Feel like your just “killing time” until Bayside’s fifth album, Killing Time, drops on February 22^nd? Well, us too. So, we have a little teaser for you: an interview with the lead singer of the alternative rock band, Anthony Raneri.

The Queens natives have been making music for a little over a decade, but with Killing Time, the quartet has made their biggest leap of faith in the music industry. The band will release the upcoming album via Wind-Up Records, rather than their former label Victory Records. This label change has allowed Bayside to work on this masterpiece of 12 tracks for about a year. Time has certainly played a significant role with this band. All puns intended.

Bayside released their leading single, “Sick, Sick, Sick,” on November 16^th and this power anthem has already put their prior album, Shudder, to shame. The 2008 album lacked the fast paced instrumentals and power raging vocals of Raneri. Adding these ingredients to Killing Time is exactly what the music world ordered. So now, you can couple your urge for the tunes of Killing Time, by reading and rereading this interview, while listening to “Sick, Sick, Sick.” We cannot guarantee this will cure your Bayside anxiety, but it will do for now.

What separates Killing Time from your four previous albums? Can longtime fans expect a similar sound?

We have never really set out to redefine ourselves as a band with every record. We are really happy with what we’ve created. We only try to get better with each release. So I would hope that old fans will appreciate it and other people will find something in it that they thought might have been missing before.

This is your first album with Wind-Up. What has it been like working with a new label?

It’s been amazing. The biggest difference for us was having a lot of time to work on the album. We have always been pretty rushed writing and recording and Wind Up gave us the opportunity to spend a whole year writing and re-writing the songs until we thought they were perfect rather than getting them as good as we could before a deadline.

Why name the album Killing Time?

The chorus in the title track of the album is “I spent all of my life waiting for a moment to come” which I think sums up the theme of the whole record. The album is about what happens in between the important stuff and the feeling you get while you’re killing time waiting for the next great leap.

The cover art of Killing Time is definitely intriguing. Why an astronaut in a diner?

It was from a series of photos that Hunter Freeman had taken called “it’s not always fun to be an astronaut”. We thought they were great and kind of went along with the theme of the album. An astronaut who may have done great things in the past and may be waiting for great things in the future, but for now he’s just waiting for the call.

Why was “Sick, Sick, Sick” chosen as the lead single?

It kind of jumped out at us even when we first started writing it. It just seemed real immediate and urgent. This has been our first real song that is being played on the radio and we knew that going into it. We figured if we’re going to be on the radio it’s got to be a song that is very Bayside, very punk and very real.

From just the single track of Killing Time, we definitely hear a more fast-paced and edgier sound than heard on the four prior albums. Is this sound consistent throughout the album? Do we also get the slower-paced tunes we once listened to off of Shudder?

It is definitely well rounded. This recording has some of our heaviest songs, our fastest songs, our prettiest songs and our most technical songs. We just wanted to make a Bayside record on steroids.

We hear that fans get to make their own Killing Time video trailer in your video contest with Nike Stadium. What are you looking for in these videos? Any tips for fans?

Not really any tips. If I was entering the contest myself I wouldn’t even know where to start. I guess the best tip I can give anyone is that we get a ton of these so make them stand out right away. If they are boring and 4 minutes long, we might not even get through it. So I guess the weirder the better.

What does this one-of-a-kind Bayside Nike Destroyer look like?

You can watch a video of us designing it at http://nikestadiums.com/2011/01/10/bayside-destroyer-contest/. It is modeled after the ones that only the band and our crew wear with a couple of extra things.

Touring anytime soon?

Always touring. We are in Europe right now for a bit. Then we go straight to Australia for a bit. We get back to the States in the Spring for a US headlining tour.

Lonnie Nemiroff