Emo Supremo
Newsday * September 28, 2008
by Glenn Gamboa

Two types of bands achieve rock and roll success.

There's the type that arrives fully formed - well-financed acts backed by massive campaigns that seemingly introduce them to everyone at once through some shock-and-awe strategy of simultaneous blitzes on radio, TV and the Internet.

Bayside is the other type. The Long Island-based quartet has been slowly and steadily building its fan base since its debut, "Sirens and Condolences," in 2004, with each tour slightly bigger than the last, each album climbing a little bit higher on the charts, reaching the Top 75 with last year's "The Walking Wounded." Over the years, the band has quietly sold more than 250,000 albums, but did so with little buzz. Sure, there's a "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" appearance here and an Alternative Press cover there, but mostly it wins over fans by spending months on the road playing concerts night after night.

Bayside doesn't have an entourage. They don't have handlers. They answer fan e-mails themselves. Their headquarters is a tiny practice space in Farmingdale that bassist Nick Ghanbarian says "would be way more conducive to being creative if it was a jail cell."

"That's how ugly and dirty and dark it is," Ghanbarian says, over coffee at a Starbucks near the practice space.

"At least it makes us want to write quickly and then get out of there," adds guitarist Jack O'Shea.

It may be breakthrough time

With Bayside's fourth album, "Shudder," which hits stores Tuesday, the indie rockers have heard the talk that it could finally be the breakthrough they have been waiting for. But true to their levelheaded, slog-it-out nature, they're not ready to believe it just yet.

"Personally, I never expect anything," O'Shea says. "I hope for good things to happen and I think this is a record that will help with that. But I just give up on thinking about hitting the big time and concentrate on doing my best. We'll just enjoy it. We made a good record. If you don't have any expectations, you'll never be let down."

For Bayside, shunning expectations makes sense - not only because they have been in this position before, only to watch less-talented contemporaries pass them by, but because they have already faced far more important challenges, weathering a tragic car accident in 2005 that killed drummer JohnBeatz" Holohan, put Ghanbarian in the hospital for weeks and injured the rest of them.

"All those things are what made us who we are as people," says singer Anthony Raneri. "We don't claim to have gone through anything worse than anyone else has gone through. We've all had rough lives, just like everybody else - including our childhoods, the accident, everything. What has happened to us is proof positive that we mean what we say. Our whole positivity isn't false positivity. We're all about standing strong."

And once again, on "Shudder," that's exactly what they do. With the help of producer Dave Schiffman of Weezer and Jimmy Eat World fame, Bayside headed to California this summer to record an album that carries its unique combination of brainy lyrics and brawny guitars.

Bayside's music, especially Raneri's lyrics, are emotional, but it's rooted in the practical as well. "Going in, we talked about the songs as much, if not more, than we actually practiced them," Ghanbarian says. "We visualized them."

Drummer Chris Guglielmo says even the mixing process went well. "On the last album, we all had notes on what we wanted changed," he says. "This time, I was all good on everything. I didn't want anything changed."

Schiffman's influence can be heard on "Boy," which carries more than a bit of Weezer's sound in its ending. However, the rest of "Shudder" keeps Raneri's warm vocals and his emotional lyrics from Bayside's previous albums and sharpens their surroundings.

"It's a little more polished and a little more on the pop side," O'Shea says. "That was a conscious decision we made early in the writing of the album. It was a four-way decision from all of us to find a theme and keep a cohesive feel for the entire album."

Someone understands

The first single, "No One Understands," shows off the dynamic, a solid example of what sets them apart. "We're this indie underground band, so when we put out an album we get 15 minutes to peek our heads above ground and grab as many fans as we can," explains Ghanbarian. "So we have to put that foot forward. We're not going to have five singles like All-American Rejects. We're going to have one chance. It's like, 'This is what we sound like at our poppiest. Why don't you buy our album and come check out a show?'"

Raneri says "No One Understands" works on several levels, like many of Bayside's most successful songs. "Most of the songs on 'Shudder' are meant to be anthems," Raneri says. "'No One Understands' is an anthem because people think 'no one understands what I'm going through, they're all so worried about themselves.' It all kind of touches on that, that nobody feels appreciated, that nobody feels pitied enough. But it's also got a hint of satire in the line, 'If the sun don't shine tomorrow, we'll survive.' It's a joke on what everyone thinks emo is, about whiny teenage kids with eyeliner. We thought it was kind of a cool message to tell people to just 'Get over it.'"

Bayside feels a responsibility to lead its fans, who call themselves "The Cult," by example. "Kids have enough -- role models these days," Guglielmo says. "It's time for some people to stand up and do their job and do what music is actually for."

For Bayside, it's important to believe in what they say and what they do, especially in these days when the emo scene they represent has become so consistently misunderstood. "Just because the scene has changed and parts of it have become part of the mainstream doesn't mean we have to give up everything we believed in," Raneri says. "Just because some people want to make a mockery of things doesn't mean we're not still proud of what we do. Some people look at it as a new hat to wear. We really mean it. And on punk rock judgment day, I know what side we'll be on. That's where we like to put ourselves and that's where we're going to stay."

WHEN & WHERE: Bayside's "Shudder" is out Tuesday on Victory Records. The band's national tour starts Oct. 7 in Cleveland and returns to New York at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza Nov. 14.