PropertyOfZack had a chance to interview Steve Klein from New Found Glory a few weeks ago for a great interview. Steve and I discussed the band’s last album, what creating a real album still means for the band, how it was working with Neal Avron again, and much more. Read up and enjoy!

Many fans saw Not Without A Fight as a return to form for the band. You guys supported the album with a long list of tours as well that ended with the 2010 Honda Civic Tour. Were you guys happy with the whole album cycle for the record?
I thought we did everything we wanted to do with that album. That whole cycle was showing our fans that we were still a heavy band with Not Without A Fight. I just felt like it brought together all the elements of our music together.

When the writing process for this album started, did you guys want to try anything different?
I think, for us, we wanted to really figure out what got us into music in the first place. You listen to music now and it feels like it has lost that special kind of feeling. Everything feels drowned out. For us, we wanted to go back to our roots and figure out what made music special for us. We were listening to Descendents, Ramones, and older Green Day records. That was more of our influence than anything else. We wanted it to have more of that feel. Records now sound overproduced, and I think this was about having fun and writing fun songs.

The music on this album seems almost more upbeat and poppy than normal, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Was that a conscious decision?
Catalyst and Not Without A Fight were hard driven records. They were riff driven. This record is closer to Coming Home for me. It’s really melody driven. There are still a lot of catchy guitar parts on this record, but I think this record is lyrically and melody driven. The record sort of takes you on a journey and goes through the stages of a person going through some shit.

How was it working with Neal Avron once again after a little break?
Neal’s awesome. Neal is one of our best friends and we consider him to be the sixth member of New Found Glory. We started working with him on our self-titled record as a baby band. He showed us how to record and how to make an amazing sounding record when we were little kids. We were fortunate to have him on board and he gives a crap about the band. He cares about the record as a whole and the whole feel of it compared to just the singles. We all talked about the style we wanted going into it, and Neal helped us stick to that path.

In an interview Chad did, it seemed like Neal really pushed you guys and was even frank with telling you that your original songs weren’t good enough. How was experiencing that?
I think we all needed that push. Neal’s the kind of person that we all respect. If he doesn’t like something we really wonder why. We try to inspire each other when we write. We try to really work on parts before we even show it to each other. Whether it be lyrics or melodies, we all try to make it the best we can be before it even gets to be a real song. When we get everyone together in the room, the idea is already there. It’s just about nitpicking at the little things

The album has been streaming for a few days now. How has the reception to it been?
It’s been great. If I see people writing negative comments, I just stop reading. I’m only looking at positive things. Even if they don’t like it and listen to it, we still affected them some how for us to still be a band this long. People have really been liking the record a lot though. Usually we get bad reviews with every record we’ve had, but critics have been really really good to us with this record. It seems everyone is enjoying the record. People are posting the lyrics on Twitter and Tumblr too, and that stuff is cool. You want people to be close to your lyrics.

Once bands get to their seventh album, or even fifth, it becomes less about the new material and how it does compared to the earlier material, but not for New Found Glory. How important is it to you guys for this record to strike?
It’s definitely important. We want our fans to obviously like the record. It’s always a struggle. We’ve gotten this far. We write songs that we like and everyone else seems to love them. So we go with that formula and don’t really think about it too hard. Every record kind of like captures a time period of what we’re going through at the time personally or business wise.

Is becoming a “legacy” act something none of you are content with?
I think bands like that are bands that put out the same record over and over again. A lot of bands rehash the same songs. We don’t try to write the same record every time. It’s good that everyone has a different favorite record of ours. That means we put out quality records. Now a lot of people say Coming Home is their favorite record, but at the time everyone hated Coming Home because it wasn’t heavy and it didn’t have breakdowns. We just want to write what we like. Progressing doesn’t mean using different time signatures and turning into a math-rock band. That’s not maturing. That’s losing touch with your fan base and what got you there in the first place. We know what our fans like and we know that we want to keep creating music that you like and that keep you coming to our shows to have a good time.

New Found Glory has sort of turned “Pop Punk’s Not Dead” into a mindset, and by doing that I assume there’s some pressure too to maintain honesty within the music. How important is it for you guys to put out the most honest representation of your music possible to breakaway from the usual?
I think kids are smart now. Kids can sniff out not real shit. Music needs to have a soul in order for it to stick around. A lot of bands only get together when a fad is big. When they don’t get big or stop making money, they stop being in a band. People say that pop-punk went away and there’s a resurgence now. For us, it never went anywhere. Our fans never went anywhere and we were still going strong. Just because blink and Yellowcard broke up and came back doesn’t mean pop-punk ever went away. It’s still strong and there are lots of good bands making good music.

Is taking Set Your Goals, The Wonder Years, Man Overboard, and This Time Next Year showing that you think they’re the bands that are here to stay and are not just in it to make quick money?
We want to take bands that have the same work ethic as New Found Glory. It doesn’t matter what you wear. The music is the most important thing. There’s no gimmick or anything. You’re going to come to the show and have a good time. All the bands on this tour are hard working bands that tour. That is what has gotten us here.

This tour is set to be the biggest one you guys have probably done in a few years in terms of the lineup. When was the last time you saw this much excitement from fans?
I think kids were really excited about the ten year tour with Saves The Day. Every tour that we do we try to bring out a package that causes excitement. The Paramore Honda Civic Tour was amazing. We did Four Year Strong on the Easy Core Tour before that too. We just try to have a lot of fun on tour. Kids say they’ve seen us 25 times, and I ask them how they do it without getting bored and they say we put on a different show every time.

Does the band also see this as a great opportunity to bring out much younger fans to the shows than normal who are into bands like Man Overboard and The Wonder Years?
I think people are going to be excited to come to a show where they know that they’re getting. All the bands are going to kill it every night. Everyone’s going to leave excited about the genre and hopefully our new record.

I assume the set list gets harder and harder to pick from. How many new songs are we looking at?
We’re figuring that out now. It’s hard because if we don’t play new songs people will complain and if we do play new songs people will complain about that. Not everyone’s happy, but we’re going to spread it out as much as we can.

You guys are heading to South American and the UK in the beginning of 2012 with Four Year Strong and Sum 41, respectively. Are you pretty stoked for those shows?
Those shows should be crazy and fun. It’s a little world tour with South America, England, Japan, and Australia. The fact that people everywhere across the world want to see our band is pretty surreal and exciting. That’s what makes us so hungry to write new music and to do as many tours as we can.

What should we expect pushing past that in terms of touring?
I’m not really sure. We haven’t talked about the States after this tour. I’m sure something in the summer.

Fans were thrilled by the ten year anniversary tour in 2010, and obviously the anniversary of Sticks And Stones is coming up. Have you discussed the possibility of another tour like that?
We haven’t really talked about it. We had a lot of fun on that tour, but we’re focusing on Radiosurgery right now.