While at one of our local venues (Chain Reaction, to be precise) Racketeers Jonathan and I decided to have a little chat with Tom Higgenson (lead vocals) from Plain White T’s. After we track him down and discuss our location for this talk, we soon settled on Jonathan’s car. As we make our way to the Honda Civic of Doom, Jonathan and Tom discuss the girl who just tried to take Tom’s favorite Michael Jackson pin. Jonathan then shows Tom his MJ pin, and it appeared an instant bond over the king of pop was made at that moment. We finally make out destination, where we talk…
Racket Jeff: How long have you guy’s been together?
Tom: Since about 1997.
RJ: How has Fearless (records) been treating you?
Tom: Fearless is awesome, especially with this new record. We’ve been getting a lot of visibility, in cool magazines and in stores. We just got done shooting a video and stuff; we’re definitely getting a lot more push than with our last record. All the people at Fearless are really, really awesome and super supportive. So far it’s been great.
R: Were there any changes in the songwriting tactics used in the making of ‘All That We Needed" that weren’t used on "STOP"?
Tom: Not really. A lot of it was kinda written the same way as the songs on STOP. I think the biggest difference was once the songs were written; we kinda took the time to put them together a little differently than we did with STOP. With STOP, we didn’t really focus on the music that much. It was more like here are the melodies and the lyrics, now let’s write them over this hook. A lot of STOP was chords and melody. With the new record it was more like "OK guys, I wrote this song, now lets break it down and make it as interesting and important musically as it is lyrically and melodically". That’s the biggest difference.
R: How much do you hate driving in vans now?
Tom: It’s funny, because when we go home, I drive my mom’s car around. It’s so awesome just being in this little car, dipping around corners and stuff. (laughs)
R: Do you guys tend to get sick of each other in these long adventures in one small van?
Tom: There’s times when we are all a bit on edge. Not even with just each other, just with everything. It’s hard sometimes, but for the most part we all get along pretty great.
R: Weird tour experiences?
Tom: Well, tour’s kinda weird to begin with. There’s a lot of weird stuff that happens, but I wouldn’t say anything out of the ordinary I guess.
R: What cities/towns have taken to you guys most?
Tom: Well, down here (Southern California) is probably our best place besides home (Chicago) to play. Actually, San Francisco is starting to be really good to us. New York City, Orlando, Austin, TX… I dunno, we kinda have the four corners of the US taken care of. Now it’s the middle we need to worry about.
R: Besides Warped Tour, have you guys played any bigger venue style shows, or mostly smaller clubs?
Tom: We’ve done some awesome tours. I mean we toured with Simple Plan last winter, which was amazing… Bigger sized clubs, ton of new kids. We were just on the Take Action! tour which was pretty big.
Racket Jonathan: When you guys aren’t touring or recording, what do you guys do? Do you get jobs or…
Tom: No, we’re usually either touring or recording… (laughter) The most we’ve been home was last winter; we were home for thanksgiving until our record came out. That was about two months straight, so that was pretty awesome. Besides that we usually aren’t home for more than three weeks at a time.
Racket Jonathan: With traveling around the country, are there any restaurants or fast food places that you wish were in Chicago?
Tom: Well, it’s actually kinda more opposite. There’s some places in Chicago like PotBellys, and Portillos and Jimmy Johns… You guys don’t have any of those here do ya?
Racket Jonathan: I haven’t heard of any of those fucking places. (laughter)
Tom: Oh, those are the best. Those places from back home are the shit.
Racket Jeff: When you guys started back in 1997, did you think you would be where you are right now?
Tom: Well shit, I woulda hoped so (laughter). We wanted to be a band that was a band that puts out records. It’s awesome that Fearless has been a part in helping us with that. I think the best is still yet to come!
RJ: What’s your take on downloading? Are you for, or against it?
Tom: I think it’s OK. I went to this music panel about the music industry, and there was this big ordeal about the internet. About how all the major labels are going bankrupt and the radio is becoming less and less needed. They made a good point that when the music industry is so stupid, and radio goes out of business then it’s no one’s fault but radio for not playing good music that people want to hear. The internet comes along and they (major labels) are trying to everything they can to prevent people from downloading music. Somebody brought up the point that back in the 40’s or 50’s when the radio was trying to play music, the record labels were against it, and doing everything they can to stop radio from playing music. They thought if people could hear it for free, then they wouldn’t go buy it. Obviously they realized that the radio would become the biggest tool to sell music. I think it’s funny, because it’s kinda like history is repeating itself. I’m sure if people thought about it, they could use the internet in a very positive way and reap the benefits. So I’m not opposed to downloading. It’s getting us out there for everyone to hear.
RJ: OK, I’m gonna end this right here… DeNiro or Pesci?
Tom: C’mon, what kind of question is that?
RJ: Sorry man, I gotta ask it (laughter)
Tom: Well, you gotta go with DeNiro. The guy is a legend. Multi-talented, multi-dimensional, I mean I love Pesci… But I’m gonna have to go with DeNiro on this one.
By Jeff Curtis