Broadside: You May Not Want To Leave After Checking In
It’s a strange thing to admit but staying at a hotel is something that a lot of people enjoy. It’s something about the unfamiliar environment that you’re staying in that leaves you with a weird feeling of freedom and escape. Thinking about it, about the people who’ve stayed in the room before you will likely have many tales to tell with each stay being part of a different story. It’s a brand-new headspace, and something that BROADSIDE have explored in their latest album, Hotel Bleu.
When speaking to frontman, Oliver Baxxter, as they tour the US he expands on the concept behind the album and why it is that they were so keen to focus in on a hotel environment when it came to creating the record. “We really liked the concept of stories coexisting in one space, like a short story. A hotel is a safe space for us as touring musicians or for anyone seeking refuge, a place to sleep or a place to fuck. I like the idea of all the different people passing one another in a hallway or a lobby,” he explains. “I feel like for the first time we’ve managed to write an album. Something you can listen to front and back and feel every song and hear every word. The tone exists, the ideas are well thought out and the sentiment is clear.”
When it comes to how each song sounds, BROADSIDE are true to their word in that each song has its own unique personality and meaning, with little repetition between them asides from shared catchy hooks and intriguing lyrics. We can go from stunning pop melodies to more rowdier rock tracks that will leave you sharing that same frustration depicted. Oliver admits that the range in styles was a deliberate choice. “We took that exact approach from the beginning. We split the album between two producers (Andrew Wade and Andrew Baylis) that we felt specialised in both of those fields. I wanted an overall larger sound on this album but also a clear define between catchy pop songs and huge sonically production tracks!”
Baxxter has much to praise about Wade and Baylis. “They influenced the album tremendously. We knew going in that they both had the capability of producing the exact sound we were going for. Not to mention they are both incredibly talented and well achieved in their own regards.”
Moving onto lyrical content, BROADSIDE are known for writing tracks that, while at times pure fun, mostly consist of deep and personal stories that some may find way too relatable, cleverly disguised with beautiful pop melodies, so we can at least dance while we cry.
Take for example the song Bang, while upbeat the track explores the dark mind space of someone with depression where they appear unwilling to keep going. Dark as it is confessional, Oliver looks at the song and its lyrics this way. “The older I get, the closer to death. Be it by my own hand or the passing of time, it doesn’t scare me any more. Nor does it dictate my decisions. The song Bang is simply about turning around and meeting the hand that takes your life and welcoming him, as a long-lost friend.”
Getting even more personal is the track Bleu, the concluding track of the record that was written about Baxxter’s fiancé and her battle with cancer as he supported her and witnessed her go through treatment before, happily, going into remission before her 29th birthday. While an, obviously, difficult song to write and perform, Oliver couldn’t be prouder with how it came out. “I am incredibly happy with how it came out. I can’t listen to it though, so when I perform it, I perform it as a stranger,” he says. “I love her, I really do and the thought of losing her terrified me. I know that it’s connecting with people and that is also heartbreaking to me. Cancer is so vile and isolating. I’m just happy to have laid down my ego and wrote about something that will chase me, and her for the rest of my life.”
BROADSIDE have been together for over a decade and have experienced their range of ups and downs, which Baxxter is the first to admit to, yet he looks back fondly at their time together with how far they’ve come and looks forward to achieving more together. “Thirteen years as a band, yet there’s still more to come. We’re hoping to reach the next level all around. We’re still touring in a van but touring at a maximum level. It would be nice to have a little more room to feel a sense of calm on tour. It would also be nice to continue having opportunities to open for bigger bands. I’m hoping that this album can help us become a headlining band, to play to more people and to be taken more seriously in the industry.”
Hotel Bleu is out now via SharpTone Records.
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