Southern California emo pop band Forever Came Calling formed in 2006 with no greater aspirations than covering songs by Taking Back Sunday and Senses Fail, but after being featured in the 2012 No Room for Rockstars documentary, and releasing a pair of acclaimed LPs, they could claim their own pop-punk success story. The band was founded by guitarist/vocalist Joe Candelaria and drummer Jimmy Dale, shuffling through multiple lineups that would grow to include bassist John Swaba and various other players as Forever Came Calling got more serious. They self-released the EPs This Is Me Dreaming and HopE.P.assion before being included in the documentary film No Room for Rockstars, shot during the 2010 Warped Tour and focusing on a handful of acts. This exposure gained them a wider audience, and they released a split EP with Handguns the next year, featuring new drummer Bryce Esquivel. Their debut album Contender surfaced in 2012, and shortly thereafter new guitarist Isaac Taylor joined the camp. New releases and touring came on a regular basis, with a split EP with Family Thief arriving in 2013 followed by second full-length What Matters Most in 2014. The following year saw the band release Songs from High School, a compilation featuring their first EP and a handful of songs recorded prior to that release that were originally issued on cassette. Taylor left the fold in 2015 and was replaced by touring guitarist Tom Lovejoy, who made his first studio appearance on the 2018 EP Retro Future. ~ Fred Thomas