I realized music is the most important thing to me and I love writing songs, and I think I had more to say in life.
Chad Gilbert
Some of my favorite songs are slow songs, like Guns N' Roses' 'November Rain.'
I swear, all we ever wanted to do was tour outside of Florida.
The goal is never be a copycat of ourselves. It's more along the lines of taking risks in our music.
I always looked up to Billie Joe because every song on Green Day's albums was catchy and good.
When we first came out it was this happy accident, and I was sort of into hardcore at the time. Jordan our singer was really into Jawbreaker and a lot of indie rock bands and old Dischord bands, and sort of like more of the indie side of music. Our bass player was really into West Coast punk.
You think of your first album, when we had no clue what we were doing, we had no clue if people were going to like it or not, we did it because we love it.
I love pumpkin pie.
Epitaph is the place to be! They were all longtime, true fans of New Found Glory and they understand us.
We obviously need to make money to survive, but we aren't going to sacrifice our creative integrity to do anything that doesn't feel like us.
When we started, our style of music wasn't on MTV. It wasn't cool, and it wasn't popular. The only bands who were even kind of similar were Blink-182 and Green Day. But we don't sound like those bands, even if people throw us in that category now.
There are parts in albums where I wrote a lot of the lyrics. There are parts on albums where Steve wrote a lot of the lyrics, even albums where Steve did the majority of the lyric writing. Then there were albums like 'Coming Home' where I did most of the chorus lyric writing. But it was always split.
I've been badly shocked before. I grabbed the mic to talk - it was near an outlet and there was water. I got shocked, and the jolt went from my head to my feet, shutting down my body and I just passed out. My friends woke me up and took me to the hospital.
I know a lot of people feel pressure with their major label sophomore CD and having to follow up their first record real good. Well, we didn't have that pressure, because we have a real loyal fanbase, not a fanbase because we're on the radio, know what I mean?
To someone who's more of a surface fan, their favorite songs are the singles. But, we're the kind of band where a lot of the songs that aren't the singles are crazier live.
We have awesome and loyal fans. They'll buy our CD, then buy three more copies for their friends.
Those who have to struggle with addiction in their lives know the 'you only live once' mentality doesn't really work because you can only do that for so often before you're self-destructive.
I still get excited for band practice, like I love when we're about to go on tour and we all get together and practice. I'm so excited, it's like the first day of school. You check out everyone's new backpack.
When you reflect on your life, you realize how arguments, pride, and the worry of proving yourself never changed or fixed anything.
So many bands have the same performance-based videos, and it's so lame. I know bands whose labels rent a crowd, so they have these fake audiences that jump up and down trying to make it look like a pit or something.
We had such a huge fan base, they couldn't ignore us anymore. MTV was playing us on 'TRL.' We even did a TRL-sponsored tour that was Good Charlotte and us.
I don't smoke, drink, or do drugs, so those are the values I live by.
In our band, every member has input, but me and Steve do the majority of the writing. We start the songs, the rest of the band help us finish it.
We'd practice in my living room and it was awesome. Our parents were pretty supportive of it because they thought it was cute. I don't think they ever realized how far we would go with it.
So if radio flops, and MTV flops and everything flops, it doesn't matter, as long as we're still playing and kids are coming to our shows.
I did play flag football. I actually got my lip busted. My team was really good; we won first place in the season, and won the Super Bowl. I was one of the defense guys. I was really good.
For me and MTV, it was always the MTV year-end countdowns. It was what I'd look forward to honestly every year just as much as Christmas. When Christmas was over, the top 100 videos of the year would lead up to the ball drop.
When we did the 'Titanic' theme, that song was everywhere. At the time we did it, it wasn't an old song. We didn't really listen to that song. We're not fans of the song. It was more about taking the song everyone knew and making it sound like a New Found Glory track.
It's nice to have fans who want and need our music.
I think a lot of bands would just make a dark, bleak album, which is why we wanted to do the opposite. We wanted to let people know that there's hope out there, and that no matter how tough things get, they will always get better. I'm really proud of that.
We're hoping that fans who have listened for a while, or only know the singles will be like, 'Damn, man, I didn't realize track 9 on 'Catalyst,' I didn't realize how awesome that song is.'
We did two nights at a place in Southern California that only holds about 500 people. It was really intimate... Everyone was in lingerie... OK, every time someone says a show was intimate, my head always goes there.
When you're recording a ninth studio album, you can't fail. You don't really have any fears. You just make the best record that you like. You hope your fans are gonna like it, but if they don't, they have eight other ones to listen to.
One of the most distinctive things about our band is Jordan's voice. It stands out - in a good way for some people and in a bad way for others. But there's no mistaking it. That gives us a lot of room to do what we want musically. With Jordan singing, it'll always sound like New Found Glory.
Actually my favorite singer of all time is Bjork. And my favorite band of all time is They Might Be Giants.
'Nothing To Say' is a song for friend circles that struggle with a member of that circle who seems to never have anything good to say.
All our old record reviews were like, 'Oh, these skate punk kids, blah, blah, blah.' And I don't skate, and we're not skate punks.
We write serious music, but we also are a real band where we don't take ourselves too seriously.
If you're in the music to move to Hollywood and be in 'People' magazine dating an actress or dating some Hollywood celebrity, are you into it for that side of it? Are you in it to be a millionaire? Or are you in it because you love it and you like playing music and you like going on tour?
Every record from New Found Glory is a little different. We're a real band that writes songs about our everyday relationships - like, our personal war, not war and government or politics.
I remember going up to bands I've loved and tried to talk to them and been cold-shouldered.
Our shows are more fun when there aren't barriers.
For us, punk rock and even hardcore music was something we did because we didn't fit in in high school. We had nowhere to go, so we went to shows.
Because of social media being such a marketable format, things are constantly being released, so people don't pay as much attention because they have a million things being thrown at them. You reach more people, but now there's more content. Before, it was harder to get the people but there was less content.
What's really cool about 'This is Me' is that our friends loved the song. Older punk rock fans don't know 'The Greatest Showman,' haven't seen the movie. And they hear that song and they're like, 'This just sounds like an awesome New Found Glory song. This is a really good song.'
Failure and missteps help refine your character and make you wiser.
All you truly need to worry about is waking up each day and to try to be the best version of yourself.
People don't know what star-struck is until they've met Tom Hanks.
'My Friends Over You' has two guitars, but if you listen to us live, it's the same... I know how to hit a rhythm note and play lead at the same time.
My stepfather, Steve Mallonee, is a retired Miami Beach firefighter, loved and adored by many. After numerous years of heroic work, saving lives through fire and heavy smoke, he has developed a very fatal lunge disease called Pulmonary Fibrosis.
