Gamaliel Ortega/FIUSM Staff
Claudio Zelaya/Contributing Writer
Bayside from New York City recently graced us with their presence at Revolution Live in Ft. Lauderdale on March 28 while on their American Cult Tour. This tour was created to support their latest album, Cult.
While they were touring the states with Four Year Strong, Daylight and Mixtapes, FIUSM was able to talk to Nick Ghanbarian, bassist, about the new album and their experience these past 14 years as a band.
Your latest album, “Cult,” came out this past February. Tell us a little bit about it.
Nick: Well, it’s our sixth album and first on Hopeless Records. We feel truly lucky and that all of our hard work has paid off because some bands don’t even get to have a second album let alone six. It was our highest album debut. People generally loved the whole thing! I think our fans are unique in the fact that they listen to the entire album. When we did a poll on what songs we should play and it was so even. That kind of legitimized the album for us and our fans have our back more than ever. It’s such a good feeling to know that after 14 years and six albums that we’re more successful than ever.
What was the writing process for this album and going into the studio with Shep Goodman again?
Nick: Our process has always been pretty similar, but if anything we’ve used a digital format of demoing a lot more. Other than that, it’s Anthony just sending acoustic versions with some vocal melodies and we all kind of work our parts into it to make it sound like a Bayside song.It just used to be more analog on cassette tapes ten years ago where we’d sit in rooms a lot longer playing the song over and over until it felt right. The digital aspect means Anthony can email us a song idea as opposed to spending eight or ten hours in our practice space. We want to write the best songs we can that sound like our band.
What would you define as the evolution of Bayside over all these years with this album?
Nick: I think lyrically it’s a bit different. It’s a more about coming to terms about being an adult and having adult problems and dealing with them in a positive way. There’s a lot less songs about failing relationships. Going into it I was a little worried that it was a shift in lyrics content, that people wouldn’t relate to it that much. The thing about being a band for so long is that our fans are adults dealing with the same thing.
Last August you guys signed to Hopeless Records. Is there any significant change?
Nick: We would never be on a label that wouldn’t let us be us. They knew what they were getting. The only change is that they’re super supportive. We’ve had some bad luck with that in the past with record labels where some support wasn’t there, but Hopeless has done everything they said they were going to do. They’re part of the reason our album has debuted harder than any other album has. It’s a real sense of family just like Victory was back in the day.
You’ve said in the past you haven’t had the best luck with labels. Is that shown in your album?
Nick: What people don’t ever see is the actual business side of the music industry and the decisions we’ve had to make to keep touring and doing albums. The most important thing for us is to write music and get on tour and business decisions are what get us there but sometimes they’re not favorable to us. We’ve made a career for ourselves and it all has to do with the songs we write and the shows we play. We bend over backwards to make sure there isn’t any interruption as far as songwriting, new albums, and touring.
The video for “Time Has Come” just came out. What was the idea for the video or the song itself?
Nick: The video we just wanted it to be nuts. We wanted it to be unique and kind of frantic and just visually kind of crazy. Sometimes the idea is too big for the budget but this time we were just like, “Just make it crazy and make it look visually appealing.” The idea was gif oriented where there are a lot of repeated circles in the video. The song itself has good energy and it’s a positive song about taking life into your own hands.
What are some of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned or wish you knew?
Nick: Definitely the business side of it is just terrible. There are just a lot of people that profit off of our hard work. That’s definitely the harsh reality of it all. Early on, we would go on tour as the first band and sometimes didn’t get treated like a band but now that we’re a more established headlining act we treat the bands we take on tour really well. It’s a cool time for us to be a headlining act because there’s a lot of up and coming bands that need support. Ten years ago, we didn’t have that. We were taking tours on scream tours that had nothing to do with us but we just wanted to go on tour. You got to do things for the right reason. It’s hard when money is involved but if you’re good your finances will be fine. The bands that are trendy and not nice people go away after a couple years. That’s why we’ve been a band for 14 years because we’ve done things the right way.
What’s the future for Bayside?
Nick: We’re heading out to Europe after this tour with Alkaline Trio and we’ll be on Warped Tour all of summer. There’s some talk about doing an album sooner than later. Our last two albums have come out in a span of five and a half years so we might pump one out.
claudio.zelaya@fiusm.com