listeners. This introduction to the band has helped Emery garner a larger fan base.

"I think people understand what we're trying to do, and trying to accomplish. Putting music out on our own and even starting BC Music and putting out new bands, so I think the idea of what we're trying to do that DIY grass roots thing, I think people really buy into it and appreciate and respect. I do think that it's actually helped us. A lot of people through Bad Christian are listening to us for the first time and going, 'Oh, I actually like this'. I think as a whole, and doing everything kind of grass roots do it yourself has definitely helped us increase our fan base for sure which is crazy to have been a band this long and have our fan base growing."

Along with the change to DIY, the band also changed a bit of their sound as well. You Were Never Alone features the signature duel harmony vocals with the raw screams and creative music, but also adds a bit of a new element that die-hard fans will notice. It is hard to put the finger on exactly what is different sonically, but the music is just so full of life and feels more mature and complete. For example, a song such as "Thrash" features Emery like you have never heard them before. It is simultaneously the heaviest and bluesiest song the band has ever done.

Morrell is aware of this as well saying, "Yeah I think as we got older and we know who we are now. I think on this album we really didn't have anything to prove and we just wanted to write good songs."

"Sometimes bands, including us and some of the other records have gotten caught up in, 'Man, I gotta make an epic song, and it has to be this, and have this kind of breakdown, and this kind of part, and this synthesizer, this whatever it might be' and on this record we just thought, 'Hey, lets just write songs'. I mean these are songs, and we kept even the recording style a lot more raw. Even trying to capture, if you see Emery you're going to basically hear that. Like this is us almost live in a sense. So it really has been really cool because there isn't any pressure at all anymore to prove ourselves or to say we have to write music like this because we want to try and convey something. We feel like we can do that just by writing a song now. So that's a big thing for us."

(Photo : Fresno Media (Permission))

One of the key missing components from their last album was sometimes guitarist, sometimes bassist, and vocalist Devin Shelton. The result was a heavier Emery record that although good, was missing Shelton's excellent vocals. On this new record he has returned, albeit as only a studio addition. Nevertheless, Shelton's impact is immediate and helps Morrell create the depth and beautiful harmonic layer that plays a huge part of the band's sound.

"It was great. I mean honestly, we've been such good friends for so long, it's just totally normal," he said of having Shelton back in the studio. "We just went right back kind of where we started from and it is really good to have trade off vocals and have his voice there and to be able to do that. So I think overall, it feels very normal to us."

The reason why their dynamic works so well is because of the friendship of the band. They have always been friends first and a band second. "I think that kind of makes it who Emery is. We always have cared about just being friends and staying friends so that has really worked for us for sure."

Shelton is not completely gone from touring with Emery as he sporadically plays shows, and most recently appeared on The Weak's End anniversary tour. For the time being they have a live fill in who has more than been capable of picking up on Shelton's duties.

"We got really lucky. We have our good friend Andy Nichols from the band Pink Queens Club, and he is a phenomenal musician and singer, he can really carry his own. There always will only be one Devin, but also, I can say there is only one Andy Nichols, so we really lucked up with that. We feel like we can pull off our live show just as good as the record for sure."

It also helped them prepare for tour and recording knowing that Shelton would not play shows after making the record.

One of the cooler things Emery has done with this record is creating a music video for each song. They are releasing them song-by-song, each week and only have a few left. The videos range from lyric videos, live performance shots, and acted out scenes. Perhaps one of the craziest was the lyric video for "Thrash" which featured the chaos of the song with background images - the brainchild of guitarist Matt Carter. "Well Matt had that idea. He wanted to show pictures like a pretty thing to a crazy chaotic dirty thing, so that was his idea."

With that being said, Morrell said there is a method to their music video madness. "Honestly we've been on record labels forever and it's usually like you get one video, and it's expensive and it's not that good. Anybody that would complain about all the videos that we've done, just don't watch them," he said with a laugh.

"It doesn't matter to us, because we love them and we are so excited that we were able to do this many videos otherwise, one video of us rocking out in a parking lot or a parking garage or a desert or something like that is silly and outdated. These videos capture your attention," he said. "Overall, most people really like them and we've gotten a good response. There's always the haters."

Those haters are people who complain that the band's videos are not those "super Hollywood in the parking lot" videos or complain that they are just "lyric videos."

Morrell said his favorite video of the batch is "Go Wrong Young Man," which features Devin is in the record store.

"That one is just awesome. I love the way that ends, I love the way that it's weird and it leaves you going, 'What was that?' That's a great video to me. If you get the video, like ok, it's whatever, but when you go, 'What is this? What's happening? Maybe I should watch it again to figure out what's happening' that's when the video is really good."

As far as what is next for the band, they are wrapping up their current tour and then will head out with As Cities Burn in July for a reunion tour through the southwest in July. Emery will also be doing a few other dates throughout. Later this year they will be doing the east coast, perhaps in the fall.

"The album is out, in its second week. It's brand new, tell your friends about it, buy it if you don't have it, go on iTunes and give it a review, a truthful review that's a million stars, we'll take whatever we can get," Morrell concluded.

Pick up You Were Never Alone on iTunes of on the Bad Christian website here.

BREATHEcast reviewed the album last week read the whole thing here and check out an excerpt below:

"Overall You Were Never Alone is just what Emery fans were waiting for since the release of their last album We Do What We Want. The previous album did not have Shelton on it, and with him back on this record, they really take advantage of the vocal possibilities. All the harmonies are perfect, and their back and forth is just as good as ever. The guitars are crisp and creative, the bass lines are memorable, and the drums are powerful. Lyrically, the album is moving and packs a punch that can only be delivered through its menacing screams. This album is also put together so well by Carter, who did all the production work. The Emery boys of Morrell, Shelton, Carter, Josh Head, and Dave Powell sound just as good as ever together."