 Dan Hargesheimer:
What's your favorite song on the new album and why?
Steve Klein: That's such a hard question
because they were all made from scratch and they are
all our babies. But the songs I would say that I like
to play live are 'On My Mind' and 'Coming Home.' 'On
My Mind' is one of those songs that you hear right off
the bat and just from the beginning riff, it seems like
a complete thought... people love that song. It's one
of those first listen songs that you get as soon as
you hear it. 'Coming Home' is one song with an amazing
arena rock chorus that anyone, you don't even need to
know the English language to be able to sing the chorus.
Those two songs are definitely my picks for the best
two songs on the record.
Dan: Do you know what the next single
is going to be off the new album?
Steve: It could be either one of those
songs that I just talked about. There is a big debate...
so we'll see what happens.
Dan: What did you guys do different
on this album than the rest?
Steve: Tons of stuff different. The
first thing was that we went in this house in Malibu
called Morning View, where a bunch of bands recorded
including Less Than Jake, and Incubus... why they named
their record Morning View. It's this empty mansion where
we were able to set up all our equipment... we just
woke up and wrote songs. We wrote about 30 songs for
the record. Usually we are on tour writing songs on
the back of the bus and it felt like we were rushed
to a certain extent on our last records and on this
one we were really relaxed and able to set our own pace.
This disc is less guitar driven and more melody driven...
more than any other of our records. Everything about
the record is way more classic rock sounding because
this guy Thom Panunzio who's done a bunch of classic
rock records like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen and
Ozzy, and the list goes on and on... he kind of brought
this different element to our band. Considering we didn't
use the same producer that we had for 3 other... Definitely
using a new producer and co-producing with him kind
of made it sound different.
Dan: What has been your favorite music
video to make so far?
Steve: I thought that the 'I Don't
Wanna Know' video was really cool... something that
we just had the idea and did it. It was just playing
as the seasons were changing. It was the craziest video
we've had to do because we would be playing and the
rain machine would be going, and then the snow machine,
and then us playing with the wind blowing... it was
just a really cool video with the special effects. The
'All Downhill' video was really cool, but we didn't
have to do anything just because everything was done
with a green screen. All in all, that video came out
pretty cool for its time because no one really had videos
like that.
Dan: Your tour has been going on for
about 10 days now, has your new disc been well received
by the fans?
Steve: This is our first record that
has been critically acclaimed I guess you can say because
AP gave it a 4 out of 5. A bunch of really really good
reviews, and we don't usually get very good reviews
ever in our career so it's a really good feeling to
get some respect (then laughs).
Dan: What did you guys do in your
free time while recording this new album?
Steve: A lot of poker, and you know
just hanging out. Malibu sounds like a big town, but
really it's kind of a small town where everything shuts
down early so you kind of have a lot of free time to
ourselves to kind of just hang out and recollect...
try to think about where we wanted to go with this record...
we had some growing pains and it kind of worked itself
out to be something great I feel.
Dan: I have your DVD that was shot
in London, what has been your favorite place to play
overseas?
Steve: Japan definitely. I think that's
the only country we go to and get culture shock because
no one there speaks our language. No one speaks English,
they don't really teach it in schools... you can go
to mainland Europe and call a taxi, and kind of get
places... but there if you don't have someone with you
that speaks Japanese you're not going to get anywhere.
But then again on the other hand you go to the shows
and all the kids know every single word to every single
one of your songs in English, even though they don't
speak a word of English... but they do 'Heys' in between
everything.
Dan: This is your 7th released disc;
do you guys plan to record and tour for some time to
come?
Steve: I hope so...As long as people
are still buying records and coming to the shows we'll
still do it.
Dan: Since last touring, has your
band mate Ian been on the Atkins diet and lost weight,
ate a lot and put on his 'winter weight,' or stayed
pretty close to the same?
Steve: He's always the same... he just
kind of does that as like his little inside joke really.
Dan: Can we expect to see him with
his shirt off like usual on tour?
Steve: I don't know it just kind of
depends on what kind of mood he's in. He's kind of spastic
that way... changes his image a lot.
Dan: When did you guys realize that
this band was going to take off and become something
big?
Steve: I guess when we started getting
national tours with Less Than Jake... like we were nobody
and Less Than Jake gave us a tour. Blink 182 called
us and gave us a tour... then we had our first major
label record. We did 'Tour of the World' with Green
Day and to me, you can't really ask for more than that.
Those guys were major influences on us.
Dan: When you are out on the road,
what's your favorite place to eat?
Steve: This place called Fogo de Chao...
actually there is one here in Chicago
Dan: Who's been the most fun band
to tour with or party with?
Steve: I'd say Less Than Jake. On the
Civic Tour we had a club setup in our dressing room
and after we got off stage we had a dance/disco party
every night... so it was a pretty fun tour.
Dan: Do you have any idea of how many
copies you guys have sold of your new CD?
Steve: We don't really pay attention
to that... we like the songs, we're playing the shows
every night and we know the fans and kids every night
are singing every single word on not just our old songs
but our new songs too. To me that means a lot, because
that shows that the fans are growing with us and our
fans love our new music.
Dan: In the near future, what's one
band you would like to tour with?
Steve: We like to keep it a secret.
We've been talking about some tours with some larger
bands... we don't want to ruin it, and nothing is really
set in stone in the music business.
Dan: Who or what are you going to
be for Halloween?
Steve: Still haven't decided yet...
we need to get on that... because it's getting close.
I had a couple ideas I could picture us being a glam
band with shiny shirts and long hair that would be funny,
but who knows.
Steve: Be sure to check out the review
of New Found Glory's show at the House of Blues Chicago!
Thanks to the guys from New Found Glory for letting
me invade their personal space, and to guitarist Steve
Klein who let me pick his brain for a few minutes.
Thanks also to Geffen Records and to Dan Klores Communications
for setting up the interview.
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