Bayside Interview
by Ryan Pangilinan

New York outfit Bayside is easily one of the most sonically polarizing bands out on the scene today. While their earliest material featured the band playing breakneck speed pop-punk, their sound developed quickly into what you hear now, which blurs the lines between several genres. Their latest record, “Killing Time,” is, at times, caustic, frenetic, but mostly, it’s poignant and one of the few smart punk rock records out there. So, in short, it’s very much a Bayside album. While on some down time from their co-headlining run with Saves the Day, bassist Nick Ghanbarian and drummer Chris Guglielmo sat down with Totally Crushed Out to talk about their new label, the current scene, and how it’s like to be considered an older band these days.

Totally Crushed Out: Killing Time came out a little while ago, but I feel like there was more of a gap between this record and Shudder than Shudder and The Walking Wounded.

Chris Guglielmo: We definitely had the gift of time to do this album, so that would explain the longer gap in between. We signed to a new label (Wind-Up).

Nick Ghanbarian: That was the thing, we needed to find a label. We were free as of, like, the April after Shudder came out and we signed the February after that. Then almost six or eight months after that, we were recording. We took our time writing because we knew it was an important album in our life as a band. We wanted to come out with a bang, so we took our time and put our best foot forward in every part of it.

TCO: Was there a point after Shudder where after you had fulfilled your contract with Victory where they suggested that you continue with them, or were you like “Well, we took this as far as we can, let’s move on.”

NG: I think it was both. We were pretty intent on seeing what else was out there and they kind of [said], “Well, do you want to do another album? Or don’t.” It wasn’t like “Oh my God, we need to keep Bayside.” If we wanted to stay, they would’ve put out another album. There was no major concerted effort.

TCO: Do you feel like being on Wind-Up, there’s more of a push for your band, or is it still a DIY approach?

NG: We definitely signed to a label that would allow us to continue doing whatever we wanted basically. We wanted to have more of a push behind us, which Wind-Up did, but I think in the long run, we wanted to have whatever control and whatever say we want in our music…. It’s a new label, but it’s still us in charge.

TCO: So they haven’t tried to pair you up on the Creed reunion tour?

CG: (laughs) That’s what we were excited about. We approached them with what we do and they were surprised with how much shit that we do on our own, so I think they were excited, as were we, to have that kind of relationship.  There was no this is controlling that. We meshed together.

NG: Labels, these days, it’s not like it was. Whether they believe in you or not, they won’t blindly sink a bunch of money in your band. It’s almost like you have to prove your record sales and the numbers have to prove something for them to send more money. Maybe in the 80s and 90s, it wasn’t that way, but the internet turned that upside down, so you have to prove yourself to be a commodity before they spend money.

TCO: Do you think that you would’ve been a strong enough unit to start your own imprint and put out your own records?

CG: We definitely spoke about the idea, just fucking around, but distribution is tough. But as far as touring and everything, it’s possible. It’s more of a viable solution everyday. And nowadays with the way that things are run, it’s probably the best way to make the most amount of money.

NG: Record deals these days, specifically talking about 360 deals, protects the labels. They’re protecting themselves from losing money and the band still does what it needs to do. Unless you’re on one of these super small, post-hardcore labels like Run for Cover or No Sleep, it doesn’t matter what label you’re on.

CG: And now because of the internet and everything, there’s so many bands and so many labels. I remember when I listened to [Saves the Day], they were on Equal Vision and I would say, “Oh, they’re on Equal Vision” and I would check out Equal Vision bands. Now, there are so many labels and so many bands, it’s just fucking all over the place. You can find the same band ten times on X amount of labels.

TCO: It’s like back in the day, there used to be a lot label loyalty. I remember getting those Equal Vision samplers and go out and buy The Stryder, or whatever.

NG: It used to be a little bit more similar, too. Now the range of bands on any label goes from pop-punk to metal or anything between. If you got a Revelation sampler in the early 90s, it’s all pretty similar, so that loyalty made more sense then.

TCO: I always felt that way about your band. You guys always stuck out like a sore thumb. When I first got Sirens and Condolences to review ages ago, I was like “It’s a Victory record. Am I really gonna like this?” And then I checked out and I dug it, and it sucks that there are labels – not so much now – that when they put out a record, I wouldn’t necessarily give ear to that band.

NG: I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t affect us. There was a serious lag for, what I would say, our first two albums. People love those albums now, but they didn’t then. They didn’t give them a chance. They assumed a Victory band would sound one way and we didn’t sound that way. It’s funny when people are requesting songs from our first two albums, when there are six, seven hundred people a night requesting those songs, but when they came out, we were playing in front of 70-100 people.

TCO: Yeah, I remember seeing Bayside in Tacoma with Danger: Radio and Silverstein and there were, like, 30 people there.

NG: That’s probably back in the Sirens and Condolences days. Now a kid comes to a show and says, “Why don’t you play ‘Just Enough to Love You’?” Because no one liked that song for five years and barely anyone does now. (laughs)

TCO: Do you feel Walking Wounded was the album where more people started to discover your band?

CG: Yeah.

NG: Up until now, that was the one that we put out and immediately saw decent success. I think this one, Killing Time, is very similar, too. Sirens and self-titled, those probably took years for people to grasp on and people got Walking Wounded and went back and got those other albums.

CG: That album (Walking Wounded) was also a weird time because it was the first album that I did with the band and I think the sound of the album, musically, was different for Bayside. Not like left-turn different, but different from Sirens and self-titled and people were like “Huh?” I guess it caught on faster.

TCO: I feel like Bayside is one of those touchstone bands that consistently puts out records where you talk about real shit, inner turmoil, and not just a lot of vapid shit. In 90, 91, 92, you had bands like Face to Face and the ilk that did that, and now there are more bands that are addressing being a twenty-something and just being fucked up and not knowing with what to do with your life.

NG: That’s the stuff that resonates with people. I’ve always liked music, but I feel like we grew up on pop music. We grew up on Madonna and Michael Jackson because we didn’t have older brothers, sisters, neighbors, or cousins who were like “Oh here’s Black Flag, here’s a Minor Threat tape.” So the first time that you stumble and discover Bad Religion or Green Day in the early 90s, it actually has to speak to you. If you have to discover it, it has to give you chills and feel like “Oh my God, what is this?”

I feel like these days, it’s important for bands like us, that have been around for a while, support these younger bands because those are the bands that are going to sustain things, even further past us. These things matter. It’s important for bands that want to be career bands and want to help people in their lives, it’s important to band together and help each other out and almost create that scene. It’s all self-sustaining.

TCO: You guys are at a point where you are a career band. Do think Bayside is at a place where you can tour not as relentlessly? Obviously, you guys are a little older and it seems unreasonable to go out every two months.

NG: It’s hard because we’ve always been slow and steady. Every album’s a little bigger, every tour is a little bigger, but it’s not like we’re sitting on a big chunk of change. We’ve kind of made enough money to –

CG: — Live.

NG: Yeah. We were never super successful. It’s a weird time because I feel like we have to tour less, because we can’t just tour. This is our third time in Seattle in 12 months, so it’s tough. It’s a weird time for music, it’s a weird time for us to be touring the way we do. When you start getting into that realm of being an older band, it’s almost like you’re going to lose steam if you tour the way you did, six or seven years ago. So I feel like we could benefit from coming here once a year. There might be twice as many people here if there was more demand. At the same time, we never were super successful. We never had a peak. For the past five years, we’ve been peaking. It’s always been a little bit bigger, so there has always been a need to continue to tour, to put out albums. Not doing that is a choice we have to make. It sucks to be a band and have to make decisions for financial reasons. To do less, as individuals, would hurt us a little bit.

CG: And with people our age and older, I see them thinking about [the] girlfriends that they’ve had for a solid amount of time, and family, and having a place back home and that affects how we think because we’re not really kids anymore. I mean, I consider myself pretty immature, but I think we’re all thinking about big picture-life-stuff, you know?

NG: There’s examples of bands, like Hot Water Music, that are bigger now than they were before and they don’t tour that much; they have other things going on.

TCO: It’s also one of those things where they were like “Fuck it, we’re done” and kids were like “Oh I missed my chance to see them!” I’m not suggesting you guys do that.

CG: It’s that whole “leave them wanting more” thing. If you just disappear and then when you come back, people will be psyched.

NG: There’s plenty of examples of bands…you don’t really have to break up, maybe you just go on some kind of hiatus/take-time-off-do-adult-things. Then book a week of shows, and do Bamboozle, do whatever.

CG: Or you can do just do what every band does and break up. Then nine months later –

TCO: Reunion tour!

CG: (laughs) Don’t say we’re breaking up. We’re not breaking up.

The very intact Bayside has a new album on Wind-Up called “Killing Time.” Singer Anthony Raneri and Ghanbarian host Gumshoe Radio on Idobi. Keep abreast of all things Bayside on their website.