DS Exclusive Interview: Ty Vaughn (Broadway Calls) talks about latest EP “Toxic Kids,” upcoming full-length and more

On October 26th I was lucky enough to attend a pre-Fest show in Orlando at Will’s Pub. I got to see Go Rydell. The Arteries, Leagues Apart, Broadway Calls, The Flatliners and The Menzingers. I had a fantastic time.

Prior to the show I caught up with Broadway Calls singer / guitarist Ty Vaughn. We discussed the band’s latest EP “Toxic Kids,” their upcoming full-length album, influences, Fest, line-up changes and more. Click here to get the scoop.

You recently released your new EP “Toxic Kids.” You chose to record it with Jack Shirley, who you recorded your split with Teenage Bottlerocket. Why did you chose to record with him again this time around?

Jack’s been a friend of ours for a really long time. He was in a band called Comadre. We’ve know him since before Broadway Calls was even a band. We’ve seen his place grow and become a quality place for bands to record. We’re just really comfortable there. He’s one of our best friends. It feels really good to hang out there and record songs because there’s no pressure.

What’s your favorite song off the EP?

I don’t know. I like all of them. Some of them are really honest and some of them are fictional stories which I’m a really big fan of as well. I really like playing the song “Toxic Kids” because it’s a very high energy punk song. That’s what we wanted to write for this EP.

I heard that song was a follow-up to “Suffer The Kids.” Why did you decide to do a follow-up?

Because we still play “Suffer the Kids” every show. I still feel like it’s a relevant song lyrically and people still really like it. I wanted to make a connection between the old stuff and the new stuff. I wanted to write the sequel because it’s kind of a weird thing that I don’t think a lot of writers do.  I just wanted to try it out.

There’s an acoustic song on the new EP called “Stealing Sailboats” I really like that song. It kind of reminded of “Save Our Ship” off your self-titled album. They could almost go together as well.

Thank you! We actually have a full band version of that song that we’re going to save for the next record.

Cool! Speaking of the new record. How’s the new full-length record coming along so far?

It’s going really well. We have about ten songs so far that we didn’t use for the EP.  We go to Europe next month. When we get back from that we’re going to keep writing for the next full-length. We’ve already called Bill Stevenson who produced our last full-length. We both really excited. Hopefully we’ll record in Spring of 2012 and it’ll be out in late Summer or something like that.

What kind of songs do you have planned for the new full-length? How would you describe them?

I think we’re going to make our next record more like our first record. Where it had fast songs and slow songs.  We’re going to have various pace changes throughout the whole record instead of just mid tempo pop-punk songs like “Good Views, Bad News.”

Growing up, what bands made you want to start a band of your own?

Two bands that made me want to be in a band are Nirvana and Green Day. It was really easy to learn how to play their songs on the guitar because they’re four chord songs. I learned that I could do that and write melodies like they did it was very inspiring.

So you think their influence reflects on your own band?

Definitely, especially Green Day. I think we sound more like Green Day musically but when we play live I like my guitar sound and grungy like Nirvana.

You recently got a new bass player. He was in your previous band Countdown to Life. What do you think he brings to the band. Does it bring a better chemistry and help ease the transition?

Definitely! We’ve toured together and are old friends. We’ve know each other since we were 17.  We needed a fill in bass player for our tour of Japan last summer. We kind of left it up to him and he said yes.

What does your new bass player bring to the band?

He’s an amazing bass player. He can do all of the great back up vocals that Matt could do.  He writes his own amazing basslines. He helps us write songs. Before it was just me and Josh writing all of the songs and we would just show Matt the part.

Do you miss playing heavier music like when you were in Countdown to Life?

I do miss playing heaver music but when we play live we try to make it sound as loud and heavy as we can. Pop-Punk is my favorite kind of music. Writing this kind of music is what I’m best at. I liked just being a guitar player in that band. Right now I’m the singer and a guitar player. Sometimes I think I’d want to be in a band again where I’m just a guitar player. It’s fun playing guitar and not have to worry about anything else. I don’t have to multi-task. (Laughs)

So you guys are here playing with The Menzingers. You’ll be playing The Fest with them and a slew of other bands. Are you excited to play The Fest?

Yeah, this will be our fourth year in a row.  We love it, it’s great. We booked our entire tour around The Fest as did most bands that play the Fest. We’ve been touring with The Arteries, The Menzingers and The Flatliners for the past couple of weeks now and we’ll all be playing there to together and then after we’ll be headed our separate ways. I like being able to see all of my favorite bands. Basically every friend we’ve ever met through playing music we get to see for that one weekend a year. It’s a really cool experience.  It’s like a big  high school reunion.

Here’s just a fun question to throw out there. If you we’re going to make a music mix for a friend what songs / bands would you put on it?

“Eulogy” by The Flatliners, “Sunday Morning” by The Menzingers. I’d definitely also have to put some old punk on there too like Smoking Popes, Alkaline Trio, Old Green Day, The Ramones.

What are some of your favorite newer albums to come out recently or just some music that people should check out?

Well their kind of an older band that got back together recently but I really like the new Superchunk record that came out last year. The Thermals from Portland, there are one of my favorite bands. And uhm… I got to hear the new Menzingers record a few days ago that they just finished recording. It is so good! Next year that will probably be my favorite.