Trapped in the clutches of Minneapolis, Aly (they/she) is a writer, editor, musician, podcaster, and mother of rats. Her work has appeared on- and off-line in various contexts, such as Pitchfork, Post Trash, Aquarium Drunkard, Portable Model, Swim Into The Sound (duh), and more. She makes weird music as purity olympics, tweets a lot, and infrequently puts letters into the news. Her rats are named Aeronautics and Ecology, Aero and Eco to friends. Fix your hearts or die.

Ben Sooy

Ben Sooy is a Denver-based, universally-beloved human being, who occasionally writes about music for Swim Into The Sound. Ben is a member of Denver Emo Band A Place For Owls, and is the co-founder of Holy Fool, a nonprofit community that exists to provide encouragement, peer coaching, and strategizing help to working musicians who are not yet financially independent.

Braden is a data enthusiast and midwest emo enjoyer from small-town Kansas. He’s currently a graduate student studying Higgs to Tau Tau decays. When he’s not working on his thesis, he’s either making some ridiculous playlist or running. You can find more of his music writing on Substack, and more of him generally on Instagram and Bluesky.

Caleb Doyle (Kansas City, MO) is a music writer and dive bar enthusiast. He would love to talk to you about pro wrestling, your favorite cheeseburger, and your top 10 American rock bands. Caleb’s writing has been featured in Post-Trash and UPROXX. You can find Caleb on most social media @ ClassicDoyle, or subscribe to his new music Substack, Nightswimming, HERE. (nightswimmingblog.substack.com)

Caro (she/her) takes the band Wednesday very seriously. She’s from New Orleans, Louisiana and lives in Washington D.C. Yes, she has met Ian MacKaye and he was nice. She also runs Jackass World, a blog where she writes essays about Bam Margera. If she could be anyone in The Simpsons, she would be Milhouse.

Cassidy Sollazzo

Cassidy is a culture writer and researcher currently based in Brooklyn. She loves many things, including but not limited to internet rabbit holes, Caroline Polachek, blueberry pancakes, her cat Seamus, and adding to her record collection. Alongside Swim into the Sound, her writing has been featured in Dazed, Polyester, and The Line of Best Fit. When she’s not writing about her various forms of media consumption on her Substack, Who Invited Her?, she can be found tweeting about Charli XCX or in the midst of a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills marathon.

Ciara is a pathological music lover writing out of a nebulous location somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, fueled by far too much caffeine and always within close proximity of her two cats. By day, she slings coffee and in her free time she pursues her passion for band promotion and management. Ciara has a deep love for her friends and building community everywhere, particularly in DIY music spaces. She consistently appears on most socials as @rhiannon_comma, and you can read more of her earlier works over at rhiannoncomma.substack.com.

David is a Chicago-based multi-dimensional artist who works as a writer, journalist, and photographer. David’s writing and photography have been featured in Stereogum, Spotify, Under The Radar, Northern Transmissions, Swim Into The Sound, and The Ugly Hug. His hidden talent is that he has seen every Leprechaun film at least two times minimum. You can get in touch with David on social media Instagram: @davidmwill89 Twitter: @Cobretti24 or E-Mail david0824wms@gmail.com 

Southern California born and raised, Elias can often be found at the local gig, be it screamo, emo, hardcore or whatever. Their time in the scene is patchwork but their dedication to it and the music that makes it has made up the last few years of their life. They love this shit with the whole of their heart and will talk your ear off about it if you let them. Screamo for fucking ever.

Love your friends. Die laughing.

Katie is a music writer and karaoke superstar in Austin, Texas. She is from there, but between 2010 and now, also lived in Lubbock, TX and Portland, OR. Her life is a movie in which her bearded dragon Pancake is the star. You can check out her Substack here. She’s writing a book about growing up alongside her favorite band, Paramore.

Lillian Weber is a fake librarian in New York, originally hailing from the Midwest. Yes, like all your favorite emo music. She’s like a deadhead but for Fugazi. Ask her what her favorite “Suggestion” bootleg is, and you’ll get six competing answers spilling from her at once. She blogs about her experience with this whole gender thing and thoughts on music at all my selves aligned. Lillian’s secret talent is that she's really good at riding a unicycle. 

Logan Archer Mounts hates writing about himself and would much prefer to write about KISS, which he does semi-regularly for the I Still Love You newsletter. You can find him talking more about music on his vinyl collection YouTube channel or concert document Instagram feed. He occasionally makes jokes jokes on Bluesky to tens of followers and lives with his partner and cat, whom he loves very much. The cat mostly just loves french fries and Mortician.

Nick is a 31-year-old musician and freelance writer from southeast Michigan who covers pro wrestling for Wrestling Inc. Though he’s considering retirement from the gig, his previous bands include Trotsky (The Heart Of) and Glen Eyrie, and he’s spent time filling in on guitar and bass for much cooler bands like Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) and Mt. Oriander. Nick also loves da movies and previously hosted a college radio show/podcast covering the topic called Popular Static. Find him on BlueSky, Instagram, or reach him over email by contacting nmiller3494@gmail.com.

Nick is a musician and producer, born in Billings, MT, now based in Denver, CO. He’s in the band A Place For Owls and has been lucky to write a number of songs under his own name. He has no idea what he’s doing but has found that doing scary things is usually worthwhile. He likes snowboarding and the poems of David Berman.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Taylor is a lifelong music nerd who has run Swim Into The Sound since it was just a bunch of Google Docs being thrown onto a Tumblr page. When he's not waxing poetic about his latest obsession here, you can find him posting music esoterica on Twitter, making playlists on Spotify, or sharing Borzoi pics to his Instagram Story. After a couple of years in Detroit and a stint in Denver, he’s living out in North Carolina, trying to burn through his backlog of musician autobiographies.