Steve Klein - New Found Glory (11/11/2013)
Wikipedia reckons that some guy named Thomas is reputable enough to be quoted on their site as labelling New Found Glory “The Godfathers of Pop Punk”. I personally believe that “Godfathers” is both a bizarre simile, and a vast understatement. Coincidentally, ‘Understatement’ is the opening track from the Floridian punk rockers’ breakthrough, genre-defining 2002 LP Sticks and Stones; a record I’m sure most would agree more than backs up my point.
Wikipedia’s endearing and uncharacteristic misquote aside, nearly two decades of both genre-pioneering and maintaining album releases, backed by almost nonstop global touring should leave no doubt in any rational mind that the affectionately abbreviated NFG are one of the hardest working bands on the planet. Primary lyricist and rhythm guitarist Steve Klein was kind enough to chat with The 59th Sound about their recently released debut live album Kill It Live, returning down under with the Vans Warped Tour, and pleasantries regarding personal geography and the weather.
“I’m in Central California right now. It’s beautiful out, sunny and 70 degrees”, politely states Klein.
This talk of decent weather and punk rock may rouse - in some more stalwart Australian festival goers - memories of similarly beautiful days twelve increasingly quick years ago. It was then Vans last brought their tour to Australian shores.“We actually did the last Warped Tour that was in Australia in 2001, with bands like MxPx, All, The Vandals, The Mighty, Mighty, Bosstones… it’s gonna be a great time, we’re excited to be a part of the first year it’s coming back as well. Hopefully it’ll be a yearly thing like Soundwave.”
Whether or not Warped finds its way back to Australia annually, it certainly won’t stop the frequently visiting NFG.
“(We’ve been to Australia) six times or seven times. Once or twice every two years since 2001, I think. It’s a lot of fun going to Australia! We’ve been going there a long time, built a following or fan base there. So we owe it to our fans to go there as much as we can," deduces Klein.
With a list of career tour dates that spans almost half of the guitarist’s life time, and certainly exceeds entire existences of some of the band’s newer fans, Steve elaborates on how debut live release Kill It Live came about.
“It’s kind of been a long time coming. I think it’s all about timing, and I think this is the perfect time for us to release a live record. Plus we have these three new songs that we put on the live record, which makes it an even cooler whole package kind of thing. So we do the live record, and have these three new songs we’re really excited about. I guess we always just try to do, or keep things fresh, keep on coming out with releases, and yeah… I think it was about time we had a live record.”
Kill It Live was recorded at a club called Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California. A quick pre-interview Google search of the place derived it as disputably infamous in both it’s patronage and décor. Although quite probably not the fanciest venue in California, Klein states why the club suited capturing one of NFG’s doubtlessly rowdy gigs well enough for global release.
“We’ve played Chain Reaction forever, y’know? Every time we play there it’s a lot of fun, and it’s a really cool atmosphere. The crowd is really close, and I dunno… we just have the best time ever there! When we thought about doing a live record, we all sat down and decided what cities we could do it in, and Chain Reaction just all came out of our mouths like “Hey, we should do it here because it’ll be easy and we’ll have the best time doing it”. And both shows sold out so quick, so it worked out really well, except on the first night when (lead guitarist) Chad got electrocuted, and we had to play the rest of the show without him, which kind of sucked”.
Luckily this potentially lethal incident to left no lasting physical or psychological damage to Chad or the rest of the band.
“Yeah it was the third or fourth song and he got electrocuted and had to go off stage, and went to the hospital so we had to finish the set without him. So we didn’t really use any of the first day’s set (for the album), just most of the second day. But he’s okay and now he has super powers!”, chuckles Klein.
“I think we were all a bit more prepared the second night, we all knew that we had to play tight because, y’know, the whole point of playing two shows is you have two shows worth of songs and then you can pick and choose which ones sound the best, so yeah… it put a bit more pressure on the second show.”
If there was added pressure during the recording process of Kill It Live, it certainly doesn’t affect the record negatively. New Found Glory’s evidently seamless ability to, indeed, kill it live is well and truly delivered. This interviewer, or any long standing punter would tell you there was never a doubt, and can gleefully expect NFG at the top of their game for the sixteenth year running when they hit Australia to once more in early 2014.
Todd Gingell
Wikipedia’s endearing and uncharacteristic misquote aside, nearly two decades of both genre-pioneering and maintaining album releases, backed by almost nonstop global touring should leave no doubt in any rational mind that the affectionately abbreviated NFG are one of the hardest working bands on the planet. Primary lyricist and rhythm guitarist Steve Klein was kind enough to chat with The 59th Sound about their recently released debut live album Kill It Live, returning down under with the Vans Warped Tour, and pleasantries regarding personal geography and the weather.
“I’m in Central California right now. It’s beautiful out, sunny and 70 degrees”, politely states Klein.
This talk of decent weather and punk rock may rouse - in some more stalwart Australian festival goers - memories of similarly beautiful days twelve increasingly quick years ago. It was then Vans last brought their tour to Australian shores.“We actually did the last Warped Tour that was in Australia in 2001, with bands like MxPx, All, The Vandals, The Mighty, Mighty, Bosstones… it’s gonna be a great time, we’re excited to be a part of the first year it’s coming back as well. Hopefully it’ll be a yearly thing like Soundwave.”
Whether or not Warped finds its way back to Australia annually, it certainly won’t stop the frequently visiting NFG.
“(We’ve been to Australia) six times or seven times. Once or twice every two years since 2001, I think. It’s a lot of fun going to Australia! We’ve been going there a long time, built a following or fan base there. So we owe it to our fans to go there as much as we can," deduces Klein.
With a list of career tour dates that spans almost half of the guitarist’s life time, and certainly exceeds entire existences of some of the band’s newer fans, Steve elaborates on how debut live release Kill It Live came about.
“It’s kind of been a long time coming. I think it’s all about timing, and I think this is the perfect time for us to release a live record. Plus we have these three new songs that we put on the live record, which makes it an even cooler whole package kind of thing. So we do the live record, and have these three new songs we’re really excited about. I guess we always just try to do, or keep things fresh, keep on coming out with releases, and yeah… I think it was about time we had a live record.”
Kill It Live was recorded at a club called Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California. A quick pre-interview Google search of the place derived it as disputably infamous in both it’s patronage and décor. Although quite probably not the fanciest venue in California, Klein states why the club suited capturing one of NFG’s doubtlessly rowdy gigs well enough for global release.
“We’ve played Chain Reaction forever, y’know? Every time we play there it’s a lot of fun, and it’s a really cool atmosphere. The crowd is really close, and I dunno… we just have the best time ever there! When we thought about doing a live record, we all sat down and decided what cities we could do it in, and Chain Reaction just all came out of our mouths like “Hey, we should do it here because it’ll be easy and we’ll have the best time doing it”. And both shows sold out so quick, so it worked out really well, except on the first night when (lead guitarist) Chad got electrocuted, and we had to play the rest of the show without him, which kind of sucked”.
Luckily this potentially lethal incident to left no lasting physical or psychological damage to Chad or the rest of the band.
“Yeah it was the third or fourth song and he got electrocuted and had to go off stage, and went to the hospital so we had to finish the set without him. So we didn’t really use any of the first day’s set (for the album), just most of the second day. But he’s okay and now he has super powers!”, chuckles Klein.
“I think we were all a bit more prepared the second night, we all knew that we had to play tight because, y’know, the whole point of playing two shows is you have two shows worth of songs and then you can pick and choose which ones sound the best, so yeah… it put a bit more pressure on the second show.”
If there was added pressure during the recording process of Kill It Live, it certainly doesn’t affect the record negatively. New Found Glory’s evidently seamless ability to, indeed, kill it live is well and truly delivered. This interviewer, or any long standing punter would tell you there was never a doubt, and can gleefully expect NFG at the top of their game for the sixteenth year running when they hit Australia to once more in early 2014.
Todd Gingell