ROONEY

MUSIC INTERVIEW The Return of Rooney

ECOND CHANCES ARE PRETTY rare when you’re recording an album.

Three shots at recording an album is the stuff of urban legends. But that’s exactly how many attempts the label granted the band Rooney in putting together just the right collection of songs for the follow up to their 2002 debut. Recorded with three different producers over a couple of years, Calling the World is a more dance-friendly version of the L A-based pop/rock band that came to epitomize the OC soundtrack mix of indie cred and main stream appeal. Five years after their eponymous debut, the band is about to release the long-await ed follow-up and will spend much of the next couple of years on the road. Keyboard ist Louie Stevens took some time recently to explain the group’s long absence; their opening for musicians as diverse as Weezer and Fergie; and the joys of discovering the genius of ELO. S BY JOHN B. MOORE

Here’s a question you’re going to get sick of answering soon: Why so long between records? OK, that’s a reasonable question. We haven’t just been sitting around in lounge chairs on the beach wasting time. We’ve been in the studio three different times, with three different producers trying to get the sound the way we wanted it. By the way, that’s three albums of different material. We didn’t re-record the same songs, but the production style was pretty drastically different every time. We worked with a guy named Tony Hoffer, who is sort independent, a little more experimental producer; we worked with a guy named Howard Benson, he does tons of power rock type stuff; and then finally we settled with this guy John Field and we had a blast. He’s like a production ninja. He’s like the fastest producer any of us have ever worked with.

Really? Yeah, it was like one version (of the record) was too hot, one was too cold and we finally got it just right. We just lucked out by stumbling upon a guy who just matched us perfectly.

When did you go into a studio with John

and record these songs? Not long ago. We first went in around November of last year with John and then kind of had to take a break, did a little tour and came back. The total production time, it took three weeks, maybe a month with mixing and mastering. had actually been playing for three years already. So we said “Let’s do some thing fresh and keep all of this other material and hopefully it will get a shot at some other point.” Maybe we’ll release it as a double album or something.

How did you guys come across John? He actually reached out to us originally. Someone through the grapevine said “This guy John really wants to work with you.” He was more in our peripheral vision. We sort of did a track on spec with him to see what would happen and all of a sudden we all got a renewed enthusiasm, the label all of a sud den was enthusiastic, and it was like wow, maybe we don’t have to fight the forces of nature to make an album that we like.

On Calling The World, there seem to be some influences that weren’t as noticeable on the first record, like Jeff Lynne and ELO. Was there anything you guys were listening to that had an influence on this record? Yeah, I think so. I think part of it is that it helps when the producer has the same influ ences and is into the same stuff as we are. He is an insane musical encyclopedia. He has our knowledge and beyond.

Were you getting a lot of pressure from the label to hurry up and get something out there? Yeah. It’s just hard and rare to get second chances in this business and it gets harder and harder every day. There’s a lot more pressure and generally speaking a lot of bands don’t get the opportunity that we had to go and search and find the right guy. But yeah, there was pressure. Are you pleased with this last batch of songs? Totally, I couldn’t be happier. I feel like we just got lucky. All the right sort of things had to happen to get where we finally are now. I noticed you had some new songs on your MySpace page last year that didn’t make it onto Calling The World. Do you plan to release these songs or the earlier recording sessions at some point? Yeah, all of us really want to at some point do that because they are not bad albums and they’re not bad songs. Maybe one or two of those songs did make this record, but it was just about having something that felt fresh to us because all of a sudden we’re about to go on tour for three years on songs that we Did he turn you onto a lot of bands you hadn’t listened to before? Yeah, kind of, or songs I hadn’t heard before. You mentioned Jeff Lynne and ELO, if we were to go into my i Tunes right now, that’s the band that I have the most of right now. I have every ELO album in the collection. It’s just amazing. It’s a cool thing to discover, because you feel like there’s a whole new world that not everyone knows about. What other stuff were you guys listening to a lot of? I think there was some Billy Joel going around. I got way into Supertramp while we were making the album. Even bands like Abba, I got into. A lot of times I would record my parts from home in a little home studio and send them in because we were in a bit of a time crunch. We all did that to a certain extent, doing some stuff in the studio and doing some stuff at home. It’s been awhile since your debut came out. Has the band changed a lot since you first got together? Well, the lineup is definitely the same and the dynamics within the band, I think, are the same. We’re still a tight group that’s to gether pretty much all the time. But, as far as the sound, I think you could describe it the same, but there’s more subtle differences in the music. I still call it pop-leaning rock and roll. It’s a new version of all the classic stuff that we like. I think we were listening more to The Cars on the first album. The single from the new album, “When Did Your Heart Go Missing,” I think that song has some major David Bowie influence going on. We wanted to make an album of rock songs, but that song almost has a dance feel.

IT’S JUST HARD AND RARE TO GET SECOND CHANCES IN THIS BUSINESS AND IT GETS HARDER AND HARDER EVERY DAY.

You guys have toured with punk bands and top 40 acts. Why do you think you appeal to so many different types of music fans? It’s actually difficult to find bands to tour with, because we’ve always had trouble finding our perfect match, be it someone to tour with or what radio stations to go to. We want to be heard on the radio and be seen on M TV and get as much exposure as we can, but not at the expense of making a sound that fits perfectly into a genre or a radio format. So it’s a challenge and a line we try and walk. But, then we end up blazing our own path and getting all those fans from different sources.

You’ve toured with everyone from Weezer and The Strokes to Kelly Clarkson and now Fergie. Is it intimidating at all playing to these different types of crowds? Yeah, it goes back to not wanting to be a band that’s just considered The Strokes, or just considered a pop band like Kelly Clarkson and I think the only way to avoid that is to just tour with a variety of different groups and not just be put in one world or another. I think we’ve been lucky to be able to do that.

How is the tour with Fergie going so far? It’s different. It’s very urban-leaning, but the people in the crowd are the same people that come to our shows. I think music lis teners have a broader taste than people give them credit for. I think we go over well and get the crowd going for her. We do our own thing and she does her thing and it works out well.

Do you see it as a challenge that you end up playing to people, in some cases, who may not have heard you before? Exactly. It’s a challenge. It’s always about trying to figure out how to get people to stand up on their feet, clap and get into it and enjoy our music.

You guys recently had a residency at The Roxy in LA, didn’t you? We just wanted to make our presence known and play shows in our home town and have our friends be able to come. It was not based on pleasing anyone but ourselves, so we picked bands to play with that we really liked. We had Brett and Allison from The Donnas. Susanna Hoffs from the Bangles came and played “Walk Like An Egyptian” with us, which was great. We had Andy Dick as the master of ceremonies. Every night he would introduce each band, and sing. He had his own band and they would sing and perform skits between sets. It was the filthiest thing. It was insane. Sometimes frightening, but always entertaining. We did new stuff, old stuff, covers, stuff that’s never coming out. I can’t wait for us to do it again.

What are your plans after finishing the Fergie tour? We’re going to headline some U. S. shows, at small clubs introducing new material. We’re actually still going to be on the Fergie tour when the album comes out and playing our own headlining shows in between, which is important. In my opinion, I’d rather play a headlining show than open for someone.

Is it tough to go from playing these huge arenas with Kelly Clarkson and Fergie, to playing the smaller club shows? At this point, not really because A, it’s our crowd and B, it’s more personal. I know this sounds cliché and cheesy, but when you play a small club you’re just right there with the fans and I enjoy that.