Mayday Parade is, for all intents and purposes, an emo band. But that doesn't mean its members only listen to emo music.

Guitarist Alex Garcia said the band, set to play 7 p.m. Saturday at SoZo, 256 E. Beaver Ave., draws from contemporary influences like Taking Back Sunday, Brand New and Paramore, but also from groups from all different decades. Garcia said he was personally fond of Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers and Oasis.

But Garcia was drawn to the emo genre specifically because of its lack of artifice.

"The genre seems very real," Garcia said. "People call it emo, and to me, that feels very real. It's more natural and that's a good way to approach music."

Garcia said the Tallahassee-based band's music was true to its genre and described it as "emotionally driven songs about heartbreak and relationships in general."

With that in mind, Garcia said his band tries to be a bit more musically potent than the average emo band.

"We try to make it powerful, with crescendos and climaxes in all the songs," he said.

Brooks Betts, the band's other guitarist, said he wasn't all that fond of the "emo" label, not because he had any qualms with the genre itself, but because he felt most people attach too many other things to it. So Betts likes to call his band simply "pop rock."

"We play poppy, catchy songs," he said. "It could be emo, could be punk, could be rock. People attach a lot of different labels to music."

Regardless of labels, though, Betts said his band has some unique qualities. Mayday Parade has three vocalists, for example, which he said is a rarity for the band's type of music. Betts also said the band plays with more energy than most.

"I keep my long hair fully for that reason," he said.

Whatever you want to call Mayday Parade's music, it's obviously striking a chord with some people. Nittany Booking promoter Garrett Bogden said this show was selling better than any Nittany Booking had put on in the past. Bogden first saw the band last summer in Altoona and was amazed by how many people turned out for it.

"There were a ton of kids there," Bogden said. "And they put on a really good show."

Since then, Bogden has been trying to book the band, and while Bogden said a lot of people know the band well enough to possibly sell out the venue, he thinks the best is yet to come for Mayday Parade.

"They're going to be pretty big," he said. "They've been getting a lot of press, and people are really starting to find out who they are."

For those who don't know a lot about who the band is, though, this performance is the perfect opportunity. After the show, Betts said, the band will be hanging out by the merchandise table, signing autographs and taking pictures.

"We invite people to interact with us," Betts said. "We like to meet people."