New Found Glory Interview

New Found Glory made a quick stop in the UK so I caught up with Chad and Ian at their hotel to chat about the band and their upcoming album 'Coming Home'

R13: Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you play in the band?
Ian: I'm Ian, I play bass.
Chad: I'm Chad, I play guitar
Both: New Found Glory kids!

R13: How did you all come together and who are your influences?
I: We all came together after playing in separate local bands, Chad used to play in a band called Shai Hulud, a hard core band; me, Jordan and Steve used to go to his shows and watch him play. After our bands broke up, me, Steve and Jordan decided to start a band, then we heard Chad wanted to start a punk bank, Steve and Chad jammed one day and he joined, then we had this crappy drummer for about five shows then we got Cyrus. Cyrus was in this other local band and one of Steve's clients friends was in that band so we went to watch them practice, when they took a break Steve picked up a guitar and started playing and Cyrus started playing drums and we realised he was better than our drummer, so we go Cyrus to join.
As for influences; as a band everybody has totally different influences.
C: Yeah, it goes from Green Day to Bjork to Texas Is A Reason.
I: Cyrus likes Silverchair.
C: There are tons of different influences because we're all so different.
I: Which is really good when we're writing songs because Chad always comes with the main guitar riffs so he'll start jamming and I'll be thinking in my head this reminds me of a Phil Collins song, we should do something like this here. While Steve will be like "Oh, I'm thinking this sort of vibe." So we get all this different input. Everyone just goes through and gives their ideas and we just filter it out until we get something that everybody likes.

R13: For people that haven't heard your music how would you describe it?
I: It's a mixture of what we're influenced by and what we like, even from stuff we listened to growing up as kids.
C: If you like rock, punk or songs about real things and sincere lyrics then you'll like our band, whether you listen to pop, rock, punk or metal there's something in NFG for you.

R13: You have a new album coming out "Coming Home" what sounds can we expect to hear on it?
C: On "Coming Home" expect to hear just songs about real life situations that you can relate to, songs about love and missing your loved ones, cool guitar parts and really melodic vocals.


R13: How long have you been working on the album?
I: We started working on the record in August 05, then we had September and October to live with the songs and record a bunch of demos. In that time Chad also wrote other songs, so in November went back and listened to songs that we had already recorded and after listening to it decided which bits need changing. Then in January we went in the studio and by that time we already had a rough recording, except for one song that Chad just wrote one day in the studio, and it wound up being one of the best songs on the record. It was the best recording I think we've ever done because by the time we went in the studio we had a basic idea of what we wanted and it made the recording process a lot better.

R13: Next year will mark your tenth year together as a band, have you got anything special lined up for it?
C: I want to do something that one of my favourite bands; They Might Be Giants did, they've been a band since 81 or 82 so they had tons of albums so on their big anniversary they played a week of shows and every night was a different album. Monday night they played songs from 'The Flood', one night they played songs from 'Lincoln', so I wanna do something like that. Find a cool venue and just dedicate a night to each album.
I: We also think it could be fun to play in clubs all down the strip in Los Angeles, play at The Viper Room and The Roxy, all those cool places, so that could be a good time to do that.

R13: What is the secret behind your success?
I: Besides my good looks?
R13: Obviously
C: Beside Ian's good looks, it's just we are a really sincere band and because we grew up dreaming of playing in a band and our dreams came true, we never forget where we came from, and I think that is the key, never forgetting where you came from. A lot of bands when they start getting popular and famous and selling a lot of records, they get involved in a lot of crap and I think they forget where they came from and we never do, so we always enjoy what we do, so we you see us play live you can see we're having fun, so everyone in the crowd has fun. And all of our songs are real, we have been the same band from the beginning where we all sit and write about things that have happened to us. Certain bands like to have gimmicks, where they sing about this to be the wacky band, or they sing about that to be the scary, dark band. We don't have a gimmick.
I: I think another part of it to is that our fans see a part of themselves in us, and we see part of ourselves in the fans because people come up and give us their demos and I used to do the exact same thing to the bands that I liked. When our first record came out I used to go to shows and give everyone our record. It just makes it level and we can see eye to eye with each other. We just write songs that we love, you can go to our shows and we have slow songs, mid paced songs, fast songs; we never say we won't try something, if we have an idea that we like we'll put it on record. With every record we try to throw a song or two on the record that are a little different to the rest and if you put it at the end of the record, it leaves it open for the next one, and it makes it more fun for us, it's good to experiment.

R13: What is your favourite New Found Glory song to date?
C: Mine's 'On My Mind' from the new album because it's a song where we were able to do something really different and it has this big rock sound and it kind of has a classic rock feel and applied it to a modern sound without sacrificing our NFG sound, so on 'On My Mind' sounds like NFG but is a cool rocking song and no matter what mood you're in you can put that song on and it feels good.
I: There's a song on our record 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' called 'Passing Time' that song just strikes me somehow, no matter how much I love all the songs we write I just get a feeling from 'Passing Time' which I can't duplicate.

R13: Who comes up with your video ideas? Do you have much input as a band?
C: It's a collaboration between us and the label, we'll get an idea and run it by them, or they'll come to us with an idea and we tell them whether we like it or not. We started our band doing everything ourselves, and even though we're on a major label we always try to be involved as much as possible, you have to because you want to be represented in the right way.

R13: You have a headlining UK tour coming up, what can we expect to see from you at a live show?
C: Ian's good looks... Some of the new songs as well as all the classic NFG songs, especially all our fans favourite songs, the songs fans go crazy for live.

R13: You seem to be constantly touring how do you keep it new and fresh?
C: Before we recorded this album we had a break, which was good, and why I think the album has turned out to be our best record because we had a few months before the album where we got live in a house and write these songs and then record it a few months later. After we had some time off, which gave us a chance to sit back to appreciate what we've done and what we're going to do and enjoy it and start a fresh.

R13: What are the best and worst things about being on tour?
I: The worst thing about being on tour is pretty obvious... being away from the people you love, family and friends, the best thing about being on tour is that we're living our dream. Growing up I remember being thirteen years old and watching the Headbangers Ball on TV and videos by Pantera and wishing to be in a band, which made me go out and buy a guitar and I had all these buddies who were great on guitar and it took me so long to learn and I'd get so frustrated, now all these friends I looked up to our just at home working a 9-5 it just goes to show that if you're not in a band that doesn't write good music and good songs, it doesn't matter how talented you are. Luckily I met Chad who writes awesome songs, and now I get to live my dream.

R13: What's the proudest moment of your career to date?
I: There's a lot of them, one that just pops into my head is with Dee Snider from Twisted Sister came up on stage with us in Connecticut and sang with us. At the time it was like pretty cool but it wasn't a big deal, but I have this 8x10 picture at home of us on stage playing and it's awesome, that was a proud moment. Gold records are proud moments, there's tons of proud moments. When we started out we just wanted to travel a bit and play local shows, and we started setting goals for ourselves and one after another we started hitting these goals.
C: One of my proud moments was when we opened for Green Day, their backup guitar player had to go home for a week, so for four shows they asked me to play guitar, not the whole set but just two or three songs, so not only did I get to open for Green Day I got to play with them, so I was up on stage standing next to Billy Joel, which was crazy.
I: A really big thing for us is that our parents are proud of us; growing up in life that's a big goal for any person, so it's pretty cool that our parents are proud because we're so fucking awesome!
R13: What goals have you still got to achieve?
I: Platinum record, that's the next one on my list. I try not to pick to many goals at once because I already consider our band a success, we've far exceeded what we set out to do, so I pick one goal at a time, small steps, but the next thing I would like is a platinum record.
R13: Well, hopefully with "Coming Home"
I: That's what I'm hoping for.
C: Yeah, that would be amazing.

R13: Do you have any final words for our readers?
C: Buy our CD, and tell your friends to buy it, and you'll love it and you need it. You need it to live, it's like food, you gotta eat to live, you gotta but the "Coming Home" album to live.
I: We want to thank you guys, we appreciate your support and come out and see us when we're on tour.

R13: Thank you for time.
C: You're welcome
I: Thank you for your time.