It was about a year ago I discovered Unseemlier, shortly before the release of I Have A Screw Loose, Somewhere. It's a wordy title and a somewhat unwieldy band name -- and I’ll use that “a lot going on in a little space” metaphor even further to talk about the band's "heavy emo / soft punk" sound. It's singsong at times, riff heavy at others. It's contemplative music in a scene that is often best known for its aggression. It's an outlier but, yet, it just fits. It just makes sense.
We caught up with singer/guitarist Mike to talk about how all the pieces fit together.
They just announced a repress of I Have A Screw Loose, Somewhere (Sell The Heart/Little Rocket) and will be playing at Pouzza Fest and Midwest Friends Fest in May.
Scene Point Blank: I know how I've described your sound in a couple of writeups, but you really walk the line between a lot of subsets of the punk scene. Where do you think Unseemlier fits -- how do you describe your sound?
Mike: I have a hard time with this, but I always have with any band I’ve ever been in. It’s always a funny interaction trying to describe it to a co-worker or someone not in the “punk world.” I called us “Heavy Emo/Soft Punk" and it kinda became the description. What I meant by it was: it’s emo with heavier subject matter lyrically and more palm muting/chugging on guitar... orrr it's less aggressive punk. It seems we land somewhere in the post-hardcore/ Fest Punk/Flannel Punk/ Orgcore subsets of punk which is what I was going for originally when I first started writing for Unseemlier.
Scene Point Blank: How do you approach songwriting? Does the vocalist reflect who wrote the part?
Mike: Sometimes one of us brings one riff and we build on it at practice, sometimes one of us comes with a full song. Each stringed instrument player has brought full songs, musically, to practice. Kevin, our drummer helps a lot with structure! Vocals usually come after the song is done musically, and there isn’t really any rule. There are parts on the LP that Andrea wrote and I sang and vice versa.
Kevin actually moved to Philly in September of 2025 so the writing process has changed. I play drums in a band called Little Low so, in Kevin’s absence, I usually end up behind the drums for basic demos and when we have more than a few songs cooking.
Kevin came up for a weekend in February, and we had the skeletons of about 11 songs. We hammered out 10 songs and played one show at O'Briens in the 36 hours he was up here, haha! Now we write lyrics and leads until he comes up again for another more structured trip.
Scene Point Blank: Does that depth of sound mean that promoters book you with a wider variety of bands than your typical punk band might get? Have you had any surprise billings that were maybe outside of your typical scene?
Mike: Honestly it’s a blessing that we get asked to play with so many different styles of bands, 'cause personally I don’t enjoy a show where all 4 bands sound the same. We get booked with screamo bands a lot, which isn’t the weirdest pairing but I don’t think we even come close to being a screamo band. No crazy booking just yet, but we are open for anything really!
Scene Point Blank: I think the pacing of your last record is really effective. The record is equally heavy, aggressive, yet thoughtful and more contemplative and mid-tempo at times. How do you strike that balance?
Mike: Thank you! Again, I think Kevin came up with the track order, so the pacing feel of the record itself was at least partially thanks to him! Some of the riffs are things I’ve been playing in different variations for over 10 years, some were brand new. We didn’t approach any specific song and say “I want to write this type of song.” It all just came out the way it did.
No crazy booking just yet, but we are open for anything really!
Scene Point Blank: What is the Boston scene like right now? Do you get out of town in the winter or do you hole up until the weather clears?
Mike: The Boston scene is big for a smaller (geographically) city. Sadly we are struggling for venues and the ones we do have usually have some type of corporate attachment. Anything over 300 capacity is hard to get on and a lot of touring packages aren’t doing local openers around here so it’s hard to get a leg up. There are still some basements but they come and go pretty quickly. We still have O’Briens, the best punk bar to play. Out in Medford and Malden we have Deep Cuts and Faces, two breweries that book punk/indie/emo shows. The Midway Cafe down in Jamaica Plain as well. The one thing about Boston music is no matter what scene/subset it is, someone is gonna make it work.
Scene Point Blank: The record came out about a year ago -- what comes next?
Mike: Still gonna be pushing it hard for a few more months. We just did a music video for "Worse For The Where?" That should be coming out soon! We also Possible long weekend end of April and in May we are playing Pouzza Fest in Montreal and Midwest Friends in Kentucky! Aside from that, we have a few Boston shows and a Providence show, and have a lot of new songs that are "mostly written" until Kevin comes up here mid-February.
Scene Point Blank: Do full-length albums interest you as a musician these days, or do lean toward singles and EPs with streaming dominating the media landscape?
Mike: Full-length all the way! The only other thing I really want to do is splits with bands from other parts of the world.
The only problem is that records cost so much nowadays I feel like 7" records have become too expensive. The streaming/new single every week till the full album is out loses my attention, personally. If you’ve checked us out online you have probably noticed we don’t “engage the algorithm” much. The new landscape of being in a band seems like the antithesis of punk/DIY in general.
Scene Point Blank: What format do you listen to the most?
Mike: Physical format would be vinyl.
Honestly, I have one iPod that still works that I listen to most. Usually when I’m skateboarding,. The problem is I can’t upload new stuff to it! I stream like everyone else, and I hate that cause none of the platforms are doing right by the artists or the world at large.
The new landscape of being in a band seems like the antithesis of punk/DIY in general.
Scene Point Blank: Your last record came out on Sell The Heart, a West Coast label. How did you connect?
Mike: I lived in California for almost 10 years and, most of those years, I was booking smaller shows in the Bay Area at bike shops, record stores, anarchist library, art spaces and occasionally bars. I think Andy hit me up for help getting The Dreaded Laramie a show in Oakland, and I ended up booking it at Tamarack. We hung the whole show and chopped it up about bands/labels/the hustle of all of it and kept in touch. I booked a few more Sell The Heart bands before I moved back to Boston.
When I recorded the demo I sent it to a few labels but was hoping Andy would want to do it -- luckily he did! So naturally we did the LP with STH as well. Andy does a real good job to make it a family for his bands. I have nothing but great things to say about the label and all the bands/friends I’ve met from being involved with it.
Scene Point Blank: What are you listening to right now (i.e. what records are in rotation in your household)?
Mike: Newer records I’ve been digging would be Roach Squad, Back Teeth, Errth, Wiccans, Slang, Snocaps. Older stuff I’ve been listening to is Cat Stevens, Lifetime, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Samiam, and Devotion.
Scene Point Blank: What songwriter, or musician, do you think has influenced you the most in terms of craft?
Mike: James Hetfield and Fletcher from Pennywise made me want to be the best/tightest palm muter on the planet! For guitar for this band I would say Superchunk or Samiam. A contemporary musician would be Mark Palm. Whether it was Go It Alone, Devotion or Supercrush, all the records rock and hes always stayed true to himself and done it his way.
Scene Point Blank: What musician do you think has influenced you the most in terms of ethics?
Mike: I feel like the answer to this would be easy but I think it’s more a genre. It would have been crust punk when I was growing up. Bands like Aus Rotten would have gigantic protest posters that would come in their LPs. A lot of that scene is about anti-capitalism,anti-consumerism, anti-greed and truly believe there is enough to go around and that no human being (or animal) should suffer for the profit of another.
Scene Point Blank: What would you like to see happen in 2026 -- whether that means musically with the band, or in the broader world?
Mike: Musically, Unseemlier will hopefully record (and maybe by the end of 2026 release) another LP. Maybe play Fest again this year and do some short tours in other parts of the country.
For the world at large, I hope America changes 'cause everything that's happening here currently is embarrassing.
Scene Point Blank: Do you have touring plans this year and what are the key factors in band life that shape a tour (how do you pick a region or schedule)?
Mike: There have been talks of some southeast shows (Florida, Atlanta, Nashville) and talks about the West Coast as well. Hopefully we have enough Paid Time Off to do both, haha!
The key factor really is availability, We aren’t exactly young guns anymore, so work and rent kinda dictate a lot of our plans. Usually the region would be if we have a friend's band there that wants to do some shows with us. Routing is usually done by me. I’ve been doing it sooo long at this point and I love looking at maps/doing logistics.
Live dates:
Pouzza Fest
May 16, Theatre Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, QC
Midwest Friends Fest
May 30, Southgate House Revival, Newport, KY
