Interview conducted with Chris and Rob of THE BROADWAYS

We caught up with the Broadways on March 15th at a noon show, which was a benefit for something I can't quite remember. Aside from a little controversy (which won't be discussed now) between most of the people there and a band called Showoff, the day was lots of fun. A good turn out for a Sunday show, at an early time especially. For me, it was the first time I'd seen the Broadways since I purchased their "Broken Star" Cd, so seeing them play a lot of now familiar songs was cool. They didn't do much talking on stage, just kind of ran straight through their set and did a good job of it too. The Broadways talked a little about themselves, what their songs are about, etc. Here you go...

BD-There's definitely lyrics behind your music, what are you guys as a band trying to accomplish through those lyrics?

C-I think it's important to promote awareness, you can't really do a whole lot. I tend to say that lyrics are a good way to facilitate awareness to some extent. You can't be really preachy, I understand some issues are not as important to certain people, but it's important to learn a lot of things, It's a really good way to get that awareness across, especially with the kind of scene we're playing. With a lot of younger people, who are impressionable. As far as things I want to accomplish with them, it's like I hope I could make people aware about ‘em and if they care they could find out more about whatever and then do something about it. You can only do so much, but a song can say a lot.

R-Through a song you can express your ideas and not force them on anyone.

C-I hate to be forceful about ideas, but bands that influenced me a lot were bands that had a message and weren't necessarily shoving it down my throat, but making me aware. Especially Propagandhi even if they're really hardcore about their message, there's still a human quality about it.

BD-What other bands have influenced your song writing, lyric-wise?

C-Fifteen, Jawbreaker, Propagandhi as I said before.

R-2LiveCrew. I really appreciate what they do.

C-I guess those are the bands that are most prominent when I think about it. There's a lot of bands out there that have something to say I'm sure.

BD-Now that the CD is out, are you guys going to look to play more or tour or anything?

C-We're playing every weekend through March and April, and we're playing here at the Fireside with Avail in late May. We're going to tour three weeks with Tuesday on the east coast after that, and then tour another three weeks by ourselves or maybe with Baxter. That last tour will be like down in Texas and maybe as far west as Colorado.

R-So we'll be playing all through summer and into fall a little.

BD-Do you guys focus a lot on your live performances?

R-Not as much as we should.

C-For sure. We need to practice more. There's a lot of songs on the CD we don't play live.

BD-I'm glad you guys played "Ben Moves To California."

C-Yeah we'll be playing that a little more often and "Fuck The Church," too. There's certain songs we can't play that well live, to be totally honest.

R-We just can't pull it off.

BD-Were a lot of those new songs then at the time you recorded the CD? Do you have trouble playing them since they're new?

R-Well mostly because those were studio musicians that we had.

C-A couple of the sons we only had for a week before we recorded them.

BD-You guys have been around a year, a little more than a year?

R-About two years now.

C-We haven't been around two years.

R-Yeah, this spring.

C-What are you talking about?

R-Two summers ago we started.

C-Oh yeah, I guess we did, didn't we.

R-About a year and a half, it'll be two years this summer.

BD-I thought you guys started a little over a year ago, sorry.

C-So did I, see we didn't play our first show for like half a year though.

BD-You guys write lots of songs, is that something that comes easy to you?

C-I think it's just cause we have three people writing songs.

R-Talk to these guys, I just play drums.

C-I've only written about four songs for the Broadways, but with all of us together it seems a lot easier. We haven't been writing songs as fast as we used to. We're trying to put out another release actually. A split CD with Baxter on Bicycle Records. Recently we've been trying to get some new songs together. That's all the new stuff we're doing for now.

-Due to the battery failure of my tape recorder this interview was cut a little short. Sorry! Ha. Thanx for your time though Broadways.