A brief chat with Anthony Raneri of Bayside

Yellow Scene: What do you get out of your solo work that you don’t get from Bayside?

Anthony Raneri: Really, the main thing that drives me to do it is that I like to stay productive, I like to travel, I like to play shows, I like to meet people. I really just do it when Bayside is going to have some time off and I don’t really want time off. I mean, I want time off when I want time. Right now, Bayside has five months off and I just don’t want to go five months without playing music. But also, as far as the writing and stuff goes, I just have a lot of freedom. We cultivated a sound with Bayside that I really like and I think the fans really like. I’ve had a lot of bands as a music fan that I loved, that all of a sudden didn’t sound like themselves anymore. We made a conscious effort to not let Bayside do that. I don’t want to experiment within the Bayside sound – we just take the Bayside sound and try to improve on it. So when I want to experiment with different sounds and styles, I go to my solo work to do whatever comes to mind.

YS: Sorry State of Mind is your second solo album – are you happy with it?

AR: Yeah, I love it. It’s exactly as I envisioned it. Every song is completely different, but I think they’re all great songs. I love how it came out.

YS: Do you like playing Colorado, either solo or with Bayside?

AR: Yeah, definitely. I don’t know that I’ve ever done a solo show in Colorado – I think this upcoming one is the first one. The Bayside shows in Denver are always great. We’ve done Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and First Collins. We’ve been all over the state.

YS: What can we expect from the solo set this time?

AR: I wing it for the most part. I go up with a list of songs that I like to play and I look at it, and I feel out the crowd. I’ll play songs from the new solo record and the last solo record, I play some covers – the way I approach it is like a lounge show. I look at it like I’m entertaining. I tell some stories and some jokes, I interact with the audience in an intimate setting. I feed off of that. I try to play requests if anybody has one.

YS: When this solo tour’s done, what’s next?

AR: We have a couple of Bayside shows at the end of the summer. We’re in Denver for the Riot Fest at the end of August. Then we’ll spend the next few months writing the next Bayside record. Riot Fest should be great. We’ve done Chicago before but this is the first time doing the Denver one. We’re also doing Toronto. We’re looking forward to doing all three. I love System of a Down. I didn’t think I’d see them so I’m excited for that.