Just before Christmas Planet Loud caught up with punk rock heroes New Found Glory to talk about the new record, the rumours of Blink 182 reforming and what it’s like bing on Epitaph Records.

Planet Loud – Hi Steve, how’s the tour been going for you guys?
New Found Glory – The tour’s bee really awesome, we just finished a tour in the states with Four Years Strong and the tour before that we had Set Your Goals on it so we’ve know both bands for a long time. So it’s been great bringing both the bands over here, it’s been really fun.

Planet Loud – Did you guys choose to bring the support bands over?
New Found Glory – Yeah, it’s cool because the fans think if it as an event rather than just a concert, and so they usually turn up to see the whole show, making it more fun. We always pick all the bands we tour with, so we pick our friends because when you’re on the road for so long, you want to have a good time, you know? Or not listen to band you don’t like.

Planet Loud – Where have you played so far?
New Found Glory – We just came from South America, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton, a lot! London and then tomorrow Newcastle which the last night and we then go home for the holidays.

Planet Loud – Will you be glad to go home?
New Found Glory – Yeah, well, we need a little break, we’ve been on tour for a while, and we’re excited to go home for the holidays.

Planet Loud – What’s the year been like for you, as a whole?
New Found Glory – Good! We’ve released an EP on Bridge 9, “Tip of the Iceberg“, which a lot of our hardcore fans love . We got to do a lot of fun stuff like go on tour, write a new record called “Not Without a Fight” with our friend Mark Hoppus which is finished now and due out March 10th. So we‘ve been keeping real busy.

Planet Loud – How was recording the new album?
New Found Glory – I like the recording process, because we got to start playing new songs. Every record you make you have to play the same songs over and over, it’s fun to be able to do some fresh new stuff. We’re really excited for fans to hear it because we’ve worked so hard on it. We think that they’re going to like it a lot.

Planet Loud – How does New Found Glory’s recording process go?
New Found Glory – Well, there’s been a sort of set process ever since we started our band, it will start with a musical idea from Chad, then Chad will come to me, and I’ll write the lyrics, and then show it to Jordan. He’ll work on the lyrics and vocal melodies with me and stuff like that and then show it to the rest of the band. I have a lot to do with the writing process.

Planet Loud – When writing new material do you aim to keep long standing fans happy, or do you go out of your way to be different to perhaps encourage new fans?
New Found Glory – We always want to gain new fans, I think that’s one cool things about New Found Glory and why we’ve been around for as long as we have is because we put out a record which is relevant to the current time period. We always try to capture the time period for us personally. We try to write music that we like but it turns out the fans end up liking the music that we like too. That’s how it usually works out; we’re not going to write anything we don’t like. So it just so happens that other people like it.

Planet Loud – What was it like working with Mark Hoppus? How did you get in touch with him?
New Found Glory – It was fun! The guy doesn’t take himself too seriously, you know? He was relaxing to have in the studio. He wasn’t too serious any time, so it was nice. We did what we had to go and then got to go home. Personally I had to fly out because we recorded in LA but it was cool I got to go home on the weekend. When we were deciding on who we wanted to do the record with and amongst a bunch of producers his name came up. We listen to his records and they sounded cool and we knew we’d feel comfortable with him. Plus he likes our band. We hooked up with him when we toured with Blink (182) and we’ve kept in touch ever since. It was like a natural progression. It brought a new aspect to the record because kids are still super stoked about and listen to Blink and so it is almost like a collaboration with us even though we don’t sound anything like Blink.

Planet Loud – What do you think about the rumours of Blink 182 getting back together?
New Found Glory – I don’t know! I hope they do!

Planet Loud – What’s it like to be signed to epitaph now?
New Found Glory – It’s awesome. It’s cool to be on a label that are actually excited about our band. When you’re on a major label you get kind of lost in the whole shuffle of things and you’re with bands that don’t sound anything like you. People from major labels only focus on singles or money; I mean every label needs to make money but you want to be on a label that gives a crap about rock music ‘cause that’s what we do.

Planet Loud – Do you think there will be any sort of backlash seeing as you’re seen as being predominately pop-punk whereas the label are more hardcore?
New Found Glory – Recently they signed more poppy bands, and along with the signing of us it’s going to open more doors for Epitaph. We’re just excited that the president of our label loves our band, and he’s in a band (Bad Religion) that we look up to, its great to be a part of that.

Planet Loud – Having been around as a band for a long time, how do you keep things interesting?
New Found Glory – I don’t really know, the best thing is being able to play our own music every day, it gets me through the day. This like doing press are monotonous; but you get use to it – I’ve been on the road since I was 16, so you kind of just know what to do – you have your normal routine but it’s in a different place every day. I’ve never really had another job so this is all I know.

Planet Loud – Who’s idea was it to make a hardcore EP?
New Found Glory – To us it isn’t really a hardcore EP, it’s more of a short album; anything with Jordan’s voice doesn’t really sound like hardcore! It’s just faster than we normally play and it’s something we recorded in a day. We just wanted to put some fun songs out, do covers of songs that we like – we’ve always done movie song covers and never really songs from bands that have really influenced us so it was a change.

Planet Loud – What do you think of the current music scene compared to when you first started out?
New Found Glory – It’s definitely different. For me, growing up and not being in a band and going to shows is different from people growing up and going to shows now. Every generation is different. It’s really hard to explain I guess. It’s like when you go back home after being on tour everything’s changed, the scene has changed as there is a bunch of new kids growing up.

Planet Loud – Do you reckon you’ve changed along with the scenes?
New Found Glory – We’ve always done what we wanted to do, we don’t really pay attention. Like, we’ll listen to bands in the current trend we’re not that sort of band that once we got big we shut ourselves off from the world and don’t listen to modern music – we all listen to different styles of music so when we write our music it all comes together.

Planet Loud – What’s next for NFG?
New Found Glory – Go home for the holidays to relax. New record, March 10th! We’re probably going to come back to England for the festivals too.

Planet Loud – Thanks!