Emo pioneers The Juliana Theory are just a few weeks away from returning to Australia, teaming up with The Spill Canvas for a co-headline tour.
They’ll be celebrating the 25th anniversay of their album Emotion Is Dead and, ahead of the tour, we asked guitarist Joshua Fiedler to share the tracks that helped craft that signature Juliana Theory sound.
You’ll find the playlist below – hit play and read on to find out more about the featured tracks!
Texas Is the Reason – “Back and to the Left”
This band was one of the reasons we even started our band (along with Jimmy Eat World). The summer of ’97 was such an exciting time for discovering new music—Static Prevails, The Get Up Kids, The Promise Ring, Lifetime, At the Drive-In… so many others. I remember Brett [Detar, The Juliana Theory’s frontman] and I were at a Zao show, talking about how amazing it would be to start a band that sounded like Texas Is the Reason. Two months later, we did.
Sense Field – “Will”
I first discovered their song “Building” on a Revelation Records comp and couldn’t stop listening. Sense Field was a major influence—not just musically, but also personally. They were the first real band we ever toured with, when they invited us to be their main support in the fall of 1999. Opening for them opened our eyes to what it truly meant to be in a touring band. It made us step up our game.
Samiam – “Capsized”
A criminally underrated band that never quite got the attention they deserved in the so-called “emo scene.” I remember listening to this song a lot in the early days. I especially loved the palm-muted intro—it definitely influenced our song “DJ.”
Knapsack – “Courage Was Confused”
Knapsack was the first band we played with that we all genuinely liked and had actually heard of. I had this album in the CD player of my ’87 Honda Civic constantly when we were just starting out. The guitar octave leads were a huge influence on our early recordings.
Crumb – “Tonight”
I vividly remember a fall practice in 1998. Brett had just gotten back from visiting his girlfriend in NYC during CMJ, the music festival that took over the city. Someone handed him a demo cassette with this song on it, and he showed up to practice telling us, “You have to hear this.” I was hooked within the first ten seconds and bought the album the very next day. To this day, I think this band and this album are probably the most overlooked in the scene’s history. I’m pretty sure we wrote “Understand the Dream Is Over” at the very next practice.
Kent – “Bianca”
I found this album at a local used CD store and bought it solely because of the cover—and it ended up changing my life. Kent, from Sweden, only recorded two albums in English, but they had a massive impact on all five of us. To this day, those two records remain in my top album list. They weren’t really considered part of the “scene,” but those who knew Kent often drew deep inspiration from them.
Jawbox – “Iodine”
Not exactly part of the same scene, but this was a song we all loved. Jawbox inspired so many bands that started around the same time we did, in the mid-to-late ’90s. They struck the perfect balance between noise and melody, with incredible dynamics that really resonated with us.
Tickets for the The Juliana Theory and The Spill Canvas 2025 Australian tour are on sale now. Dates are as follows:
- July 18th – Max Watts, Melbourne
- July 19th – Manning Bar, Sydney
- July 20th – The Triffid, Brisbane
Tickets and more info over at ThePhoenix.
Images supplied by the artist
