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 Rooney, familiar to most thanks to an appearance on teen drama The OC, released their debut, self-titled
album in 2003. It’s taken a whopping
four years but the follow up, Calling The World, is finally ready to hit the
stores.
"The funny thing was we tried is we tried,
our goal was to make a record and get back on the road within six months of the
last record. The last record came out
in ’03, and then a year after that we’re back in the studio making our next
record. ’04 in the summer was when we started work on it, so since then you
could say it’s been three years,” explains frontman Robert Schwartzman.” Seeing it in the stores when it came out in
America a month ago, we had a band moment where we went over to the aisle and
saw the CD and we’re like ‘Oh my God!’ so that was awesome. It was frustrating
because it’s a four year gap between the first and second record and it was
three year process to make it”.
It
took three attempts with three different producers before the California five-piece settled
on an album they were happy with, as Robert puts it: “The first one was too cold, the second one was too hot and the third
one was just right”. The first one
was recorded with Tony Hoffer, who also oversaw albums by many British bands
such as The Fratellis and The Kooks.
“It’s a cool record and I hope people get to
hear it one day, I think it’ll come out as a B-side record or something, but
for a Rooney record it didn’t have that pop, uplifting sound, great harmonies,
guitar parts and keyboard parts, it was missing that so we really didn’t want
people to hear it as our second record because its so important to make a solid
second album,” says Robert. “I mean
he was really cool, we really liked him and we’re still friends and hang around
LA. He supports the band. He was a big fan of the band even before we started
making the record with him. It’s funny
because we’re the only American band he produced in many years. That’s why we
used him because we love all those bands that he’s done, coming right out of
this country”.
They
then made an album with Howard Benson, but things finally clicked when they
hooked up with producer number three, John Fields.
“John Fields, the way he works, he engineers
and produces. We did a lot of it in his home studio. It was fun. We were having
a good time. He works very fast, his ideas are very spontaneous, which I think
makes for cool music sometimes,” says Robert. “And he really understands where we’re coming from as musicians and
songwriters. We loved the same music. His inspirations are my inspiration so he
knows my songs. He knows actually where I’m coming from and where I want to go
with it”.
The
first single to be taken from the album is When Did Your Heart Go Missing?
“The whole idea of the song is frustration in
relationship and feeling like somebody has abandoned you,” says Robert. “I would say a lot of my songs, some of them
are true, some of them are just an extension on what sort of happened and some
of them are completely fake. But there was definitely a time when I was
frustrated in a relationship because I felt I was mistreated by the other
person so I was fed up with it”.
Eagle
eyed viewers will spot that Robert’s mother, two time Oscar nominee (Rocky,
Godfather Part II) Talia Shire appears in the video.
“She didn’t want to step on my toes, but she
wanted to help out. It made sense to
have my mom play my mom. It would have been stupid to hire an actress to do it
when she’s a fabulous one,” explains Robert. “It was great. She came down in the morning, shot the scene with Ned and
then went home”.
In
the states the band supported Kelly Clarkson and Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie.
Robert admits that touring with them was a strange experience having toured
previously with indie bands such as The Strokes and Weezer.
“It was definitely strange, but that’s the
thing about our band, a special thing, is that we’re so diverse with the people
we tour with and the sound really lends itself all different kinds of worlds,
musically,” says Robert. “I think
with the Strokes, we made a lot of fans from that world, but then we could go
onto the Kelly Clarkson tour and the Fergie tour and play to a whole different
crowd and they appreciate the songs as well.
So it’s really the best of both worlds”.
He
adds: “I remember at one of the shows,
this guy came up to me, he looked like Eminem. He was a full on hip hop guy. I
was like hey, ‘yo man that was tight. Yo man Rooney is the sh*t, when’s the
record coming out kid? I’m like it’s coming out in a couple of months. I was
excited that a guy whose life was set in the hip hop world liked our set and
liked our music”.
As for his rock peers, Robert is
more excited about the UK
Music scene than what is happening musically in America.
“The music that comes out of the US and that succeeds in the US is slightly
different to what comes out and succeeds here. There’s bands like Arctic
Monkeys or The Feeling, all these UK bands that are big here that
don’t have the same success over there.
I think the pop world, like pop radio, that determines what becomes big
or not, they don’t really embrace bands,” he fumes. “It’s really frustrating because you need to be played on the radio in
America to get any success and they don’t really play bands, all they play is
hip hop music and r ‘n’ b and stuff. So it’s frustrating but I find we’re
really excited to be over here because I think people like our sound I think
there are a lot of bands like us, in a similar vibe, here. So, I just think the
music, the ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ in the UK is at an golden age and we’re excited to
be a part of it and be over here. I wish I could say the same for America”.
Being
a native of LA, Tinsletown, Robert says he’s witnessed the likes of Lindsay
Lohan, Paris Hilton etc, causing trouble.
“It’s ridiculous, I gotta say. Those girls
are F*cking crazy. I mean they’re out of
control. It’s weird that they don’t more heat than they do,” he notes. “They’re around and we’ve been out and seen
those girls about causing trouble, but we don’t involve our lives with them. We
spend a lot of time together as a band and we do mellow things when we’re home
and we tour a lot so we’re never home”.
So
constantly being on tour, how do the boys stay sane?
“You get in the groove you know. The hardest
thing is doing a short tour and then taking a break and then travelling,”
says Robert. “The best thing is starting
a tour and setting out to just keep going because you get into the pattern easy
and you get into the groove. Once that groove starts, touring is fine”.
When Does
Your Hear Go Missing? is out now. The album Calling The World is released 10th
September.
For more
info: www.rooney-band.com or www.myspace.com/rooney
Words: Helen Duong
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