Arm’s Length get a grip on being emo

Despite self-identifying as an emo kid, Allen Steinberg has plenty of reasons to be cheerful right now. The Arm’s Length frontman is the focal point of a band whose mix of musical inventiveness, lyrical honesty and love of the genre is fast-endearing them to an ever-increasing audience. Their new album, There’s A Whole World Out There, is their second and bears a title that reflects what appears to be the band’s healthy desire to get out there and make their mark.

Sitting down with K! on an off-day partway through a U.S. tour, Allen is energetic and engaged, joking about how he’s arrived right on time to accommodate a busy day of press. When he talks, he’s all gesturing, tattooed arms and flopping hair. For someone who professes to feel the creep of imposter syndrome “every fucking day” he looks – and sounds – like he’s supposed to be here. Although Allen insists that Arm’s Length’s success has been against the odds.

“We’re from a really small town in Canada,” he says of their Quinte West home. “This very small military town, and the fact that we even met as a band, the fact that we had compatibility to write creatively together and the fact that people really, really like the music and like can relate to it, it’s all, straight-up, a miracle.”

The reality might not be quite that miraculous. Backed by guitarist Jeremy White, bassist Ben Greenblatt and drummer Jeff White, Allen’s lyrics – particularly on the new record – are the type that emo fans have gravitated towards for years. Full of memorable turns of phrase, they’re as likely to dive into a black hole of personal despair as they are to aim a pot-shot at an unnamed target. ‘Confirmed you can’t do nothing right, like you couldn’t even die,’ on You Ominously End arguably does both.

“That song’s a narrative, but with a lot of truth in it, still,” Allen explains. “It’s kind of about the fear of a friend killing themselves and the guilt that comes along with that when you feel like you didn’t do a good enough job being their friend. I put it on steroids [and] it took on its own life when I was writing it. It sounds fucked, because the song is so dark, but that one was so fun to write.”

The singer attributes such dark themes to a couple of factors. First, him being “such an emo kid, growing up” and second, the rough ride he went through during the recording of the band’s first album, 2022’s Never Before Seen, Never Again Found.

“I think the biggest difference now is that I don’t let myself spiral as much,” he says. “With Never Before Seen… I really thought that record was going to be the only one we ever got to do. And I think it’s almost palpable in those songs. I thought we’d be a ‘one and done’, just because I was going through a pretty big OCD episode and that mental illness has always defined my life in a lot of ways. I’ve lost years of my life to focusing on circular and intrusive thoughts.”

Thankfully, he’s found ways to cope and channeled what he’s learned into their sophomore effort.

“A big mantra for me getting better in my own head was, ‘You’re always kind of going to be like this… You’re always gonna be a little bit flawed or a lot flawed, and that’s just how it’s gonna be at the time.’ And I think not getting anxious or worked up about those things is why I was able to write this record.

“Even though the record’s not more chill,” he adds. “It’s arguably more frantic, but… I’m the same guy, I guess, but I’m just able to tackle things I wasn’t able to before, if that makes sense.”

It does. As does the fact that this long-time emo kid is now one of its ordained ministers.

“This nine-year-old was at our show the other day,” Allen enthuses. “He’s a fan and that was his first [ever] show. Like, there’s just no ounce, no millimetre in any of our bodies that could have ever predicted or anticipated that. We could not give enough gratitude and appreciation that people are able to perceive our music like that and that our lives have allowed us to fulfill that dream.”

Modest to the end, he surmises, “It’s insane and it feels like it wasn’t meant to happen.”

Sounds like Arm’s Length might be miracle workers, after all.

THERE’S A WHOLE WORLD OUT THERE is due out on May 16 via Pure Noise Records

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