Interviews: Broadway Calls

Our very own Darren McLeod recently had a chance to sit down briefly with two members of Oregon pop–punkers Broadway Calls. They discussed their recent singing to Adeline Records, their current tour with Ruiner, and what it's like being the only pop–punk band at a hardcore show.You can click Read More for the interview.

Alright, let's just start out in the usual way. State your name and what you do in the band.

Josh: My name's Josh and I play drums in Broadway Calls.

So, you guys recently signed to Adeline Records. Tell us how that came about.

J: It's kind of like the trickle down effect. They run the management company that we're on
[Ty, guitarist and vocalist of Broadway Calls, comes and joins us]
Their intern came and saw us in May, he gave it to their assistant, who gave it to the head guy, and they just got a hold of us in… when did they get a hold of us? November?

Ty: On our last tour… in October.

J: So they got a hold of us in October, and then watched us when we came to LA. Then we decided to work with them after a couple meetings.

T: Didn't take much.

J: Yeah. They were awesome guys, so we were stoked. They're doing the re-release. We've had it out for a while. We don't have any plans to do anything new with them just yet. We'll do the re-release and see how that goes.

T: And the vinyl.

J: Yeah, and the vinyl.

Alright, excellent. So, I know you guys have a couple members -- you two, actually -- who were in Countdown to Life.

Both: Yeah.

So you grew up in the hardcore scene, but you're still kind of the odd man out on a lot of these bills that you're playing… like tonight, you're playing with Ruiner and Grave Maker. Is the reception still pretty positive at all of these shows, and how is it being the one pop-punk band on a hardcore bill?

T: I like it. Well, when we were in Countdown, we still weren't really accepted at a lot of hardcore shows. [Laughs] So, I like this better. I mean, we like hardcore, but there's, I don't know. This is the kind of music we grew up playing and it seems easier to get across. And a lot of kids do like it… they like melody, they just… you know, hardcore is huge right now. You can't really play a show without at least hardcore kids in the audience.

J: I think… like, hardcore kids versus mainstream pop-punk kids… I think we mesh better mentality-wise with hardcore kids.

T: At shows like this, its a lot more like we're playing for our peers and friends, as opposed to when we've opened for a bigger pop-punk band or something like that. It's completely different. This is a lot more comfortable.

J: It seems like they don't care. They just come to see music. And here, we come to hang out and meet people and see what other people have to say and everyone shares ideas.

Now, you guys have been touring with Ruiner since just after Boxing Day, right? How has that been going so far? [Ed: I got confused. Ruiner started their tour on December 27th, but Broadway Calls didn't join the tour until January 14th]

T: Actually, it hasn't been that long. It's only been since, like Saturday. So, yeah, we've played with them before on our first tour. So we know all the dudes and, yeah, it's great.

You guys quietly released a split with the Riot Before back in November. Can you guys talk a little about that?

T: Yeah, we weren't really happy with our half of it. Our recording didn't really go as well as we wanted it to. Um, but the Riot Before side is great.

J: Yeah.

T: Their songs are amazing.

J: Our part, we're not too stoked on. We don't really want people to hear it.

T: [Laughing] Yeah.

J: I feel really bad, because we're, like, best friends with those guys, and we love the band… but we're not pushing it. We could be selling it… but…

T: We'll re-record those songs someday…

J: Hopefully we'll do another split with them and be happy with it and tell the world, but right now, we're just… whatever.

Have you guys done much more writing for the next record or anything like that, or is that so far off that you haven't really thought about it much?

T: We wrote a few songs when we were writing for that split.

J: Four new ones.

T: Yeah, and we usually play one each night… we'll probably play one tonight. But it's so far off, and we've been touring a lot…

J: We have February off, so we're going to try to write a few songs there, so maybe we can get half, or maybe a quarter of the record done, so…

Any last words that you guys want to say?

T: Keep an eye out for the Living with Lions new record. It will be coming in spring time… they're recording next month. It's going to be great.

Well, thank you guys very much.

Both: Thank you.