If you have a little sister or tween daughter, you may be familiar with Christopher Drew’s work as acoustic pop band Nevershoutnever. If you aren’t familiar with them, they are a pretty big deal, with zillions and zillions of teenage girls making up their rabid fanbase, and two albums that made Billboard’s top 20 — pretty impressive for a 19 year-old! I can’t say I listen to a lot of Nevershoutnever (mostly because I’m not a 13 year-old emo girl), so I was really surprised when I came across Chris’ semi-joke side project EATMEWHILEIMHOT, which can only be described as “party metalcore.” Basically, it is exactly like something I would have done when I was his age, only he is way more talented than I ever will be — think late 90s/early 00s CHAINREACTIONCORE ala Throwdown, Adamantium, or Fall Silent, only with super dumb-yet-awesome lyrics about pizza, getting attacked by grizzly bears, and Captain Planet. EMWIH totally takes me back to hanging out with my friends and coming up with stupid ideas for joke bands, being silly, and having fun — an awesome vibe that is way too rare in a scene full of bands who seem to be in a contest to see who can take themselves the most seriously.

Naturally, most readers of this site will ignore the music and instead rage about Chris’ haircut, the fact that their niece has a NSN poster in her bedroom, that he doesn’t know who Cynic are, and so forth, but advanced-level readers will just be stoked to see some kids having fun with heavy music. Chris seems like a super chill, fun kid from Missouri who definitely doesn’t take himself seriously — my guess is that he would probably make fun of his haircut right along with you, then throw the horns when Pantera comes on the radio. And I have to give him some serious credit for making a joke about one of my favorite topics: hardcore kids wearing mesh shorts!

This song is about how EMWIH thinks generic breakdowns are just as dumb as you do.

To start off, how would you describe the band to someone who’s not familiar with it?

I guess it’s just a practical joke on the scene? We grew up in the metal scene, we thought it was real sweet, and just wanted to make an album that was more like that. It’s just a hobby, pretty much. It’s nothing we take really seriously, it’s just us trying to make some metal songs. That’s pretty much it.

The record feels really loose, fun, and spontaneous to me. Can you talk about how the songs came together?

We usually write them on the spot in the studio, we just hit record, start jamming, and drink a bunch of beer. It’s more like a party, we don’t take it seriously at all. We have a few friends over, jam out, and record all day. We find some parts that work, and slowly I come in and try to fit things together. I do the lyrics last. I usually come up with a one-word theme and work with that.

Chris’ “day job,” Nevershoutnever. Hate if you want, but I think he’s a pretty great songwriter and is making a ton of cash.

EMWIH is obviously a big departure from NSN in terms of style. Are you the primary songwriter, do you share it, or what?

We share a lot. [Nevershoutnever touring guitarist] Caleb Denison plays most of the drums and [other Nevershoutnever touring guitarist] Hayden Kaiser plays a lot of the guitar, and structure is where I come in. When it comes to actually writing metal songs, I’m not too great — I can write breakdowns, but anybody can write those. I kind of structure everything and write all the useless lyrics.

I don’t know man, it’s really easy to write generic, shitty breakdowns, I actually think it’s hard to write GOOD breakdowns, and I also think you guys are pretty great at it. Speaking of that, you make fun of breakdowns in “xDESTROYx,” but you obviously play a lot of them, can you talk about that a little?

We’re not a big fan of the whole fashioncore scene that came up in the last couple years. We grew up on more true roots metal, and that’s what our local scene was like. I wasn’t really into a lot of that stuff, but I went to a show and saw all these guys going crazy and dancing in all these crazy ways. I had no idea what it meant, but that was the spark that got me dancing and listening to metal music. Growing up I had a few metal bands, we just did shit for fun, nothing big. As far as breakdowns and stuff, we just kind of have an ear for it. We know what’s gay, and what’s gay but cool. [laughs]

So with all the X’s in your song names ["xPIZZAx," "xGRIZZLYx," "xBURRITOx," etc.], is that just making fun of uptight straightedge bands?

Yeah, but not in like a mean way, you know? I just remember going to local shows and bands had X’s all over the place, and how funny I thought that was. [laughs] They thought they were so fucking badass with their X’s everywhere, so we just thought it would be funny. I kinda feel bad for making fun of straightedge kids though, because they’re just doing their thing. They don’t smoke or drink, that’s kinda cool. It’s not like a specific attack on straightedge kids or anything, it’s just like a reference to X’s being an important part of metal music. [laughs]

Totally. When I was in high school we would joke around and put X’s around every single word in a song or whatever.

Exactly!

Pretty dope low vocals for a 19 year-old acoustic pop singer who probably weighs 120 lbs soaking wet

Your album is a lot different from the EMWIH EP, which was more like melodic rock. How did you find the new direction, and what’s the reaction been to the change?

Well, when we wrote the old stuff I was 16 or 17. We wrote everything on the spot in the studio, we winged it all on the spot. It’s kind of funny, the lyrics on that EP all sound super serious for some reason, but I made them all up as I went and it just kind of worked out that they were all serious. There was literally no restraints or boundaries, it was just fun. I think the reason there’s a lot more singing on that one is because at that point in my life I couldn’t do any metal vocals at all when we were recording that. I just lost it for a couple weeks, and I was freaking out. Everybody was like, “Don’t worry about it, just sing it, we’ll do a lot of gang vocals, and maybe you can bust out a couple lows.”

What are the crowds like for EMWIH shows? Are there people there who wouldn’t go to a NSN show?

When we play EMWIH shows there’s definitely more dudes there. A Nevershout show is basically all chicks, and they’re all usually 16 or younger. With EMWIH a lot more dudes show up, and I don’t hide from people, I go out and say what’s up to everybody. I love to hear dudes be like [bro voice] “Dude, I’m fuckin’ throwin’ down for your set!!” and funny stuff like that. I just love the metal scene, it’s so funny. Especially now that it’s just a bunch of scene kids wearing gym shorts and thinking they’re all badass.

I wish more bands would write lyrics like “I can’t believe I let that grizzly come into my campsite and steal all my children!”

That’s cool that some hardcore kids show up, I figured they’d hate you because of NSN.

I mean, I’m sure they do, but whatever. I think it’s usually the dudes who have girlfriends. [laughs] I’m down with it, I don’t give a fuck, it’s all good.

I’m sure Nevershoutnever keeps you really busy. Why take the time to do another band, even if it’s just a side project?

Just for fun. I always try not to take myself or the music that we’re playing too seriously, and I think this is just a good way to keep us in check and remind us that there’s more to the world than this bus that we’re in 90% of our lives. I mean, when it comes to Nevershout, it turns into a job sometimes. You’re playing to all these little girls and shit who you can’t relate to, cooped up in the bus because you can’t really go outside with all the crazy little girls. I want something that reminds us that music is fun, that it’s not a job, it’s spontaneous.

Yeah, that’s what I like so much about EMWIH. I feel like so many bands try so hard to be serious and just end up being really uptight and annoying.

Yeah, that sucks. For a while I was trying to build some kind of status for myself or whatever, which was a terrible idea, but it’s part of growing up. As time goes on, I’m finding more and more that I can just have fun with it. It’s not going to last forever, so I just don’t want to make the mistake of not having fun. I wasn’t having fun for a while, and we’re trying to have the same spontaneous, fun feeling with Nevershout with writing the new record — trying to break out of the little girl scene and have some fun.

I mean, you could have worse problems than millions of teenage girls liking your band.

That’s true, that’s true. They’re little zombies though. They’re crazy, man! [laughs] But yeah, it’s ok, there definitely could be worse things!

I’m sure your label makes way more money off of NSN than EMWIH. Did they give you a hard time for taking time off or anything like that?

No, it was cool. Nevershout is a full-time job, but this year we’re gonna take a breather, because since I signed [about two years ago], I’ve literally had maybe a month total off. I’ve been either on the road or recording nonstop. My label actually doesn’t have anything to do with Eatmewhileimhot. The record came out through my imprint, Loveway. Warner has nothing to do with it, which is awesome. So if we ever wanted to quit Nevershout and do Eatme fulltime, we wouldn’t be signed, except to our own label, which is kinda nice.

I seriously love this song, totally retarded and awesome. The only part that sucks is that when they talk about playing N64, that’s “retro” to them because they were born in 1991. I’m fucking old.

My favorite song is “xPIZZAx,” which totally took me back to hanging out with my friends and being dumb. What’s that song about? What’s “Hurricane Crew?”

Um, that song is pretty much about how much we like pizza! [laughs] On tour we eat pizza pretty much every night, or if we’re not, then we’re having pizza rolls or pizza bites. We love pizza! In the first verse we talk about our buddy Whiskey Nick. He does merch for us, and he’s the man. He’s been with me since day one on Nevershout when we played our first local show. As far as Hurricane Crew, that’s from one night when a bunch of us were wasted, hanging out and listening to Tech 9ine, and he said something about “Hurricane Crew.” So when we were in the studio, it was just spontaneous, I just said it. Everybody was like [dopey voice] “Dude, that’s sick.” [laughs]

Thanks, dude — is there anything you want to add?

I just want to remind everybody who’s coming up in the next scene to have fun with the music and not take themselves too seriously.

Does EMWIH make you get all butthurt and rage hard because Chris isn’t tr00 enough for you?? Did you start stupid joke bands like this with your friends when you were in high school?? Would you chill with Chris, sitting on a rock in the woods smoking weed and listening to Pantera, Missouri-style??? Would your little sister be jealous that I talked to him on the phone???

-Sergeant D.