Cover Story: Games We Play is finally doing it Emmyn’s way

For the better part of the last few years, Games We Play has existed in a space between authenticity and performance. Created by Miami-born musician Emmyn Calleiro, the project blends early-2000s-style pop-punk with internet humor, self-awareness, and the kind of chaotic personality-driven marketing that could only exist in the hyper-online era. What started as an authentic extension of Emmyn’s personality slowly evolved into something increasingly difficult for him to separate from himself—a persona that eventually became impossible to turn off.

Long before Games We Play became tied to algorithms, Emmyn grew up around Florida’s DIY hardcore and punk scenes. Raised around the local punk community through his father, Jason Calleiro of Glasseater, the underground scene in the early 2000s became an early influence on his understanding of DIY music culture. He later attended School of Rock programs before moving to Nashville as a teenager and independently launching Games We Play in 2016.

By 2022, that DIY momentum led to a major breakthrough when Games We Play signed to Fueled By Ramen and DCD2 Records, the label founded by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. The signing was significant because of Wentz’s endorsement of Emmyn’s authenticity and songwriting, but especially because Fueled By Ramen helped launch A-List groups like Paramore, Panic! at the Disco, twenty one pilots, and Fall Out Boy. For many fans in the newer pop-punk scene, the co-sign gave Games We Play instant credibility.

The music of Games We Play sits somewhere between blink-182, All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, and the modern internet-fueled emo pop-punk revival. But more than anything, the appeal has always centered around Emmyn himself: his awkward humor, exaggerated self-deprecation, meme culture, emotional oversharing, and an intentionally chaotic live presence that made him feel less like a polished front man and more like the pop-punk everyman. In the age of social media, that personality quickly became inseparable from the project itself. The chaos felt authentic. The humor felt effortless. And as Games We Play grew online, that personality quickly became the brand.

By 2024, Games We Play was becoming one of the most recognizable names in modern pop-punk’s online resurgence online, touring alongside bands like Fall Out Boy, YUNGBLUD, and All Time Low, building a fanbase that connected as much to Emmyn’s personality as they did the music itself. At its peak, the project existed fully inside the version of Emmyn that the internet had come to expect. He was always visible, always performing, always “on,” even as that version of himself became harder to maintain behind the scenes.

Behind that version of Games We Play that was succeeding online, there was an increasingly disconnected person behind it. The success was real, but so was the growing disconnect. What looked like success externally felt increasingly hollow internally. “Honestly, I’ve been doing Games We Play for a long time, and [2024] was the first time I had a chance [to make more fans], so I was just running without really knowing what I was running for,” Emmyn shares with Melodic Magazine ahead of his run on idobi’s Summer School. “But I’m super thankful for those years and tours. Now it’s just super different.”

At the peak, Emmyn says he was caught in a cycle of chasing momentum without fully understanding why. “It was going great. People were finding out about Games We Play. That was the year I made real fans, but it’s completely different than how I do things now.” 

As he eventually began singing lyrics that weren’t written by him, he was pushed to confront the music he was singing during the Hello Ladies tour with The Paradox. “I got really weird mentally,” he admits. “I was like, ‘Why am I singing these songs? Why am I putting on this show? Why are people paying to come to this show?’”

The issue was the identity of his band and the music he was putting out. “A lot of it was because when you’re a band in LA, you write songs with other people,” he explains. “I was touring so much, and by June 2025, I got to the point where I was like, ‘Why am I singing these songs? I didn’t write more than half the lyrics.’ If they’re not my words, it’s kind of just vanity.” For the first time, Emmyn began openly questioning whether Games We Play had become more of a content machine than a creative outlet.

Emmyn describes a version of himself that barely resembles who he is today. “In 2024, I was having fun on tour, but simultaneously I was trying really hard to make it,” he explains. “I was trying to get views and people’s approval. Looking back now, I’m like, ‘Whoa, I’ve changed 100 times,’ because what I was doing then is totally not the person I am [today]..

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