Updated: 05/18/04

With a new album out entitled Sirens and Condolensences on Victory Records, Bayside from Long Island are ready to break on through into the big time. One of the hardest working bands around, Bayside are always on the road, delivering their emotionally driven rock to an ever growing fan base. We recently emailed the guys of Bayside to find out the latest on the band.

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Bayside and how long the band has been together.
I’m Andrew, I play bass and write the lyrics in Bayside. We've been a band for about three years.

Where is the band from and what is the music scene like there?
We are from Long Island N.Y., and Boston, Mass. The Long Island scene is the new "in" thing, which is a good and bad thing for bands. It helps that there’s so much attention on the music there, but at the same time makes it rough to shake off comparisons to other bands, and to be taken seriously by some people as anything other then "another Long Island band".

Did you take the name of your band from Bayside High, the school in Saved By The Bell? If not, what made you decide to call your band Bayside?
We definitely did not take it from Saved By The Bell. It’s actually the town Anthony (our singer) is from in Queens. If we'd have known about all the Saved By The Bell comparisons we may have went a different route, but hindsight is 20/20.

How did Victory Records first hear about you and how long before you were signed to the label?
Someone at the label passed our demo around, and they contacted our management. After a few months of talking we worked out a deal. I'd say it took three or four months to work things out.

What was it like working with J. Robbins and what did he contribute to your overall sound?
J was great; it was very relaxed and enjoyable environment. It helped to alleviate some of the stress that normally would come with putting together your first record, but we had faith in J and his understanding of what we wanted. In the end everyone was really excited with how things came out.

And deep philosophical meaning behind the album title Sirens and Condolences?
The entire album is sort of a collection of stories that are either apologies, or self-discoveries. It sort of fits in that sense, the sirens representing the mistakes and the clean up after. Condolences the apologies offered in hopes of fixing things.

Where do you get the ideas or inspirations for some of the lyrics you write?
Everything comes from people that I’ve had relationships of some sort with in my life. A lot of people seem to think it's about break-ups and things like that, but it has a lot more to do with friendships, and people I was close to that I hurt. I just write whatever I’m thinking or feeling, and leave it at that.

How influential are bands such as The Smiths and The Smoking Popes to your music?
I know the Smiths mean a lot to Anthony, and he writes all our music. I guess that they would have to have had an affect on his writing, though I’m not sure to what extent. I think those bands have more to do with the way Anthony tries to find different and interesting melodies then anything in the music.

If Bayside were invited to participate on a Heavy Metal tribute album, what song would you want to do and why?
I’m not sure really, if I had to guess probably an Iron Maiden song, maybe The Trooper. I’m guessing based on Jack and Anthony's preferences.

How did the split with Name Taken come about? Any gossip you'd care to share on the Name Taken guys?
Jake from Dying Wish records contacted their manager and asked if they would be into doing it. That’s really all there was too it. We've only played with them twice and don’t know them too well, so I can't offer much in the way of gossip. They were great guys, and a lot of fun to play with though.

So how do you fix everything anyway?
You tear down everything until your left with nothing; survey the wreckage and start trying to put something back together.

You’ve recently toured with Juliana Theory. Do you know them from before and how did that tour come about?
Our manager used to work with them, and is still close with them. We share a booking agent, so with those contacts it sort of just worked out.

So just how offended were you at seeing Janet Jackson's breast at the Superbowl? Have you guys ever had any "wardrobe malfunctions" while onstage?
I didn't see it, but in reality I could care less. There's a lot of other things on network television that are way more damaging for people to see then that. I think it's just an excuse for the FCC to make it look like they’re doing something.

With your music being so sad and introspective, are you guys any fun at parties?
I would say we’re fun to be around. Those lyrics represent just one side of one person in the bands personality. I'd hope there’s more to us then that.

What do you want a listener to get out of hearing your new CD?
I’m not sure what I'd want them to get out of it -- just to enjoy it, and maybe have it mean something to them. That’s really all you can ask for from music, to enjoy it and to have it move you or make you think. Just to have an affect.

Any final words of wisdom?
Not to listen to anyone’s "words of wisdom," everyone’s just as confused and clueless as you are.

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