Anthony Raneri

A native of Queens, New York, Anthony Raneri got on the music radar of punk fans in the early 2000s as the lead singer and guitarist of the band Bayside. The group — who had chosen their name as a nod to the neighborhood of their youth — formed in 2000 and excelled in making moody and emotional pop-punk that bore the influence of bands like the Smoking Popes and Alkaline Trio. By 2012, they had earned themselves a steady following over countless tours, five studio albums, and a handful of EPs and splits. As one of the principle songwriters, Raneri was always writing, though not everything he came up with seemed like the right fit for Bayside. Ultimately, he took some of those songs and began using the downtime between recording and shows, when he'd otherwise just sit around getting restless, to step out from the group and play the occasional solo acoustic gig. Though Bayside always remained Raneri's first priority, a few years of doing these sporadic performances passed and he eventually felt ready to put a few songs to tape. Bayside released the album Killing Time in February 2011 — their first for Wind-Up Records after years on Victory — and thus spent most of the following months supporting it out on the road. It wasn't until the year's end that Raneri got the chance to enter a recording studio; he sat down at California's Hurley Studios and (along with the help of some musical friends) quickly finished his debut EP, titled New Cathedrals. Deciding to go the D.I.Y. route for his solo work, the album was self-released in January 2012 on his own Gumshoe Records. Raneri supported the album's release with live dates on the Where's the Band? tour, alongside other pop-punk frontmen-gone-solo like Saves the Day's Chris Conley and the Get Up Kids' Matt Pryor.