INTERVIEWS

it was 10:00 pm, and we were waiting outside the fu-bar for the show to start. there was a couple of hundred kids outside. the police showed up and said that only 298 people were allowed inside because of safety codes! being the cool guys that new found glory are, they said that they would play two sets that night. they would shorten the first set, and they would have another show after. before they went on for the first time, they were hanging out in front of the club and talking to people. they looked pretty pissed because of what happened with the cops, so we asked them for an interview. the interview was conducted with jordan, ian, and steve, and was submitted to pastepunk.com by andres.

pastepunk: your names and ages?
jordan: i'm jordan, i'm 20 years old, and i'm pretty bummed out right now.
ian: i am ian, i'm 22, i play bass, and this sucks.
steve: i'm steve, i'm 20, and i play guitar.

pastepunk: "the needle on my record player has been wearing thin. this record has been playing since the day you've been with him." what record were you listening to when you wrote that song?
steve: it's not really a certain record, it just shows the repetitiveness of like a cd or a song that you listen to that reminds you of your ex-girlfriend. everytime you listen to it, it kind of makes you cringe cause it reminds you of how it ended. you sitll play it anyway regardless of how bad it was.

pastepunk: who came up with the name, and where did it come from?
steve: me and jordan made it up when we were working and we liked it and we kept it.

pastepunk: what has changed since the last time you were in south florida?
ian: well it wasn't sold out last time...
steve: we haven't really played here for awhile because we used to play every week but people started getting tired of us. that's why we try to play less and less because it makes the shows more fun. also we have gotten older and more experienced.
jordan: and are our fans are getting younger. i feel really old.

pastepunk: who's the girl on the cover of "nothing gold can stay?"
steve: it was chad, our other guitarist's mom when she was young.

pastepunk: the booklet for the first release is pretty awesome. why did you change them when drive-thru rereleased it?
ian: our old label lost the film for the layout, so we couldn't do it again because lost our own copy too. we had to come up with a new concept.
steve: also, the place that printed the new one was a whole new place so would have had to pay the beginning charges all over again.

pastepunk: but now it's cooler because those are like limited edition.
steve: yeah, a lot of people are looking for them on like ebay and shit.
ian: there's actually a couple of different versions. there's one that we sold at the mxpx shows the first four days it was out that have kind of a cheesy cover. it's like one piece of paper, and we took down addresses and mailed out the real layout to them. then there's that cd with the star and chinese writing in it, and then there was another 500 with the song titles printed on them.

pastepunk: what did the chinese writing say?
jordan: those say friendship. they're tattoos that we have. we have them on our legs.

pastepunk: why aren't there any samples on the drive-thru records version of the album?
ian: money.
jordan: yeah, the samples cost a lot of money to go through all the companies that the samples go through, so we couldn't put them on our new record.
ian: it would have been like 50 cents a cd.
jordan: no, 50 cents for each sample, and like $2 each cd.

pastepunk: what scandal would have to happen for there to be a new found glory "behind the music" on vh-1?
ian: actually, we probably have enough stuff already.
pastepunk: can you tell us anything?
ian: uh..no.
steve: we kind of have a pact of whatever goes on tour stays on tour.
ian: i'll tell you some stories, but only when the recorder is off, if you want?

pastepunk: what is the biggest disagreement you guys have?
ian: probably who gets to sleep in the beds when we stay at someone's house.
jordan: or who drives.
steve: or who gets to take a shower first.
jordan: also, it's hard for us to compromise on what songs we are going to play live.

pastepunk: what's your favorite song to play live?
ian: i like 2's and 3's the best.
jordan: basically the popular ones because those are the songs that the most people sing along to, and stuff like that.

pastepunk: who has the worst driving habits?
ian: chad!!!
jordan: chad swerves. if you see chad, just call him swervee!
ian: and cyrus smokes 24-7.
jordan: even when the windows ared down...

pastepunk: what's the best and worst thing about doing these interviews?
ian: i don't think there's anything bad about it.
jordan: the one thing for me is trying to come up with the answers, because you always remember everything you wanted to say after it is done.
ian: the worst part is when people read them and sometimes they don't get the humor in it because they don't hear how we are saying stuff, and they may take it in a different way thant it was intended. getting misinterpreted sucks.

pastepunk: what's your favorite 80's movie?
jordan: fast times at ridgemont high.
steve: my favorite movie is the goonies, but also it's cool because we are good friends with corey feldman. he hung out with us in california, and he's in our video for "hit or miss," too.

police officer: hey, get up and get the hell out of here!
jordan: we're trying to do an interview!
ian: we're in the last band that's playing.
police officer: i don't care. get out!
jordan: are there any more questions?

pastepunk: no, that's okay. we're done, i guess. thanks for the interview, it was nice meeting you guys.
all: no, thank you

hey stoopid! (issue #4, november 2000)

i did this interview with nfg after their show on october 20th at the chance in poughkeepsie, ny. it was pretty crazy there were like 10-15 people in this tiny room and everyone was talking at the same time. needless to say this interview was hard to scrap. nfg just released their self-titled lp on mca and are on tour until late december 2000.
-bianca

ian: to start the interview off, we're eating these marshmallow spooky cats, or actually, we're not. we're eating marshmallow ghosts. and it's from the makers of marshmallow peeps. they're 99 cents at brooks. now we're going to try some spooky cats. hey jordan, try a spooky cat. everyone has to eat one. everyone is eating a spooky cat in order for the interview to take place. (ian passes out a spooky cat to everyone). okay, now we're eating spooky cats, the interview can start.

bianca: name/age/occupation?
ian: i'm ian, i play bass, i'm 23. and i'm an ex-sandwich maker at einstein bagels. and i cut my hair off.
jordan: i'm next dude.
ian: yeah, you're next.
jordan: my name is jordan, and i sing for a band called new found glory and i'm 21

bianca: and it was your birthday.
jordan: yup on the 12th, october 12th. and i sing for the band.
cyrus: i'm cyrus, i play drums..yeah.

bianca: you didn't say your age.
cyrus: oh, i'm 20
ian: and your birthday?
cyrus: my birthday is february 27th.

bianca: what's your birthday?
ian: my birthday is september 4th, 1977. and i like the britney spears doll, so if you read this, feel free to bring me a free one.
cyrus: nobody's gonna read this.
jordan: if anyone wants to give me belt buckles...

bianca: how is the tour going, and do you have a favorite show so far?
cyrus:: the tour is awesome.
jordan: the tour has been awesome, um...favorite show?
cyrus: tonite dude.
jordan: last nite was my favorite show. rochester.
cyrus: i think tonite rocked.

bianca: except i bit a hole in my tounge, and christine got kicked in the head, and sammi almost passed out..
cyrus: really? okay so tonite sucked.

bianca: how is mca? and is it a lot different than drive-thru?
ian: i think it's kind of the same, like we were on drive-thru, and mca pressed out cd's and universal distributed our cd's. we're on mca and the same thing goes on. just now we deal with more than just, you know, a couple of people. we deal with more people, but we still talk to drive-thru everyday, and we're really friendly. richard from drive-thru flew out here to hang out with us today and to go to the show. so they're really like our friends, they're family to us. and the newer cd is on mca but we still deal with drive-thru every single day. so it's kinda like we have two labels. that's why we have both logo's on the cd. if you know what i'm sayin'.

ian: okay so i'm like really hungry, and these things suck. but i want another one anyway.
jordan: i want brownies dude.
ian: go get some brownies.
jordan: okay, i'm gonna go get some brownies.
ian: get me two.

bianca: have you met any really famous people?
ian: we met corey feldman. he was in our video. he's fuckin' kool as shit.
cyrus: i met the drummer from blink-182.
ian: yeah he met travis. i had met the other guys from blink like a while ago, but travis...he's a big fan of travis. but i met some other famous people, like without the band. like dom delouise. i met him once at my bagel store. and i got him to say 'new found glory rocks' on my camcorder. he like took a bite of the bagel sandwich, he's like "mmmm...new found glory".

[jordan comes in with brownies (a lot of brownies!)]

everyone: yeeeeeeeaaahhhhhh!
bianca: it sucks being a vegan.
ian: the vegan patrol isn't here.
jordan: everyone take two.
ian: i took three.

bianca: next question? okay, what's your reaction to people calling the new album 'over-produced' and 'too radio ready'?
jordan: fuck them... i'm just kidding.

bianca: no but seriously...
cyrus: it's like, why would we want the album to sound crappy?
jordan: exactly!
cyrus: you know? do you really want to have an album where you can't hear ian playing bass or...
ian: i'll explain it to you. we did 'it's all about the girls' the first ep, really cheap, 'nothing gold can stay' cost us like 1200 dollars, 'from the screen to your stereo' cost us like 2 grand. and we had like 3 days to do it, we just did it for fun because we wanted our fans to have something to hold them off until the new record came out. it wasn't because we wanted to be like a "cover band" or anything like that. it's just, covers are fun to play. we enjoyed doing it, and we did songs that we liked, and had fun. and now we had an awesome producer, we got this guy neal avron. and it's like, with his help, it was a big part of the record. and we're happy with the way it sounds. but everyone has the right to their own opinion. so if they feel it's over produced then we can't tell them that they're wrong. you know? everyone can think what they want. hopefully people will like it, you know? that's all i have to say.

bianca: so the new album is completely different than the old album, is there a reason for it? do you feel it's like evolution or something? do you think it's better than the old stuff, or just different or what?
jordan: i think it's just a more mature version of "nothing gold can stay".
cyrus: this is like what we are now.
jordan: there's like that one slow song, and fast songs and fun songs. you know what i'm saying. like winter of '95, like jumping up and down songs.
ian: i would just like to add that these brownies are really fuckin' good brownies.
jordan: shit i forgot what i was saying...

bianca: i don't remember either.
jordan: oh yeah there were slow songs,
ian: let me just interrupt once again, there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 people forgot what you just said. you know what i'm sayin'? wait, we're 10 people i forgot to count myself. my bad.

bianca: yeah so, is that the end? are you done?
jordan: i don't remember......yeah and um....yeah.
ian: yeah so you said it was a more mature version of "nothing gold can stay"?
jordan: yeah.

bianca: do you want to be on mtv? and do you think it matters if "punk" bands are on mtv?
cyrus: i want to be on mtv, vh1, bet...
ian: we think that whatever happens happens, we're just gonna take it as it happens.
jordan: we're not planning anything.
ian: from the time that i started the band, like even when i was younger watching mtv, i wanted to be in a band on mtv. and i think that if we do get to a point where we're on mtv and we're still...like we understand that without our fans we're nothing. all the fans that have been supporting us from the beginning are the reason that we're able to tour in the first place. and we know that without the fans we're nothing. that's why we're not big headed. we don't brag to people about what we do. if we never got any bigger than we are now, we're still really happy. right now we're so stoked, we're on top of the world following our dreams. it's like we're having so much fun doing it. so we'd be really excited if i could be on trl so britney spears would know who i am. like i want backstage passes to an 'nsync show so i could be like "yeah i know who they are" it's kool. and i don't think i'd get to a point where i'd get cocky, because i know that without your fans, you're nothing.
jordan: like blink man, they've been together for 10 years, they worked their asses off.
ian: they worked really hard. they would come down to florida like 7 time a year in a van, and they deserve everything they got. and i don't think they sold out in any way. people that call them sellouts weren't fans from the beginning. and they don't understand what they went through to get popular. but i forgot what i was gonna say...
jordan: no that was good dude.

bianca: why is hit or miss on 2 albums in a row? why the re-mixed version?
jordan: okay i feel that......everyone's too quiet. make some noise. it's that, that seems to be everyone's favorite on the whole cd. and we feel that it's a good song and with the new record it will be out to more people. and basically we wanted to re-record it so those people could hear it. do you kinda get what i'm saying?
ian: i get what you're saying but i think you could ask all five of us and we'd all tell you a different reason why it's on there. the reason i feel we did it is because i like the song a lot. and i'll be honest with you, the bass guitar sound that i got on nothing gold was not exactly....i used a stingray and i just didn't like the way it turned out. stingray's are amazing basses live, but in the studio, we weren't too smart about what we were doing, so maybe it was kind of our fault. but we re-recorded with a p-bass that i used and i liked it a lot more. but i don't think the first recording did the song justice. but i could be wrong. that's just what i think

[steve comes up]

jordan: hey dude, we're trying to do this interview, and i just can't do it.

bianca: okay question, do you plan on making a new video for hit or miss?
ian: as of now we don't have any plans to do another video at all.
cyrus: all we have plans for is playing shows every day.
ian: but we'll see. i'm not gonna say no in the future, but for now we don't have plans to do a video. we haven't even pushed it to radio.

bianca: i heard it on the radio.
ian: but we didn't push it to radio yet. if radio is playing it, it's cause...i don't know why...but...
steve: let's start a fire in the middle and sing kumbyiah, and tell scary stories.

bianca: is there a band that you really love that you don't feel is getting enough recognition?
[cyrus says some band that you can't hear at all]
steve: no one knows about that band, shut up dude.

bianca: that's the point.
steve: i think midtown, midtown should definitely be getting more recognition.
ian: alkaline trio.
steve: saves the day is already big. i dunno, green day? like these new shoelaces that someone gave me?
jordan: those are mine.
steve: what? they gave them to me fool. it said steve on the tag.

bianca: if you were interviewing yourself, what would you ask?
ian: i would say 'do you guys get laid a lot on tour'?
steve: speaking of that, some kid came up to me and goes 'my sister is rooming with this girl who knows you guys and she said she gave you guys all head.' and i'm like 'i never got head from any girl.'
ian: me, steve, and jordan all have girlfriends so we never hook up with any girls. so if anyone ever says they hooked up with us, then they're wrong.
steve: cyrus made out with some girl on stage last nite.
jordan: yeah that was funny. good charlotte does a song right, and before the song...
steve: "this song is for sensitive males...blah blah".
jordan: they call cyrus up...
steve: they call him up and they're like "anyone who wants to make out with cyrus?" and all the girls are like "ahh" and they picked some girl out and they made out. and cyrus said she was a bad kisser. okay, i'm ready, gimme some more questions. i don't know, i'm normally laid back but i'm talking so much today.

bianca: okay so last time we did an interview, i asked you if you got mad when people left off the "a" in your name. and you were like "yeah we get mad if they don't put it on flyers".
steve: you have good questions this time, i remember last time you sucked.

bianca: yeah we did suck. but anyways, why would you ditch it when you were like "no put the a, we like the a"?
jordan: that's because "nothing gold can stay" was out at that time, and it was with the a...
steve: we didn't really sit down and think about it, we weren't like "hey, are we being dumb by doing this, or we might as well just do it?"
ian: we would go into record stores, some would have it under 'a', some would have it under 'n'. people would go in and say "i want to order a new found glory" they type in a new found glory, but they had it under 'n' and they can't find it.
steve: plus new found glory sounds better, "hey i listen to new found glory" or "hey i listen to a new found glory" "we're new found glory" "hey we're not a new found glory".
ian: people would say "what's the name of your band?" and i'd say "a new found glory" and they'd be like "huh??". then if they say "what's the name of your band?", you say "new found glory" they're like "oh". the 'a' totally knocks people off. i think i may have been the one who answered that question and said we got mad when people left off the 'a'.
jordan: because no one else cared.
ian: it was pretty much so that we knew it would be under 'n' in stores.

bianca: what are you being for halloween?
ian: it's a secret.

bianca: no, no, no just tell me.
cyrus: no it's a secret because we're playing a show on halloween.
steve: and because we haven't thought of anything yet.
ian: i may be winnie the pooh because i already have the costume.

bianca: how do you feel about the album being on napster before it was officially released?
ian: now that the album is out i really don't mind. i think napster is super cool as long as the cd is out. the fact that it was on there, i guess it's kool for our fans because they get to hear it earlier, but it kind of ruined the build up of the release. you know? in that sense, britney spears' cd came out and they day it came out i was the first one at the mall when it opened. you know what i'm saying? it was exciting for me.

[steve starts talking about his new tattoos]

steve: this juicy enough, right? am i making this fun? kinda right?
ian: shut up.
jordan: i made it kool when i came in here, right?

bianca: no you didn't
jordan: i didn't, why?

bianca: because you couldn't remember what you were saying.

steve: we have this quote, "wherever the food is, new found glory is". you guys had to bribe us with food to get us to do this interview.

bianca: except we didn't bring this food. so are you planning on voting in the upcoming election? if so for who?
ian: no, i've never voted once and i never will.
bianca: why?
ian: i'm not interested.
cyrus: me neither.
ian: if i ever watched all the debates and i knew what would be the right choice then i guess it would be kool to vote. but i don't understand any of it. it's all over the head and below the knee.
steve: i heard this before "if there's gonna be an asshole in the office, at least let it be your asshole."
ian: but you're not gonna vote anyway.
steve: probably not. but bush is evil. he's anti-weed. he's gonna push more abortion shit, and if you get caught with weed you're fucked. gore is much more lenient.

bianca: last question, what is your message to the youth of america?
ian: do whatever you want. if someone tells you not to do something that you want to do, do it anyway. if you really believe that it is right. i'm not saying break the law wise, do stupid shit like that. but if you want to do something, like be in a band.
cyrus: follow your dreams.
steve: my parents let me follow my dreams and look where i am today.
ian: be nice to your parents because if your parents didn't have sex you wouldn't be here in the first place. so be nice to them and go one day at a time and eat a lot of food. and have safe sex. and check out newfoundglory.com.

bianca: yeah you can plug if you want...
jordan: buy our new record.
ian: bring me the britney spears doll.

bianca: yeah say your birthday again...
ian: we said our birthday's already.

bianca: say it again, so people know when to bring you the doll.
ian: september...no my birthday is everyday. just bring me shit. you know what i'm saying?
punkinterviews.com
submitted to me by josh stern

on saturday, january 29th i interviewed the singer and guitarists for a new found glory. for those that haven't heard of them, they are a very energetic poppunk band on drive-thru records. their latest full-length "nothing gold can stay" is unbelievable. they are putting out a cover cd on march 28th. there is more info on that in the interview.
- josh stern

josh: so who all is here?
chad: i’m chad and i play the bongos, the guitar.
jordan: i’m jordan, i sing.
steve: i’m steve and i play guitar.

josh: how long have you guys been together?
chad : we’ve been together for about
steve : 2 years
jordan : 6 months
chad : we’ve been together for like two years, two and a half years. we’ve been playing locally for like 2 years and just about a year ago we started touring, we got a van and started touring all around the us and stuff.

josh: how did you guys meet?
jordan : i knew steve in high school.
chad : steve was a nerd in high school and really didn’t have any friends.
jordan : yea
chad : and jordan had a good voice and was starting a band and he felt really bad for steve because steve was the guy that was in the corner by himself and everybody always threw food at him at lunch.
jordan : and he ate all the food that everyone threw at him.
chad : so jordan went up to him and was like "hey you wanna start a band" and everything and they got steve and then jordan found the bass player ian, he was homeless. and then they got me. no ok, everyone knew each other. jordan and steve went to high school and they knew ian just from being in bands and stuff like that and just we all got together and started playing. that’s really it. besides the fact that steve was a nerd in high school.

josh: how did you guys get on drive-thru?
jordan : we are friends with this band midtown.
steve : they basically played the cd for richard and stephanie (owners of drive-thru) and they liked it a lot. and so we kinda thank them for doing that.

josh: how do you feel about the success of "nothing gold can stay"?
jordan : it is kinda overwhelming… it’s like weird.
steve : i wouldn’t really call it a success yet, we are just touring and bustin our asses off touring and stuff like that. it’ll be a success when we can actually like be able to support ourselves on the road.

josh: what’s going on with your cover cd?
jordan : it’s coming out march 28th. we just finished setting up the layout and stuff like that. and we just finished recording it.

josh: how many songs are on it?
steve : 7 songs, do you want me to name them?

josh: sure.
steve : ok we have "that thing you do", the theme from never ending story, armageddon… the aerosmith song, we did a goonies song and this cindi lauper song. we did a robin hood song by bryan adams, a song from karate kid part 2 and titanic by celine dion. it was a really fun thing to do because our cd came out a while ago and we wanted to have something to hold kids over until the next full-length comes out.

josh: what inspires your music most?
guy from piebald (band) : what inspires our music most probably is all the other bands that sound exactly like us.
jordan : dude that’s messed up.
steve : i guess really what inspires us the most is like to play music. it inspires to play music. we have all been really into music since we were little and we always wanted to play bands. we always idolized all the bands we listened to when we were younger and we wanted to do our own original thing and play in our own band and see how it feels to play in front of kids and stuff like that. it’s a lot of fun.

josh: what did you guys listen to growing up?
jordan : green day.
steve : yea, a lot of green day. a lot of 80’s stuff and oldies.

josh: how old are you guys now?
jordan : 20
chad : 20

josh: who do you listen to now?
steve : i listen to everything, there’s not really a restriction as to what i listen to.
jordan : i listen to a lot of stuff, britney spears, dragbottom, piebald.
steve : we listen to anywhere from boy bands to like hardcore and metal stuff to. punk rock, punk whatever ya know, everything.
jordan : we don’t really have any restrictions on what we listen to. i think dr. dre is really cool too.

josh: do you feel that coming from florida makes it tougher to make a name for yourself as opposed to a state like california?
steve : yes, definitely. because like we live practically 9 hours from any other state because we live in south florida so its harder for us to go away on weekend tours and just play certain places. other bands, either in california or like on the east coast like new jersey they are in the heart of the country where they can just play any other state like on a weekend and it is hard for us to get out of here because it is soo far away.
josh: is there a show or moment in your band history that totally sticks out in your mind?
steve : when we played with mxpx is was kind of a highlight, that has been our favorite band for a long time. just playing a couple shows with those guys was a really really good experience to play with a band that we really love a lot.

josh: what would be your ideal show? what city, what bands on the bill, etc.
jordan : our ideal show would probably be in new jersey. the kids there are soo cool and our friends midtown are there. our ideal show would be with midtown, saves the day… green day. that is like our dream, that’s our goal to play with green day. that is every single member of the band’s favorite band since we were little. if we could play any show, i don’t care where, with green day that’d be amazing.

josh: where do you see yourself in 3 years as a band?
steve : hopefully still playing music ya know? well actually try and make a career out of what we are doing right now because we love it soo much. so hopefully in 3 years from now it will be the same as what we are doing now. still having fun, still writing music, still putting out records for kids.

josh: what do your parents think of all this?
jordan : our parents are real supportive of the whole thing. the night before last my family came to the show and my dad was wearing a new found glory sweater and a hat with a pin on it and he looked like a real dork but it was soo cool because he came out. all our parents support us a lot. we all quit school to be the band. it took them a while but they started understanding that this is what we want to do for the rest of our lives. this is our roadie steve wooker, he has been on the road with us for a while now. he’s irish and he lives in gainesville. he poops in his pants all the time.

roadie : yea i was just about to add that in. jordan why don’t you tell everybody how like at least 3 times a tour you ask everyone else to borrow their boxers because you shit yourself on stage. he gets so nervous, he gets nervous diarrhea and he shits himself.
steve : he has asked to borrow my boxers like 3 times.

josh: do you want to confirm this?
jordan : that has never happened, ever.
roadie & steve : he’s lying!
jordan : i am not lying!!!
roadie : jordan has a problem. he has like a loose colon.
jordan : yea dude, it’s cool.

josh: do you guys have a job outside of the band?
all : no.
steve : work sucks.
jordan : when we are home we just spend time with our girlfriends, we are never home. my girlfriend is here right now, her name is mandy.

josh: what happened in the winter of 95?
jordan : i dunno.
steve : you wrote that song, you should know.
jordan : it should be actually winter of 97 because that is when i met my girlfriend.

josh: the joke’s on her.

[laughter]

josh: what is your favorite song that you guys have written?
jordan : my favorite one would probably be 3rd and long.

josh: do you guys have a favorite movie?
steve : my favorite movie, probably of all time is "ferris bueller’s day off." i dunno i have a lot of favorite movies, that is the one that stands out the most probably.

josh: what is your favorite cereal?
jordan : i like lucky charms… a lot. one time i had this huge bowl of lucky charms.
steve : i like fruity pebbles.
jordan : fruity pebbles are good because when you are done and you drink the milk from the bowl it tastes like candy.

josh: what do you think of britney spears?
all : we love britney spears.
steve : i have her sticker on my amp.
jordan : our bassist is like in love with her. he was this promo picture of her standing next to a kid and he put his, like he cut out a picture of himself and put his face on the guy. we love basically all the boy bands like christina agulera, backstreet boys, and all them.
roadie : i think she is just another mediocre, teen pop frenzy. it wont last long. i think she is pretty and she does sing good but it is a trend that wont last. like jordan pooping his pants. that wont last much longer because he is going to the doctor and taking medicine

 

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