The Alternative Star.com

·         Hails from: Rainier, Oregon

·         Who’s who: Ty Vaughn (Vocals and guitar), Josh Baird (Drums) and Matt Koenig (Bass and vocals)

·         For fans of: Lifetime, Green Day and Smoke or Fire

·         Check them out: www.myspace.com/broadwaycalls

Since forming in the winter of 2005/2006, Broadway Calls have been gaining momentum at a blistering fast pace. Not that it’s a huge surprise, their self titled full length is filled with enough undeniably catchy hooks, crunchy power chords and sing along choruses to please even the most pickiest pop punk fan. It’s even got the attention of Billie Joe Armstrong’s Adeline Records and I’m guessing that by the time 2008 is finished, you’ll be a fan too.

For this feature, Ty Vaughn chatted over the phone about their opportunity to finally play the Warped Tour, songs they love to cover and more.

You guys started off playing heavier music. What made you make the transition to something poppier?

Ty: Well, Josh and I were in a band called Countdown to Life and we were really big fans of Refused, you know hardcore bands like that and we were really happy with what we were doing. But the other two guys in the band didn’t really want to continue touring as much as we wanted to and we had van payments to make every month. Josh and I really loved touring so we decided to start another band but we didn’t really want it to compete with our other band. We loved pop punk so we decided to start a pop punk band just to fill in the holes and tour when the other band couldn’t. And then it just took over because those other guys didn’t want to tour anymore so that is how Broadway Calls came into existence.

It seems like you guys will be doing a pretty extensive tour of the UK soon. Have you been there before?

Ty: No, this will be our first time, we’re really excited! We’ll be playing with some really poppy bands so it’s going to be different. It will be the first big tour we’ve been on and it will be in a different country. It will be a completely new experience.

What is the one thing you’re looking forward to doing most while out there?

Ty: The first two days we’re out there we’re playing these big festivals. Alkaline Trio is playing both days we’re playing and they’re one of my favourite bands so just playing with them is going to be the highlight of my trip I think. But you know, I’ve never been there and we have a friend there and we’ll have a couple of days off so hopefully we’ll have some adventures.  

You’ll be on the Warped Tour this summer too.

Ty: Yeah, it will be our first time on it and we’ll get to do the whole thing so we’re really excited. I mean, we’ve gone every year since we were 15 so we’re really happy to be a part of that. And we played the Warped Tour kickoff party a couple of weeks ago in Hollywood and we met Kevin Lyman and a couple of the other bands who are playing.

Who are you most excited to see on this year’s tour?

Ty: Some of my favourite bands playing will be Against Me!, The Bronx and Every Time I Die. Those are my top three and they’ll be playing most of the tour too so I’m excited.

You signed to Adeline awhile back so I’m assuming you guys are huge Green Day fans, right?

Ty: Yeah, very huge fans! Green Day has probably been one of my favourite bands since I was 12 so when I found out they were contacting us, it was really amazing. It’s been great, it’s not like a big record company, just a small group of people that really care about what they’re doing and are really smart when it comes to the music industry. It’s pretty cool.

Do you have a favourite Green Day record?

Ty: That’s tough because I love all their records but I’ll probably say Dookie because that’s what got me into them when I was 12 and it’s so, so good. But I love all their records.

One of the songs on your self titled is a cover. Do you guys often do covers during shows?

Ty:  Yeah a bit. When we do normal shows, we usually throw in one cover and it’s usually a punk song, like a Kid Dynamite song or a Jawbreaker song. We put a Smiths song on the record just to have fun with it and because we think it’s a really cool song but we very rarely play that song live. But yeah, we have nothing against cover songs, for people who have never heard of us, it’s good to have a song that can catch their ear and they can recognize.

Do you have a favourite song to cover?

Ty: We play Boxcar by Jawbreaker and that’s really fun because pretty much everyone knows that song and sings along to it. We don’t really have any fast songs so sometimes we’ll cover a Kid Dynamite song like Cop Out which is super fast and it’s really fun to play at that speed because we don’t do that very often. We just recorded a Billy Bragg song for a split 7 inch we’re putting out with Teenage Bottlerocket and that was really cool to put that together.

Speaking of 7 inches, do you prefer vinyl or CDs or downloading? What is your take on that stuff?

Ty:  I think it’s really smart when bands and labels have vinyl and digital downloads. Like when you buy the vinyl, you can download it and put in on your iPod as well for free. CDs are kind of going out, they’re not as popular as they were couple of years ago but I think vinyl is making a comeback. I also know everyone has an iPod so I think the vinyl paired with the digital download is a really good idea and I think a lot of bands are going to start doing that more and more. I think Saddle Creek, like Bright Eyes, started that or something. I dunno but I think it’s a really good idea.

Of all your songs, which one best defines the essence of Broadway Calls? Why?

Ty: That’s tough because our songs range from very personal stuff and then to social commentary topics. I’d say the two songs; I’m going to have to go with two songs. The first would be Call It Off because it’s pretty much the anti war song if you listen to the lyrics. I think it’s a very good introduction to what we sound like as well. And then Back to Oregon is a song about missing a loved one and that’s what a lot of my songs are about. Being up in a touring band, I write songs from my point of view but I’ve noticed that other people can take it and twist it into their own lives and this is a good thing.

What other plans does Broadway Calls have in 2008?

Ty: Well, we’re going to England next week and then Warped Tour all summer. And then I think we’re going to go back to England hopefully after the Warped Tour to play some other festivals and hopefully do a mainland Europe tour so that will be cool. And in October, we’ll be in Florida so I guess we’ll have to tour down and back so that will probably end up being a North American tour I’d imagine. We’re pretty booked up until November.

You recently released a music video on Buzznet for Call it Off. Do you plan on doing another video this year too?

Ty: I hope so. I liked making that video and I like doing that kind of thing. I don’t know what the plans are but I would like to release both Back to Oregon and Classless Reunion as singles but it all kind of depends on what the label wants to do as well you know.

-Interviewed by Deborah Remus

*A big thank you goes out to Amelia Curran for making the interview possible!