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New Found Glory: Singing About Architecture
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 17-Nov-06 @ 11:53 AM|
Whether they're enlisting the producer of your parents' favorite albums, recording in cold warehouses or simply growing up, NEW FOUND GLORY are finding new ways to trash the pop-punk rule book. Story: Waleed Rashidi Tucked amongst a series of warehouses in the otherwise breezy, active beach city of Santa Monica, California, lies a bleak, vacant and unassuming building. Located in a non-descript commercial district, its bland exterior is likened to an industrial factory, while the interior is similarly drab, bleak and of utilitarian interest only. There are thousands of buildings exactly like this all over America that you wouldn't look at twice while you were running an errand or making a delivery. What makes this particular warehouse special is that it was crucial to saving New Found Glory's latest album. In August 2005, the members of New Found Glory--vocalist Jordan Pundik, guitarists Steve Klein and Chad Gilbert, bassist Ian Grushka and drummer Cyrus Bolooki--found themselves in another SoCal beach city, Malibu, to launch the writing and demo sessions for their fifth album, Coming Home. Spending time at Morning View, the same studio-equipped hilltop mansion Incubus occupied for their release of the same name, the band soon found themselves turning into prolific songwriters, tracking dozens of potential songs with a relative ease. It was in the mansion's high-ceilinged living room where singer Pundik really started to shine, his vocal takes markedly improving. Yet, earlier this year, when the time came for NFG to enter the Interscope studios and properly record the album, Pundik wasn't performing his best. "It was like, 'Man, what happened?'" remembers guitarist Chad Gilbert. "He was doing good in Malibu!" Pundik was suddenly caught outside of his optimal element. The large, reverberating living room he utilized in Malibu for his vocal takes wasn't to be found in the Interscope studios. Sensing this, NFG--with the aid of veteran producer Thom Panunzio (Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Ozzy Osbourne) and engineer Paul Miner--scouted a location across the street from the Interscope studios and replicated the original scenario. "Thom said, 'Let's do the vocals over there,'" says Gilbert of the nondescript warehouse. "And we were like, 'All right.' We took a computer, a table and microphone, and set up in this huge, freezing cold warehouse with two lamps. Jordan was in the middle, doing vocals. It was insane; it was rainy and there were crickets. During the day, I'd do guitars [at the Interscope studios] and then around 8 p.m., we'd walk across the street to do vocals. If anyone ever tells you that you need a big fancy studio [to record in], well, you don't." For the rest of the story, pick up AP 219 below... |
