Bayside’s Anthony Raneri on Working With blackbear, Calls Turnstile ‘An Anomaly’ (Exclusive)

Bayside frontman Anthony Raneri recently turned up on blackbear’s new album, in loving memory, on a song that sounds like it was written by the New York rockers themselves. Recently, PopCulture.com had a chance to chat with Raneri about the song, titled “poltergeist,’ as well as the When We Were Young Fest, and why he thinks mainstream breakout hardcore band Turnstile is “an anomaly.” In a conversation ahead of the release of Bayside’s The Red EP on Oct. 19, we asked Raneri about working with blackbear — real name Matthew Tyler Musto —and he explained how the collaboration came about.

“I’m really friendly with Matt and he said he had a song that was inspired by the band and he sent it. He sent it over. We had originally been talking while he was working on the record. He was like, ‘Oh dude, I’m doing a pop-punk record.’ I was like, ‘That’s cool man!’” Raneri continued, “He was sending me all the demos for the record and he sent me that one and he was like, ‘This is definitely inspired by Bayside. I would love to have you on it.’ So I just tracked my vocals just at home in my home studio. And then Travis [Barker] played drums over what was originally the demo and then it came out.”

Going on to praise blackbear’s connection to the emo and punk scene, Raneri said, “It’s really cool. And he’s taken out pop-punk bands on his tours and he definitely is. He’s shouting out his influences and I think it’s really cool. There’s definitely this weird resurgence of pop punk in the mainstream. All these pop artists grew up on all these bands, but he’s really the only one who’s actually involving everybody else, you know?”

We also asked Raneri about the big When We Were Young Fest in Las Vegas, which the band was gearing up to head for at the time. “I’m excited to see so many friends. It’s going to be cool,” he said, later adding, “I think there’s a lot of pride in it for all of the bands because it’s… We don’t get to do things that break the Internet. That’s not for bands like us, you know what I mean?”

Elaborating on his point, Raneri said, “We do the small little punk fests and regional fests and stuff like that. That’s where we live. And the fact that this thing was just so huge. The amount of publicity… they sold 150,000 tickets in minutes. And it’s bands like ours.” He continued, “I could say for almost everybody who’s playing… we’ll never play Coachella and we’ll never play Sasquatch and will never play any of that level of festival like Glastonbury. That’s because those festivals won’t book us. They won’t book bands like ours.”

The longtime frontman explained that this is “frustrating for all of us” because Bayside and other bands like them “feel like we’ve earned things like that.” Raneri then offered a peek behind the curtain and said, “We look at those lineups, we’re like, ‘We outdraw all but 10 of these bands. We’re bigger than all but 10 of these bands.’ But, and then you don’t get booked only because you’re not ‘cool enough.’ And that’s much more frustrating than not being big enough.”

It’s for this reason, Raneri said that “When We Were Young is a point of pride for everybody doing it,” even My Chemical Romance, “who are one of the biggest rock bands in the world.” He continued, “They look at it and they were like, ‘we get… We’re headlining this f—ing festival that’s going to be as big as Coachella and we don’t need any of that bulls— cool stuff.’ So it’s just like, it’s our thing. It’s our thing. And so there’s a lot of pride in it for all of us.”

Finally, the conversation turned to newer bands, such as Turnstile, who are by no means freshmen of the hardcore and punk scene but have earned a lot of mainstream success over the past couple of years. “Turnstile is such, that’s an anomaly where they somehow are appealing to every genre of fan all while staying cool,” Raneri said of the band. “Which normally when you start getting really big, you start getting less cool. But somehow even the hardcore kids still think it’s cool. They don’t mind that Coachella bros are into it too. It’s real. It’s such an anomaly.”

Offering some wise insight that he’s garnered over his years in the emo/punk scene, Raneri said, “The one thing I learned over the course of my multi-decade career is that the cream rises to the top. If there’s anything that is bothering you, because it sucks and people like it and that is frustrating you, it’s going to go away. The cream… My Chem is the biggest band in our scene cause they’re the best band in our scene. Turnstile is huge because they made a f—ing great record.”

The Red EP is out now and available to stream or download from most music streaming services. Fans can also click here to pick up a physical copy from the band’s label, Hopeless Records. Keep it locked to PopCulture for more music interviews, news, and reviews!