For 21 years, Long Island-based punk rock band Bayside has been taking its fans through the emotional rollercoaster of life through its Warhol-like sound, allowing listeners to embark on a unique, heart-wrenching journey through their innermost demons and successes. 

Formed in 2000 by lead vocalist Anthony Raneri, the group consists of lead guitarist Jack O’Shea (2003), bassist Nick Ghanbarian (2004), and drummer Chris Guglielmo (2006). Since their formation, Bayside has released a total of eight full-length albums, with Interrobang (2019) serving as their latest release. 

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic had other plans for what was supposed to be the group’s 20th Anniversary tour in 2020 with Senses Fail, Hawthorne Heights, and Can’t Swim, forcing Bayside to cancel the long-awaited national tour. 

However, that never stopped the group from staying as closely connected to their fans as possible, with Bayside putting on their own virtual concerts, one of which I attended back in October, as a first time listener and fell in love with the sound, emotion, and connectivity they had with their fans before and after the show. 

PopWrapped sat down with Bayside’s Nick Ghanbarian for a detailed conversation on the band’s inception, the evolution of the band, and where we are in today’s music landscape. 

Ghanbarian, who joined Bayside in 2004, was already a well known musician in Long Island, having been playing music since he was 17, graduating high school and going straight on tour throughout New York. When he was recruited by Raneri in 2004, it was a hard opportunity to pass up.

 “They had a record deal and US tours, which was more than I had ever really done as a musician at that time,” Ghanbarian told PopWrapped. “For me, it was the opportunity to be in a band that was meaningful to me already at that point and that I thought was super important.”

The Sound

For newcomers to Bayside’s community, there isn’t really “one” sound to describe the group’s musical journey. 

“I would like to think at this point there is something very genuine about us that people can relate to because we’ve been an integral part of their youth and adulthood,” Ghanbarian says. 

“Obviously, people have grown up with us for the past 21 years, so that’s going to be an attachment for people. There’s no BS nor is there anything we do on social media or at a show that puts us above the people who are there to see us. I think that matters.”

He added that the comradery of being at a Bayside show and being one of the couple hundred or thousand people is what the Bayside brand is all about. “Singing along and wearing a Bayside shirt to a show…that community is what we’re about. It’s about us every couple of years putting out some new songs, going on tour, and playing that career-spanning set and reconvening every year.”

Over the years, the sound certainly has evolved, but Ghanbarian says they have always kept the fanbase an utmost priority:

“Our main goal once we had a fanbase was to not piss off the people who like us already. It’s just easy for a band to feel more creative if they completely forget their box. For us, we were like, ‘no, we have fans – why would we want to piss them off; they’re here for a reason’. But we do want to grow; we want to grow our sound and evolve, becoming better songwriters and musicians. 

To a certain extent, I don’t want to say, ‘challenge the listener,’ but I want them to grow too. I don’t want them to expect the same exact thing, but there should be some sense of familiarity when they hear us. I think every record we ask ourselves what the best version of Bayside is at that moment, and how we can expand our box and not step outside of our box. Let’s just make the Bayside box bigger of what includes, rather than leaving it or forgetting about it. The best example of that is our last record, Interrobang, where we kind of amplified some things that we liked about ourselves in heavier, faster, aggressive music – but still have that sense of melody that we always think is important. Every single Bayside fan loved our last record and it was such a good feeling to know that not only were we happy with it.

It’s our best record; it might not mean the most to people because they didn’t grow up with it, but I know it’s our best record, and some of the songs on there are my favorite songs we’ve eer wrote. It’s great that our fans liked it and I don’t know what our next record will sound like – we haven’t even begun working on it or even talking about it, but I think it’ll just continue down that road of what have we accomplished? What has worked? What do our fans like? And how do we give them more of that, but not in a derivative sense – but write another song like “Numb” but strive to make it better.”

Acknowledging Our Past

Ghanbarian, who describes himself as a very supportive person, said his interest in the bass involved wanting to “be part of things, rather than being THE thing.”

“…being a bass player means being very supportive and being part of a foundation of the band, and not necessarily the focal point.”

One of the bigger challenges, according to the bass player, is just continuing to do what they do while exciting people, which he says is their only goal. “Our goal isn’t to go on tour next year and play the same songs that we just did. Yeah, we are going to play our eight most popular songs at every show, but then there’s 12 more that we kind of interchange and figure out what kind of show we want to put on. We still have a lot to give, with a lot of creativity. We strive for a lot and we don’t rest on anything that we’ve done in the past. Our past is a part of us, but it’s not something we rely on to continue to be a band. It’s not about the past; it’s acknowledging the past and we’re happy for it and appreciative of it.”

Another challenge for the band Ghanbarian says is putting together the setlist, especially when you have eight records and people like different things about you. “We don’t necessarily believe in playing for three hours like Tom Petty or The Killers,” he says. “That’s not exactly what we want to do. As much as people say they want to watch us for three hours, I don’t think that they do.”

Balancing Hustle with Instrument Competence

When we asked the bass player if there was something about the music industry he would change and why, he spoke to working hard and being competent with your instrument, but that due to the flow of the industry requiring significant financial backing, it’s often difficult to maintain that balance.  

“I wouldn’t want it to be a complete meritocracy, like the harder you work, the more successful you are. I would like to introduce the idea a little bit more, because I don’t think you should be able to make a career just working hard and your band sucks. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that early on, it’s really important to work hard.”

In sharing his enthusiasm for grants that exist for musicians and artists out in Canada, which are designed to help sustain musicians early on while they’re going through their creative growth and starting off, he also pointed out the importance of balancing other forms of hustle that simply take a musician away from their art.

“The biggest detriment to our scene…in the last two decades, is that it’s really hard to be just a musician or artist; you have to hustle in other ways and I think that just takes away from your art. We’re getting a lot of people who put out bland music because they don’t get to grow or take a chance with what they’re creating, and that’s fully a financial thing. If people are like ‘we can’t take a chance with this song or record, because if people don’t like it, then we’re not paying rent.’ That’s a big deal and there needs to be a safety net. There’s plenty of music in the world with plenty of people who support it; it would be great if there was some safety net for musicians, especially early on to fall into what they love.”

Ghanbarian pointed to pop country as an example.

“I can’t stand pop country; it’s the lowest form of music around and to me, it’s offensive that it’s even considered music. It seems like such a commodity and a product, and it’s popular. And that;s just because people are looking for something to connect to. A genre like that is under the disguise of meaning something to people – no, you’re just describing everyday life and there’s not a lot of layers for it. And the people who are writing it are pandering. It’s not going to change their life or get their brain thinking or motivating them to do anything. 

Sometimes music is just for partying and a release to go dancing. That’s good and at least there’s a connection, but I don’t appreciate the sheep in wolves clothing idea of music being disguised as music, when it’s truly a product.”

So, how can others follow in Ghanbarian’s footsteps?

“You have to be true to the music, because the music is the thing that matters. There’s so many other things that people think matter like TikTok dancing and social media – those are part of the pie, but they’re not going to follow you on your journey if your music sucks or if you’re not a good musician – or if you value those over, if you’re writing a song so you can have a TikTok dance – I just don’t see how that’s sustainable.”

In today’s age of social media and technology, artists and songwriters are continuously being provided with new tools and platforms to promote and be creative with, but according to the bass player, they can’t take over the foundation of you being an artist. “I’m not talking about if your job is to be an influencer; that’s one thing – but if you’re a musician, you have to be competent at your instrument and be a good songwriter, and that will be your foundation that helps everything else grow, including your social media.”

As our interview came to a conclusion, Ghanbarian revealed his two favorite albums, along with some of his favorite tracks:

Killing Time & Interrobang

“I’ve always said Killing Time was my favorite record, and now it’s tied with our newest one, Interrobang. I say both of those records because I know what went into both of them. Sometimes we could just strive for things and just come short or were striving for something and something else happened. 

Killing Time and Interrobang, we were striving for something we succeeded at, and the product wound up being good – the songs ended up being some of our best, which then immediately resonated with our friends. There are some songs we like when we write them, and it takes awhile for fans to like them or they don’t like them, and we’re like ‘man, we really thought we had a song that people were gonna like there.’ And then there’s something about the immediacy of people liking Killing Time and Interrobang the second they heard it.”

“Numb”

I think the song “Numb” on Interrobang is the best song we ever wrote. We had kind of a raw deal once Interrobang came out, because it came out in the fall of 2019, so by the spring of 2020, the pandemic happened, so Interrobang didn’t get to do much more than be an album for our fans – we weren’t able to tour on it or do any support tours, or just support the album in general. I’m hoping that before we start writing a new record or release a new record, we could focus on a song like Numb and give it a bit more life. We played it every night, because we believed in it. And we know the people who like it, love it the way we love it. So, we just need more people to like it. 

“Bury Me”

The song, “Bury Me” is just fun because we all come from a fast punk rock background, and we don’t have too many songs like that.