TEAM LAST CALL

There are essentially two types of Jimmy Eat World songs – loud, anthemic rockers and sensitive, syruppy pop tunes. On its new album, Chase This Light, the band sticks to the formula, but ups both the bombast and the romanticism. It’s like the band spent the past three years lifting weights all day and freebasing packets of Sweet’N Low all night. The rock songs are more athletic, the pop songs are more unapologetic; sometimes they’re even the same song. It’s Jimmy Eat World running at 11.
The result is the musical equivalent of a John Hughes film – something big, dramatic, joyful and borderline cheesy (and aware of it, and not caring about it) that evokes memories of high school football games, first kisses, breakups, makeups and the girlfriend you had for one week at summer camp. Basically, Chase This Light is the soundtrack to the moment when Samantha exits the church and sees Jake Ryan waiting for her across the street.
Team Last Call caught up with guitarist Tom Linton three days after the album’s release in mid-October. He was scuttling through the streets of Anaheim, rushing from an in-store signing session to a sold-out show, and still managed to sound chipper despite the fact that we were probably his 30th interview of the day. That’s rock and roll for you.

Team Last Call: Are you guys listening to a Disney soundtrack?
Tom Linton: [laughs] We’re, like, in downtown Disney and there are speakers above my head. We’re playing the House of Blues in Anaheim. I’ve never been here. I don’t think it’s connected to Disneyland – unless it is.

TLC: So, Chase This Light feels overall just much bigger, with a lot of those get-up-and-go songs. Was that a goal at all?
TL: Every time we put out a record, we just want it to be better than the last record. With this record, we were able to record it in Tempe in our practice space. I think one of the goals we had was we just wanted to have over 20 songs to choose from, and we ended up with almost 30. I think we definitely wanted each song to be different. Sometimes you buy records and a lot of songs sound the same. One thing we try to do is have every song stand out on its own, and I think we were able to do that on this record.

TLC: You guys have like two totally different kinds of fans – the people who have been following you for a long time and think of albums like Clarity as being one of those life-soundtracks, and people who got into you because of “The Middle.” Is it weird for you to be straddling that?
TL: It’s always nice when you put out a record to see new faces coming to the show. We don’t really put a barrier on people that like our records. We just try to make everyone happy. We go to the website and see what people want to hear and stuff like that.

TLC: It seems like eight out of 10 bands on MySpace list you guys as an influence. Has it been weird transitioning into, like, the daddies of indie-rock?
TL: It’s kind of weird. It makes us feel kind of old, like old men. We’re all in our 30s, but I think we’re playing better now than we have ever before. It’s flattering that people list us as one of their favorite bands. It feels good.

TLC: You’re about to hit the 15-year mark. Did you ever think you guys would be around this long?
TL: It’s definitely weird. I think when we all played in bands when we were kids – at least the bands that Rick [Burch, bassist] and I were in – it seemed like they would only last for six months or something. There were always people leaving the band. I think after one year with this band it was like a major mark for me. It’s pretty crazy that we’ve been able to play for as long as we have. Everything seems like it’s working out so far.

TLC: After all of the punches you guys took from records labels over the years, hopefully you’ve gotten the bad stuff over with and can do another 15.
TL: It’s definitely crazy. We’ve gone through a lot of stuff with record labels. People are getting fired all the time and bands are getting dropped. So I think it’s just something that we’re going to have to deal with – especially now with people not buying music as much. It’s an interesting time right now. We’ll see what happens.

TLC: People have always written about you guys like the little emo band that could. You were the first band that broke through the mainstream that people stuck that label on. Do you feel like you’ve maybe, finally, been able to shrug off that “emo” label?
TL: No, I don’t think so. [laughs] It’s funny, I was telling Jim [Adkins, frontman] the other day, like, every interview, they always ask, “All right, so you guys are like the leaders of emo?” Every interview people always bring up emo. I guess we just kind of laugh at it. We think it’s funny, and there’s nothing really we can do about it.

TLC: It’s funny, because you could make an argument that emo came and went before you guys were ever successful.
TL: Yeah, totally. I have no idea why it got tagged on us, but there’s nothing we can do about it.

TLC: So, what’s the experience been like now that this album’s out the door?
TL: I think all of our shows so far – we’re not playing stadiums or anything – but all of the shows have been sold out. The record got leaked on the internet a couple weeks ago, so a lot of the kids are out singing the new songs already. It seems like they’re all into it, so it’s all been good.
*Reprinted from Fly Magazine