Joseph Dubay really nails the best side of that time in American culture and music where a certain stripe of teens were listening to dramatic music and not distinguishing between emo and Goth because no one told them those are distinctly, culturally different (which, let’s be real, they’re not when you get to the essence of them). A time when bands like My Chemical Romance and AFI helped define an aesthetic of Goth-and-punk crossover with make-up and stark imagery and Bayside, named in the song, worked with Gil Norton on its 2011 album Killing Time to not just bring his expert ear but the mystique of having worked on key 4AD records to the proceedings. Not that so many “pastel goths” did a lot of listening to Echo & The Bunnymen, Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus. Dubay has all of that and a youth spent playing N64 with friends and crushing on girls who seemed so tough and cool and too good and interesting for you. Until you have the guts to become a character like you’re listening to in an emo song and express your feelings. And yet the song also acknowledges the poses people adopt to try to fit in while the music and culture they love is all about exposing frailty and vulnerability and expressing the insecurity, pain and feelings of inadequacy—the melodrama—of youth. Dubay honors those feelings many people go through when it all seems so poignant before the unsavory reality of some of those those musicians people held in such high esteem who seemed to articulate what you’re feeling so poignantly got exposed as abusers or UFO conspiracy theorists or simply flawed and human like everyone. But there’s something beautiful about remembering what it felt like to feel like you were really living and feeling and not adjusting to the consensus reality of drab, supposed adulthood. In title and story, Dubay gives us a poignant snapshot of an era. Listen to “Pastel Goth” on Soundcloud and follow Joseph Dubay at the link below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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