Tonight was Emo Night at UT, and four killer bands played all the emo bangers possible. I’m here with Slurp the World, who absolutely killed it covering My Chemical Romance’s discography. Unfortunately, text can’t truly capture how much fun they were to talk to, but they really were all hilarious, and I had a blast chatting with them.
Interviewer: You guys were locked in! It sounded like you had a lot of practice.
Jackson T. Cox: We had a lot of practice with Mama…
Rylie Riddle: We learned Ghost of You two days ago!
Jackson T. Cox: Ghost of you, I was nervous about!
Interviewer: Well, the practice paid off for sure! So you guys are all clearly emo fans-
Jackson T. Cox: Well…
Interviewer: Oh, not you?
Jackson T. Cox: Two of us more so than-
Connor Petru: I’m a new-
Jackson T. Cox: He’s a new recruit, we're still working on him.
Interviewer: I see. Well, in that case, what was it that brought you all together?
Jackson T. Cox: Well, me and Riley went to middle school together.
Rylie Riddle: We were both emo together, that’s how we became friends.
Jackson C. Cox: Dude, there’s some great pictures from back in the day.
Jackson T. Cox: I think I was wearing a Green Day or 21 Pilots shirt, and then Riley was like whoa, we should be friends. And then we were!
Rylie Riddle: And then we were!
Jackson T. Cox: And then we went to UT together, and this guy actually has the same first and last name as me! We're both named Jackson Cox.
Interviewer: Oh really? Wait, that's so funny. I know a guy named Jackson Cox!
Jackson C. Cox: No!
Jackson T. Cox: No way. Did he go to UT?
Interviewer: Uh, no, I think he's still in high school.
Rylie Riddle: We’re gonna recruit them all!
Jackson T. Cox: Can you find them and bring them to us?
Interviewer: Yeah, I’ll see if I can reach out to them.
Jackson T. Cox: I’ve never met another one, but I've heard there's others out there. So we found out there's another Jackson Cox, and we recruited him. We're like, hey, let's be friends. And then we were friends. We started to go into a bunch of-
Jackson C. Cox: It’s so simple with us!
Jackson T. Cox: You just have to walk up to someone and ask to be their friend. Nine times out of ten it works.
Jackson C. Cox: We started playing basketball, and watching-
Jackson T. Cox: Did we watch Deathnote, or something?
Jackson C. Cox: Yeah!
Jackson T. Cox: We started going to a bunch of shows and we were like, that looks easy, We could do that. Bought some instruments, taught ourselves how to play. And then we're like, oh, fuck, we need a drummer, don't we? And so we were just, like, roaming around the dumpsters behind Rylie’s old apartment building. And Connor was like banging on some cans out there. And we're like, you got the sauce! We're like, hey, want to be friends? And he was like-
Connor Petru: Yeah!
Jackson T. Cox: And so we're like, awesome, we're in a band. We're called Slurp the World. Welcome!
Interviewer: Wow, that's great. Where'd that band name come from?
Jackson C. Cox: Divine intervention.
Rylie Riddle: We were walking around because us three, we were all class of 2020. So we came here during COVID, and there's shit all to do. We’d just walk around the city and talk for hours. One day we were trying to like, come up with twists on like classic idioms and stuff. So we were like, “the world is your oyster”, there's got to be something there. What do you do with oysters? You slurp them. This came about before we decided to be a band, so for a while, it was the name of our skit trope on TikTok.
Jackson T. Cox: We were like, we gotta do something, but I don't know what it is yet-
Jackson C. Cox: But I don’t think it’s ever started with the name and then gone to the band.
Rylie Riddle: Then when we were gonna start a band, we were like, oh, we have the perfect name!
Interviewer: It's great! It's memorable for sure.
Jackson T. Cox: I think I would attribute that to about 50-55% of our success.
Connor Petru: Honestly.
Jackson C. Cox: We're like, no matter where we go, if you say our name, they'll be like, I feel like I’ve heard of that.
Connor Petru: Yeah!
Jackson T. Cox: It sticks in your mind!
Jackson C. Cox: Because there's some band names that have been around that like, you just can’t…
Rylie Riddle: The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets?
Jackson C. Cox: Like Ween?
Connor Petru: And I think that's our goal. That's why I joined you guys. I heard the name.
Rylie Riddle: Like they sound like shit, but their name?
Jackson C. Cox: It's so funny to get 40-year-olds to be like, yeah, I just saw Slurp last night! Shit was great.
Rylie Riddle: Yeah, we’ve got to get to that point.
Connor Petru: We’ve got to get a deal with SpongeBob. That's how Ween made it. And they had a funny name.
Jackson C. Cox: We need a deal…
Jackson T. Cox: With Bluey!
Jackson C. Cox: Bluey?
Connor Petru: Maybe something more slurp-related?
Wandering Fans: Wait guys, it’s My Chemical Romance!
Connor Petru: No photos! No photos!
*After some photos…
Interviewer: So what's the big influence on your sound? I'm assuming at least a little bit of My Chemical Romance? What else?
Rylie Riddle: For sure.
Jackson C. Cox: Wanna go down the line?
Connor Petru: Me, a lot of Rush, and for my drumming, I'm a big 80s guy. So yeah. Definitely the rock adjacent stuff.
Jackson T. Cox: I listen to a lot of, like, emo rock music—Grown-Ups, a lot of like, Fallout Boy, MCR, etcetera. I feel like lately I've been into a lot of Sonic Youth, Cocteau Twins, Tight Waves and some experimental stuff.
Rylie Riddle: Yeah, I was definitely an emo Trinity kid. Like Panic! At the Disco, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, 21 Pilots… I wouldn't say that that's an influence, though. But yeah, I feel like My Chemical Romance probably is the biggest, like, where I was actually trying to translate sound. And then I'm also a big Beatles fan.
Connor Petru: I feel like The Beatles more so for bass specifically.
Jackson C. Cox: The Yin and Yang of Beatles and MCR.
Jackson T. Cox: People have called our bass lines McCartney-esque.
Connor Petru: Have they? That's awesome.
Rylie Riddle: Quit tugging my nuts, bro. Ok, your turn.
Jackson T. Cox: The Strokes?
Jackson C. Cox: Yeah.
Jackson T. Cox: What about Idols? Do you attribute Idols?
Jackson C. Cox: Yeah. Anything with little annoying guitar parts. Little riffs. Also Smashing Pumpkins. I feel like every time we play a show, someone's like, oh, that sounds like Smashing Pumpkins. It’s just because we do like the feedback-y guitar thing, which… I like it, so.
Interviewer: I guess finally, what's your band's mission? What do you want to do?
Jackson C. Cox: I kind of stole Ringo Star’s. After every show I go, “peace and love, everyone.”
Rylie Riddle: That's your mission?
Jackson C. Cox: I feel like that's my mission.
Jackson T. Cox: *Bursts out laughing.*
Connor Petru: This guy wants to spread peace and love!
Jackson C. Cox: Of all the things to spread, it’s not a bad one!
Connor Petru: Yeah, that's beautiful. I mean, I think it's to just have a good time ourselves and then to make others have a good time, and do it for as long as we can.
Jackson C. Cox: Build community. A full community.
Jackson T. Cox: Hey, hey, we’ve been doing that.
Rylie Riddle: Enough out of this guy!
Jackson T. Cox: No, no I like that. Build a community. We found a nice little community. We found the community in Austin in the music scene.
Rylie Riddle: When we do cover shows like this, I feel like they're some of my favorites because like, I don't know, everybody knows the songs. Everybody can get into it.
Jackson T. Cox: That would never happen at one of our shows!
Interviewer: It could eventually!
Connor Petru: One day. One day.
Rylie Riddle: That's the mission.
Jackson C. Cox: Listen, I think ultimately what this is all about is… We want to sell out American Airlines. That’s-
Rylie Riddle: The goal is to sell out.
Jackson C. Cox: As soon as possible.
Rylie Riddle: As soon as possible, compromise whatever morals.
Jackson T. Cox: Really though, we’ve done everything in our power to not gain any, like, traction for corporate dealings at all.
Connor Petru: Yeah, which I think is the best way.
Jackson C. Cox: If we wanted to do, like, a crypto coin. I'm not saying that I'm… in on it. I'm saying I would hear out your pitch.
Rylie Riddle: Ha!
Connor Petru: Ok, ok.
Rylie Riddle: Dawg, I’m not doing that.
Jackson T. Cox: But yeah, just to, I mean really, to do it our way too. We have avoided those sorts of deals, and those sorts of … We did independently produce, like, our own EP and album, no record label. I think that's cool.
Connor Petru: But yeah, regardless of how far we make it, if we made it far doing it on our own, that would be great. And there's people who have done that. It would be way more satisfying.
Jackson C. Cox: But we're all so stubborn that if we ever, I don't know, compromised our morals, we would never forgive ourselves.
Interviewer: That's a lot of integrity.
Jackson T. Cox: Thanks. That’s all we got!