Long before “emo” became a recognized genre or cultural movement, Tommy Howe was writing songs about heartbreak, longing, hope, and the complicated emotions that come with loving someone. Many of the lyrics featured on I Was Emo Before It Was Cool were originally written during the 1970s and 1980s, decades before emotional vulnerability became a common theme in mainstream music. The album's title is both a playful observation and a sincere reflection of a songwriter who was expressing those feelings long before there was a label for them.

Performed by Pre-Mo and The Goth Cowboys, the album blends country, rock, and Americana influences with deeply personal storytelling. The result is a collection of songs that explore love found, love lost, dreams pursued, and lessons learned along life's winding roads. From heartfelt ballads to upbeat country-rock anthems, each song captures a different chapter of the human experience while maintaining the emotional honesty that inspired the project.

At the center of the band is Pre-Mo, the musical alter ego of songwriter Tommy Howe. The name "Pre-Mo" is a tongue-in-cheek reference to being "pre-emo"—someone who was writing emotionally driven songs before the term existed in popular culture. After a successful career as a network engineer, Howe returned to a lifelong passion for songwriting, dusting off notebooks filled with lyrics written over several decades and bringing them to life through modern technology.

Working with AI-assisted music production tools, Howe transformed these long-shelved songs into fully realized recordings while preserving the original spirit and emotion of the lyrics. The project represents a unique blend of old-school songwriting and new-school creativity, proving that a good song can endure for generations.

I Was Emo Before It Was Cool is more than a debut album—it's a musical time capsule spanning nearly fifty years of inspiration, memories, and personal growth. Through Pre-Mo and The Goth Cowboys, Tommy Howe invites listeners to laugh, reflect, sing along, and perhaps see a little of their own story in the songs. After all, emotions never go out of style—even if "emo" wasn't cool yet.

The Goth Cowboys can't leave well enough alone. Every version of a song that Tommy creates, one of the band members have to make a version of their own. So, Tommy decided that each song will have ' Another Try'. Lyrics are usually the same but the style and melody may have changed. This is the third reason the album is called 'Another Try'. First, This is Another Try at making an album. Secondly, there is a nice song about two exes meeting up after 20 years.