Paul: Hi! Happy Holidays! How does NFG celebrate the festive season – do you have any traditions you take part in every year? What did you get for Christmas?
Jordan: This holiday season i did alot of traveling for myself…i went to japan for 10 days which was amazing for me because it was the first time i was there without the band and did alot of different things i wouldnt have normally done if i was on touir there…and when i returned i just partied with friends and family…
Paul: Straight to business – you recently spoke about releasing a 7″ and EP on Bridge 9…when will this be out and what will feature on it? Which covers are you doing for it?
Jordan: The bridge 9 ep will be i believe in march in the states…the only way to get this special ep is through us on tour or through the bridge 9 website…we recorded 3 short original songs and for the covers we did gorilla biscuits, a shelter song, and a lifetime song…it was fun to do we recorded while we were on our last tour..i literally recorded vocals all afternoon then played a show that night
Paul: Now that you’re free of major labels do you intend to do a lot more with other labels in terms of vinyls and EPs etc? On a similar note, would you ever work with a major again?
Jordan: We are definately going to explore our options ..if a cool label comes up to us and asks if we want to do something thats different and unique for our fans then we are always down…as far as a major label goes, i think we are leaning towards that again, but its so hard to say right now, we have been approached by both majors and indies, we just want to go with a label thats going to believe in what we do and back us 100 percent.
Paul: How do you feel about supporting Paramore when you’re used to doing your own headline shows in the same venues? Does it bother you supporting newer bands such as Paramore, or do you respect what they’ve done in such short periods of time?
Jordan: It doesnt bother me at all who plays last or second to last, it doesnt matter..its going to be amazing! we have awesome fans that love and support us no matter what…its gonna go off regardless.
Paul: If you (collectively) had to fight Paramore in a celebrity deathmatch style-affair, what would be your choice of weapons? And who would win?!
Jordan: We would definately win because we have a combined weight of 1000 pounds.
Paul: You recently released the second installment in your covers CD scheme – why did you decide to have all the guest vocalists on the cd?
Jordan: When we were figuring out what songs we were going to record we would listen to them and say “how rad it would be to have adam from tbs sing that line it reminds me of his style” or “it would be awesome to have will from cartel sing this line”, or “patricks from fall out boys voice would fit perfect along with mine on this song” it was just a fun thing to get our friends involved because they would always say that ftstys part one is one of their favorite albums.
Paul: What songs didn’t make it on to From The Screen To Your Stereo Part II?
Jordan: In your eyes by peter gabriel ,kissed by a rose by seal, and one other on i cant remember.
Paul: Do you ever get any feedback from the original artists of the songs you cover? EG, Do go west hate/love what you did with king of wishful thinking?
Jordan: Lisa loeb loved the version we did of her song stay, thats why she song on it…a while back we did warrants “heaven” and they loved the version we did, to the point where janey lane(i think thats how you spell his name) was wearing nfg shirts during their shows
Paul: Will there ever be a third installment of the series? Are there any songs you’d like to cover – movie soundtracks or not!?!
Jordan: It’s hard to say..to me i think two is enough…sometimes trilogies arent the best idea because, for example, you start getting into different actors …like in batman… when the first 2 tim burton versions were michael keaton.. then they started to get val kilmer and george clooney to be batman, which was kind of ridiculous since we all know michael keaton is the best batman since the original…if it was going to be a third covers cd by us of all songs from the matrix or indiana jones though then maybe we can talk
Paul: Have you started writing for the next album? Will there be a similar progression on the next record?
Jordan: We havent really started writing, writing….chad has alot of riff ideas and parts of songs but after this europe tour we are going to have a little break then all get together and start writing…what i have heard is great though…our fans new and old will be stoked!
Paul: From listening to your albums chronologically, you can obviously sense a growing maturity in your sound as a band. Is this a concious decision, or does it come with age/growing up etc?
Jordan: I think its both a concious decision and a natural progression…you cant keep writing about the same things that happened in high school when your 27 years old.
Paul: When the Geffen move happened, were they any temptations to just stop/give up?
Jordan: When we decided to split from geffen it was a mutual decision between us and the label….it was almost kind of liberating…now we are free to choose as we please…giving up never crossed our minds…i feel that everything up to this point was only the first chapter in the book..its time for chapter 2.