How Punk Band Success Is Disrupting Country Music

Since taking his career to global stardom with punk band Bayside, Nashville-based vocalist Anthony Raneri is moving into the country music space. Embracing the scrappy strategy that punk and hardcore bands have leveraged for decades, he is paving a new path to success in a tough business.

Bayside has performed in top arenas, made a Top 20 hit and collaborated with legendary artists including Bon Jovi and Foo Fighters. Now Raneri is going back to the basics to build a new following, including traveling solo in a rented cargo van led by nothing more than a spirit of success through hard work.

"(Bayside) just made fans slowly but surely until big tours appeared and press wanted to talk to us. It's really the only way that I know how to do this," Raneri says. "I'm from New York, and seeing how the country world works in Nashville, it's so alien to me."

The process of recording his latest record revealed to Raneri that, in the country music space, upfront connections lead to successful gigs and fandom. Most rising country artists typically securing big deals before playing at local venues in Nashville.

Raneri says, "When I was starting my career, no one would get a record deal who didn't have fans. Now labels, publicists and agents first want to see your social media following and what you're doing without them. And country is the opposite, but I don't know how to just sit and wait until someone calls with a great opportunity. I need to go out and do something."

Working in different genres of music has given Raneri a unique perspective on the rise to stardom. Most rock bands, he says, first go on tours to open for big name artists, then they rise to headline themselves. There are small press opportunities one day, then cover stories the next. He describes Bayside as a "working class band" that is not famous but plays shows and sells merch to earn a living. In the pop music space, he says that attention is reserved for the biggest names while country sits in between.

"I have not been a new artist in over two decades," Raneri says. "Most people know who I am, so I have to convince them that I can do something else. I think that I have always been doing something serious and real, but some people hear emo and they think they already know what I sound like."

Raneri debuts his fresh sound with today's release of a solo EP, Everyday Royalty (Equal Vision Records). The new record features seven tracks of anthemic alt-rock that soul-searching indie-folk and full-tilt country fans crave. Creative freedom, intention and experience also combine in the debut single , "Bones," a moody, hypnotic track with music video directed and produced by Wombat Fire.

"As a 20-year fan of Bayside, and specifically Anthony's songwriting, I was excited that he was taking a creative step outside the band to put out solo music," says multi-Platinum songwriter Joey Hyde. "To get to be a small part of that journey was something truly special."

Now 25 years into his music career, Raneri is leading a U.S. solo tour with backup from artists Brother Bird and Nate Bergman. The 24-date tour includes performances in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.