The Mount Pleasant-based band started during casual jam sessions in high school and was discovered by independent record label Dirty Sushi and now has an album, "Still Life," released in the United Kingdom.

The band performs more than 40 shows last year, some extending as far as the East Coast. Despite the large amount of shows, Austen Reno, co-vocalist of Backpacks, said they’re not where the band wants to be.

“We still want to grow and move. It still shocks me today that we can even play together in just Midwest states — we are just a bunch of kids playing music,” Reno, 20, said. “We try to keep our feet on the ground and heads small. We are just working together and making our music as good as we can.”

The "pop punk emo" band released their first album, "Still Life," in 2015 before releasing "Revision" the same year. Both albums can be found on Backpacks' Spotify. Backpacks will be releasing two new singles in late November.

Central Michigan Life caught up with the band member to discuss Backpacks' fall into success, first time filming a music video and hysterically laughing plankton.

CM LIFE: How long have you been a band?

RENO: A little over two years. We started the band when I was about to graduate high school in 2013. It was where me and the rest of the bad had a couple classes together, found out we were into the same punk and pop punk music so we started getting together to play songs we wrote. It just fell into place. We suddenly got a drummer and everyone hopped on.

How would you compare that first show to your new ones?

That first show at The Loft in Lansing was interesting. We’ve grown a lot since then, and I like to think we got better since then. A lot of our friends were there watching us during the first show and we opened for a bigger band -- we were blessed to even be on that stage — and it was really cool. Now we’ve played so many shows that one week, it’ll be a packed room and the next there will only be 15 people there.

What record label are you working with?

We work pretty heavily with an independent record called Save Your Generation Records. We were playing a lot of shows and meeting a lot of other bands, and through them, we stumbled into him and got in contact with the label. Now we’re on Spotify and iTunes.

Your band seemed to just fall together, was it easy to form?

It really did. We were all just people who wanted to create music together and once we had the resources to make the music, it worked out perfectly.

What do you hope people get out of your music?

Mostly some type of relation. A lot of the music itself, the things we write, come off as sad and personal. But I think a lot of people feel the same things and think they’re alone. When they hear our songs that describes how they feel too, they’ll realize they aren’t the only ones going through it. We just want to help people and have them know things go bad but they also go very well.

If these songs have been around for a while, do you still identify with the lyrics even though you’re past whatever made you write them?

I very much still identify with them. The biggest part of writing a song personally is validating how I feel. I may not be feeling the exact same way, but it’s still a reminder of where I was at that time. It’s a part of my journey and who I am. Whether I’m over it or still going through it, it’s part of my story.

Backpacks released their first music video recently. How was that experience?

It was a buddy from Grand Rapids who we did a live acoustic session with him. Then he wanted to do the video. I’m not camera shy, and none of the other guys are either, so I didn’t feel too nervous. It was his first music video, but he knew exactly what he wanted to do. It came out looking really cool.

Do you have a favorite lyric any of your songs?

Honestly a lot of people make fun of this line, but I like to think some like it. “Treading water with two anchors on my ankles, while plankton laugh hysterically how my body dangles." But I guess hearing the word plankton is funny in a song.

You use first person in some song lyrics. Is that “I” even you, or is it a different character entirely?

That is me. I write off experience and feelings. Often if I can, I use metaphors to try to connect those feels into lyrics.

What has been your favorite show you’ve performed so far?

A performance at The Loft. There were a lot of people, a lot of energy and everyone was into it. There were people singing our lyrics. That’s not something we’ve experienced before. There’s just something about seeing people sing back your lyrics and start mosh pits.