The Broken View – an Xperience Interview – Rob Smittix

The Broken View – an Xperience Interview – Rob Smittix

We’re here in the studio with a couple of the members of The Broken View, if you want to just go ahead and introduce yourselves and tell em what you do in the band.

TH: I’m Tyler Hayes, I play drums and I also produce, mix and master.

AK: My name is Austin Kranick, I sing, I write for the band, produce, edit and all of that nonsense.

RRX: That’s right it’s all nonsense.

(All Laugh)

RRX: Who’s not here today from the group?

AK: We’re a little spread out. Right now we got Joe Martino on rhythm guitar, John Lombard (Lead Guitar), he’s not here but he’s here in spirit. Our new bass player Tom is in Austin today.

RRX: Speaking of Austin… He’s not IN Austin, just to be clear. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

(All Laugh)

RRX: We just premiered your latest single “Need A Friend” on RadioRadioX.com, tell us about the song.

AK: I was thinking about the whole concept of one-night stands. I sat down and came up with this really groovy beat, kina like a reggaeton vibe. I knew I wanted the song to kind be like… sleazy. I had the first verse and the chorus for a really long time and I remember show him (Tyler). He was like I really like this but it just wasn’t the time because we had our other album coming out. We wanted to make sure that the song was as good as it possibly could be. It took a lot of time to get it right. We actually had a couple of different bridges. It had a completely different bridge before (the released version). We’re super happy with the way that it turned out. It’s this really cool, kind of aggressive, angry song about wanting something more and not being appreciated. I don’t think it’s as angsty as that kind of song could be. I think it’s more of a relatable thing.

RRX: I can relate, a lot of people can definitely relate to that. I always like to pick the brains of fellow songwriters. It’s so easy to write about heartbreak, it’s so hard to write when things are just happy and peachy. So yeah, one-night stands?

AK: More of like a booty call. The chorus itself says “call me up, I want to be somewhere close to you but not too close.” It’s kind of like the idea of keeping somebody like a friends with benefits type of situation. In a sense, you’re not confused by this concept. You think it’s very understandable, however it’s frustrating. You’re going to keep doing this thing to yourself, no matter how much you feel for that person you understand that they’re probably never going to want anything more from you. You’re the one essentially allowing yourself to be taken advantage of. It’s like what the hell am I doing?

TH: Something funny about when we were making that album; Matt Noveskey (Blue October) produced our record in his studio down in Austin, TX (Orb Recording Studios). “Need A Friend” was one of the last songs that we worked on and we were thinking about cutting it from the album completely. “Another White Lie” from our previous record was in a similar situation where we almost cut it but then it became a more popular song off of that record.

AK: I never once thought it was a good idea to cut “Need A Friend,” everybody else was like let’s just move on and I remember saying, hey Tyler no! Just throw a drum beat down dude!

TH: That was the one take that we got. But it was very close because we were only in Texas for two weeks, so we were on a pretty tight schedule. I find it funny that now it’s one of our favorites, now that’s it’s finished and out. That was the one that almost didn’t make it.

RRX: It’s funny how that works because there’s so many examples of this in music. I think this was the right choice for this song because it’s fantastic and there’s a video for this.

AK: We have this tendency to need a cinematic, literal film to go along with our songs.

TH: We make our own videos. We film them, we edit them, we color them… everything.

AK: Every single aspect of it. We didn’t have the idea until about two Wednesdays ago. We came together and made this really scary, hyper-realistic situation. I didn’t even realize how real it felt until it was done. When I watched it, I was like… this is kind of intense.

RRX: I’ve got a lot of faith in you guys, your music and end product. I really do. The Broken View watch out for these guys. I didn’t card you when you came in and I should’ve before I offered you that bottle in my desk but… you’re young guys and I think you’ve got a lot ahead of you.

BOTH: Thank you so much.

TH: We’re very eager to get on the road and play shows.

AK: That’s our main thing, we’ve got our agent right now booking some shows in March, we’re also trying to get on tour with Blue October. We’ve been doing a lot of things for the past year now to try to make that happen. It’s a life long dream, for me especially. You know? The reason I got into making music was from listening to them and to know that our fanbase is so tight. They’re always saying we should go on tour with Blue October.

RRX: I think it’ll happen, keep talking about it, keep putting it out there into the universe, into existence because that kind of stuff really works. Being as young as you are and I don’t know about the rest of your bandmates but are any of you married or have kids?

TH: Nope, no one is married or has kids

RRX: Keep that going as long as you possibly can because that changes the trajectory. That changes everything. Right now you’re in a position where you can say screw the job, you can hop into a van or a small tour bus and hit the road. It doesn’t really matter if you come back breaking even or even broker than you were when you left because you got the exposure that you needed.

AK: I said the same exact thing the other day. I had a long talk with him and our other bandmates about that. I literally could care less about making money on tour. All I want to do is get in front of the people that have supported us since 2018 and who want to see us and hear the music; to share that moment on stage with them. That’s the only thing that I care about.

RRX: When my band started gaining traction most of us already had kids and mortgages, we couldn’t just drop everything. I have a family of five depending on me, how am I going to say peace out I’m going on tour?

TH: Exactly.

RRX: The balls in your court, so just think about it an wear protection.

(Both Laugh)

TH: We’re ready we’ve got our van we call him Guzzlin’ Pete, it’s got a bunch of bunks in the back, a little TV in there, we’ve got Wi-Fi set up and a mini-fridge. We are ready!

AK: I want to tour non-stop. Seriously, if I could tour every single day for the rest of this year, I would. That’s all I want to do.

RRX: You’re going to get there, i have faith in you, I have confidence and I appreciate you guys so much. So you know? When you’re on whatever the biggest show is in a couple of years and you’re on their podcast…

AK: Hopefully this one.

RRX: I hope it is us but if it’s not just remember us and send us a card once in a while.

https://youtu.be/S1ConrCARGo?si=43QqKO3xzfJS2mGr

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