1. Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way, who are you and what do you do in the band?
My name is Jeremy Comitas. I play guitar and sing some supporting vocals for Bayonet.
2. How did you and Buddy Nielsen hook up to do this project?
I was home from The Banner's Europe tour since November of last year. We didn't do any shows or work on anything really, so I was aching to do something. I started toying around with some rough demos. I was playing the songs for Ben from the band Armor For Sleep at my place one day, and he let me know Buddy was looking to do a Hardcore Punk band. Buddy ended up just calling me the next day, and we started meeting up regularly.
3. What are the general thematic elements in Bayonet's material, if any? Do the songs coincide with each other in subject matter/motif?
I wish I could go a bit more in depth for you guys on this one. Music-wise, the theme is in your face aggression. Plain and simple. At any given moment, we want our songs to sound pissed, desperate, or uplifting. Lyrically, It seems to me like Buddy has been throwing in topics of family life, as well as poems with less obvious meaning. I haven't unlocked the meaning of it all 100% yet, so I'll wait to go into more detail after Buddy clears that up a little bit personally first. Generally, our songs mesh lyrically... But we do have a few one-offs.
4. What immediate plans do you have for this band (releases, tours, labels, etc.)? What does the future hold?
As far as releases go, it looks like our prospective label will be putting it out on 7" vinyl, as well as iTunes and the usual digital media sites. We are also being sent to Salad Days in January, to record our full-length with Brian McTernan. (Snapcase, Thrice, Cave In, Circa Survive, Converge). He has developed a great relationship with Buddy over the years, and I am personally a big fan of his work. Now, tour plans are a little looser planned. We have gotten offered by a few really awesome bands to do tours with them, but as of right now all we have planned is a possible 5 dates with Defeater. Our future is limitless. This is a real band, not a one-off mash-up or side project. We have every intent to tour as much as your average full-time band.
5. How is the overall response from listeners? And what kind of feedback are you getting from those are fans of your other bands (Senses Fail, The Banner, Jerk City, etc.)?
So far, our response has been great! We didn't really expect so many people to jump on board during this pre-game phase. Everyone has been extremely supportive, and we have a nice handful of kids going around spreading the word the old fashioned way. We will put more into pushing the band and promoting it when the full-length is done... If need be. A lot of our messages and comments online are from Senses Fail fans, or fans of Buddy himself even. We get a lot of Banner kids as well, and a lot of people saying that they love both bands, so this is perfect for them. People are asking for more, and my main concern is that we can give them more as soon as possible.
6. What's the song writing process like for guys?
Fairly simple. I write a song, teach it to Paul in a loose and still somewhat open ended manor. Then Buddy puts his two cents in musically. He is really good at coming up with ideas for smoother transitions. It's great to have a singer who doesn't really play guitar too much, and expresses ideas through parts, rather than trying to change songs. I think when any songwriter lyrically or musically writes something, it is dear to them. Unless they are writing fish hook dance-pop substance lacking crap. Even then, some of those kids are proud of that garbage. But what I'm getting at, is that Buddy builds off of my parts, rather than straight up changing them. I respect that, and i can still get my original message across unscathed. I don't write any lyric content. Not my thing anymore. But we do have a bassist since we wrote our EP. Will wrote and played the bass parts on it, but he wasn't around for the actual songwriting. He is a very talented songwriter, and I only see him helping us. But if for any reason his input were to change our sound more than improve it, then we would not go that path. I also recorded the EP with some help of my co-worker Bill at The Machine Shop, and then Will mixed it the night he layed down the bass. So if any bands local to North Jersey or NYC wanna come track some songs, find me.
7. All of you are involved in numerous other projects and it goes without saying that things can get hectic. How did all of you find time to get this band running and off the ground?
Banner wasn't doing anything during this process, and Joey was working on a new band called Wolve as well at the time, so there was no conflict at all on my behalf. I wrote the skeletonwork for our material while Buddy was out on tour. He came home and we did revisions, dropped vocals, and the rest is history. None of our schedules have cause conflict. Paul has a day job, and I work at the studio with Will, so we are consumed as far as time goes... but that won't stop us from doing this. A lot of the responsibility falls directly on me as far as songwriting goes though. I mean, if I slack off, then I have nothing for Buddy to be working on. So I sort of need to stay on top of shit. But we keep on each other enough, and it just gets done.
8. What musical acts do you derive inspiration from? Do some of your influences fall outside the spectrum of hardcore? And what are your non-musical inspirations?
I can only speak for myself here. NOFX, Good Riddance, Propagandhi, and Kid Dynamite are my biggest punk rock musical influences. I'm not a fan of tough guy shit. I really like more anger driven/fast trashy hardcore. Poison The Well was my first favorite Hardcore band, and still remains my favorite. Those guys are the most talented people I've ever encountered. The Banner guys got me into Tragedy. I had already loved From Ashes Rise, and I wasn't even aware that those guys had a second band. Also, I really like The Bronx, Gallows, Ghost Of A Thousand, and some really dirty rock music. I'm a pop-whore at heart, so I still love my New Found Glory, Jimmy Eat World, and even Green Day. Who can resist? Faith No More and Mike Patton paved the way for some of my open-mindedness at a young age. There's hundreds of other bands I could go on and on about, but I think the ones I mentioned sum up more than enough to get a picture of what I draw influence from.
9. What do you hope to achieve with this band?
I just want to look back at this band in ten years and think it was awesome. I've played in a lot of bands over the years, and it's hard to look back and truly say one of them was amazing. I have one previous band I really had a passion like this for... but we never got an opportunity to turn heads. It means so much to me, and I know that Bayonet can mean even more to me. We just write the stuff we love and call it a day. You can't go wrong with this direction. There's nobody to impress, and no asses to blow smoke up.
10. And lastly, the definite question...if you were a muffin, what type of muffin would you be?
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