Broadside Interview

When I think “summer songs,” the first pop punk band that comes to mind is Broadside. Though their latest album

Paradise is over two years old, its eleven tracks are still filling up all my road trip playlists. Entering 2019 with two new tracks and plans to record their third studio album, they’re learning to conquer any and all challenges thrown their way. While on the road as an opener for the third leg of Set It Off’s Midnight Tour, lead singer Ollie Baxxter was able to sit down for an interview with me, where we discuss lineup changes, color schemes, and stan culture.

How’s this tour been treating you so far?

Tour has been good! It’s been a while since we’ve been opening, so it’s really good to be touring with a band that has a new demographic for us. Set It Off’s fans are younger, so it’s nice to be performing for those people. I think it’ll be good! I mean — so far, so good.

Has the crowd been treating you as well as they do when you’re headlining?

Yes and no. At first, they’re kind of like “Yeahhh,” and sometimes they’re like, “Alright, where the fuck is Set It Off?”

Any pits starting?

A couple, actually! Overall, people are buying a lot more CDs on this tour, which is what you want. You want to sell the music. So it’s definitely a lot of new people!

Are there any older songs that you’ve kept on the setlist for this tour just because you love playing them so much?

Yeah, we have a couple of older songs, like “Damaged Kids.” Oh, and we close with “Old Bones!” And “Coffee Talk,” of course. Just in case nobody likes us, we have to play “Coffee Talk,” because they’ve probably heard that one.

You’re also playing at least one of your new singles, correct?

Both of them!

Both of them, awesome!

Yeah, we’re playing “Empty” and “King of Nothing!”

Is there a reason why you released those two singles at once? Did they go together in any way?

Well, they’re so vastly different that I like the idea of putting out a synthy, poppy song that’s about sadness and then a true song about sadness that sounds aggressive. And I kind of just wanted to see where our fans are at right now, like what are people listening to more, so we can plan for the next record accordingly now that we’ve gotten older.

So that’s actually another thing I wanted to ask you! It’s a lot different than what you’ve done before—

Right! It’s a lot different.

How did you approach these songs with a different view than you’ve approached any of your music before?

Our music taste has changed drastically, but also — so many member changes, and we’re just trying to establish ourselves as a unified band with a unified sound. Before, it was just like, “Let’s just make songs and have fun!” So you get all these crazy things, like a ukulele song. These two kind of came organically, and those are like the last two songs of the experimental phase of Broadside. The next ones — sonically, they’re gonna have a more “one” sound. I mean, pop punk as a whole is just evolving. There’s no such thing as pop punk anymore. It’s just like all genres. We put those out to hold people over, and then we go into the studio right after this tour.

So the one lyric in “King of Nothing” that really intrigued me and a lot of other fans was the “paradise of bones” line. Did you purposely do that to incorporate parts of your first two albums, Old Bones and Paradise?

Oh yeah! I love dorky stuff like that! I was gonna say “paradise old bones,” but “paradise of bones” works better. It’s the idea of “I’ve lost all control; I’m in this paradise of bones.” I don’t know. I live for moments like that.

Have a lot of people been picking up on that reference?

No!

Really?

Which is pissing me off, but you did and that makes me very happy. I’m like, “It’s so cool and artsy!” Then they’re like, “Why are you so mad?”

So is the new color scheme that you’ve got going significant to anything? Where did the palette inspiration come from?

It’s significant in the sense that it’s a play on so many different types of color combos. We mainly just wanted to create the idea of self-expression in

washed 80’s colors. People are approaching us like, “Oh my god, is this the bisexual flag?” I’m like, “It could be!” We don’t like to put that stuff out there because it’s too derivative of what we’re doing, but it’s always in the background because we love love for the sake of it. We don’t like to label things, but the idea of it is that a lot of people are finding a lot of different meanings within it, and I think that is the most important part about it. But anyone who truly asks me — I don’t even know. I like the people who actually know and pay attention and ask what things mean. A lot of people just consume stuff. I think anything we do artistically comes down to what we are as people and we’re just figuring it out. That’s kind of the whole transition with the two new songs, it’s “What the fuck are we doing? What’s next? Can we keep going?” We wanna be famous! But we don’t wanna be sellouts. We don’t wanna be not true to ourselves.

Will these new songs or color scheme transfer over to the theme of an upcoming record?

Yeah, so we’ll probably put the two new singles on the new record.

At least one of them, depending on how it all fits. We’ve been writing a shit ton for the past couple of months, so after this tour ends, four days later we go into the studio. We’ll see where we are! As far as color scheme, I’m not sure yet. My mind is always like, “It can be better! It can get bigger!” But it might just end up being some play on that.

So your major focus at this point is just finish this tour, then go into the studio?

Right!

Do you plan to do anything else Broadside-related during the remainder of 2019?

We have a potential tour lined up that I’m hoping will be announced very soon. Our main focus is definitely the studio. This tour ends and then we’re literally right into the studio.

So as you’d mentioned before, there have been some changes in the lineup recently. How does that change the live show and whole creative process?

It’s vastly different. When you sleep in a van with people you’ve known for years and years and then you have to pick up strangers and act like — you know? The people that we hired are so talented, but it’s still not the same. At the same time, it’s part of becoming an adult and figuring out the next step because sometimes things just fall apart. No matter how hard, you can’t hold it together.

Yeah, it would definitely be difficult. Will these new members be a part of the whole creation process of the new album?

Oh yeah! So Pat, Jeff, and Dom are official members of the band now. We just had a member leave, so we just have a fill-in for him right now. It’s just gonna be us four in the studio. Just because you’re in a band doesn’t mean you like to write songs, so we try to only work with “If you want to contribute, then come to the studio,” so nobody gets mad for no reason — because being in the studio is such a process. You get annoyed at the dumbest stuff. “Who ate my Poptart?!”

On the road lately, have there been any new releases that you’ve had going on your heavy rotation? What’s your playlist?

So right now, we’re working with the new Lil Nas X because he put that out, and we’re like, “Okay, ‘Old Town Road’ was a bop, let’s see what else we’ve got.” Set It Off just put out a music video, which is crazy visually. I try to stay up on what everybody is doing online. Pretty much, it’s always the same stuff for me. My go-to is oldies and jazz; I’m very boring. The other guys are way more interesting when it comes to listening to new stuff, but I will check in on the old Twitter and see what other artists are doing.

Speaking of Twitter, I’ve seen a lot of people posting that they’re hanging out with you after the show and everything. Do you have any funny stories about anything that anybody has said or done this tour?

Yeah, so Pat loves K-pop and always talks about it, so people will just come up and they’ll be like “Oh, I had a nice time, you had a good show, thank you, it was my first time seeing you, etc.” Then the occasional one will come up and be like, “What do you think about this artist?” I’m just like, “What the hell are you talking about?” And Pat’s just like “You decide,” and then they just start talking K-pop. I pretend to know and I always get called out for being a poser, so that happens. As I said, there’s a lot of younger people on this tour, so a lot of energy and craziness. At the end of the show, I’m like “You just went ham for five hours at a show” and they’ll just come up like “What’s uuuup?” I’m like, “Wow, this is so cool.” I’m also learning about stan culture? Stannies?

Oh yeah.

I don’t know if Broadside has the kind of vibe to have stannies, but I’m starting to learn what that is. I’ve been studying up on that. Obviously, people like Awsten [Knight, Waterparks] have a lot of those. So I’m like, “Oh, I see, so it’s this kind of ride-or-die gang.” It’s like a gang that will be with you.

Pretty much.

I’m pretty intrigued by that. I thought it was just like a One Direction, Jonas Brothers lifestyle.

It’s with everything now!

I know! Maybe I’ll dye my hair yellow or something—

See who stays?Yeah, see if I can get at least one.

How does it feel when you’re at the show and fans are telling you that you’ve helped them in some kind of way?

I always get really nervous with stuff like that. I see a lot of tattoos with lyrics, or people ask me to write something and my handwriting is so bad and I’m like, “Please don’t get this tattooed,” and they do. I don’t know, I think it’s super flattering, because like I said, when you’re young, you’re invincible. So to come up and say “Oh, you’ve helped me with this,” it’s just kind of breathtaking. One, you didn’t have to say that, and two, thank you for devoting any amount of time to anything that I’m saying or doing. It’s crazy, right? There are 8 billion people in the world, and even if I gave you .0004% of influence or hope, I think it’s a beautiful thing. It makes me feel really good. I blush sometimes! When they’re really deep, I want to cry sometimes.

Out of curiosity, what’s your favorite tattoo you’ve drawn or written for somebody?

I love “Keep your head up, I swear that you belong,” it’s a good one. I love that one. “Isolation.” that’s just my favorite word of all time, I just love writing it out. “Lovely,” I’ve written that out a bunch. Our friend Abby over in the UK has my handwriting saying “lovely.” Those are cool, but then we’re starting to see these visual ones! Like we have a lyric that goes “Let the sun shine in the back of your mind,” and it was a skull and it was all ocean, and then in the back of the mind was a sun. It was so badass!

I’ve seen some really creative tattoo designs based off of lyrics!

It’s so sick! That’s what I was saying, it’s one thing to get the lyrics, but it’s another thing to get the visual representation of it.

One last thing — is there anything in particular that you hope people find within your music?

Yeah! I’ve always promoted the idea of perseverance. I’ve always wanted people to consume today as today and tomorrow as unknown, so the idea is that all you can control is what’s right in front of you. Like, I could throw this coffee at you right now or you could slap me in the face, and those are our options, but people often forget that they have those options, so they kind of fear “What if I get slapped in the face? What if I throw this coffee?” So the idea is just to remember what’s good and what’s bad in life, and just be humble in the fact that you are present, and when you’re born, you don’t have a rule book. We’re all just figuring it out. If you can be a good person, be a good person. Sometimes we’re all bad people; everyone makes a bad choice sometimes, or is mean, or says something they don’t mean, and that is human nature. If you can accept that, you’re doing alright. Don’t stress the stuff you can’t control. That’s kind of what I want to promote — the idea of being here, being present. Being human.

As the Midnight Tour comes to a close, Broadside will head directly to the studio to begin working on what’s next. In Ollie’s own words, the experimental phase of Broadside ends now. The band has faced many changes in the past year, but they’ve come back stronger than ever and prepared to mark themselves as one of today’s most influential pop punk artists. Stay up to date with the band by following them on Twitter at @Broadside_ and Instagram at @broadsideofficial. 2019 will truly go down as the year of Broadside.

Hosted and photographed by: Meg Clemmensen