RollUpandShine: Why did you decide to release "Singles"?

Jim: Pretty much because a lot of people had been asking for it. It was aggravating us that people were selling burnt discs of some of the singles on E-Bay. I don’t care if people make tapes or trade but…people making money off of burnt discs. That’s just f***ed. It’s been a while since we’ve had something out.

RollUpandShine: Can you talk a little bit about the progression of Jimmy Eat World that is seen on "Singles"? It’s got some of your faster paced stuff and most of your songs on "Clarity" are more mellowed out.

Jim: Most of the stuff on the singles comp is the earlier portion of what we were doing, we were a lot faster back then. We are always influenced by the people we’re around and the things going on around us and at that time there was a whole lot more faster music around us. (Laughs) We enjoyed playing faster. That kind of got old.

RollUpandShine: What label are you on right now?

Jim: We’re not on any label right now.

RollUpandShine: Are you in studio doing a disc?

Jim: We’re getting ready to go in the studio in September to record a record on our own with Mark Trombino. It should be really cool. We’ll have the record done and then see who wants to put it out.

RollUpandShine: Do you have hostility towards Capitol?

Jim: No. There are the ones that did give us the opportunity to make records and the help that we needed to make them the way we wanted to. As far as us getting a real shot with the whole "machine," I don’t think we really got one.

RollUpandShine: Will you be touring behind "Singles"?

Jim: Yeah, in October we are going to be touring to New York and back. Not really an extensive US tour but bigger cities. I just sit in the van and I play guitar when they tell me to.

RollUpandShine: When do you expect to have the new album done?

Jim: Well, we are funding it all ourselves. I think depending on if we come home with any money after this October tour then we’ll have enough to mix the record. So hopefully by December we’ll have it done and in the can and ready to rock.

RollUpandShine: How would you classify your musical genre? Would you say you’re emo? Your website says rock and roll.

Jim: I would say we are more of a rock band, especially after people hear our new stuff. (Laughs) I don’t think there are going to be any questions about it.

RollUpandShine: What do you think of the current state of music?

Jim: I don’t know. I go back and forth on it. Sometimes I get really frustrated listening to the radio but every once in a while you’ll end up being really surprised and really stoked about something. Like I just picked up a record by a band called "Wheat." Everyone I show the record is way into it. It’s such a neat record.

RollUpandShine: Can you talk a little bit about how your song writing has progressed from album to album?

Jim: I think we basically have a better idea of what we want to do now. It’s a tricky question, ‘cause I’m so closely involved with it, it’s kind of hard to be critical about it. If something works then I try not to ask too many questions about it. I know when it works and when it doesn’t work. I think the progression is that we can tell quicker when it’s not working and then go in a different direction from there.

RollUpandShine: What do you personally, and as a band hope to achieve from "Singles"?

Jim: The record is really just for fans. It’s not really a new work by us; it’s really just something cool for the fans. What do we hope to achieve? We hope people like it. We hope the fans are into it I guess and not too bummed out that we were a pop-punk band at one time (laughs).

RollUpandShine: I really love your old stuff but I haven’t had a chance to hear much of your old stuff in concert. You never play your old stuff for me. "Seventeen" is one of my favorite songs and I really like "Chachi." You’ll have to play them when you come through Chicago.

Jim: I don’t know, we’ll see what we can do. This tour we are going to be playing some songs we haven’t played out since ’95. We’ll be playing some older stuff. I don’t know about "Chachi".

RollUpandShine: No Chachi?!? It’s good stuff though.

Jim: Well thank you. I go back and forth on that stuff. I don’t think it’s all that bad but it’s not the kind of stuff I’d be happy putting my name and releasing on right now. But I guess for what we were doing then. It was good for what we were doing then.

RollUpandShine: Where would you like to see yourself in ten years?

Jim: That’s a tough question. Maybe living abroad in Spain, just totally done with music and drinking Sangria.

RollUpandShine: Do you have a favorite song you’ve written?

Jim: There really isn’t one I would say is my favorite. There are different songs that I think are better than others for different reasons but there is not an overall superlative favorite.

RollUpandShine: I write for the newspaper at Purdue University, do you know Purdue’s nickname?

Jim: (yelling to the guys in the room) Hey Zach, what’s Purdue’s nickname?

Zach: (from the background) The Boilermakers.

Jim: The Boilermakers.

RollUpandShine: I had to ask because no one ever seems to know our nickname.

How do people respond to your live shows?

Jim: It depends on where we are. At home in Arizona we are warmly receipted. People dance and have fun and our drunk friends stage dive. Some places it’s different. In Europe people go crazy.

RollUpandShine: I read that "Sweetness" will be on the new album, why did you decide to put it on the new record?

Jim: We have been saving it for the new album.

RollUpandShine: What’s in your CD Player right now?

Jim: I can tell you that right now. (Opens CD Player) Looks like Destiny’s Child "The Writing Is On the Wall", no sh*t, it’s really in there.

RollUpandShine: Seriously? Are you fans of theirs?

Jim: I’m fascinated by them. The CD is my roommate’s. A Tribe Called Quest "Midnight Marauders", Pedro the Lion "Winners Never Quit", "Hot Rocks" by the Rolling Stones Disc One, Red House Painters "Songs for a Blue Guitar", and Queen of the Stone Age "R".

RollUpandShine: Are you for or against Napster?

Jim: I’m for it. We played Germany in this town called Weeze at this festival in this town we had never been to before in our lives and there were kids in the audience with homemade signs saying play "Sweetness." Obviously that the only way that could have gotten there. For a band like us that is kind of developing, it can only help.

RollUpandShine: Who are some of the bands that are your influences?

Jim: Personally, I’d say Jesus and Mary Chain is a big one. Guided By Voices really lately. Jesus Lizard. The Wedding Present.

RollUpandShine: Do you have a favorite all time song or current favorite song?

Jim: Currently it’s probably that Wheat song "Don’t I Hold You."

RollUpandShine: Do you have a favorite hair band or boyband?

Jim: As far as hair band, definitely "High and Dry" era Def Leppard. As far as boyband goes, New Edition maybe.

RollUpandShine: Thanks for the time. I look forward to seeing you in concert. Rock on.

ROCK

Some pictures were used from the Jimmy Eat World's official website.

Check out a review of the Chicago show in our concert list.

Interview done by Nathan Cross

Email Nate at: purduerockguy@hotmail.com