The band’s new album, Madness, is out today.
Beth Kleinpeter
We combed through tons of tweets and the winner, ultimately, was Emily Becker. That's her (red hair) above with her friends Elliot Young (green ball), Kate Russell (Batman shirt), and SWS frontman Kellin Quinn (tongue out).
Sleeping With Sirens have a brand new album out today, Madness, and mega-SWS fans are incredibly excited. One of them, of course, is Emily herself, who has a pretty remarkable story and a connection to Sleeping With Sirens that extends beyond the night of bowling and the SWS concert at Hammerstein we sent her to.
Beth Kleinpeter
She accidentally overdosed on prescription medication. It was in the hospital, sitting on a paper-covered table, close to a heart attack, that she realized "this wasn't how I wanted it to end," she tells BuzzFeed Music. "I had never strung together the words 'I like myself and I want to live' in a sentence before, but finally I did, and I realized I wanted a life beyond just staying alive."
She says she had some digging to do, and so she began going through old photos, looking for signs of happiness in each.
"I think the first, and maybe last, time that I felt like the world was open to my future was when my best friend got me a photo pass for Warped Tour so I could start my music blog . A lot had changed in the two years since I had taken my first photo. But music had stuck with me. And photography had stuck with me. And one photo in particular had stuck with me, from that first Warped Tour I ever photographed -- one of Kellin Quinn, mouth wide open screaming, hand outstretched to hold onto a fan. I could look at this photo and believe that my life was going to keep going, and that it had a purpose.
"I wish I had been able to see my own face when I won the bowling trip with Sleeping With Sirens. I felt like the light of the universe was flooding my body. I had entered the contest on a whim and a prayer, and to be chosen as the winner, out of thousands of people? It was a sign that I was on the right track. The night was incredible. The band was warm and welcoming and treated me like a friend. The world I had turned to for safety was just as kind in person as through my headphones.
"On February 17th, 2015, I was pressed up against the barricade at Hammerstein Ballroom, three feet from Sleeping With Sirens.
"I cried at that show. I never really cried when I was sick, I didn't cry when they put me in the hospital, and I didn't cry when I overdosed, but I cried at this concert. To be completely fair I didn't bawl at the show. It was a respectable cry. A few manly tears. But it was still crying and crying isn't something I do a lot. But there was something about surviving years of feeling hopeless to end up in a mob of thousands screaming your favorite song back at Kellin Quinn.
"So maybe music didn't save my life. But it sure makes living a lot easier."
