Misery Loves Company: Positive Energy and Absolute Chaos

Misery Loves Company: Positive Energy and Absolute Chaos

Meet Misery Loves Company, an up-and-coming post-emo collective from Jersey ready to slam the positive energy and absolute chaos into your world!  Their debut EP Love Notes and Highways  is now available from Revival Recordings – a label owned and operated by Shawn Milke of Alesana.  Fans of bands such as My Chemical Romance and Senses Fail should check into what the dynamic Misery Loves Company has to offer, and prepare the be wondrously stunned by the brutal honesty and intrigue contained within.  Here is a recent interview we conducted with vocalist Jimmy Ruggiero to find out more about the auditory explosion known as Misery Loves Company.  Read on…

Introduce yourself and tell me what you do in Misery Loves Company.
My names Jimmy and I sing for the band.

Where is your band based out of and what is your music scene like there?
We’re split up in north and south Jersey and to be honest growing up around here really molded what the band is today. We looked up a lot to the local bands that grew up to be huge arena rock bands such as My Chemical Romance and Senses Fail to name a few. Being from New Jersey there’s not much to do growing up besides visiting all the haunted weird NJ sites and visiting all the graveyards. We’re really into the horror culture and we try to incorporate that into our music.

How did you wind up signing with Revival Recordings?
Our good friend and manager Lee Jennings who sings for The Funeral Portrait actually shopped us to them last year and the rest is history.

Is there any story or concept behind the EP title Love Notes and Highways?
The basic concept is finding hope and peace in tragic situations. This EP being mainly about loss and being vulnerable with myself and real life situations I wanted to talk about. This band is for the loners and outcasts of the world who never really felt like they could fit into something. We’re not really a metal band. But we’re also not a pop band and I think that’s something that sets us apart.

Select any two songs from Love Notes and Highways and what inspired the lyrics.
Dead and Buried is a story of two people in a relationship that loved each other so much that they would rather perish together if the other were to die. Main theme to this song is how powerful love truly is.

All Used Up is about this one person from my past that essentially used me and pretended to care when in all reality they just didn’t care about me at all and just used me as a pawn in her own life so to speak. It’s for anyone that’s been pushed down and been made to feel like there meaningless and will never make anything of themselves.

What could one expect from a live Misery Loves Company show?
There’s always a lot of positive energy and chaos at our shows. We try and make it a place where there’s no cliques and everyone can come release emotions in a therapeutic fashion.

Any strange or scary happenings on the road or at a Misery Loves Company show?
Not thus far but I’m sure we’ll experience some soon!

If Misery Loves Company could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Probably as a whole it would be My Chemical Romance. That band honestly instilled a fire underneath us, showing us that punk rock can be marketable and genuine at the same time. Their legends in my book.

If the music of Misery Loves Company was a donut, what kind would it be and why?
Probably a strawberry and chocolate covered donut with sprinkles. Because our music is so diverse? I’m not sure. This is a hard one.

What’s up next for Misery Loves Company?
We drop our debut EP “Love Notes and Highways” March 17th! We will be touring the rest of the year in support of the release and plan to be in as many states as humanly possible over the next few years.

Any final words of wisdom?
Thank you for anyone that’s took the time to actually check out our band. It means the world to us and we can’t wait to come play for everyone real soon!

Misery Loves Company is:
Jimmy Ruggiero – Vocals
Mike Williams – Guitar
Joe Mascio Jr – Bass
Anthony Caggiano – Drums

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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