Gluttons For Punishment

Of the many criticisms thrown at bands, the one that seems to sting the worst is perhaps the most benign – that certain acts are, well, just a little dull. Jimmy Eat World seem to have found themselves sitting in this category of late. That is despite the fact that their streamlined rock, though low on thrills, runs to an emotional depth greater than most guitar bands. Mind you, they don’t exactly help themselves – 20 minutes in the company of guitarist Tom Linton (the first choice interviewee, vocalist Jim Adkins, is laid up with food poisoning) seems to last an age.
Their story, however, is worth telling. While sales of their first two albums for Capitol Records were, they thought, respectable, their paymasters disagreed and by the time they came to make record number three they were without a deal. Undeterred, they decided to press on and make the record anyway. The resulting album got picked up by Dreamworks and was a huge worldwide hit. One takes it they felt vindicated?
“Definitely. We all felt really good about the record and we didn’t want to change anything on it, just put it out as it was,” says Linton. “We had no idea that it would take off as it did. After going through the stuff we did with our old label we were worried the same thing would happen again. Then ‘The Middle’ started to get played on the radio and it went crazy’.
The healthy sales have continued with latest album Futures which, despite its occasionally mellow sound, still sees them lumped in with the punk rock crowd. Is it a tag the band welcome?
Linton: “It’s hard to describe what punk is but if it’s about doing things your own way, I guess we are. For us it’s trying to make records where each song is like its own album. On some records every song sounds the same but we try and give each one its own sound”.
One thing they have in common with others on the scene is a willingness to champion political causes.
“It’s pretty personal for us," he proffers. "We’ll do benefit shows or whatever. I’m no good at talking about that stuff, I’m just a guitar player in a rock band, but I definitely have my opinion on the way things are going in the world."

Futures gets a live airing at Oxegen on July 9.