For Marissa Paternoster, one third of emo punk sensation Screaming Females, being punk means connecting with your community. In her own words, it’s about making friends and creating experiences you’ll never forget. 

Being punk is about paving your own way. 

Screaming Females paved their way into college town New Brunswick, New Jersey’s emo rock scene playing house shows at friend’s basements for groups of other students. They were trailblazers in their own right as the presence of emo bands in the area were quite low according to Paternoster. Other genres such as twee, hardcore, punk, indie rock, and noise music were prevalent attributing to obvious eclecticism in the area. 

Band members Mike Abbate and Jarrett Dougherty helped coin the name for the band as their need for referral rose alongside performances.  

“It was a utilitarian kind of thing,” Paternoster said. “Jarret’s roommate had a book of contemporary poetry so we were flipping through it and that pairing of words happened to be in a poem”. 

Ever since their 2006 debut album, Baby Teeth, Paternoster claims growth amongst the band in their musicality and vision. With the added experience that accompanies time, Screaming Females has experimented with various musical and lyrical ideas. 

Pitches for new songs originate from   ideas pivoted off each other, which the band eventually builds on to write music. According to Paternoster, the band tries to emulate new forms of media that they’ve consumed, whether it be a poem or another song that they’ve heard. They then take these musings and make it their own. 

While deriving other poems and songs, Paternoster has admitted to incorporating underlying messages in some of their songs. While it is uncommon to attribute one song to a particular message, the band tries to make their stances on socio-political issues inclusive within their music. 

“I try to pull from my experiences that I’m the authority on as a middle aged gay woman,” Paternoster said. “There are songs that are just collected collective experiences that all human beings have such as living under an oppressed capitalistic state and climate change”. 

Apart from producing music with Screaming Females, Paternoster had delved into her own independent music production over the pandemic. Her separate album, Peace Meter, was written and recorded within the confines of her grandmother’s home in Seattle during government mandated quarantine in 2020. Paternoster had the aid of Andy Gibbs, from metal band Thou, Kate Wakefeld from Lungs, and Shama from Snakeskin, who helped iron out ideas and record the album remotely. Paternoster acknowledged the more somber, slow aura of the album, saying she drew inspiration from artists such as Lo!, Elliot Smith and Nina Nastasia. In an interview with Full Time Aesthetic, she conveyed that Peace Meter “leans more heavily into 80’s goth synth rather than the fast-paced rock and roll that is associated with Screaming Females”. 

The whimsical album art used for the cover of Peace Meter was contributed by Paternoster’s mother, while Paternoster herself makes the art for Screaming Females albums, including their latest release. 

Screaming Females’ upcoming album, Desire Pathways debuted this Feb. 17. Most of the music for this album was made pre-pandemic, so accumulating songs took longer for the band. Paternoster said they toy with new music releases by introducing their audience to new music at shows, but they were unable to keep that tradition due to limitations put in place by COVID-19. 

“This will be people’s first introduction to the songs which will be new for us,” Paternoster said. “So I’m a little nervous about how people are going to perceive it”. After being released to the public over two weeks ago, Desire Pathways has accumulated an average of around 35,000 streams on spotify. 

Desire Pathways opens with pre-leased song, Brass Bell, a very synth heavy opener with an intro that crescendos into a cacophony of guitar riffs and drums. Paternoster bellows lyrics of, “I’m living in a brass bell, it’s too loud, it’s too loud” 

Paternoster believes that if Screaming Females music, especially Desire Pathways, could be attributed to a color, it would be a deep crimson. “It’s a very rich and complicated color,” she said. “It’s a color that maybe if used in the 17th century, you would get some kind of weird poisoning”. 

Now that concert venues are opening up to the general public, Screaming Females has taken to the stage once, starting in Jersey City at an event coined Garden Party to showcase various independent musicians.  

For Paternoster, the best parts about performing live are losing herself to the music. While she has admitted to being a nervous performer at times, she said she sometimes prefers the added space larger shows on stages give her compared to more intimate house shows. 

“If we’re playing a house show, there might be people there that I’ve known for a long time and I value their thoughts and opinions on me,” Paternoster said.  

At the end of the day, Screaming Females just want to play music for as many people as possible. 

The band is currently on tour in Alaska until March 10, but dates have been released for a cross country performance, ending April 29 in Boston, MA. After a month break, the trio plan to tour across Europe, starting in Denmark and ending their journey in the UK.