Interview by: Annette Hansen
Words by: Annette Hansen
When it comes to their live performances pop punk four-piece Broadside put time and consideration into the presence they bring to the stage each night. Each show is a new chance to learn and grow.
When singer Ollie Baxxter walks off the stage there’s often one question on his mind: “was it good energy or bad energy? That’s the first thing I usually think of.”
The sentiment is shared by fellow bandmates guitarists Niles Gibbs and Dorian Cooke and bassist Pat Diaz. For them taking the time to assess their performance is essentially a nightly ritual.
“We always over analyze a lot of things,” Cooke expresses. “We always want to make sure that the performance is as good as possible, and we each individually always think through everything we did. If we miss one note or something it’ll kill us for the rest of the night.”
“We’ll try our best not to show it, but it happens all the time,” Gibbs adds.
It’s this internalized critique and the band’s continual desire to speak to those that have been willing to listen that has driven Broadside forward over the years. The desire to connect to the people who support the project has always played a huge role in what Broadside is about. With 2015’s Old Bones the band want to create songs that fans could see themselves in, and with the upcoming Paradise – dropping on June 16, 2017 via Victory Records – they want to continue to inspire those that do find themselves in their songs.
“On this record we promote the idea of individual mentality, feminism and your right as a human being to take a fucking stand,” Baxxter explains. “Something we promote is at the end of the day value what you have with your friends and your mind and your family. As a band we value what we have with our fans. That’s something we didn’t feel necessary to edit out.”
“We have a lot of younger female fans,” Baxxter says. “We wanted to speak to them directly because nobody treats them as humans, they speak to them as consumers. We understand that they’re not consumers and that they’re the future of every aspect of this band and as well as many great bands out there.”
As well as continue to bridge that connection between the band and their fans, Broadside wanted to expound on their capabilities as artists and musicians with their latest release. On Paradise the band holds on to their poppy hooks and gripping choruses, but add a few new layers as well with added instrumentation and catchy arrangements.
“We wanted to go in directions that were outside of our comfort zone a little bit,” Cooke explains. “We have an entire song that’s ukulele. It’s just stuff that we weren’t comfortable with, but I think that those areas where you’re kind of nervous about something, that’s really cool.”
For a band like Broadside, who has dealt with their fair share of lineup changes and then some and continued to fight their way through a challenging music industry, they had nothing to lose when it came to finding their sound on this new record.
“It’s like what’s the worst that could happen?” Baxxter asks. “Our band has broken down already. We’ve had members quit. We’ve had to kick members out. What’s the worst that could happen? Let’s just be fucking weird.”
According to Baxxter, getting weird, changing things up and all around progressing their sound is the trajectory the band is on and plans to stay on, “This band is riddled and cursed with ADHD,” Baxxter says. “I’ll be honest with you, there’s probably never going to be a record that sounds the same from us, and that’s just the way it is. I’m hoping that people just like that.”
The band’s dreams aren’t impossibly massive, but they are paved in honesty and integrity and that’s something they hold to a high regard.
“When I can pay my bills and when I can look at someone in the face and say ‘hey, if you work very fucking hard you can accomplish what you love’, I feel like that’s when you have the right to tell someone what they should and shouldn’t do and what they can accomplish,” Baxxter urges. “That’s what I want to do. I want to be a beacon of hope. I don’t want to lie to people and I don’t want to falsify information because it is possible. I believe that persistence and consistency is the number one thing.”
You can catch Broadside on tour now with Real Friends, Have Mercy and Tiny Moving Parts.
