Pools and Power Moves: Catching Up With Alt Rock Band Broadside
Interview by Mary Perez
Graphic by Rebekah Witt
When we first spoke with Broadside, Kinda Cool was in our first year and featured the band in our third issue. Over three years later, we caught up with the now Florida-based group to see how the past years have been for the alternative rockers. From releasing another album, switching labels, and even starting work on the new LP, the band—comprised of vocalist Oliver Baxxter, guitarist Domenic Reid, bassist Patrick Diaz, and drummer Jeff Nichols—finally kicked off their first-ever headline tour this past summer. Since our interview, Nichols announced that he would be leaving the band, and although I’m sad to see him go, I’m glad we were able to have his thoughts for this interview. I sat down with the band ahead of their Philadelphia show at The Foundry to hear more about their tour with Young Culture, Cherie Amour, and First And Forever, as well as their off-day antics and potential cover band names:
When we first met up with you guys, that was back in 2019. The most recent release at the time was “King of Nothing” and “Empty,” so how has the journey been since then? You’ve gotten to release an album via Sharptone Records, release a new single, and do a headline tour by yourselves.
Oliver Baxxter: It’s been vastly different in the sense that we feel super liberated now. We grew up personally, but we also had the opportunity to release that type of music without the pressure. All of that’s been very beneficial. There was a moment where we were like, “Are we trapped? What are we doing?” The fact that we chose to continue to pursue it after being off our last label was probably the biggest reward. Other than that, I feel that we’ve been able to learn so much about ourselves as musicians and individuals and collectively what Broadside is since “King of Nothing” and “Empty.” But the cool thing is I feel like those singles were the turning point of the band; the fact that people reacted differently but similarly to sonically-different sounding songs helped to shape Into the Raging Sea because it was like, “Cool, we can be dance-y and hard still” because those are our two favorite things-
Domenic Reid: Dancing and moshing.
OB: Exactly. It’s like an EDM-turned breakdown as my dream.
DR: It’s been a journey since then, for sure. 2019 was a bit weird because those songs were actually supposed to come out in 2018, but because we were having to deal with so much legal stuff, label stuff, members leaving, we had to reform and figure out what we wanted to do. We were on such a big high—we had a tour with Set It Off and a tour with Sum 41— and we recorded Into the Raging Sea in July and August 2019. Everything was going really good, and then the world shut down, so it’s been one of those things where it’s an uphill battle. It feels like we’re always working up to something, and then right before we get to it, it seems like everything crumbles down.
OB: It’s anti-climactic.
DR: With that being said, I feel like we’re back on a good track.
OB: It teaches you a lot. Failure teaches you a lot.
With this headliner’s setlist, you can play both old and new songs since you’re at the liberty of playing your whole discography if you wanted! You’re ending with “The Setting Sun” instead of the classic closer of “Coffee Talk,” so what’s it been like to put together this new setlist?
Jeff Nichols: Personally, I think it’s pretty cool because it allows more of a journey through the set. It’s not an hour long of high-energy songs; you can be more intimate with the crowd with things like “Clarity” or “I Love You, I Love You.” It also gives me a break during the set. I think it’s nice to showcase some of the newer songs, as we’ll start with “Coffee Talk” and see where the rest of the set goes.
DR: I’d say this setlist is a bit of a power move on our part because “Coffee Talk” is arguably one of our more popular songs, as a lot of people associate our band with that song. We put it second in our set basically as a way to say “There it is” while also getting it out of the way. We love that song, but it’s a way to be like, “Here’s this song, and here are 14 more songs that are equally as good or even better.” Ending it with “The Setting Sun” is another power move on our part because it’s not one of our more popular songs, but the four of us are obsessed with it. When we were recording it, we were just hyped. Sometimes when we are putting together setlists, there’s a song that we’ll like and will put on the setlist for the first few shows before realizing that people don’t like it, so we’ll cut it out. This time, we really held true and were like, “You’re gonna listen to this song. This is our show.”
OB: That’s one of the cool things about this tour—it’s our show. That’s one of the one payoffs you get from becoming a headlining band: you get to cater to the audience and also show them what you want to give to them. Sometimes it pays off, and this time, it did. Some people like that and want to get “Coffee Talk” out of the way because they’re like, “I wanna mosh early and then chill.”
DR: We were talking to a couple of people early this tour who were like, “You should have not played it and just played more new stuff.” Maybe one day… TikTok just found out about “Coffee Talk!”
OB: Yeah, so we have to ride out another 12 years of that.
I know that you played it pretty early at the Florida headline show, which was surprising.
DR: It’s also a good way to get energy up immediately; by opening with “Heavenly” and “Coffee Talk” to get people who might be hesitant to interact with the crowd, it gets them off their feet immediately. We used to close all of our shows with “Coffee Talk,” and people would go off right at the end. We were talking about getting them hyped immediately in our set, and then they’ll be ready to go!
I know you’re all in the same state now, so has that made it a bit easier to create music or work together?
OB: It’s a lot easier because there are no planes involved.
DR: Jeff’s about two hours from us-
JN: There’s still an element of sending demos and FaceTiming and whatnot, but for the most part, these guys will be writing together and inviting me to stop by the studio.
DR: We’ll always text Jeff and ask if he can take off work on these days. If he can’t, the three of us will still get together and write together, which is nice. Honestly, the best part of us being together is being closer.
We were also just discussing some of your off days, so do you have any memorable moments from off days of getting to hang with the other bands on this tour or anything?
DR: Yesterday was pretty crazy.
OB: We stayed in an Amish Airbnb and had the time of our lives. It was just a full-on rager that lasted a cool 12 hours.
Pat Diaz: It was pretty unbelievable. I turned in early because I couldn’t handle how much partying was going on.
You’re touring with the party girls (Young Culture)—you had to prepare for that!
PD: My body started deteriorating, so I knew I had to stop.
JN: Most of our off days have been driving. After Chicago, we stayed with our buddy Seth, who recorded Into the Raging Sea, and had a pool day.
I’ve seen you guys spending time in pools pretty often.
All: We love a pool.
DR: If we ever have a true day off and don’t need to drive, we’ll spend the day in the water-
OB: It’s pool time.
DR: After Phoenix, we were driving somewhere, and Jeff found a hotel with a pool. We get there, and it’s literally in the middle of nowhere in the New Mexico desert. I saw Ollie say, “Well, tour’s canceled. What’s the point of being here?” Pat, noticing that we were on a spiral, very quickly did a quick Google search-
PD: I took over the plane controls and tried to right it again.
DR: He found a natural spring two minutes away, and it was awesome.
PD: It was called The Blue Hole, and the water is a crisp 61° year-round. When I jumped in, I think my body started going into shock because of how cold it was.
DR: It’s so sick because it has a bunch of rocks all around it, so you can go all the way up these high rocks and jump in. It’s 80 feet deep, so you’re not going to hit anything when you jump down. It was super, super cool.
OB: It was cool until we got bullied by a teen athlete.
DR: He was 14 and was like, “Why don’t you do a backflip?” I was like, “Well, I don’t have health insurance.” He was like, “Yeah, let a 14-year-old bully you.” You’re only 14? He’s like 8’2” and taller than us.
PD: He jumped off the rock backward, flipping us off. So, if you hear this, we’re coming for you.
Whoa, threatening him on record?
PD: Uh, I said frickin’. I was talking to Danny DeRusso.
Photo from Broadside’s Twitter
Your songs address not being okay and how it’s alright to feel that way, so how have you been taking care of yourselves on tour, aside from the pool?
OB: I try to find as much private time as I can. I think what really saves you on tour is finding five, 10 minutes to be alone. We understand each others’ buttons, and when we’re getting close to that point, we kinda dial back or go grab coffee or be quiet. Any self-care moments—getting a massage, listening to music, grabbing coffee, calling your significant other, petting a dog—we’ve really been trying to take advantage of that. And, of course, the pool! I can’t emphasize that enough!
The pool just makes it complete!
OB: There’s just something about it. It’s like soup for the soul.
DR: We also take care of ourselves through food. We love food.
PD: Not a lot of problems that food can’t fix.
DR: We’re very Thai food, very hole-in-the-wall, takeout Chinese, pho, ramen. Sometimes we’ll go out of our way to cheer ourselves up by going to a good spot.
Speaking of food, the people want to know: you’re in Wawa territory right now, so what’s the go-to Wawa order?
DR: The Wawa order is to go to Sheetz.
PD: My order is to look up Sheetz on Google Maps and go there.
JN: Classic Italian for me.
PD: I guess a veggie hoagie and get the Voodoo chips, and then get the BODYARMOR Strawberry Lemonade LYTE.
DR: I have two Wawa orders, and they really depend on where I’m at, not physically, but spiritually. Am I drunk? Am I in a good mood? But I love their club sandwich. If you’ve ever had a club sandwich, bacon, roast beef, turkey, lettuce, tomato, bread—three pieces of bread, actually. I love me one of them. They’re like thin, toasty breads, so I love that. I also love getting a cheesesteak hoagie and just putting weird toppings on it. When you go to build your own order, it has that touchscreen with different things on each page. Sometimes I’ll be like, “Ooh, I like these three,” and then go to the next one and be like, “Ooh, and I like these things too,” but I’ll forget what I already put on my sandwich. Sometimes I’ll get something that’s a cheesesteak with like nacho cheese sauce, pickles, horseradish, some sort of sweet chili sauce, banana peppers, a weird kind of cheese.
You’re just surprising yourself; you never know what it’s gonna be!
DR: It is a weird surprise every time.
OB: I just get a lot of dill pickle chips. As a vegan, it’s kinda no for me, but they got some good drinks in there!
If you could choose a song to experience for the first time again, what would it be?
JN: “Welcome Home” by Coheed and Cambria.
OB: “One More Time” by Daft Punk.
PD: “Fake Love” by BTS.
OB: Oh, I wish I could hear that for the first time again, too. And see the video for the first time again!
PD: That’s what it is: I would hear as I’m watching the video for the first time again.
DR: “Smile Like You Mean It” by The Killers. Every time I listen to it, I still feel like it’s the first time I’m listening to it. Genuinely, if I could experience that song for the first time again, it’s a fantastic song.
Are there any unique ways you’ve heard your music described as?
DR: Yeah, one time someone said it was bad. I thought that was interesting.
JN: Whenever “Foolish Believer” came out, someone described it as “anime intro music.”
OB: I like both of those answers, bad in particular.
Have you ever looked at the Spotify playlists that your music has been added to and seen any funny titles?
PD: Yes, a couple. Both of these were for “I Love You, I Love You. It’s Disgusting,” and that was the only song of ours on the playlist. One was “White Boy Reggae,” and the other was literally titled “That Gay Shit.”
OB: And it was the only song on the playlist.
DR: Somebody went out of their way to make a playlist with one song and name it that.
PD: They had to know we were gonna see that.
Let’s say we go 50 years into the future, and there’s a Broadside cover band. What’s the name of this band?
All: Boardslide.
Have you thought of this before?
PD: We’ve thought about starting our own merch and calling it Boardslide.
DR: We have also thought about becoming a Broadside cover band because I’ve heard once that cover bands make way more money than actual bands.
OB: Imagine! We could pay ourselves by obtaining the rights… this is lucrative.
DR: Boardslide… that’d be good.
OB: We’d go on tour with ourselves.
PD: Just wear fake mustaches.
Then how long would those sets be?
OB: Too damn long. No, they’d be openers, 20 minutes long, and we’d be right after them. Someone else would headline.
JN: Would we come out and play the same songs?
OB: Yeah, but with accents.
DR: Oh, Boardslide has accents?
OB: Yeah, they’re like Amish people.
PD: Boardslide is a Dutch band.
DR: Do you remember that band we played with that opened the show in Amsterdam? They were like a ska band and had accents because we were in Europe. I just thought about that.
So if I see that band name pop up, I already know who it is.
PD: Just grab tickets anyways.
If you could rename one of your songs to have a Fall Out Boy-esque title, what would you change it to?
JN: I’d choose “Heavenly,” and I’d change it to “This Song Is Different to How It Is Now, But Only If You Heard The Original Demo Version.”
DR: I like that. There’s something to that.
JN: That really hits home to me.
OB: Or “I Wrote This Melody On My Phone-”
DR: A hot tub.
OB: Oh, “I Wrote This Song In A Hot Tub” type thing.
DR: You could also do “Foolish Believer” and work in an entire anti-Victory Records thing like “Victory Records Tried To Steal This Song.”
Pat, any ideas?
DR: Yeah, you’re the one who likes Fall Out Boy!
PD: I know, but I’m not one to name things. I’m bad at improv.
It’s okay. You’re just good at playing bass.
PD: That’s right. All I know is eat hot chip and play bass.
No lie?
PD: No.
OB: Break phone.
PD: Break phone, eat hot chip, play bass.
And any final things you want to say to your fans?
OB: Yeah, thank you guys for getting us to this point, and I hope that we don’t let anyone down. I hope this is the kinda headliner you’d want from getting us to this point. I hope everyone’s happy with us.
PD: Thank you for your support. We’ll see you next time.
OB: Smoochies! XOXO!
PD: XOXO, Boardslide.
I may be biased because Broadside is my favorite band, but it’s truly a treat whenever I get to see them perform. If anyone was planning on having a calm evening at a show, this was not the place to be, as crowdsurfers were constantly flying through the air while pits were opened for nearly every song. When the band slowed down the setlist to play “Clarity” and “I Love You, I Love You. It’s Disgusting,” fans held their phone lights and lighters in the air, lighting up the room. Perhaps no moment would echo louder than the last cries of “The Raging Sea,” as Baxxter screams out, ‘Is there any point?’ In those moments of unity with other Broadside fans, there is a light in the dark (wink wink) and a highlight for the band to look back on if they ever doubt that we’re there. Be sure to stream the band’s latest single, “One Last Time,” and see them live if they’re in your area!