Last summer, the pop/punk indie rockers Reckless Serenade were seeing their dreams coming true.  Given the opportunity of being a part of the Vans Warped Tour was in a lot of ways the young Charlie Bucket discovering that he had one of the elusive golden tickets.  The grueling schedule of the tour ended up taking a toll and the band would soon disband.  Two of the original members (vocalist Cory Brent and guitarist Will Prinzi) continued on, fusing the punk sentiment of their previous effort and expanding into various genres.  Broken Bellows debut EP The Card Table offers listeners memorable choruses that Reckless Serenade fans will enjoy.
We recently got the chance to catch up with Prinzi to talk about the EP, life after Reckless Serenade, and more.
 Before Broken Bellows was formed, you two were part of Reckless Serenade. At the peak of popularity, the band separated. What was the cause of the split?
We were working on a new record at the time and I think everyone in the band was trying to make a very different record.  We weren’t on the same page musically anymore, so as unexpected as the breakup was, looking back on it I think it was a good thing for everyone. Cory and I love doing BB, and two other members are doing a project called Moonwalker, and they’re great! Checkem out. We wish them all the best.
What was it like for you two mentally after the split?
Once the dust had settled it was autumn in NY, we got part time jobs as pumpkin carvers by day and worked on ‘The Card Table’ EP at night and life went on.  It felt right doing BB so we felt like we were in the right place.
What was the driving force of pushing forward with Broken Bellows?
Music for Cory and I is an inevitability, we will always make music for ourselves and whoever else wants to listen, but the making of the Reckless album definitely played a part for the early days of BB. When you bring a song to a band for consideration you really have to to believe in it, because if you don’t then why would anyone else? After the band imploded, we just had all these songs that we really stood behind and we wanted to keep that going.
A majority of the album was inspired from the late night sessions during your long run with the Vans Warped Tour. Was there any debate on sharing with them with your fellow Reckless Serenade bandmates?
There is really no time on Warped to be focused on anything except the band, so there was not even enough space in our lives for these songs to be a big deal yet, it was more like “Hey we’re driving tonight and its 2am so we might as well do something we love that keeps us awake so we all don’t die in a fireball.” I think that and the java saved us.
Where was the album recorded at?
“Waiting” was recorded in Cory’s bedroom at his parents’ house and the rest of the album was done in our apartment in NY.  Vocals were mostly recorded in Cory’s closet with the cables snaking under the door to the living room, but most stuff was just a mic thrown up here and there, we were more concerned with capturing vibes than making it sound polished.
Musically, you two dive into a wide array of influences with ‘The Card Table’. What was the primarily vision that you two wanted to achieve?
That is just how it came out for us.  For me, depending on how the inspiration hits me I start defining the genre, the decade, the emotion and how to produce it from there.  We both have pop punk roots and I think that thread can be traced through every song we do, but we are lovers of music in all of its forms, and that’s what we try to put down on the track.
You two are together in a band and you live together in a New York apartment. Has there been concern over being overwhelmed with being around each other so much?
Cory and I have been so tight for many years before this, so we had a good thing going into it. Sure, sometimes I just want to slap him, but at the end of the day we are buds and we can always sit and talk it out over a java.
Fervor Records picked up Broken Bellows pretty quickly. How did the partnership come about?
Fervor had worked with Reckless way back on their first EP, so after we finished our first song “Waiting” we sent it their way just to see what they thought, they loved it, and it just kinda happened from there. The label heads Jeff and Dave have been great and they clearly have a fine ear for picking awesome music.
The video for the single “In the Deep” playfully highlights two coming of age pre-teens scoping out a young lady and playing music. Was the video a fun flashback of your childhood days?
If you throw in the turbulence of pre-teen angst that sounds about right 😀

Broken Bellows “The Card Table” EP is out now via Fervor Records.
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