Joey Chiaramonte from Koyo

Joey Chiaramonte of Koyo reveals how his journey into music began not with a band, but with a wide-open curiosity—tour managing, merch selling, and lighting for friends' bands before eventually becoming the frontman of a band that proudly calls itself hardcore while sounding like pop-punk. He shares the emotional weight of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 15, which coincided with his early punk years and shaped his resilience. The conversation dives into the gritty reality of Long Island’s DIY scene, where venues like AMH and Finn’s Pub rose and fell, and how community was built not in ideal spaces, but in sweaty basements and abandoned bars. Joey reflects on the paradox of success: the more the band tours, the harder it is to maintain authenticity and mental health. After years of nonstop touring, Koyo made a conscious shift to prioritize well-being over burnout, embracing scarcity to keep shows meaningful. He also debunks the myth that he’s always shirtless on stage—revealing it was a survival tactic for heat and exhaustion, not a performance choice. Ultimately, he argues that the Long Island scene’s strength lies in its fluidity, its refusal to be boxed in by genre, and its ability to reinvent itself—proving that identity isn’t about sound, but about shared experience and belonging.