New Found Glory: Same Old Story

06 October 2011

by Poppy Reid

Jordan Pundik has made enough money as the frontman of pop punk progenitors, New Found Glory to quietly retire; as he celebrates “happy hour” from his backyard in San Diego, it even seems quite apposite from this end of the phone line. But as Pundik explains, when the band ignited their genre’s torch 14-years ago (when pop punk was still in-vogue), the five-piece made a decision to shy away from ephemeral influences and become immutable, a road destined to portend both criticism and applause.

“When we first started, [pop punk] wasn’t as cool,” says the 32-year-old. “Then it got cool, then it got mainstream and then it went away for a while; but we never went anywhere.”

Neither did their sound for that matter; New Found Glory have just released album number seven and with the onslaught of bands like Blink 182 and Good Charlotte heading up a pop punk resurgence, Radiosurgery has chosen an intelligent time to emerge. Like its predecessors, the album represents a time capsule of the band’s recent existence. Although Pundik is tight-lipped about which band member’s breakup inspired the record this time around, he did compare the album to surgery; an interesting fact in view of guitarist, composer (and boyfriend of Paramore’s Hayley Williams) Chad Gilbert, who underwent a thyroid operation in January last year after a cancer scare.

“Radiosurgery is this non-invasive surgery without knives, without actually cutting you open,” he explains. “It’s like the person you can’t get out of your thoughts and it’s just tearing at you like the tumour. The music is sort of the surgery, if that makes sense.”

Much vaunted for their ability to articulate their feelings through risible metaphors, Pundik says writing his emotions down in the form of lyrics is the one and only platform where he feels comfortable.

“I’m not that great with sharing my emotions and confronting things, it’s really hard for me; but I feel like when I have the rawness of music behind me it’s a lot easier to do that.”

Pundik is pragmatic though, he’s actually thankful most of his fans may not completely comprehend the weight of his lyrics. “Even though we might have written a song about my grandfather passing (Sonny) and how much of an influence he was, it could mean something completely different to somebody else,” he says before a long pause. “Sorry where was I? Yeah, they could take that song and start thinking about their fuckin’ goldfish that died.” However, this self-therapy has been known to backfire on the singer at times. “Some people have said, ‘Why you gotta be so fucking angry all the time, huh?!’”

The band may have been condemned for not evolving over the years, but with a steady fanbase that has aged by their side, the unchanging sound has only affirmed their demurral. “They’re just not so much in the front at shows anymore though, they’re at the back hanging out at the bar,” he sniggers.

After almost a decade and a half of adhering to their own formula, the pop punk stalwarts clearly have more smarts and musical integrity than any of their backseat driving critics. “We’re just real guys,” he says, seriously. “I really feel like that’s why people can relate to our band y’know, because we’re a ‘no bullshit’ band. We’re not hiding anything, we wear our hearts on our sleeve.”

After realising how ‘emo’ he was starting to sound he adds, “I should have been a therapist, huh?”