Anthony Raneri - Bayside (17/03/2014)
Bayside are a name that is held very highly in the contemporary punk and rock world. For years the American group have been blasting melodic and infectious tunes into our ears. With their sixth album Cult under their belt, The 59th Sound spoke with lead singer Anthony about the album and the band in general.
As we chatted to the softly-spoken vocalist, he was on his way home from a store getting things to decorate his new home with his wife and kid. Not a very punk rock activity but being punk these days isn't a 24/7 job.
"I'm really excited to finally be releasing the album! I love the record, I think it's great, personally; our best yet!" Anthony laughs. "But it's also nerve inducing that people will finally become the judges of the record. We put a lot of effort into this record so hopefully it'll pay off."
"This time we spent a lot more time writing and fine-tuning every song here. We've always had more of an organic approach to writing songs and kind of just going with it. There was the occasional song where we would really focus on it for days, but here, [Cult] it was EVERY song."
"We rethought every note, every Lyric, every change; everything! Anything you do in a song, we re-did about three times before we sent it off to the label. We wanted this album to be really special. The writing was intense, the recording was easy!" he laughs. "It took us about two weeks to record it! Whereas writing it took us years!"
A bit of a stark contrast in times but any listen to the album will show that those hours and days were worth the wait. Anthony tells us that the recording was easiest because of the time nailing out the songs. It felt home for them; they knew it inside out.
"We've been playing together for years so we know each other. We know how to help and critique and we can be honest with each other. And that really makes it work well."
Cult is no doubt an interesting name for an album but Anthony reassures us their intentions are only of the purest.
"For years we've been referring to Bayside and our fans as a cult. So it was like to pay homage to them and it also felt like the collection of our sound all on one album. It's like our discography without any old songs!"
"Theme wise, it is interesting. I started to think about what my life is and not so much my past, or my future plans or even where my career is but mainly my legacy. What I've left behind. What my life means you know and what it will mean in thrifty years." Anthony says before giving one of the biggest nuggets of wisdom you can handle.
"You look at the men who are eighty and you listen to their stories. Often they were in the war and they became heroes to someone. And that doesn't just happen. At some point in their life, they made a choice to live as great men and they left a great legacy. And I wanted that too you know? I couldn't just keep living my life worrying about me and hope one day I become a great man. I had to do something and that's what I focus on in this record."
As we spoke, we moved from the beautiful poetic side of music to the artistic and technical concepts that the band used on the record.
"Normally it'll start with a melody line that I'll come up with and then we'll move on to instruments like a chord progression and then a groove. And these melodies are just like 'la la la le le" so I'll then go and write some lyrics to fit them."
There's no doubt that Bayside has been around for a significant amount of time. Naming their band on the drive to a New Found Glory gig nearly fifteen years ago, where they spread their first demo, Bayside have undoubtedly evolved. Although Anthony takes it as a different kind of evolution then one of the sonic-form.
"Well I think the biggest difference is that we've changed how we view songs. The producer of Cult, Shep Goodman, helped me to think like a listener. To listen as that third party view. Many bands start out, just like us, writing for themselves. They write what they think is cool and relevant without realising that it may only be as such to them. They might write a song that they think is a masterpiece and emotionally pulling but to Geoff hearing it in his radio it's just some lame, boring song. Now I'm able to really critique the songs we write. Like, 'is this boring, does this make sense, is this okay?'"
One of the main attractions is of course Anthony's splendour of a voice. It's captivating and a really spine-tingles at times. So you may be surprised when he tells us that he never really learnt to sing!
"I had never sung in a band before [Bayside], none of us had. So when we got together, we all sang the songs that we wrote. Like if we were the forerunner of a song, we'd sing it. But as it grew on we kind of just voted that I should do vocals. And I've never really had lessons, it's just been trial and error. We've played well over two-thousand shows so you learn the ins and outs. When you sing, you don't really notice if what your doing is bad for your voice or good for it so when you wake up and you can't speak AT ALL, just remember what you did last night and don't do it that night! And if you some thing right and your voice feels even better than it did last night, just do that again!"
Matty Sievers
As we chatted to the softly-spoken vocalist, he was on his way home from a store getting things to decorate his new home with his wife and kid. Not a very punk rock activity but being punk these days isn't a 24/7 job.
"I'm really excited to finally be releasing the album! I love the record, I think it's great, personally; our best yet!" Anthony laughs. "But it's also nerve inducing that people will finally become the judges of the record. We put a lot of effort into this record so hopefully it'll pay off."
"This time we spent a lot more time writing and fine-tuning every song here. We've always had more of an organic approach to writing songs and kind of just going with it. There was the occasional song where we would really focus on it for days, but here, [Cult] it was EVERY song."
"We rethought every note, every Lyric, every change; everything! Anything you do in a song, we re-did about three times before we sent it off to the label. We wanted this album to be really special. The writing was intense, the recording was easy!" he laughs. "It took us about two weeks to record it! Whereas writing it took us years!"
A bit of a stark contrast in times but any listen to the album will show that those hours and days were worth the wait. Anthony tells us that the recording was easiest because of the time nailing out the songs. It felt home for them; they knew it inside out.
"We've been playing together for years so we know each other. We know how to help and critique and we can be honest with each other. And that really makes it work well."
Cult is no doubt an interesting name for an album but Anthony reassures us their intentions are only of the purest.
"For years we've been referring to Bayside and our fans as a cult. So it was like to pay homage to them and it also felt like the collection of our sound all on one album. It's like our discography without any old songs!"
"Theme wise, it is interesting. I started to think about what my life is and not so much my past, or my future plans or even where my career is but mainly my legacy. What I've left behind. What my life means you know and what it will mean in thrifty years." Anthony says before giving one of the biggest nuggets of wisdom you can handle.
"You look at the men who are eighty and you listen to their stories. Often they were in the war and they became heroes to someone. And that doesn't just happen. At some point in their life, they made a choice to live as great men and they left a great legacy. And I wanted that too you know? I couldn't just keep living my life worrying about me and hope one day I become a great man. I had to do something and that's what I focus on in this record."
As we spoke, we moved from the beautiful poetic side of music to the artistic and technical concepts that the band used on the record.
"Normally it'll start with a melody line that I'll come up with and then we'll move on to instruments like a chord progression and then a groove. And these melodies are just like 'la la la le le" so I'll then go and write some lyrics to fit them."
There's no doubt that Bayside has been around for a significant amount of time. Naming their band on the drive to a New Found Glory gig nearly fifteen years ago, where they spread their first demo, Bayside have undoubtedly evolved. Although Anthony takes it as a different kind of evolution then one of the sonic-form.
"Well I think the biggest difference is that we've changed how we view songs. The producer of Cult, Shep Goodman, helped me to think like a listener. To listen as that third party view. Many bands start out, just like us, writing for themselves. They write what they think is cool and relevant without realising that it may only be as such to them. They might write a song that they think is a masterpiece and emotionally pulling but to Geoff hearing it in his radio it's just some lame, boring song. Now I'm able to really critique the songs we write. Like, 'is this boring, does this make sense, is this okay?'"
One of the main attractions is of course Anthony's splendour of a voice. It's captivating and a really spine-tingles at times. So you may be surprised when he tells us that he never really learnt to sing!
"I had never sung in a band before [Bayside], none of us had. So when we got together, we all sang the songs that we wrote. Like if we were the forerunner of a song, we'd sing it. But as it grew on we kind of just voted that I should do vocals. And I've never really had lessons, it's just been trial and error. We've played well over two-thousand shows so you learn the ins and outs. When you sing, you don't really notice if what your doing is bad for your voice or good for it so when you wake up and you can't speak AT ALL, just remember what you did last night and don't do it that night! And if you some thing right and your voice feels even better than it did last night, just do that again!"
Matty Sievers