Jimmy Eat World is most known for its smash pop-rock song "The Middle," which launched the band into its multiplatinum status and rewarded it with sold-out tours, an MTV Video Music Award nomination and invitations to tours with Green Day, Weezer and blink-182.
Loyal fans may also know the band for its ability to thrust through the industry the hard way - striving to push into the mainstream, releasing several records on indie labels and incessantly touring to build its fan base. The newest album, "Chase This Light," is an about-face from the band's 2004 effort, "Believe in What You Want." The colorful album art alone speaks to the light-hearted lyricism contained within the album's tracks.
"This record is a bit more upbeat than our last," vocalist and guitarist Tom Linton said. "It all goes back from our last record, which had a darker record cover. [For] this [album], we just wanted to do the complete opposite."
Linton said the band was not aiming for any specific theme with the album.
"When we started the record, we had about 25 songs, and we picked out the best for the record," Linton said. "It's just kind of how [the upbeat music] happened."
In composing Jimmy Eat World's music, lead vocalist Jim Adkins comes up with the lyrics for all of the songs and pitches his ideas to the band. Then, they each work out their own parts. Linton said "Chase This Light" was a more personal endeavor than those previous, as the band was able to record in its own studio in Arizona.
"Being able to record in Arizona was really exciting for us," Linton said. "We're really happy about [the album]."
The band is currently touring to support the new album, but fans can be assured that concerts will include a mix of their old favorites, Linton said. Thus far, audiences have responded positively to the new album.
"We started [touring] about two weeks before the record was out, and we would play the new songs and kids already knew them because they probably downloaded them online," Linton said. "What people have been saying on our message board and after shows have been that they really like the record."
Jimmy Eat World plans to continue writing new music and putting together new albums. Since the band now has the convenience of its own recording studio in Arizona and each enjoys what they're doing, there isn't an end in sight, Linton said. He also said the band has gotten better at recording themselves, and plan to continue doing so.
"Right now, especially live, we're playing the best that we've ever played and we're having more fun now than we've ever had," Linton said.
