INTERVIEW: BAYSIDE HIGH
BY OLIVIA LEON
Six piece rock band from South Shore, Massachusetts Bayside High takes on a year of shows and music creation as they make their debut into the music world. Lead singer Nikki Smalls and drummer Tylor Jebedia delve into the process of creating their first and latest album Figurin’ Things Out and what’s to come for the band in the upcoming year.
Photo By: Amy Young
To start off, what are you listening to this month? Any music favorites?
Nikki: I’ve been Listening to a lot of stuff. A lot of Wage War, Slipknot and classic rock.
Tylor: Architects, Wage War, and the new Bad Omens
Photo By: Amy Young
Do you have any main inspirations for your music? Is there anyone in the music industry or outside of it that has influenced your work?
Nikki: The pretty reckless and Beartooth
Tylor: I think an awesome thing about Bayside High is that the list of influences is so diverse, and so different for each member. I’d say collectively that bands like The Foo Fighters, and The Pretty Reckless are pretty big ones for us, though.
In 2021, you released your debut album Figurin' Things Out! What went into the process of creating the album? Do you have a favorite track on the album?
Nikki: Blood sweat and tears haha. Lots of work and long days. My favorite track is probably “Alive” or “So it goes” they both came together pretty easily and they are both jams.
Tylor: Oh man. So that is such a perfectly named album. Haha. We really just kinda went for it. The whole process was sort of by the seat of our pants, yanno? It was a lot of work, and a lot of fun, and we spent like a year and a half writing, re writing, and trying to learn/decide exactly what kind of band we were gunna be. It really was just us, figurin things out. I’d have to say my favorite track is “Alive.”
As we make our way into the new year, what are you most looking forward to in 2022? Anything you can tease about new music or future plans?
Nikki: Shows!! I can’t wait to play shows again and share our new music with everyone. The new music is killer.
Tylor: Yes, we are heading back into the studio in a couple weeks. We’re super excited about it. We’ve been working very hard on our follow up album and we’re really proud of how it’s going. We’re thinking of a fall release.
Finally, what do you want listeners to take away from your music and you, as a band?
Nikki: We want our listeners to just have fun and I think when they see us having fun it makes it easy for them to. We are a bunch of goofballs in a rockband. We are here to have fun.
Tylor: I just want people to have a good time, yanno? We’re just a rock band. We’re doing what we love because we enjoy it. We want other people to enjoy it too!
