Anthony Raneri, best known as the frontman of pop-punk band Bayside, has long since escaped the genre-shaped box he got stuck in after forming the band in his late teens. Raneri now writes songs of all genres, including slow piano ballads and the odd country co-write in Nashville. His latest solo album, Sorry State Of Mind, is a set of eight songs – each in a different style – that highlight Raneri’s flexibility as a songwriter. We chat with the Queens, NY-based artist about trying new things, writing for listeners, and Ben Folds.
What’s the difference and the process between writing songs for your solo project versus writing songs for Bayside?
They’re similar – very similar – minus one step. My process for writing Bayside songs is sorta unique in that Bayside’s been a band for so long. We’ve done so many records now that we always want to sound like Bayside, but it gets harder and harder with every record to still sound like Bayside and sound exactly like a Bayside record, if that makes sense. So we’re trying to find ways to keep the Bayside stuff interesting. One of the ways that I do that is by writing songs in different styles. I love all different styles of music, so I’ll write a song that’s in a completely different style, and then when I take it to Bayside, we treat it like a cover, if that makes sense. If you chose, like, a Billy Joel song, Bayside could do like, a punk cover of it. That’s sort of how we do a lot of Bayside songs. We write the songs in different styles and put the Bayside twist on them. So, with the solo stuff, it’s the same writing process, I just don’t Bayside them. Any of the songs on the solo record could easily have been Bayside songs. And a lot of people, I mean, a lot of our listeners who know songwriting understand that. But a lot of listeners don’t quite see that a Katy Perry song is a Miranda Lambert song, is a Foo Fighters song, is a Carpenters song. You know? There’s a good song and a way to write a good song. Miranda Lambert takes a song that could have been a Katy Perry song and puts a banjo on it. But as far as a lot of people hear, it’s a country song, but really there’s no such thing. It’s just the way that the music and the instruments define what kind of song it is. The song’s just a song. So to answer your question in the most long-winded way possible, the product really isn’t that different. I write songs like I write Bayside songs, I just don’t put heavy guitars on ’em.
What’s your general process like when you sit down to write a song?
I usually conceptualize a record, a Bayside record especially, and go for different vibes that I want to touch on. Throughout the record, and I have all the jokes (?), even before I touch a guitar or a piano or whatever I’m writing on, and I have all these different themes, whether it’s rhythmically, whether it’s moods, whether it’s lyrics, lyrical themes that I wanna touch on, so when I’m working on a song, say, for instance the other day I wrote a song, I had a melody, in mind and some lyrics in mind, so I put those two together, and I went to my notes, my concept notes, and there was one, Benny and the Jets but fast, that was a note I had, so I took the chord progression, the melody, and I programmed the drums like a Benny-and-the-Jets-but-fast drum beat and then sang the melody over the drum beat, and just messed around with chords and looped it until I found something that sounded cool. It’s like, y’know, so it’s a mish-mash, the process isn’t just sit down with the guitar and everything comes out, I always have ideas to look at to get me started, to keep me going if I get stuck.
How long have you been writing songs?
I started when I started playing music, when I was 9. I started a band with my buddies when I was 11. Bayside’s the first time I ever sang in a band, and that was really when I started focusing on writing songs and really learning how to do it. That was when I was 17, our first record came out when I was 20, and now I’m 33. It’s really funny, in 18 months I’ll have been in Bayside longer than I haven’t been, which is pretty wild.
Do you remember the first song you wrote?
The first song I wrote that had a name and everything was a song called “Downtime” that I wrote for Bayside. That was Bayside’s first song. When we got to the first practice and were like, “Okay, what are we gonna play?” I said, “Hey, we can play this!”
What do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned about songwriting over the course of your career?
I think the most important thing about songwriting any songwriter can learn is that the people who are listening did not write the song. You have to learn how to listen as a listener. You have to shed attachment to things. Bouncing things off of people is so important to me. When I write something, no matter how abrupt it is, I send it to friends. I need feedback. A lot of younger bands will have a one minute intro before any singing comes in, and you’re like, “Dude, I’m bored. I’m bored!” And they’re like, “But dude, it’s so cool because it changes here, it does this.” Like, no, I didn’t get that from it, and nobody else is gonna get it from it. It doesn’t translate. So the most important thing that I’ve learned -and I think everybody needs to learn it, if you’re gonna be a successful songwriter – is that you have to listen as the listener and not as yourself. It’s hard to do. You have to train yourself.
Do you mostly write about personal topics or do you take on characters?
I usually write about what’s going on in my life. There have been times where, if I’m stumped, I watch a movie and pretend to be a character in the movie and write as that person. I’ve done that a couple of times. For the most part, I find it easier to write from inside. I was really nervous about having to write lyrics for Bayside. The only way I could figure out how to do it was by writing in a journal and basically forcing a journal entry into a song. That’s kind of still what I do.
What do you think is the best song ever written?
Wow. The best song ever written? Maybe “Mr. Blue Sky” by ELO. It has everything: it’s catchy, the lyrics are cool, it’s interesting. You hear something new about it every time you listen to it. You know, if I took longer to think about it, I could probably come up with a list of songs like that, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind. You can write an interesting song, you can write a catchy song, you can write a pop song, but to do all of those and have cool lyrics and all that, it’s so hard to do.
Do you ever cowrite with anybody?
I do, for them. I do some other rock stuff and some punk stuff. But, I do a lot of rock stuff with people writing for rock radio. Everybody is trying to get something going here in Nashville as far as writing goes. I’ve been doing some country stuff. I’ve never co-written any of my own songs, though. I don’t co-write for myself and I don’t co-write for Bayside.
If you had the chance to co-write with anybody, even if you’re were’t going to use the song yourself, who would you want to write with?
My go-to is always Ben Folds. Whenever people ask who I would want to collaborate with, I always say Ben Folds. I think he’s a great songwriter – I absolutely admire his songwriting. But also I think when you’re a student of songwriting, listening to somebody’s song is a window into the way they think, and I just love the way he thinks. And I’m an awful piano player and I love piano, so it would be cool to work with a great piano player.