January 3, 2026 • 41 mins
Brett Johnson sits down with Travis Omilian of Banquets (Jersey City, NJ) to talk about “Goodbye Before You Go” — a stirring track from the band’s first album in over a decade, Petty Relics.
What started in 2010 as a group of friends making melodic punk with a wink (a band named after a beer, a debut 7" titled This Is Our Concern, Dude) has grown into something far deeper. Across Top Button, Bottom Shelf and their self-titled follow-up, Banquets built a reputation for tight arrangements, anthemic energy, and lyrical introspection that lingered longer than the last chord.
Now, after ten years of silence, Petty Relics marks not just a return, but a reckoning. “Goodbye Before You Go” is a standout — a meditation on love, loss, and letting go that captures the band’s matured voice. Travis opens up about writing from a place of deep personal meaning, about what it takes to reconnect with your sound after a decade, and why this particular goodbye needed a melody.
With lines like “Say I am better to have known” and “We won’t catch lightning like you again,” the song delivers both a farewell and a benediction — a moment of gratitude wrapped in grit. There’s a quiet ache beneath the melodic lift, a layered balance of hope, hurt, and reflection that few bands in this genre ever touch.
Be sure to show your support on Bancamp Friday and connect with them on IG to stay connected.
Keep up with Banquets at:
https://banquetshq.com
https://www.instagram.com/banquetshq
https://banquets.bandcamp.com/
Thank you for your continued support!
Brett Johnson
Host, B-Side Breakdown
https://www.instagram.com/bsidebreakdown
https://linktr.ee/bsidebreakdown
https://www.patreon.com/c/bsidebreakdown
#GoodbyeBeforeYouGo #Banquets #TravisOmilian #bsidebreakdown #threecrowsclub #brettjamesjohnson #musicpodcast
What started in 2010 as a group of friends making melodic punk with a wink (a band named after a beer, a debut 7" titled This Is Our Concern, Dude) has grown into something far deeper. Across Top Button, Bottom Shelf and their self-titled follow-up, Banquets built a reputation for tight arrangements, anthemic energy, and lyrical introspection that lingered longer than the last chord.
Now, after ten years of silence, Petty Relics marks not just a return, but a reckoning. “Goodbye Before You Go” is a standout — a meditation on love, loss, and letting go that captures the band’s matured voice. Travis opens up about writing from a place of deep personal meaning, about what it takes to reconnect with your sound after a decade, and why this particular goodbye needed a melody.
With lines like “Say I am better to have known” and “We won’t catch lightning like you again,” the song delivers both a farewell and a benediction — a moment of gratitude wrapped in grit. There’s a quiet ache beneath the melodic lift, a layered balance of hope, hurt, and reflection that few bands in this genre ever touch.
Be sure to show your support on Bancamp Friday and connect with them on IG to stay connected.
Keep up with Banquets at:
https://banquetshq.com
https://www.instagram.com/banquetshq
https://banquets.bandcamp.com/
Thank you for your continued support!
Brett Johnson
Host, B-Side Breakdown
https://www.instagram.com/bsidebreakdown
https://linktr.ee/bsidebreakdown
https://www.patreon.com/c/bsidebreakdown
#GoodbyeBeforeYouGo #Banquets #TravisOmilian #bsidebreakdown #threecrowsclub #brettjamesjohnson #musicpodcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Free TROS B Side Breakdown.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey everyone, welcome to the B Side Breakdown. My name
is Brett Johnson and I am your host. This is
episode forty three of a podcast where I talk with
other artists, musicians and songwriters about a song they've written
that is meaningful to them and that they want to
chat with me about and get deep into the why
behind it. But first I need to get permission from
them to play the song and its entirety on this episode,
so you the listener have some idea of what.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
We're talking about today.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm going to be talking with Travis Amillion from the
band Banquets about the song Goodbye Before You Go, So
let's get into it. Here is Goodbye Before you Go
by Banquets.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Before You Trow not to side again. I'm not squin
but tack. The song will never turn to hell. I'm
never word testing, but I needn't going there a home,
couldn't leave a petition the SA citizens, people.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
That have figures.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I'm all already like kill Jams, Strong City, Last Strong
(02:28):
in the Lord. That's a faction, Make the Little, make
the glass green, w green, showy, lashing way with lash,
(02:52):
waxy like you.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Yes, this a strong stop going on. He's fixing the
(03:33):
Mecca fire or somewhere.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Out there and all the dark I n whenever I
got there, he'd be there.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
All right, And that was Goodbye before you Go, by Banquets.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We're gonna take a quick break and come back, or
we're gonna talk with Travis a Million from the band
about the song and everything that Banquets is working on.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So stay with us.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Hey everyone, it's bred again with the B Side Breakdown.
I just want to say, if you want to hear
these episodes without any ads, please go to patreon dot
com slash B Side Breakdown and become a subscriber to
our down for the Cause tier. It's five bucks a month.
You get all of the episodes ad free in advance,
and it's just a great way to show your support
for this labor of love. Anyway, please head over to
patreon dot com slash B Side Breakdown. Thanks, we'll be
(04:22):
right back.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
All right, and we are back.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Let's bring in Travis from the band Banquets to talk
about the song Goodbye before you Go. Hey, Travis, thank
you so much for taking some time today to talk
with me about the song.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Oh, thank you so much. For having me Brad. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
So I was looking up I always do some you know,
cursory digging to see what I can find out about
some of the bands, and it's specifically new songs like this.
I saw that this record just released this So this
just came out October seventeenth, is this and this is
a full record, not just a single, right.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Yes, this is a full record. It's our first record
in ten years. We took we took a big hiatus
for a while to uh, you know, sober up and
uh you know kind of live our life a little
bit away from you know, selling a van. It's just
like you know, doing the thing. So it was, you know,
(05:19):
first record in ten years. Felt good coming back, very exciting.
But we can get into it.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, no, that's great.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So tell me about why particularly did you want to
talk about Goodbye before you go?
Speaker 5 (05:31):
You know, this is a cool song because or you know,
in my opinion, it's a cool song. I'd give it.
I'd give it a six out of five. So the
song itself is pretty neat because I tried some different
things with it when I was putting it together. When
I was writing it, lyrically, it's really a stream of consciousness.
(05:54):
You know, the basic meaning behind it is it's about
my dog in my perspective. However, you know, the way
I usually approach topics or approach lyrics in general, is
I try to make them a little more abstract. This way,
everybody can kind of have their own perspective on it,
(06:15):
make their own meaning to it. You know, I always
love bands like at the Drive In. You know that
just you know, very stream of conscience. Brendan from Lawrence Arms.
You know, he does this a lot with his lyrics
as well. You know, it makes it easier for an
audience to kind of pick up and make their own
meaning to it, or you know, have something more meaningful
(06:36):
come to them out of it. Like I said, it's
about my dog. And you know, of course it is
tough to let pets go, like in some cases, you know,
it's harder to let a pet go than a human
just because they are so you know, innocent they are.
You know, they've become a part of our life, and
(06:57):
it's it's my appreciation for for my dog. I you know,
when my wife approached me with like getting a dog,
I was very much it's like no, that's going to
change my way of life. I can't stay home all
the time. I can't do this, I can't do this.
And you know, of course, within a week I was
just like, yeah, this is the life.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Right right?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
But no, yeah, no, And that's thank you for sharing
that because right to your point, I mean, I drew
my own conclusions about it, and I was relating it
to something different. But no, I wouldn't have gleaned from
the lyrics that you were talking about a pet or
a dog. I mean to minimize it or trivialize it
(07:37):
by saying just a pet. I mean, I understand it's yeah,
when I look at that context, I mean when I
had to put my dog down a few years ago,
I'm just like, oh man, you know, it's like the
last day that you ever can deal with. But you know,
and in thinking that and reading it from that lens,
it's it's also nice to see the lyrics from that perspective.
(07:57):
And to all the listeners who don't know, if you
go to Banquet's band camp page where they have Goodbye
before you go, and if you buy the record on
band camp Friday where they get all the money, you
can also see the lyrics to the song as well,
so it's helpful to kind of follow along with it.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
But absolutely, yeah, that's you know, it's tough because you know,
I try to enounciate it as much as I can,
but it's tough, you know, and punk, you like kind
of you can't tell what everybody's always saying. Well, for sure,
try to be clear, but I say some weird words.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Love it, you know, and it's great, and I love
the innocence and a sense that's pretty great.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Yeah, I've always been my favorites. I try to I
try to kind of like I'm a word whittler, if
I really try to be like, you know, to think
about it. And with this record in particularly, I spend
a lot of time at the kitchen counter just with
an acoustic guitar, just figuring out melodies and you know,
(08:57):
some of that word play, which you know, I always like,
I always appreciated, you know, when you can read the
lyrics and be like, oh wow, this is like a
totally different song than what I thought it was, Like
you can get more meaning out of it. But I
also saw I was thinking about it on the way
home today because I'm thinking about this song and everything,
(09:18):
and I was like, oh shit. I remember when I
watched that episode of Kirby Enthusiasm and they had the
living Wake. I don't know if you're if you watch,
but you know, essentially, a guy has a wake for
himself while he's still alive, and he's hiding behind one
of those like see through glass mirrors and he's watching
all these people pay homage. Am I still alive? And
(09:40):
I remember seeing that it saying to my wife like, oh,
that seems cool to see everybody like kind of missing
me even though I'm still here. It's like, what a
pretentious move? I love it?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, for sure, for sure. So speaking
of the instrumentation of it. So tell me a little
bit more about Banquets. You said that you took a
ten year hiatus. It looks like you're all from Jersey City,
New Jersey, or the band is based there. Has that
always been true or have you moved to Rominal.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Essentially we were when we first started. We you know,
three fourths of us lived in Jersey City at the
time when we started. Since twenty ten, we've all like
kind of moved elsewhere. I currently live in Highland Park,
New Jersey, which is like right over the bridge from
New Brunswick.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Brian, our drummer, lives in Verona, New Jersey, which is
up north by Montclair and Bloomfield. And then Chris oar
Bassis lives out by Dallas, Texas. Ok yep and Dave
friends and our lead guitarist was living in Buffalo until
a month ago. He moved to Florida earlier this month.
(10:47):
And you know, as of right now, we're just kind
of we just kind of get together and you know,
the goal is to play some quarterly quarterly shows, do
some weekends here and there, and then you know what,
whatever we can do, we're.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Going to do.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
It was definitely a little bit of a challenge putting
the whole record together because, like I said, we all
lived very far apart. But I feel like that helped
us because it kind of gave all the songs a
chance to breathe, and you know, gave everybody time. I
don't know, do you play music.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Bratt, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I've been in a bunch of bands and done a
bunch of touring and all of that, as well as
virtual recordings. Because of COVID, everybody scattered all over the country.
I'm a chronic nomadic mover, so I keep moving from
state to state. It seems I've lived in a bunch
of different places over the past decade, and so keeping.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Up with my friends in are stationary.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
It's like, Hey, I'm really glad that we have you know,
Google Drive and things like that to share large files
and we can just drop them in our DAWs and
keep recording, you know, but I get it.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, that's kind of how we did it. We
just you know, worked off a Google Drive. But I
remember so many times just trying to write songs a
room and like, you know, everybody, but wait, stop, hold on,
I got to figure this part out. And it's just
like it kind of made it so everybody can kind
of have a chance to really figure out what they
wanted to put on it, and then to hear like, oh,
(12:12):
what's going on with the lyrics? Okay, maybe we need
to fix this up, or maybe we need to shorten
this or lengthen this. So it really gave us a
chance to really figure it out on our own. And
then when we went into a record with Andy Clark,
we kind of got another perspective in there to be
like oh, this part's kind of this part kind of sucks,
(12:33):
like maybe take this out or make this part longer,
you know. So I always love that about the recording process.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I do, and that's as well, and that's a kind
of that's really a good I think Nuance you called
out there, because I was just thinking about, right, you know,
grinding it out in a practice space where we're trying
to write something, and you know, it's I don't know
if you're a fan of the Beatles, but they had
like a that they recently released, like this all this
(13:00):
old footage that was canned in a basement for fifty
years and it just came out and the majority of
it is like Ringo just noodling on the drums, waiting
for Paul Yep and John to figure it out, you know,
or whatever. And to me, it's like that's so much
of how I felt BAM practice would go. Sometimes when
you're trying to write, it's like either everybody's forcefully trying
to get their ideas all out at the same time,
(13:22):
and then everybody's trying to hurry up and get their
parts together so that you have some sort of semblance
to keep moving forward. But then you know to your point, right,
Like during COVID and just through the gift of being
able to record remotely with others, I've been able to
write do the exact same thing.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
It's like, you know, I can just kind of loop
this and play this for four hours if i'd like to,
and it's not gonna you know. Yeah's wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Completely. I'll take it back to the to the Bruce
Springsteen they did the I guess it was twenty ten
probably or twenty eleven, they did the Promise, you know,
the documentary of the you know, making of the ver
and it just they just sat there and Bruce had
Max whaling on the drum like for hours at it end,
like being like, that's not the sound. That's not the sound.
(14:10):
Just like, what the fuck do you want?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Right right? Oh, that's cool that you got it together, though,
So how did that?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So is the songwriting genesis kind of more so on
you with the guitar and lyrics and vocals to start
and then everybody kind of shapes it around it, or
how do you how did you approach that on this one?
Speaker 5 (14:31):
So with this one, it was, uh, you know, it
didn't start that way, you know, with every other record,
we always kind of got into a room and somebody
had like a little bit of an idea and we
kind of jammed it out. With this one, I kind
of I would kind of send some rough rifts around
(14:51):
things like that, and then I would go to Brian's
because he's you know, he's only about an hour hour
and fifteen minutes away from me, and we would jam
out for Saturday on like three or four songs and
do like a rough recording of things. We'd make like
a loose structure, and then I would send it, you know,
send it out to Dave and Chris and they would
kind of put their parts on top of it, and
(15:14):
then I would come back and I would you know,
drop some vocals on it, things that I'm thinking of,
and then we would get together over a weekend and
work on like six of the songs or maybe just three,
depending on how many we had together. So it was
it was really you know, a step at a time process,
and it was cool to actually get into a room
and be like this isn't working at all, or yeah,
(15:37):
this is awesome. Maybe we've got to try and do this.
Because I think for the record overall, I probably had
about maybe it was sixteen different song ideas, and you know,
some of them I kind of worked out on acoustic
guitar and vocals like from beginning to end, like and
put together a loose structure before I even went to Brian.
(15:58):
This was one of those that I kind of had
to pieces and Brian and I kind of pieced together
the structure and then we sent it off to Dave
and Chris and I actually you know, wrote the wrote
the lyrics, you know, as I was you know, demoing
some vocals on it, just because I really wanted that
like stream of consciousness, uh, you know, just feel it
out what sounded good, what what felt good to my
(16:20):
ears when we were doing it. And then over time,
you know, you change a word here and there, you
change the kind of vibe of it, or you know,
the way the backups kind of felt. So it was
really a step by step process.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
It was cool, got it, got it, and then ultimately.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So okay for the recording. Then ultimately, like the final
recording process, did everybody come together to go into the
studio or was it again like hey, I'll send you
my bass tracks and just drop them into the mix
with whoever's mixing it no, so.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
We we did, like, we did some pretty good demos
on our own, and then you know, when it was
time to go and record with Andy in Philadelphia, we
kind of got an Aaron BnB and we went and
you know, stayed right down the road from the studio
for about I think it was either six or seven
days and just kind of you know, did the thing.
(17:15):
This was a really cool experience because Andy had us
all play live at the same time when we were
doing drums, which is different than traditional. You know, usually
Brian would just you know, have the click track going
and I would either be playing a scratch track with him,
but on this record, we played all four of us
played everything live, and then we went back and re
(17:39):
dubbed you know, the bass, the two guitars, and you know,
put the vocals in. But it was cool because we
really got to to get our parts down, which we
you know, for the most part, had after like spending
so much time with them. But it was it was
a cool process. It really felt like being a band,
you know, which is what it.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Should absolutely And what's the name of the studio you
recorded at?
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Recorded retro studio retro sorry, retro city studios with Andy Clark.
And we've known Andy for I mean, I met him
in two thousand and seven. He's from Hamilton, New Jersey,
and I played with his old band, The Ruining, and
then I'm sorry, not The Ruining. Oh wait, yes it
(18:25):
was The Ruining. My apologies. His first band was The
Ruining that we played with like years ago, and then
he was in a band called Luther that we played
a lot with. And you know, I've known Andy for
a long time and we trusted his guidance. He's he's
done some great stuff. He's put out some like awesome records,
(18:45):
put some good work in. So it was fun.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
No, that is cool. That's good. So I'll make sure
to mention Andy and his studio as well in.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Any social posts and things like that, just to kind
of thank you. Shared around so I see again that
this came out. So okay, So this is part of
the record. Pretty sorry. Petty Relics released October seventeenth, Independent
really released. Did you do you have a label putting
this out?
Speaker 5 (19:15):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
How are you approaching that?
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Yes, this is being put out by Black Numbers, which
is our guitarist Dave's label. We've done everything that Banquets
has done for the most part, has been put out
on black numbers. We did a vinyl release that's been
held up in Canada for the last week, so it
should be here any day, you know, customs.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And all that.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
So the records are getting here in a couple of days.
And then I have to send out several several hundred
records over the weekend. So that should be fun. But
you know, people have been very patient with us, so
we appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Definitely. Definitely, No, that's great. And then is there again?
I'm just kind of thumbing through your paint band camp spot.
Where is the best place for people to find.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Your website is where all your merch is? All? Right? Cool?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I was just wondering, like, is that where is that
kind of if anyone's trying to find Banquets and where
to get a hold of you and where to get
your music and where to stay up to date, is
the best place to go to the Banquet's HQ website
or is it?
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Yeah? The website is is pretty much you know, we
try to put everything on there. It serves us the store.
I believe it links right to band camp and you know,
you could listen to everything on band camp. You could
listen to everything on all the you know, all the
streaming services we do. We do most of our social
media is our Instagram, just because that is you know,
(20:42):
social media is a tiring thing nowadays, but it's a necessity. Yes,
you know, first and foremost it's Instagram, and then I
think that gets filtered to the Facebook, and then you know,
I'm going to call it Twitter because it's really Twitter,
and I will not honor uh the arriable name like
x but exactly, you know, and then it's filters to there.
(21:06):
You know. I think there's also Blue Scott. I don't
know if we have the sure sky. I'm not in
charge of that, but fair enough, for the most part,
Bank with HQ dot Com is the easiest way to
find everything.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Okay, great, And then I see that you have a
show coming up at gold Sounds in Brooklyn, New York
on December twelfth.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Yes, so we're doing a little weekend. We're doing Brooklyn
on December twelfth with Tired Radio and Heavy Lag and
Original Sharks, and then the next night we're playing a
part time pr fest down in Philadelphia at Orleeds Cool
(21:46):
And that should be a good one too, with bands
like the Carolyn who else is playing that one? Geez
oh Brackish is playing choke Up. So it should be
a really fun show.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And so then you were saying, as everybody's kind of
scattered about outside of that, it sounds like that's kind.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Of release show.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Is that sort of the celebratory release show kind of
weekend thing?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Or is different?
Speaker 5 (22:13):
It's kind of Yeah. So Kevin, who does our pr
is putting on the part time pr Fest and he
asked us to play that before. I guess it was
even before we announced our reunion show back in August,
and you know, we said, yeah, you know, the goal
is to kind of like, all right, if we're going
to do the one show, we might as well do
another show. We haven't played Brooklyn since twenty sixteen, so
(22:36):
that should be fun. I don't want to call it
a record release like weekend or anything like that. We're
just kind of getting getting together and you know, doing
these shows. They should be fun. I don't think we
were going to plan to do any kind of celebratory
record relief thing. I think we were just going to
get together and play play some shows in I believe
(22:59):
in the spring we have some other stuff lined up.
I think we'll be doing a Jersey show possibly again,
and then maybe Massachusetts. So it all depends on, you know,
just the logistics of everything. Right now, we're looking at
an early spring for our next shows. We're taking it
all in stride. We're old men, so I don't want
(23:21):
to break a don't want to break a hip hip
out there.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
No, I certainly get all that, got it. No, that
makes sense. So yeah, because my next questions are, so.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Is there any plan of a week or two kind
of a run any direction from any point in the
United States.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
But it doesn't sound like.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
It sounds like the quarterly thing, you know. I think
we are doing things like that, you know, in the
as we get further out. So I'm a teacher, so
it's kind of tough to take time off during the year.
It always was, so we were always you know, doing
weekend warrior stuff here and there. We do like a
three week thing, or we do like a one week
(24:01):
you know thing out to the Midwest. So it all depends.
It depends on everybody's schedule and what's going on. But
we're planning some things for the summer planning on doing
some different festivals here and there, so it all depends
how things line up and everybody's availability, and you know,
just overall what's going on in our lives, because you know,
(24:21):
this is for fun and we'll see what we can do.
And you know, it is with all hope that people
care that we're doing this, and from the response that
we've got it, it's like it's been very rewarding that
people do care and it makes us, you know, I'm
humbled to say the least, that you know, anybody's listened
(24:43):
to this record at all, and that I'm doing this
podcast with you now, I mean, this is this is
very cool. We you know, we're never a big thing.
We always did this for fun. And to hear that
people are, you know, listening and it means something to them,
it really makes it all worth it that uh, this
was you know, because honestly, when you write music, you
(25:06):
should be writing it for yourself first. I mean, you know,
this is a thing that's like it's a gift to
be able to do this.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. For me,
it's it's a very yeah. I mean obviously the obviously
I'm expressing myself through it. So there's this Catharsis that
happens for me in this expulsion of whatever it is
that I got to get out while.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I'm doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
But at the same time, yeah, I mean, I want
to write songs that I want to hear too, you know. Yeah,
I want to write what I want to play that's fun,
that feels good, that energizes me or moves me in
the direction that I'm feeling that I want to go
in on this one.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
You know exactly. And when you can meet some people
that like kind of come together and they make it
just you know, even more than just the sum of
its parts, it's like that that's something amazing. I mean,
you know, if you can enjoy what somebody else is doing,
like you know, complimenting what you do with that's like
that's something special.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
I agree. I agree.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
It feels like lightning in a bottle when it happens.
And it's just so I find that to be such
a rare dynamic to come across like that. If once
you find it and you got it, like, good for you, yeah,
and so grateful that you do, because I've had it
and I've had it slip away and it's really then
it takes decades and you may not ever find it
(26:25):
again or you do it in a different way.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
But no, that's that's all. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I love hearing all that. So what I'd like to do, though,
is is kind of go back a bit to where
like when did Banquets officially form? And is the lineup
stayed the same.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
So the band actually formed in I want to say
it was late two thousand and nine.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I had been playing in a band called Let Me
Run for a few years that I'd started, and then
I kind of left, like mid tour and came home
and was just like, you know, I'm kind of like
done with music for a little bit. I want to
focus on teaching and stuff like that, because you know,
I went for it. I left my teaching gig and everything,
(27:11):
and just it was kind of like this is tough.
Like I had a routine, like I'm a creature of habit.
So I came, you know, came home and you know, Dave.
Dave sent me some of the songs that he and
Chris and our old drummer Pete had been working on.
We were like, hey, you want to jam on this?
And you know, got together with them and we had
(27:31):
a good time and we did the first we did
a seven inch and then the first record, and then
after that, Pete was kind of like, you know, this
is this is taking on, you know, more time than
I can really allow with my career and stuff. So
he was like, I'm going to step aside. And then
our friend Brian joined. And Brian's been in so many bands,
(27:53):
you know, from the New Brunswick area and out smarting
Simon and Mother Night, and he said, yeah, I'm jam
with you guys, and you know, from that point it
was just like we just had a great time together
at just the way things you know, kind of meshed
together were great. We did I want to say three, Yeah,
(28:15):
we did three records now with Brian, including the new one.
So Brian joined in twenty twelve.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
I think it was okay, got it.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
And then so what happened after Spit at the Sun
where things needed.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
To go and pause?
Speaker 5 (28:34):
Yeah, so before we even started working on Spit at
the Sun, we had I think it was two songs
that we had already like written and everything just on
the side, and you know, I was like, let's take
you know, let's take these two songs and just do
a seven inch because at the time, Dave had been
(28:56):
talking about moving to Nashville, and Chris was definitely talking
about moving out of New York City to you know,
god knows where. I think he was thinking of moving
to Texas then, and just we had all been in
you know, I had gotten married a few years before,
and I know Chris had just gotten married, and Dave
started a relationship where that was leading the marriage. Brian
(29:18):
was doing that, and it was just it was getting
too tough to do the weekend grind because we were
we were playing, you know, nearly every weekend, going on
on Friday night and getting back late Sunday night. It
was just it was taking a lot. So we said,
you know what this is, this is just taking on
too much. Let's just hit a pause. And at the time,
we didn't think we were going to get back together,
(29:38):
and we said like, yep, this will be our final show,
and let's just get these songs done. And you know,
I was like, oh, maybe we'll do a seven inch
with these two songs. And it was like, let's just
do a whole record. We got these two songs, we
did knock out a record and you know, so we
recorded that and then we played our final show and
I think it was February twenty sixteen, so and you know,
(30:03):
that felt good. I got to sell the band finally,
and I didn't have that parked in front of the house. Nice.
The neighbors were stoked. Brian's neighbors were excited because we
weren't just whittling around and playing music all day.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Sure, no, that's cool. And then it's cool that y'all
kind of figured out coming back together. So if you
said it, I think I missed it.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
So what was the how did this then reconnect?
Speaker 5 (30:37):
So?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I mean, I know after the Hydatus win, did it
you just and I don't know if you already said this,
and if you did, I apologize, But I thought it
was something about you an acoustic get a table, writing
songs and writing the lyrics and kind of making that
all happen, but then just sending it.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Oh, I think that's what you said. Then you were
sending anything.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
Yeah, right, Initially we were we were going to do
the best in twenty twenty. And I think what happened
was we were at Brian's wedding and I made a
joke about playing like a Romon's cover set or something.
I was like, wouldn't it be funny if we played
beat on the Brat, like and we made him dance
with his wife too. And then from there it was like,
(31:16):
you know, just joking back and forth, like oh, maybe
we should do a show at Fest or whatever. So like,
you know, we booked a show for the Fest, and
we got together and practiced, and then two weeks later,
the whole thing with COVID and the shutdown and all
that stuff happened. So we're like, okay, you know, let's
see what happens. And of course Fest was canceled in
(31:36):
twenty twenty and then in twenty twenty one, we were
still scheduled to play, and it got to be like
September and in New Jersey we were just getting back
into the classroom, but it was like everybody's masked up.
We've got plastic partitions on like this the desk that
would not go over any time I walked by them, Like,
(31:58):
you know, it was just like the most uh, you know,
the craziest type of circumstances. And I'm like, I can't
in good conscious go over a weekend and play a
big festival down in Florida and come back and teach
like these second graders, Like you know what I mean.
I was just like the anxiety was like ramped through
(32:19):
the roof. Between that and then, I know, I know
that Brian was dealing with stuff too at the time,
and we're just like, let's let's put a pause on it.
And you know, there were it was just one of
those situations where it's like I don't want to drag
anybody along, like let's just put it, put a pin
in it for the moment. And you know, we were
supposed to practice that weekend anyway before fest, so we
(32:42):
still got together and we're like, fuck it, let's just
let's just jam. Let's just play whatever songs. And then
I think at that at that practice at uh Hellhound
Studios and Roadway, I was just like, oh, here's a
here's a little thing I was working on, and we
like started writing you know, the first songs and it
(33:02):
was cool and we were just like, hey, let's just
write some songs for a while. And you know, between
that time and to today, it was just like you know,
a lot of like almost almost starts and then definite
stops and almost starts and definite. You know, we all
have responsibility, so things popped up and got in the way,
(33:26):
and then it was just like, okay, this is happening
all right, you know. So to be here today to
be like, oh man, we played a show. It was awesome.
We did this record, like this is cool. So you know, small.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Steps definitely got it, got it. No, it's really cool.
It's really interesting to hear.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
And I totally you know, I mean so much of
kind of what you described dynamically with the band and
and how you guys have kept it together and or
come back together. I mean I've had a lot of
experiences with that myself, with just kind of reforming with
old friends and and let's start writing again, you know.
And I kind of keep seeing some of that, you know,
pop around the you know, the socials of other bands
(34:08):
that were favorites.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Of mine back in the nineties that are kind of
coming back together. I'm like, wow, I didn't expect this
thirty years later, you know, but it's cool to see,
you know, how all that's happening. So No, that's awesome, man.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
So I guess is there anything else specifically you want
to talk about?
Speaker 3 (34:25):
The song? Goodbye Before You Go, that we haven't chatted
about yet.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
I'm not sure that there is. I mean, you know,
I just hope that people can find, you know, their
own meaning in it, if you want to look deeper
into it and read the word there. You know, every
word that's in there has some sort of meaning to me.
But hopefully people can just you know, find their own meaning.
Hopefully they check it out and find out that it is,
like I said, a six out of five star song,
(34:53):
six out of five star record. You know, No, that's great,
felt good to make.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
So cool. Well, then let's do this.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Let's take a quick break, and then let's come back
and find out what else you're working on, what else
the other guys in the band are working on, and
anything else we want to talk about from there.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Sound good?
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Yeah, sounds great?
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Cool? All right, everybody hanging tight. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
We are back with Travis from Banquets. We were chatting
about the song Goodbye Before You Go and all things
about the record in the band and what they're doing
and this and that. But so I just want to
make sure we pull it all back together so it
makes sense to the listener what we're talking about where
it's available and how people.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Can find you. So again, goodbye before you go. What's
the name of the record that it's on petty Relics?
All right, and this just came out, right, Yes.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
This came out October eighteenth, eighteenth, I think October seventeenth,
the Friday, whatever that Friday was. It's out. It's available everywhere.
I preferably listened to Apple iTunes because that's my subscription.
Unfortunately we have to pay some sort of overlord. But
it is available on band camp as well, on title
(36:14):
on Spotify as well. I'm trying to think where else. Oh,
they Orchard Music did put it up on YouTube, which
is a great a great place to listen. It's kind
of like the Yule Tide log with the you get
to just see the album cover. It doesn't move or anything,
but great visual.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
So is there is I see full digital album? Is
there any plans of releasing a physical version?
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Yes, so we did a pre order and the record
should be here on Thursday. Yeah. They depend the Late
at the border for since October like fourteenth. They've just
been sitting and I'm looking at the FedEx like things saying,
oh it's the Late A custom like, God damn it,
but it'll be here. It'll be here in like a
(37:01):
couple of days, and then you know, I got to
box them up, send them out. You know, we've been
very fortunate. Many people have purchased already, and I think
there's literally probably like ten records left for us to
sell at shows, you know, aside from our four copies
and you know, whatever else we have left. So if you,
you know, if you're interested in purchasing, go to banquets
(37:25):
hq dot com and I think there's a few that
are still left there. You can. It still says pre order,
because I don't have the records at my house yet
to send out that they will be here soon.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
So got it? Got it? No, that's perfect.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
And then again you said, so it's on all streaming services.
People can get buy the digital album from bandcamp, but
the physical record through banquetshq dot com and Instagram is
the best place to keep up and kind of keep
tracking all.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (37:57):
Yes, there's always reels and all the other stuff that
we do on Instagram. I refuse to do the thing
where you talking to the you know, talk to your
listeners like a live interview on you know, like, hey,
we've got a show coming up this Friday. We hope
to see you. I mean, I'm saying that now. However,
I know I will do it soon and I'll crack
(38:18):
open like a fortune cookie and I'll have the name
of all the band and I'll show it. But I
don't know yet.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
That's funny.
Speaker 5 (38:23):
I might do an unboxing video where I open up
the records and you know, act like I cut my
hand horribly like something. You know, I'll try and be
creative with yes, exactly. We have to make it funny
but traumatic as well.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
You know that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
So yeah, everybody follow Banquets at Banquets HQ on Instagram
as where you can see that and get all the
updates from them. But Travis Man, thank you so much
for taking some time again to talk to me about this.
Has been super fun chatting with you, learning about the band,
the record, and I'm excited for your couple of shows
you got coming up and getting the physical copies of
your record is super great. And next time, you know,
(39:01):
when you guys have something new that you're recording or
you want to come on and talk about again, hit
me up man, because I'd love to have you back.
Speaker 5 (39:08):
Absolutely, Brett. It's been so great talking to you and
thank you for sharing part of your story with me.
I appreciate it. Where do you live right now, Brett?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I live actually just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, in a
small town called the Qula that's on the way towards
South Carolina.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
Oh wonderful. Okay, maybe we're going to try and get
down there, so I will, you know, keep in touch
with you.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Yeah, please do.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
We'll see that. Awesome, excellent. Thank you so much, Brett.
Appreciate you, you bet.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Thanks Travis pre Trows.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Breakdown.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
All right, and that wraps up another episode of the
B Side Breakdown. I want to thank Travis Amilian from
the band Banquets for coming on to talk about the
song Goodbye before you go. In the background, you're listening
to a song called Unrest by the band kind Skies.
If you like what you hear, please go back and
listen to the previous episode because that's what it was
all about. Up next, we have the band Too Late
(40:29):
but Still with their song Feedback City, which I'll give
you a taste of at the end of this episode.
I want to thank Adam Coolong and carry Bosel for
helping me put together the jingle you hear at the
beginning and the end of this episode. Please subscribe to
this podcast wherever you get your podcast. Can't thank you
enough for your ongoing support. Stay safe out there and
we'll catch up on the next one.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Thanks Damn park On.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
And gives it a one to win.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
A scar that.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Scars or knuckles, sweater found off on the fixt Street
and a dozen his so rose are he stood to
me by my
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Mom, someding a lost first, dripping balls in the desert,
going to jail twice, worrying the same blast shirt.
Free TROS B Side Breakdown.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey everyone, welcome to the B Side Breakdown. My name
is Brett Johnson and I am your host. This is
episode forty three of a podcast where I talk with
other artists, musicians and songwriters about a song they've written
that is meaningful to them and that they want to
chat with me about and get deep into the why
behind it. But first I need to get permission from
them to play the song and its entirety on this episode,
so you the listener have some idea of what.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
We're talking about today.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm going to be talking with Travis Amillion from the
band Banquets about the song Goodbye Before You Go, So
let's get into it. Here is Goodbye Before you Go
by Banquets.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Before You Trow not to side again. I'm not squin
but tack. The song will never turn to hell. I'm
never word testing, but I needn't going there a home,
couldn't leave a petition the SA citizens, people.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
That have figures.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I'm all already like kill Jams, Strong City, Last Strong
(02:28):
in the Lord. That's a faction, Make the Little, make
the glass green, w green, showy, lashing way with lash,
(02:52):
waxy like you.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Yes, this a strong stop going on. He's fixing the
(03:33):
Mecca fire or somewhere.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Out there and all the dark I n whenever I
got there, he'd be there.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
All right, And that was Goodbye before you Go, by Banquets.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We're gonna take a quick break and come back, or
we're gonna talk with Travis a Million from the band
about the song and everything that Banquets is working on.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So stay with us.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Hey everyone, it's bred again with the B Side Breakdown.
I just want to say, if you want to hear
these episodes without any ads, please go to patreon dot
com slash B Side Breakdown and become a subscriber to
our down for the Cause tier. It's five bucks a month.
You get all of the episodes ad free in advance,
and it's just a great way to show your support
for this labor of love. Anyway, please head over to
patreon dot com slash B Side Breakdown. Thanks, we'll be
(04:22):
right back.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
All right, and we are back.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Let's bring in Travis from the band Banquets to talk
about the song Goodbye before you Go. Hey, Travis, thank
you so much for taking some time today to talk
with me about the song.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Oh, thank you so much. For having me Brad. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
So I was looking up I always do some you know,
cursory digging to see what I can find out about
some of the bands, and it's specifically new songs like this.
I saw that this record just released this So this
just came out October seventeenth, is this and this is
a full record, not just a single, right.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Yes, this is a full record. It's our first record
in ten years. We took we took a big hiatus
for a while to uh, you know, sober up and
uh you know kind of live our life a little
bit away from you know, selling a van. It's just
like you know, doing the thing. So it was, you know,
(05:19):
first record in ten years. Felt good coming back, very exciting.
But we can get into it.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, no, that's great.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So tell me about why particularly did you want to
talk about Goodbye before you go?
Speaker 5 (05:31):
You know, this is a cool song because or you know,
in my opinion, it's a cool song. I'd give it.
I'd give it a six out of five. So the
song itself is pretty neat because I tried some different
things with it when I was putting it together. When
I was writing it, lyrically, it's really a stream of consciousness.
(05:54):
You know, the basic meaning behind it is it's about
my dog in my perspective. However, you know, the way
I usually approach topics or approach lyrics in general, is
I try to make them a little more abstract. This way,
everybody can kind of have their own perspective on it,
(06:15):
make their own meaning to it. You know, I always
love bands like at the Drive In. You know that
just you know, very stream of conscience. Brendan from Lawrence Arms.
You know, he does this a lot with his lyrics
as well. You know, it makes it easier for an
audience to kind of pick up and make their own
meaning to it, or you know, have something more meaningful
(06:36):
come to them out of it. Like I said, it's
about my dog. And you know, of course it is
tough to let pets go, like in some cases, you know,
it's harder to let a pet go than a human
just because they are so you know, innocent they are.
You know, they've become a part of our life, and
(06:57):
it's it's my appreciation for for my dog. I you know,
when my wife approached me with like getting a dog,
I was very much it's like no, that's going to
change my way of life. I can't stay home all
the time. I can't do this, I can't do this.
And you know, of course, within a week I was
just like, yeah, this is the life.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Right right?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
But no, yeah, no, And that's thank you for sharing
that because right to your point, I mean, I drew
my own conclusions about it, and I was relating it
to something different. But no, I wouldn't have gleaned from
the lyrics that you were talking about a pet or
a dog. I mean to minimize it or trivialize it
(07:37):
by saying just a pet. I mean, I understand it's yeah,
when I look at that context, I mean when I
had to put my dog down a few years ago,
I'm just like, oh man, you know, it's like the
last day that you ever can deal with. But you know,
and in thinking that and reading it from that lens,
it's it's also nice to see the lyrics from that perspective.
(07:57):
And to all the listeners who don't know, if you
go to Banquet's band camp page where they have Goodbye
before you go, and if you buy the record on
band camp Friday where they get all the money, you
can also see the lyrics to the song as well,
so it's helpful to kind of follow along with it.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
But absolutely, yeah, that's you know, it's tough because you know,
I try to enounciate it as much as I can,
but it's tough, you know, and punk, you like kind
of you can't tell what everybody's always saying. Well, for sure,
try to be clear, but I say some weird words.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Love it, you know, and it's great, and I love
the innocence and a sense that's pretty great.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Yeah, I've always been my favorites. I try to I
try to kind of like I'm a word whittler, if
I really try to be like, you know, to think
about it. And with this record in particularly, I spend
a lot of time at the kitchen counter just with
an acoustic guitar, just figuring out melodies and you know,
(08:57):
some of that word play, which you know, I always like,
I always appreciated, you know, when you can read the
lyrics and be like, oh wow, this is like a
totally different song than what I thought it was, Like
you can get more meaning out of it. But I
also saw I was thinking about it on the way
home today because I'm thinking about this song and everything,
(09:18):
and I was like, oh shit. I remember when I
watched that episode of Kirby Enthusiasm and they had the
living Wake. I don't know if you're if you watch,
but you know, essentially, a guy has a wake for
himself while he's still alive, and he's hiding behind one
of those like see through glass mirrors and he's watching
all these people pay homage. Am I still alive? And
(09:40):
I remember seeing that it saying to my wife like, oh,
that seems cool to see everybody like kind of missing
me even though I'm still here. It's like, what a
pretentious move? I love it?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, for sure, for sure. So speaking
of the instrumentation of it. So tell me a little
bit more about Banquets. You said that you took a
ten year hiatus. It looks like you're all from Jersey City,
New Jersey, or the band is based there. Has that
always been true or have you moved to Rominal.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Essentially we were when we first started. We you know,
three fourths of us lived in Jersey City at the
time when we started. Since twenty ten, we've all like
kind of moved elsewhere. I currently live in Highland Park,
New Jersey, which is like right over the bridge from
New Brunswick.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Brian, our drummer, lives in Verona, New Jersey, which is
up north by Montclair and Bloomfield. And then Chris oar
Bassis lives out by Dallas, Texas. Ok yep and Dave
friends and our lead guitarist was living in Buffalo until
a month ago. He moved to Florida earlier this month.
(10:47):
And you know, as of right now, we're just kind
of we just kind of get together and you know,
the goal is to play some quarterly quarterly shows, do
some weekends here and there, and then you know what,
whatever we can do, we're.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Going to do.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
It was definitely a little bit of a challenge putting
the whole record together because, like I said, we all
lived very far apart. But I feel like that helped
us because it kind of gave all the songs a
chance to breathe, and you know, gave everybody time. I
don't know, do you play music.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Bratt, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I've been in a bunch of bands and done a
bunch of touring and all of that, as well as
virtual recordings. Because of COVID, everybody scattered all over the country.
I'm a chronic nomadic mover, so I keep moving from
state to state. It seems I've lived in a bunch
of different places over the past decade, and so keeping.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Up with my friends in are stationary.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
It's like, Hey, I'm really glad that we have you know,
Google Drive and things like that to share large files
and we can just drop them in our DAWs and
keep recording, you know, but I get it.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, that's kind of how we did it. We
just you know, worked off a Google Drive. But I
remember so many times just trying to write songs a
room and like, you know, everybody, but wait, stop, hold on,
I got to figure this part out. And it's just
like it kind of made it so everybody can kind
of have a chance to really figure out what they
wanted to put on it, and then to hear like, oh,
(12:12):
what's going on with the lyrics? Okay, maybe we need
to fix this up, or maybe we need to shorten
this or lengthen this. So it really gave us a
chance to really figure it out on our own. And
then when we went into a record with Andy Clark,
we kind of got another perspective in there to be
like oh, this part's kind of this part kind of sucks,
(12:33):
like maybe take this out or make this part longer,
you know. So I always love that about the recording process.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I do, and that's as well, and that's a kind
of that's really a good I think Nuance you called
out there, because I was just thinking about, right, you know,
grinding it out in a practice space where we're trying
to write something, and you know, it's I don't know
if you're a fan of the Beatles, but they had
like a that they recently released, like this all this
(13:00):
old footage that was canned in a basement for fifty
years and it just came out and the majority of
it is like Ringo just noodling on the drums, waiting
for Paul Yep and John to figure it out, you know,
or whatever. And to me, it's like that's so much
of how I felt BAM practice would go. Sometimes when
you're trying to write, it's like either everybody's forcefully trying
to get their ideas all out at the same time,
(13:22):
and then everybody's trying to hurry up and get their
parts together so that you have some sort of semblance
to keep moving forward. But then you know to your point, right,
Like during COVID and just through the gift of being
able to record remotely with others, I've been able to
write do the exact same thing.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
It's like, you know, I can just kind of loop
this and play this for four hours if i'd like to,
and it's not gonna you know. Yeah's wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Completely. I'll take it back to the to the Bruce
Springsteen they did the I guess it was twenty ten
probably or twenty eleven, they did the Promise, you know,
the documentary of the you know, making of the ver
and it just they just sat there and Bruce had
Max whaling on the drum like for hours at it end,
like being like, that's not the sound. That's not the sound.
(14:10):
Just like, what the fuck do you want?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Right right? Oh, that's cool that you got it together, though,
So how did that?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So is the songwriting genesis kind of more so on
you with the guitar and lyrics and vocals to start
and then everybody kind of shapes it around it, or
how do you how did you approach that on this one?
Speaker 5 (14:31):
So with this one, it was, uh, you know, it
didn't start that way, you know, with every other record,
we always kind of got into a room and somebody
had like a little bit of an idea and we
kind of jammed it out. With this one, I kind
of I would kind of send some rough rifts around
(14:51):
things like that, and then I would go to Brian's
because he's you know, he's only about an hour hour
and fifteen minutes away from me, and we would jam
out for Saturday on like three or four songs and
do like a rough recording of things. We'd make like
a loose structure, and then I would send it, you know,
send it out to Dave and Chris and they would
kind of put their parts on top of it, and
(15:14):
then I would come back and I would you know,
drop some vocals on it, things that I'm thinking of,
and then we would get together over a weekend and
work on like six of the songs or maybe just three,
depending on how many we had together. So it was
it was really you know, a step at a time process,
and it was cool to actually get into a room
and be like this isn't working at all, or yeah,
(15:37):
this is awesome. Maybe we've got to try and do this.
Because I think for the record overall, I probably had
about maybe it was sixteen different song ideas, and you know,
some of them I kind of worked out on acoustic
guitar and vocals like from beginning to end, like and
put together a loose structure before I even went to Brian.
(15:58):
This was one of those that I kind of had
to pieces and Brian and I kind of pieced together
the structure and then we sent it off to Dave
and Chris and I actually you know, wrote the wrote
the lyrics, you know, as I was you know, demoing
some vocals on it, just because I really wanted that
like stream of consciousness, uh, you know, just feel it
out what sounded good, what what felt good to my
(16:20):
ears when we were doing it. And then over time,
you know, you change a word here and there, you
change the kind of vibe of it, or you know,
the way the backups kind of felt. So it was
really a step by step process.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
It was cool, got it, got it, and then ultimately.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So okay for the recording. Then ultimately, like the final
recording process, did everybody come together to go into the
studio or was it again like hey, I'll send you
my bass tracks and just drop them into the mix
with whoever's mixing it no, so.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
We we did, like, we did some pretty good demos
on our own, and then you know, when it was
time to go and record with Andy in Philadelphia, we
kind of got an Aaron BnB and we went and
you know, stayed right down the road from the studio
for about I think it was either six or seven
days and just kind of you know, did the thing.
(17:15):
This was a really cool experience because Andy had us
all play live at the same time when we were
doing drums, which is different than traditional. You know, usually
Brian would just you know, have the click track going
and I would either be playing a scratch track with him,
but on this record, we played all four of us
played everything live, and then we went back and re
(17:39):
dubbed you know, the bass, the two guitars, and you know,
put the vocals in. But it was cool because we
really got to to get our parts down, which we
you know, for the most part, had after like spending
so much time with them. But it was it was
a cool process. It really felt like being a band,
you know, which is what it.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Should absolutely And what's the name of the studio you
recorded at?
Speaker 5 (18:02):
Recorded retro studio retro sorry, retro city studios with Andy Clark.
And we've known Andy for I mean, I met him
in two thousand and seven. He's from Hamilton, New Jersey,
and I played with his old band, The Ruining, and
then I'm sorry, not The Ruining. Oh wait, yes it
(18:25):
was The Ruining. My apologies. His first band was The
Ruining that we played with like years ago, and then
he was in a band called Luther that we played
a lot with. And you know, I've known Andy for
a long time and we trusted his guidance. He's he's
done some great stuff. He's put out some like awesome records,
(18:45):
put some good work in. So it was fun.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
No, that is cool. That's good. So I'll make sure
to mention Andy and his studio as well in.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Any social posts and things like that, just to kind
of thank you. Shared around so I see again that
this came out. So okay, So this is part of
the record. Pretty sorry. Petty Relics released October seventeenth, Independent
really released. Did you do you have a label putting
this out?
Speaker 5 (19:15):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
How are you approaching that?
Speaker 5 (19:18):
Yes, this is being put out by Black Numbers, which
is our guitarist Dave's label. We've done everything that Banquets
has done for the most part, has been put out
on black numbers. We did a vinyl release that's been
held up in Canada for the last week, so it
should be here any day, you know, customs.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And all that.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
So the records are getting here in a couple of days.
And then I have to send out several several hundred
records over the weekend. So that should be fun. But
you know, people have been very patient with us, so
we appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Definitely. Definitely, No, that's great. And then is there again?
I'm just kind of thumbing through your paint band camp spot.
Where is the best place for people to find.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Your website is where all your merch is? All? Right? Cool?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I was just wondering, like, is that where is that
kind of if anyone's trying to find Banquets and where
to get a hold of you and where to get
your music and where to stay up to date, is
the best place to go to the Banquet's HQ website
or is it?
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Yeah? The website is is pretty much you know, we
try to put everything on there. It serves us the store.
I believe it links right to band camp and you know,
you could listen to everything on band camp. You could
listen to everything on all the you know, all the
streaming services we do. We do most of our social
media is our Instagram, just because that is you know,
(20:42):
social media is a tiring thing nowadays, but it's a necessity. Yes,
you know, first and foremost it's Instagram, and then I
think that gets filtered to the Facebook, and then you know,
I'm going to call it Twitter because it's really Twitter,
and I will not honor uh the arriable name like
x but exactly, you know, and then it's filters to there.
(21:06):
You know. I think there's also Blue Scott. I don't
know if we have the sure sky. I'm not in
charge of that, but fair enough, for the most part,
Bank with HQ dot Com is the easiest way to
find everything.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Okay, great, And then I see that you have a
show coming up at gold Sounds in Brooklyn, New York
on December twelfth.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Yes, so we're doing a little weekend. We're doing Brooklyn
on December twelfth with Tired Radio and Heavy Lag and
Original Sharks, and then the next night we're playing a
part time pr fest down in Philadelphia at Orleeds Cool
(21:46):
And that should be a good one too, with bands
like the Carolyn who else is playing that one? Geez
oh Brackish is playing choke Up. So it should be
a really fun show.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And so then you were saying, as everybody's kind of
scattered about outside of that, it sounds like that's kind.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Of release show.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Is that sort of the celebratory release show kind of
weekend thing?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Or is different?
Speaker 5 (22:13):
It's kind of Yeah. So Kevin, who does our pr
is putting on the part time pr Fest and he
asked us to play that before. I guess it was
even before we announced our reunion show back in August,
and you know, we said, yeah, you know, the goal
is to kind of like, all right, if we're going
to do the one show, we might as well do
another show. We haven't played Brooklyn since twenty sixteen, so
(22:36):
that should be fun. I don't want to call it
a record release like weekend or anything like that. We're
just kind of getting getting together and you know, doing
these shows. They should be fun. I don't think we
were going to plan to do any kind of celebratory
record relief thing. I think we were just going to
get together and play play some shows in I believe
(22:59):
in the spring we have some other stuff lined up.
I think we'll be doing a Jersey show possibly again,
and then maybe Massachusetts. So it all depends on, you know,
just the logistics of everything. Right now, we're looking at
an early spring for our next shows. We're taking it
all in stride. We're old men, so I don't want
(23:21):
to break a don't want to break a hip hip
out there.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
No, I certainly get all that, got it. No, that
makes sense. So yeah, because my next questions are, so.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Is there any plan of a week or two kind
of a run any direction from any point in the
United States.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
But it doesn't sound like.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
It sounds like the quarterly thing, you know. I think
we are doing things like that, you know, in the
as we get further out. So I'm a teacher, so
it's kind of tough to take time off during the year.
It always was, so we were always you know, doing
weekend warrior stuff here and there. We do like a
three week thing, or we do like a one week
(24:01):
you know thing out to the Midwest. So it all depends.
It depends on everybody's schedule and what's going on. But
we're planning some things for the summer planning on doing
some different festivals here and there, so it all depends
how things line up and everybody's availability, and you know,
just overall what's going on in our lives, because you know,
(24:21):
this is for fun and we'll see what we can do.
And you know, it is with all hope that people
care that we're doing this, and from the response that
we've got it, it's like it's been very rewarding that
people do care and it makes us, you know, I'm
humbled to say the least, that you know, anybody's listened
(24:43):
to this record at all, and that I'm doing this
podcast with you now, I mean, this is this is
very cool. We you know, we're never a big thing.
We always did this for fun. And to hear that
people are, you know, listening and it means something to them,
it really makes it all worth it that uh, this
was you know, because honestly, when you write music, you
(25:06):
should be writing it for yourself first. I mean, you know,
this is a thing that's like it's a gift to
be able to do this.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. For me,
it's it's a very yeah. I mean obviously the obviously
I'm expressing myself through it. So there's this Catharsis that
happens for me in this expulsion of whatever it is
that I got to get out while.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I'm doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
But at the same time, yeah, I mean, I want
to write songs that I want to hear too, you know. Yeah,
I want to write what I want to play that's fun,
that feels good, that energizes me or moves me in
the direction that I'm feeling that I want to go
in on this one.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
You know exactly. And when you can meet some people
that like kind of come together and they make it
just you know, even more than just the sum of
its parts, it's like that that's something amazing. I mean,
you know, if you can enjoy what somebody else is doing,
like you know, complimenting what you do with that's like
that's something special.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
I agree. I agree.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
It feels like lightning in a bottle when it happens.
And it's just so I find that to be such
a rare dynamic to come across like that. If once
you find it and you got it, like, good for you, yeah,
and so grateful that you do, because I've had it
and I've had it slip away and it's really then
it takes decades and you may not ever find it
(26:25):
again or you do it in a different way.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
But no, that's that's all. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I love hearing all that. So what I'd like to do, though,
is is kind of go back a bit to where
like when did Banquets officially form? And is the lineup
stayed the same.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
So the band actually formed in I want to say
it was late two thousand and nine.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I had been playing in a band called Let Me
Run for a few years that I'd started, and then
I kind of left, like mid tour and came home
and was just like, you know, I'm kind of like
done with music for a little bit. I want to
focus on teaching and stuff like that, because you know,
I went for it. I left my teaching gig and everything,
(27:11):
and just it was kind of like this is tough.
Like I had a routine, like I'm a creature of habit.
So I came, you know, came home and you know, Dave.
Dave sent me some of the songs that he and
Chris and our old drummer Pete had been working on.
We were like, hey, you want to jam on this?
And you know, got together with them and we had
(27:31):
a good time and we did the first we did
a seven inch and then the first record, and then
after that, Pete was kind of like, you know, this
is this is taking on, you know, more time than
I can really allow with my career and stuff. So
he was like, I'm going to step aside. And then
our friend Brian joined. And Brian's been in so many bands,
(27:53):
you know, from the New Brunswick area and out smarting
Simon and Mother Night, and he said, yeah, I'm jam
with you guys, and you know, from that point it
was just like we just had a great time together
at just the way things you know, kind of meshed
together were great. We did I want to say three, Yeah,
(28:15):
we did three records now with Brian, including the new one.
So Brian joined in twenty twelve.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
I think it was okay, got it.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
And then so what happened after Spit at the Sun
where things needed.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
To go and pause?
Speaker 5 (28:34):
Yeah, so before we even started working on Spit at
the Sun, we had I think it was two songs
that we had already like written and everything just on
the side, and you know, I was like, let's take
you know, let's take these two songs and just do
a seven inch because at the time, Dave had been
(28:56):
talking about moving to Nashville, and Chris was definitely talking
about moving out of New York City to you know,
god knows where. I think he was thinking of moving
to Texas then, and just we had all been in
you know, I had gotten married a few years before,
and I know Chris had just gotten married, and Dave
started a relationship where that was leading the marriage. Brian
(29:18):
was doing that, and it was just it was getting
too tough to do the weekend grind because we were
we were playing, you know, nearly every weekend, going on
on Friday night and getting back late Sunday night. It
was just it was taking a lot. So we said,
you know what this is, this is just taking on
too much. Let's just hit a pause. And at the time,
we didn't think we were going to get back together,
(29:38):
and we said like, yep, this will be our final show,
and let's just get these songs done. And you know,
I was like, oh, maybe we'll do a seven inch
with these two songs. And it was like, let's just
do a whole record. We got these two songs, we
did knock out a record and you know, so we
recorded that and then we played our final show and
I think it was February twenty sixteen, so and you know,
(30:03):
that felt good. I got to sell the band finally,
and I didn't have that parked in front of the house. Nice.
The neighbors were stoked. Brian's neighbors were excited because we
weren't just whittling around and playing music all day.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Sure, no, that's cool. And then it's cool that y'all
kind of figured out coming back together. So if you
said it, I think I missed it.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
So what was the how did this then reconnect?
Speaker 5 (30:37):
So?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I mean, I know after the Hydatus win, did it
you just and I don't know if you already said this,
and if you did, I apologize, But I thought it
was something about you an acoustic get a table, writing
songs and writing the lyrics and kind of making that
all happen, but then just sending it.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Oh, I think that's what you said. Then you were
sending anything.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
Yeah, right, Initially we were we were going to do
the best in twenty twenty. And I think what happened
was we were at Brian's wedding and I made a
joke about playing like a Romon's cover set or something.
I was like, wouldn't it be funny if we played
beat on the Brat, like and we made him dance
with his wife too. And then from there it was like,
(31:16):
you know, just joking back and forth, like oh, maybe
we should do a show at Fest or whatever. So like,
you know, we booked a show for the Fest, and
we got together and practiced, and then two weeks later,
the whole thing with COVID and the shutdown and all
that stuff happened. So we're like, okay, you know, let's
see what happens. And of course Fest was canceled in
(31:36):
twenty twenty and then in twenty twenty one, we were
still scheduled to play, and it got to be like
September and in New Jersey we were just getting back
into the classroom, but it was like everybody's masked up.
We've got plastic partitions on like this the desk that
would not go over any time I walked by them, Like,
(31:58):
you know, it was just like the most uh, you know,
the craziest type of circumstances. And I'm like, I can't
in good conscious go over a weekend and play a
big festival down in Florida and come back and teach
like these second graders, Like you know what I mean.
I was just like the anxiety was like ramped through
(32:19):
the roof. Between that and then, I know, I know
that Brian was dealing with stuff too at the time,
and we're just like, let's let's put a pause on it.
And you know, there were it was just one of
those situations where it's like I don't want to drag
anybody along, like let's just put it, put a pin
in it for the moment. And you know, we were
supposed to practice that weekend anyway before fest, so we
(32:42):
still got together and we're like, fuck it, let's just
let's just jam. Let's just play whatever songs. And then
I think at that at that practice at uh Hellhound
Studios and Roadway, I was just like, oh, here's a
here's a little thing I was working on, and we
like started writing you know, the first songs and it
(33:02):
was cool and we were just like, hey, let's just
write some songs for a while. And you know, between
that time and to today, it was just like you know,
a lot of like almost almost starts and then definite
stops and almost starts and definite. You know, we all
have responsibility, so things popped up and got in the way,
(33:26):
and then it was just like, okay, this is happening
all right, you know. So to be here today to
be like, oh man, we played a show. It was awesome.
We did this record, like this is cool. So you know, small.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Steps definitely got it, got it. No, it's really cool.
It's really interesting to hear.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
And I totally you know, I mean so much of
kind of what you described dynamically with the band and
and how you guys have kept it together and or
come back together. I mean I've had a lot of
experiences with that myself, with just kind of reforming with
old friends and and let's start writing again, you know.
And I kind of keep seeing some of that, you know,
pop around the you know, the socials of other bands
(34:08):
that were favorites.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Of mine back in the nineties that are kind of
coming back together. I'm like, wow, I didn't expect this
thirty years later, you know, but it's cool to see,
you know, how all that's happening. So No, that's awesome, man.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
So I guess is there anything else specifically you want
to talk about?
Speaker 3 (34:25):
The song? Goodbye Before You Go, that we haven't chatted
about yet.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
I'm not sure that there is. I mean, you know,
I just hope that people can find, you know, their
own meaning in it, if you want to look deeper
into it and read the word there. You know, every
word that's in there has some sort of meaning to me.
But hopefully people can just you know, find their own meaning.
Hopefully they check it out and find out that it is,
like I said, a six out of five star song,
(34:53):
six out of five star record. You know, No, that's great,
felt good to make.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
So cool. Well, then let's do this.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Let's take a quick break, and then let's come back
and find out what else you're working on, what else
the other guys in the band are working on, and
anything else we want to talk about from there.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Sound good?
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Yeah, sounds great?
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Cool? All right, everybody hanging tight. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
We are back with Travis from Banquets. We were chatting
about the song Goodbye Before You Go and all things
about the record in the band and what they're doing
and this and that. But so I just want to
make sure we pull it all back together so it
makes sense to the listener what we're talking about where
it's available and how people.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Can find you. So again, goodbye before you go. What's
the name of the record that it's on petty Relics?
All right, and this just came out, right, Yes.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
This came out October eighteenth, eighteenth, I think October seventeenth,
the Friday, whatever that Friday was. It's out. It's available everywhere.
I preferably listened to Apple iTunes because that's my subscription.
Unfortunately we have to pay some sort of overlord. But
it is available on band camp as well, on title
(36:14):
on Spotify as well. I'm trying to think where else. Oh,
they Orchard Music did put it up on YouTube, which
is a great a great place to listen. It's kind
of like the Yule Tide log with the you get
to just see the album cover. It doesn't move or anything,
but great visual.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
So is there is I see full digital album? Is
there any plans of releasing a physical version?
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Yes, so we did a pre order and the record
should be here on Thursday. Yeah. They depend the Late
at the border for since October like fourteenth. They've just
been sitting and I'm looking at the FedEx like things saying,
oh it's the Late A custom like, God damn it,
but it'll be here. It'll be here in like a
(37:01):
couple of days, and then you know, I got to
box them up, send them out. You know, we've been
very fortunate. Many people have purchased already, and I think
there's literally probably like ten records left for us to
sell at shows, you know, aside from our four copies
and you know, whatever else we have left. So if you,
you know, if you're interested in purchasing, go to banquets
(37:25):
hq dot com and I think there's a few that
are still left there. You can. It still says pre order,
because I don't have the records at my house yet
to send out that they will be here soon.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
So got it? Got it? No, that's perfect.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
And then again you said, so it's on all streaming services.
People can get buy the digital album from bandcamp, but
the physical record through banquetshq dot com and Instagram is
the best place to keep up and kind of keep
tracking all.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (37:57):
Yes, there's always reels and all the other stuff that
we do on Instagram. I refuse to do the thing
where you talking to the you know, talk to your
listeners like a live interview on you know, like, hey,
we've got a show coming up this Friday. We hope
to see you. I mean, I'm saying that now. However,
I know I will do it soon and I'll crack
(38:18):
open like a fortune cookie and I'll have the name
of all the band and I'll show it. But I
don't know yet.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
That's funny.
Speaker 5 (38:23):
I might do an unboxing video where I open up
the records and you know, act like I cut my
hand horribly like something. You know, I'll try and be
creative with yes, exactly. We have to make it funny
but traumatic as well.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
You know that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
So yeah, everybody follow Banquets at Banquets HQ on Instagram
as where you can see that and get all the
updates from them. But Travis Man, thank you so much
for taking some time again to talk to me about this.
Has been super fun chatting with you, learning about the band,
the record, and I'm excited for your couple of shows
you got coming up and getting the physical copies of
your record is super great. And next time, you know,
(39:01):
when you guys have something new that you're recording or
you want to come on and talk about again, hit
me up man, because I'd love to have you back.
Speaker 5 (39:08):
Absolutely, Brett. It's been so great talking to you and
thank you for sharing part of your story with me.
I appreciate it. Where do you live right now, Brett?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I live actually just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, in a
small town called the Qula that's on the way towards
South Carolina.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
Oh wonderful. Okay, maybe we're going to try and get
down there, so I will, you know, keep in touch
with you.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Yeah, please do.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
We'll see that. Awesome, excellent. Thank you so much, Brett.
Appreciate you, you bet.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Thanks Travis pre Trows.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Breakdown.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
All right, and that wraps up another episode of the
B Side Breakdown. I want to thank Travis Amilian from
the band Banquets for coming on to talk about the
song Goodbye before you go. In the background, you're listening
to a song called Unrest by the band kind Skies.
If you like what you hear, please go back and
listen to the previous episode because that's what it was
all about. Up next, we have the band Too Late
(40:29):
but Still with their song Feedback City, which I'll give
you a taste of at the end of this episode.
I want to thank Adam Coolong and carry Bosel for
helping me put together the jingle you hear at the
beginning and the end of this episode. Please subscribe to
this podcast wherever you get your podcast. Can't thank you
enough for your ongoing support. Stay safe out there and
we'll catch up on the next one.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Thanks Damn park On.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
And gives it a one to win.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
A scar that.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Scars or knuckles, sweater found off on the fixt Street
and a dozen his so rose are he stood to
me by my
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Mom, someding a lost first, dripping balls in the desert,
going to jail twice, worrying the same blast shirt.
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