The Kids Are Screaming: An Interview with Sostre!
Western New York has been no stranger to alternative music, but only recently has the screamo scene begun to flourish.
In a city known for producing genre-defining bands like Snapcase, Cannibal Corpse and Every Time I Die, Buffalo’s connection to screamo had always been limp in comparison. While its parent genre, emo, has seen local success over the years (see Cute Is What We Aim For, Del Paxton, Lemuria), the more chaotic subgenre never generated as much buzz in the 716 as the more “approachable” alternative styles.
Hardcore punk, another parent genre of screamo, has seen its popularity rise since the cusp of the 2020s. Thanks to a new wave of dedicated bands as well as fans and venues, hardcore groups have helped define the modern era of Buffalo’s local scene. Screamo, however, was seemingly left out.
Until now.
Sostre! is a four-piece Buffalo screamo band formed in early 2025. Following previous attempts to start a project, the ragtag group of young musicians came together through their shared desire to create. Since their inception, the screamo new bloods have been at the forefront of the budding Buffalo scene.
With the lineup of Teagan Finnegan on vocals, Mason Cole on guitar, Sam Blum on bass, and AJ Carbone behind the kit, Sostre! quickly built a reputation for their cathartic passion and creative approach to their craft. Their debut show this past June helped produce a newfound interest in Buffalonian screamo, kickstarting a previously non-existent community and laying the groundwork for their first run of shows.
Their band name is an homage to prison reform & civil rights activist Martin Sostre, whose legacy of resistance and self-determination reflects the band’s spirit.
Embracing a strictly DIY ethos, the band handles nearly every aspect of their creative output, including designing their own flyers and burning their own CD-Rs. Their proactive approach as a group has helped them quickly carve out a space in Buffalo’s scene. If you’re a student at UB, chances are you’ve seen their promotional posters scattered across campus corkboards.
Composed mostly of freshly graduated high schoolers, the quartet spent this past summer going on a run of regional shows, dubbed ‘Sostre! summer.’ The brief tour culminated in the release of their demo ‘Accessory to the Murder of My Best Friend’ in early August and four hometown performances.
On top of arguably being the first 716-bred screamo band of this decade, Sostre! pride themselves on spreading their music through their love for the genre. Known to perform alongside local and regional alternative bands, they occasionally pay homage to acts from past waves of emo & screamo in the form of live covers.
I caught up with the band at their practice space after a recent gig to discuss their music, the Buffalo screamo scene, and what’s next for them.
How did the band first come to exist?
AJ: “I’ve been trying to start a band in Buffalo since 2020. I jammed with over 20 people, totaling to roughly 6 bands that unfortunately never fully materialized. The closest I got was a black metal/screamo project that broke up the day our demo was released. This time, I wanted to focus on my own drumming style and sound. I met Sam after putting screamo band audition flyers up around UB and social media.”
Sam: “I told AJ I could play bass, and she said, ‘Let’s start a band.’ “
Mason: “I was previously in another band called yousaidityourself. We were looking for a drummer, and I had met AJ at the second New Friends Fest last year. We jammed together with them, and I played bass, but I wanted to play guitar. I left the band shortly after AJ did, and she hit me up to see if I was interested in jamming with her and Sam.”
Teagan: “I joined Sostre! after AJ messaged me on Instagram asking to join. Their original vocalist left, and I wasn’t sure if I was right for them since I had never done anything, but AJ convinced me to practice with them.”
Screamo in Buffalo has been relatively quiet, aside from touring acts coming through; what inspired you to help revive it?
Mason: “I never thought of it as ‘reviving’ it, since I never felt there was ever a screamo scene in Buffalo. I just knew about the music and knew that’s what I wanted to make and be involved in.”
Sam: “In the least selfish way possible, I feel as though we’re starting [the screamo scene in Buffalo.] There might’ve been bands, but there were never any shows or anything to do.”
AJ: “To be fair, there was a show that took place a few weeks after we formed, but it was all [out-of-town] bands coming in. It was almost like seeing a whole new scene forming overnight, with people I had never seen at any of the punk or hardcore shows in Buffalo. I think people overstate the idea that screamo is always ‘reviving’ something old. There’s a real presence to it now.”
How does Martin Sostre’s story connect with the band?
AJ: “I pitched the name originally. When we were starting out, I listed a bunch of last names of famous anarchists. I think we all kind of agreed it was the best choice out of the names because of the locality. It’s a story that is very much unheard of, even to a lot of politically involved people in the area. Martin Sostre started something incredible. He was completely framed. It’s a story of injustice against his beliefs and his values. Having that be our band name and actually getting to meet the people involved with the justice campaign is really cool.”
Mason: “What I like about his story is that once he was imprisoned, he did a lot for prison reform. Being put in that position and being so defeated, he still found something to work towards and made a difference.”
Sam: “I’m happy that people look into his story from us being named after him. That’s part of it to me.”
What bands do you take inspiration from?
Teagan: “Saetia is the main comparison I receive and understand. I get the flow of my lyrics from a lot of the bands we’ve played with. When I’m watching a newer screamo band, I’ll see the way they do something and think, ‘I like that — I’m going to try something like that myself.’ “
Sam: “Our sound is definitely closer in the vein of early screamo. I listen to a lot of early-2000s post-hardcore stuff. I love bands like Saosin and Underoath. A lot of that comes through in how I play bass sometimes, because I would listen specifically to the bass parts, and subconsciously try to emulate them.”
Mason: “We draw a lot from that pretty standard form of screamo, like Orchid, which is really heavy on the emoviolence but still has that raw creativity. I’d say we’re influenced by them, along with those early bands that mixed in mathcore, post-hardcore, and post-rock. I think screamo works best when it pulls from different genres. In terms of my writing, I try to capture the intensity of bands like Jerome’s Dream, but also the technicality and unorthodox energy of bands like Ed Gein.”
AJ: “There are a bunch of bands I could list, like Joshua Fit For Battle, Neil Perry, and In Loving Memory. We all draw from so many other genres that it’s hard to tell what direction the band may go.”
How important is the DIY aspect of being a band?
Teagan: “Very important. It’s like a bonding thing; it makes everything more personal. Before our demo release show, we were like, ‘We’ll be there at five,’ and at five, we were still burning 30 CDs. We handled everything ourselves; it’s something we hold really close.”
Some of you are fresh out of high school; would you say that gives you a unique perspective on the scene?
Sam: “For sure. I didn’t start going to shows until over a year ago, which is crazy to me. I think meeting people through the scene who were similar to me was very helpful in developing me as a person. This band has helped me learn a lot.”
Teagan: “I’ve been going to shows since I was 13. My dad and I always talked about how the hardcore shows were mostly big older guys. I didn’t really have any friends in the scene until about a year ago because there wasn’t that wave of younger kids involved yet. Being around the scene for so long as just an observer, not a musician, gave me a different perspective. Now, having my own project, finally being part of it instead of just watching, is a really cool shift.”
Mason: “Up until the last few years, I’ve always had crippling social anxiety. By having a reason to go to shows, I’ve gotten to feel a lot more comfortable at places like that. I really do feel at home talking to people [at shows]. I’m super happy to be at this point in my life, and I owe a lot to this band.”
AJ: “I’ve been going to shows for about eight years, my first at 18 when I left for college, but the early ones weren’t even punk; more art-kid, digital hardcore, experimental stuff in New York City. I didn’t really encounter punk until I went to college. I only got into the Buffalo scene after moving here, just by looking up venues and seeing whatever was happening. Some of my most formative memories here revolved around Sugar City, Wastelands, The Hostel, Birdhouse. It feels good to finally be making something in the scene instead of just watching it. I appreciate all the years I spent going to shows, but contributing to Buffalo now feels different — like bringing something back into the community instead of just taking it in.”
What does the future look like for the band?
Teagan: “More songs for sure. My vocals have improved so much. We’ve been a band for less than a year and we’ve already changed a lot. Even though I love our earliest material, we’ve all started to gravitate towards something better.”
Sam: “There’s so much we could do, but definitely more shows.”
Mason: “We’ve started to find our sound. There’s still room for me to up the technicality, but the fact we have an audience still blows my mind and I’m excited for whatever is to come.”
AJ: “I hope there’s more cohesion to the band. Creatively speaking, I notice how there are a lot of things that slip through the cracks, riffs and song ideas lost, because we don’t have access to recording equipment all the time. An important change down the road would be changing how we come together to make music, hopefully recording in a studio setting and having a more artistic collage to make an EP or album one day.”
