A while back you had your 1,000th show.
Yeah, a few months ago. Now we’re probably on 1,150.
You played it with The Sleeping, right?
Yeah! [Laughs] We play with The Sleeping all the time; at least 250 times.
Yeah, I saw some pictures of you guys together.
Yeah? We were friends before there was a Sleeping or a Bayside.
You guys are both from Long Island, right?
Queens actually, which is what sets us apart; there are a lot of bands from Long Island that aren’t really a part of our circle. Our circle is kind of the Queens thing where it’s kind of like we are Long Island’s rejects [laughs] as far as the scene goes. We were the ones that didn’t fit in, the ones who don’t go on tour with all the big Long Island bands, stuff like that. We’re our own little gang.
What is the scene out in Long Island and Queens like?
It’s exclusive. The Long Island scene is the Long Island scene; all the Long island bands go out on tour with each other and that’s it. I don’t want to talk like the Queens scene is better than the Long Island scene but we’re bro’s and we have this little gang, but we tour with everyone, we’re just part of the world. The Long Island scene tends to be a little more incestuous. We never really fit in there and in Long Island the fans didn’t even really embrace us until last year, but it finally happened. Long Island is often compared to the scenes in L.A and Boston or Philly where those are very proud cities and not anyone can just come in here and play a show and everyone would pay attention. All of those cities have history or great music and it is really hard to gain the respect. But once you do, it’s the best.
You guys had a few records out on Dying Wish. Are you considering re-releasing those on Victory?
We started talking about it, like doing an iTunes thing with it. We’ve definitely talked about compiling it all, like the Bayside back-story CD.
So you guys put out an acoustic album.
We were on tour with Hawthorne Heights and do to circumstances we had to tour acoustic. It went over really well. A lot of people say a good song is one that can be played acoustic, a song that can be a rock song or a country song or a pop song; that’s what a great song is, timeless. So that helped our songs really pop out at people. We took all the loud noise away from our music and if it still sticks that way then it’s real. People started noticing that when we started the acoustic tour. So we took two days when we were in Chicago and laid our stuff down on tape acoustic. All our songs start acoustic.
Can you tell me about the song ‘Winter’?
We had gotten into our van accident, we started the acoustic tour, and the last night of the tour was in Chicago and the next day we went to the studio in Chicago. And like I do when I know we have something important to do, I was up all night running through everything in my head and I couldn’t sleep, so I went to this diner in Chicago with my guitar and I sat there for like, seven hours overnight. I was there from like, 3 a.m. to about 10 in the morning. I was sitting in there with my guitar and I wrote that song in about seven hours sitting in the diner and from the diner I went straight to the studio and recorded it.
Is that the only song dedicated to Beatz?
Yeah. That song is kind of like the closing of the book for us. We never performed that song after that day in the studio.
You’re never going to play it again?
No. We’re never going to play it again. To keep revisiting that is just unhealthy.
What’s up with touring in December?
We’re starting up an annual Christmas tour. We’re doing eight or nine headlining shows in December. We’re bringing out The Junior Varsity and the new up and coming Queens band The Bombers. I said that Long Island is kind of incestuous but so is Queens now that I think about it, us taking out our buddies and everything.
Your boys in The Sleeping are playing at The School of Rock. Are you going to be there for that?
I will be there. That’s another thing, if you see Bayside or The Sleeping or The Bombers or IAMTHEAVALANCHE or any of the bands in our little circle, you’re pretty much going to see all of us there.
Cool, see you there.
