First Time Club: Emma Goldman Playing Sled Island 2025
This week, we’re kicking off our First Timers Club series, spotlighting artists performing at Sled Island for the very first time. Whether they are longtime fans finally making the leap to the stage or newcomers to the city altogether, these features capture the energy and anticipation of artists stepping into the Sled spotlight.
First up is Vancouver’s Emma Goldman, a ferocious and fearless hardcore band whose sound blends screamo intensity with high-BPM electronic chaos. From their deep DIY roots to their excitement about connecting with Calgary’s scene, Emma Goldman share what this moment means to them—and why their set might just become your new festival highlight.
Stay tuned to Reverie all week as we roll out more first-timer interviews, and keep an eye out for our summer print edition for the full spread of stories, photos, and sweaty venue dreams come true.
REVERIE: How did you feel when you found out you'd be playing Sled Island?
We were all really excited. Our peers in other Vancouver bands have always raved about how much fun Sled is, so getting invited to play feels like a real milestone for us. We haven’t played Calgary with Emma Goldman, and have only played it once with our old band. We’re also looking forward to spending time in the city and experiencing the fest as guests.
REVERIE: What does this opportunity mean to you and your band at this point in your career?
First and foremost, it will be great to experience the Calgary music scene. We’ve been primarily playing in Vancouver and Victoria, so the opportunity to establish connections with artists over there will be cool. Also, the city has such a rich working-class history, and that struggle is really at the core of what a lot of our music is about. In that sense, we’re also excited for the chance to connect with comrades outside of BC over that shared experience.
REVERIE: Have you ever attended Sled Island as a fan? What were your impressions before being booked?
None of us has ever been! We were all quite captivated by the fact that Show Me the Body and Soul Glo performed last year. The ways those bands interpret hardcore is invigorating, and Sled Island is much like that: the line-ups are never stale, the curators do an incredible job and have a real ear to the floor for music across the country and beyond. We all regretted not trying to get booked that time, so we had to go for it this year.
REVERIE: What can fans expect from your set at Sled Island?
You can expect a high-intensity, unrelenting set with moments of euphoria that make you want to dance and be sweaty. We mix heavy guitar music with heavy electronic music that keeps things at a pretty steady, neck-breaking BPM from start to finish. Think: rave meets mosh pit. We like to dance and scream, and our hope is that you’ll want to do the same with us.
REVERIE: What’s it like navigating the Canadian music scene as an emerging artist right now?
It’s funny, the Canadian music scene has always felt difficult to navigate since it’s geographically huge but socially small. We always assumed our anarchist screamo band belonged strictly to the international underground. Historically, Canadian screamo has been centered in the East, while the small number of heavy bands in BC have typically found their communities by touring down the west coast of the US. But there has been an awesome emerging screamo scene in Western Canada that has sprung up over the past few years. We have a lot to prove for this kind of music coming from Vancouver, but it’s also exciting to see it blossom and see Canadian screamo put on the map. This experience has challenged any preconceived ideas that Canada is a cultural garrison, suggesting the landscape is far more complex and genuinely open to heavy music than we ever imagined.
Photo credit: JJ Mazzucotelli
REVERIE: Do you feel there's a strong sense of community in your local scene? Has that helped get you to this stage?
Absolutely. The sense of community in our local DIY scene isn’t just strong, it’s foundational. After the COVID lockdowns, the Vancouver scene had a bit of a renaissance. It’s important to remember that scenes push music forward, not singular bands. Screamo, in particular, is having a moment in Vancouver, and we definitely owe a lot to those bands as they are constantly pushing and inspiring us. We also like to rep Red Gate (a venue and collective here in Vancouver) because it’s been a home for us, housing an incredible array of artists and musicians that can sometimes have very little in common sonically. That diversity is inspiring, and you start to find these through-lines that connect us all—less about genre and more about a shared set of artistic and political values. We never would have reached this new stage of wider acceptance without that specific, supportive community; it was the only incubator that would have us, and it gives us the confidence to push our sound forward.
REVERIE: What are you hoping this opportunity leads to — more gigs, collaborations, touring?
We haven’t had much opportunity as a band to reach audiences outside of BC, so we are looking forward to putting our music in front of new people. We would love to meet like-minded bands in the Calgary scene and make the Vancouver-Calgary connection stronger. We’d love to do more shows there throughout the year. The scenes across Canada can feel so disconnected sometimes because of the distance, so meeting like-minded bands and fans from other cities is the most valuable part of an opportunity like this. It's just about strengthening that real, ground-level network and hopefully making some new friends.
Photo credit: JJ Mazzucotelli
REVERIE: Who are you most looking forward to seeing at Sled Island? Any shout-outs?
Cat Piss are phenomenal. We played with them in May and absolutely loved their sound and the people in that band. Really lovely folks. They put us onto some Albertan bands to check out while we are at Sled: Stucco, Perra, Witch Victim, Uncanny Valley, and Puppet Wipes. We’re also excited to see Otoboke Beaver, Horse Jumper of Love, Xiu Xiu, and Abrupt Decay. So many of our friends are playing too: SMUTHER, JOBSITE (because you know we respect OHS), Hillsboro, PISS, Taxa, Water Margin, NATLAK, down the lees, and Devours.
REVERIE: What’s inspiring your music these days — musically or otherwise?
We always love answering this question, and our inspirations can be so diverse.
Hayley: I’ve been taking a keener ear to hyperpop artists lately like HorsegiirL, Shygirl, and 2hollis. I’m interested in this idea of blending screamo with the sassy, bratty, hyper-feminine attitude that this genre is dripping in. You observe this type of aggressive, campy confidence from hardcore bands, but it’s generally presented in a very masculine manner. I want to experiment with incorporating that type of energy in my writing and performances but make it feel more ‘slay’. I also felt really energized after watching season 2 of The Rehearsal. Nathan Fielder is a perfect example of someone who is devoted to raising the bar for their art.
Felix: Brecht, Frank O’Hara, Shearling. I’ve been thinking a lot about drawing attention to genre as a vehicle for certain ideological assumptions. But at the end of the day, nothing gets me going quite like some caveman riffs.
Pavel: Bands that blend genres really well to create something really amazing - Fallingwithscissors, they are gutting a body of water, Lefty Fish, MSPAINT and CPU Buddha. As well as our screamo and hardcore contemporaries - xWeaponx, I Promised The World, Knumears, Kaonashi, Clay Birds, Kiowa, Ethereal Tomb, Told Not To Worry, athousandangelsandseven, CANDY, and Clique. Lastly, a lot of electronic music - 99jakes, Hitori Tori, Alice Gas, Lil Kevo 303, Goreshit, Brutalismus 3000, Vieze Asbak, Lil Texas, and Burial.
Victoria: Yeah, with the first album done, my head is a mess of ideas for the next one. It's a weird soup right now—I'm thinking about the viciousness of Euripides’ tragedies, but also just obsessed with movies about performance and fame getting twisted. Stuff like All About Eve, Perfect Blue, the over-the-top tragedy of Moulin Rouge!, and the whole "crime is beauty" vibe in John Waters' Female Trouble. Musically, the new Ostraca and dianacrawls albums are on repeat, but I’m also just floored by how Rosalía blows up genres on Motomami and the pure political fire of the Downtown Boys' Full Communism record. Honestly though, the most real inspiration is just the raw energy from Instagram reels of people losing their minds at work. It's not about the lyrics, just that feeling—that's the fuel.
REVERIE: What’s next after you play Sled Island? Anything new on the horizon?
We’ll be touring Eastern Canada later in August. After that, we’ll hopefully start working on our next record and tour plans for next spring. It looks like it’s going to be a busy year, but we’re also going to take the time to enjoy those cross-Canada drives and hopefully make some new friends.
Emma Goldman will be playing Sled Island at Loophole Coffee Bar on Saturday, June 21st with Grimelda, Pollux, and tarotfuntime. For tickets, visit here.