GW The original working title for the song “Failure’s Not Flattering” was “Belinda”?

KLEIN Yeah. While we’re writing, we name all of our songs after artists that we think the song sounds like—even if it doesn’t really. And that song was named after Belinda Carlisle [singer with Eighties New Wave band the Go-Go’s]. We recorded that song all Eighties style. We put the drums in a small room, all taped up with no bottom heads. We used all pretty much clean guitars. And all the vocals have a Cars feel.

GILBERT To be honest, we just listened to a Cars record and tried to match their guitar sounds.

GW That retro Eighties vibe kind of puts you in the company of a band like Fountains of Wayne. I don’t know how you feel about that.

KLEIN Fountains of Wayne are an awesome band. I don’t mind you comparing us to them. Come on, they wrote “That Thing You Do!” I love them—except for “Stacy’s Mom.”

GILBERT I think those guys [Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger] just said, “Alright, we’ve written all these great songs that have gone unnoticed, so now we’re gonna write a really cheesy one. That way I can sell a lot of records and be on the radio.” Cause all their other songs are really legit. That album with “Radiation Vibe” on it [Fountains of Wayne, 1996] is a killer.

GW Steve, do you and drummer Cyrus Booluki still share a house in Temecula, California?

KLEIN Yeah, me and Cyrus still live together. We actually built a studio in our house, and Cyrus has been recording a bunch of bands for this new label that Chad and [bassist] Ian [Grushka] have started.

GW Two guys sharing a house—how does that impinge on your love lives?

KLEIN Well, when we decided to move in together, we didn’t have girlfriends. Then, after a year of living together, we both got girlfriends and both of our girlfriends live with us now. So we had a bachelor pad at first, but now it’s more like we live together with our girlfriends. After this record, we’ll hopefully have a little time off and we’ll probably each move into our own houses.

GW In its day, I’m sure your place was the swingingest bachelor pad in all of Temecula.

KLEIN Definitely. When we first moved in, it was hip.

GW Although I don’t know how many girls one can meet in Temecula.

KLEIN Not that many, actually. After they turn 18, they get smart and get out. So it’s people in high school and older girls.

GW It’s one of those towns people can’t wait to leave—suburban nowhere.

KLEIN Exactly. But the guys in Finch also live there, down the street from me. We barbecue and hang out. It’s not the hippest town, but it was really cheap to buy a house there.

GW Speaking of intraband relations, does Ian ever get on your nerves? Judging from your DVD, The Story So Far, he always seems to be “on.”

GILBERT He’s not always like that. Actually, he’s one of the most quiet guys in the band. But when he’s onstage or on camera he feels like he’s on the spot, so he becomes very talkative and active. Ian’s the kind of kid who’s been picked on and called “fat” all his life. But now everyone who went to his school is kissing his ass.

KLEIN When everyone in the band is feeling down, Ian is the one who cheers us all up. He actually carries a job application for Taco Bell in his suitcase. So if he ever gets fed up with anything the band is doing, he pulls out the application and says, “I could be working here or I could be in New Found Glory playing shows all around the world.”

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