Stay in
the pit
longer

I started listening to rock somewhere around third or fourth grade. My sister’s friend put me onto it. All That Remains, and The Used pretty early. After that it was just going down the rabbit hole, finding bands through music videos on MTV, or LimeWire, or hearing something somewhere and chasing it down. That’s how you found music back then. This was New York City.

Middle school is when the dressing started. High school I still dressed a bit, made friends who listened to the same stuff, started a band with them. Then I joined the swim team and the dressing slowly died down. It is genuinely hard to be emo and be on a swim team at the same time. Try changing in and out of skinny jeans with chains hanging off them, long hair, fingerless gloves, a studded belt.

The first show I ever went to was Black Veil Brides, January 2013, Best Buy Theatre. I went by myself. I kept my jacket on the whole time, stayed in one spot, and witnessed my first pit. I didn’t talk to anybody and I still felt like I belonged.

Then college hit and I dropped all of it. Playing and performing music, the shows, keeping up with the bands. I went to school up in Rochester and not many bands stopped in a city that small. I quit swimming after 13 years and called it focusing on my career. I started listening to whatever was mainstream so I’d fit in.

But I always went back. I always went back to my music, because deep down it helped me process feelings I didn’t know how to put into words.

The sport came back the same way. I was in the water at five years old and swam for 13 years before I stopped. In 2025 I started running. A year later I’ve signed up for my first triathlon, so I’m getting back in the water too.

Circle Pit Crew started with one question. How do I play more and take life a little less seriously. Going back to sports and music was my version of that, and it changed my life so much that I wanted to help other people do it too.

— Calvin

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