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Very few bands nowadays hold the credentials that these boys have under their belts, but they sure as hell aspire to it one day. With six full-length albums, three EPs, two DVDs, an alter ego band, a greatest hits and a career spanning over a decade, it's pretty impossible to think that these guys aren't brilliant. But, I think it's safe to say that this band are, hands down, one of the greatest pioneers of pop punk to grace this tiny planet. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, New Found Glory.

Tonight, we've invaded Newcastle Academy on the band's tour with Paramore, Kids In Glass Houses and Conditions. However, tonight, after some flight reschedules gone wrong, Paramore are not at the venue and the show has been postponed to Valentine's Day. So, we figured, what better time to catch up with two of the guys everyone loves to love?

OS: You're currently touring with Paramore, so how has it been?
Chad Gilbert [guitar/ backing vocals]: The shows are awesome; they're really fun because a lot of our fans are there going crazy. But there's also a lot of new fans who have never seen us before, so it's the best of both worlds.
There's enough kids to make our show insane and then, there's enough new kids so that it's worthwhile that we're opening, so it's cool.

OS: Is it strange being back as one of the opening bands, since, by now, you're so used to headlining?
Chad: We're not really looking at it as a tour that we're opening. I would say it's more like a special feature, I guess. Like we don't have a new record out - well, we have the movie cover record that just came out - but as far as originals, we don't have a big label pushing any records yet. We have to write a new album, so we just decided to do these special appearances on these shows.
This is more like, Paramore has their record out, and it's being promoted, so instead of us sitting at home, let's go have fun!

OS: Have you enjoyed the set up of this tour; being able to play your own headlining shows alongside the Riot! shows, especially as they were in such small venues?
Steve Klein [guitar]: There were a lot of days off on this tour, and the Paramore shows sold out so quick that we wanted to book our own headlining gigs, to play a full set. The kids know we won't play a long time, because [on the Paramore shows] we can only play a certain amount of songs. Those shows were really fun, because we could play the small venues and the big venues. It meant we could play for as many of our fans as possible whilst we're out here.

OS: When it was announced that you would be supporting Paramore, there seemed to be quite an outcry from your fans. Have you experienced much of that at all?
Steve: Some kids are like, "I can't believe you guys are opening for them!". It just depends on how you perceive things. For us it's just like, we want to be part of a package. A lot of the time we come over here and play with English bands, and the English bands play over here a lot of the time. So, people will go, "why can't more American bands come over?" It's so hard a lot of the time for American bands to come over here at the same time. Whereas, we talked to Paramore, and worked it out where kids can spend 10 dollars, or 20 dollars on a ticket and see both bands they want to see, so right now it's the best thing.

OS: Is it true that you tend not to write a setlist and let fans choose?
Chad: No. Well, I mean, it depends. Last night, we did a show in Nottingham and we didn't write a set list; we let the fans pick all the songs. But, at the Paramore shows we have a certain amount of time to play, so to keep a certain order to our set, we don't have time really to ask everyone what they wanna hear. We just make sure we play our songs in our time space, so we write a set list. We try to make sure that we get enough of each record, because we have so many albums, so we try to do two songs from each.

OS: Do you enjoy being able to throw old songs in the mix?
Chad: Yeah!
Steve: It's always fun to play old songs.

OS: So, how do you think the new material differs to the old material, when it comes to performing it live?
Chad: Our newer songs aren't as energetic. The 'Coming Home' songs that we play, they aren't as energetic for us, not for the crowd. The crowd still sing along and love it. For us though. the older stuff is just so much faster and easier to get into, so it can be more fun when we play. When we work on new songs, I think we're going to be more in the mind set of thinking about how they're going to come across for us personally, when we make our new record; they'll be more upbeat, energetic songs.
I think though, being in a band, you kind of want to change things up. 'Coming Home' was a fun, different thing for us to explore. For our instruments and our creative outlet, I guess? But, definitely next record, we'll go in a completely different direction, to keep kids guessing.

OS: Have you got a particular favourite song to play live?
Chad: Right now, my favourite is 'It Ain't Me Babe'.
Steve: I like playing all those songs that we don't even get to play, like Oxygen and Doubt Full.

OS: You played Oxygen last night didn't you?
Steve: Yeah! How did you hear about that?!
OS: Someone messaged me it over MySpace.
Chad: Somebody wrote down the set list from last night?
OS: A lot of people are going to the shows, writing down the setlists and comparing them all over the Internet.
Chad: Really?! Wow, cool. Yeah that's crazy cause last night was...
Steve: We played a lot of weird songs.
Chad: That was crazy last night. A lot of old stuff.

OS: As such an established pop-punk band, what's it like to have so many new and young bands aspire to you?
[We hear outside in the corridor a scream, that can only have come from bassist Ian Grushka]
Chad: Yeah, aspire to be that!
Steve: We just try to give off a positive vibe, we're just nice people, so we try to let everybody know that. We're a very approachable band. When we're on tour with somebody, we want to hang out and not be stand offish. It would be weird. So, that's what we try to tell the bands. If we meet you and you're kind of stand offish, we'll just get in your face and be like "What's wrong? What's your problem?" "Why are you being a dick?!"
Chad: It's fun. This is our lives, you know? It's all we've done. So, if we're not having fun with people, what's the point in being in a band? That's why it's hard being the coolest band around!!

OS: Are there any particular new bands that you like right now?
Chad: Younger bands I like? Hmm...
Steve: Conditions and Kids In Glass Houses!
Chad: Kids In Glass Houses, I like that band. Set Your Goals, they're really cool, they're good people. There's tonnes.
Steve: To me, Paramore's a new band.
Chad: Paramore, they're cool... they're cool. A new short band: they're all short!

OS: With your newest record 'Coming Home', people have said it's your best yet. Would you agree?
Steve: I think it's the one that we remember writing the most. Every record that we've done is a time period of our lives. So, it kind of means more to us because it's so recent. We can listen to those songs and remember them more vividly, than say, Sticks And Stones, or our self-titled record, because we were so young back then. As we grow older, the records start to become more important and you just want things to get better and better with every record that you do.
Chad: Yeah, I love 'Coming Home'.
Steve: You have to love what you put out! If we weren't happy with it we probably wouldn't have released it.

OS: Where do you draw your inspiration from nowadays, compared to back when you released Sticks and Stones?
Chad: I don't know. I think our inspiration comes from the music we might be listening to currently, subconsciously comes out into what we're writing. Then, just whatever is happening to us in our lives at that moment. We don't really try to write a certain style of music, we can go in and be like "I really want to write a more up beat song" I guess, but if nothing comes out then... We try to write from the heart. I honestly don't know where we get all our inspiration. Besides like, how we're feeling at that point. If I'm in a good mood and sit down with a guitar, I'll write a beat riff, but if I'm in a bad mood or if I'm like sad or whatever... it's just however you're feeling is what comes out in the songs.

OS: You just released your second record of movie covers, 'From The Screen To Your Stereo Part Two'. What made you want to do a second?
Steve: The fans wouldn't leave us alone! "When are you going to do the second one?!" And we haven't had time until now recently, so we just got off our label and wanted to put some stuff out in-between our new records. So, we did 'From The Screen To Your Stereo Part Two'. Then, we're releasing an EP with three other cover songs and three original songs in April on this label called 'Bridge 9'. We just kind of do these records for fun, in between records, to keep our band name out, keep things fresh.

OS: How exactly did you go about choosing the different songs?
Chad: There's a combination of different things. One of the songs was picked by the fans: 'Don't You Forget About Me'. It had the second most recommendations. I think our most recommended was like, an Aladdin song, but we just couldn't do Aladdin! So 'Don't You Forget About Me' was the second most voted.
When we do covers, we try to do covers that we know we can make sound like us; that we can turn into our own songs, with lyrics that will kind of relate to New Found Glory as well. We're not going to write a song that's like "Kiss mee...." but, at the same time we have a song called 'Hold My Hand'. So it's like, we wouldn't write a song like 'Kiss Me' in the same was she wrote those lyrics, but we have similar emotions in our songs. Songs about relationships. Then, of course some of the movies we like. Some of the movies we don't like, but the songs are good. So it's just a different kinda bunch of elements.

OS: So, do you think that there'll ever be a third one?
Steve: I don't know...
Chad: It seems like it'd be too much.
Steve: Yeah, probably too much. We don't want to be like typecast as a 'cover band' We're pretty proud of our original songs.
Chad: Maybe after like, four more albums.
Steve: We waited four albums for this one, right?
Chad: Yeah ...but it'll be a prequel.
Steve:'Screen To Your Stereo: Minus One'!

OS: Were there any songs that you wanted to cover, but didn't have the chance to?
Chad: There was a couple, but we ran out of time. Like, the song from Say Anything ['In Your Eyes'], the Peter Gabriel song? And Seal! 'Kiss From A Rose' from Batman... [proceeds to burst into song] "Kiss from a rose, on the grave, oooooooh!" We should have done it but...

OS: What have you guys got planned for the rest of the year?
Chad: A lot! We go back to America and do a bunch of college shows - we play a bunch of universities and stuff. They put on shows for their students. Then, I think we're off in April
Steve: We have the 'Greatest Hits' coming out in March, an EP in April. We record in the Summer, then a new record in the Fall.
Chad: There we go!

OS: Finally, how does it feel to be releasing a Greatest Hits?
Steve: It's so weird calling it a Greatest Hits, I'd just call it a "compilation of New Found Glory". Greatest Hits makes it sounds like the band's done, but our band's still going to be together for a lot longer.
Chad: We're still throbbing!
Steve: We're still throbbing. Yeah, our backs are throbbing from all the touring we've done!
Chad: [to their tour manager] Yeah, dude, we're sick of it all!

Check out New Found Glory's greatest hits 'Hit Or Miss' out now, and see them tour the UK this November!