New Found Glory’s new album, “Resurrection”, was released a few days ago via Hopeless Records. Cyrus Bolooki, drummer of New Found Glory, chat with us about this new record and being a four-piece band.
Hi! How do you feel today, a few days after the release of your new album “Resurrection”?
Cyrus Bolooki (drums): I feel great today! I actually went to the store yesterday and bought a copy of Resurrection; it’s a great feeling to be able to go into a store and purchase your own band’s album!
New Found Glory is a recent member of the Hopeless Family. And after the departure of Yellowcard, you are kind of the new “legendary pop punk” band of this indie label. Is this not too stressful?
C: It’s not stressful at all! Hopeless is an amazing label and has had lots of great releases throughout the years. Even after Yellowcard, Hopeless has bands like Taking Back Sunday and The Used on their roster, and they have done very well releasing records and promoting those bands, and this one just one of the reasons why we decided to sign with them. Hopeless knows how to take a band like NFG and promote us, as we’re not a brand new band and don’t necessarily need the same kind of treatment to spread the word about our band.
Your last album, “Radiosurgery”, was released three years ago through Epitaph Records. An album that received pretty positive critics from different medias. As an “old” pop punk band, don’t you think that it was the right time to stop your career ? Or you thought that you could still do better than that and return with another album?
C: Hey, we’re not an “old” band! (laughs) We’ve never considering ending our career, as we still enjoying doing what we do with releasing records and going on tour to promote them. Even with all of the crazy things that have happened to our band in the last year we were able to come together as a four piece and write an album that we’re all proud of and we think it’s some of the best stuff we’ve done in a while!
Let’s talk about your brand new album, Resurrection, released through your new label Hopeless Records. First of all, is there a special meaning behind this title? Is this new album kind of a new beginning for New Foung Glory? Because the word “Resurrection” has such a huge meaning!
C: The title “Resurrection” comes from the song of the same name. It’s meaningful because in a lot of ways this album is a resurrection for NFG – we’ve been through a lot in the past few years and most people would probably think that we wouldn’t be able to continue as a band, yet we’re back and in a lot of ways better than ever.
Nowadays, are you looking for a new guitarist ? Because we know that Chad Gilbert can handle the whole guitar stuff but it seems better for everyone to have some support!
C: We’re a four piece and we’re going to stay that way. After the departure of our other guitar player (Steve Klein) we had a few shows booked and as we went in to rehearse for those shows, we weren’t sure how it was going to sound as a four piece. However, after playing just a few songs together with just Chad playing guitar, we knew that we sounded fine with one guitarist, and actually sounded a lot tighter than before, so that’s why we’ve decided to continue on without adding an extra guitarist.
How was the recording process of “Resurrection” and your work with your long time friend and producer Paul Miner (Man Overboard, H2O)? It’s becoming like a habit to do music with him, isn’t it?
C: We’ve worked with Paul a bunch and we have a great relationship with him. He understands us and how we work, and he helps to get the best performances out of us. Going into Resurrection we had a clear vision of how the songs needed to be and what we wanted them to sound like. However, we wanted to make sure to find someone that we were comfortable with and that we knew could help us achieve that vision. Paul was the clear choice to do this. We finished this album pretty fast, in just a few weeks, and a lot of that has to do with how well Paul and us work together.
While listening to your last work, we can still find that little something that makes you a great and popular band. Your compositions are solids and also typical. Don’t you have, sometimes, the feeling that you are running in circles and the pop punk market is so full therefore good songs are harder to make?
C: For us, we don’t really look at anything besides writing songs that we think are good and songs that we will enjoying playing on stage. So, even with so many great pop punk bands out there, we feel like we know exactly what NFG is and how to write NFG songs, and we will continue to do that for a long time!
Let’s talk about scandals! Between you and the One Direction authors, it’s not really… friendly! What’s your opinion about this situation? Because it seems fuzzy to the fans of One Direction, yours and of Journeys’. And Hayley Williams, Paramore singer, stirred the social sphere with a tweet. After all, it’s just about music, isn’t it?
C: We think the entire thing is funny – it’s a big joke. We never once tried to cause any harm by tweeting and/or mentioning the song (ed. “Steal My Girl”). It was just a funny coincidence to point out. It’s the rest of the internet and media that really blew it out of proportion. We’re not going to pursue any legal action or anything like that, so it’s really not a big deal at all!
In your opinion, if you had to pick up only one song from Resurrection, which one would you choose and why? We’re huge fans of “Ready And Willing” and its powerful meaning!
C: Thank you! “Ready And Willing” is a great song, and I agree that it’s one of the best on the album. I also think that the song “Resurrection” is important to this record because its lyrics talk about how to move past a bad situation, and it really sums up what was going on with our band at the time of writing/recording the album.
To conclude, our website is called “RockUrLife” so what rocks your life Cyrus?
C: What rocks my life? The fact that I can wake up every day and know that I’m part of a band that has had such an amazing career and has made such a huge impact on so many peoples’ lives. It’s something I would have never imagined years ago, and I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to have this as my life for the past 17 years!
Thank you and see you soon in Paris!
Website : newfoundglory.com
