Fountains Of Wayne Have Got It Goin' On

Date: 4/20/2004
Author: Larry Queen

Fountains of Wayne lead singer, Chris Collingwood, has spent the entire weekend trying to wrap up some loose ends before embarking on a tour of the US on Monday, April 19. Some unexpected problems arose around the house like his entire closet falling in leaving what was a 25-foot pole filled with clothes in the floor. But with that taken care of he finally has some time to discuss his experiences at the Grammy's, and the surprise success of his band's newest album, Welcome Interstate Managers.

This album marks their third release, and the band has finally found the mass audience that has alluded them for the past seven years. They can thank their single, "Stacy's Mom," for that. But, both FOW and Welcome Interstate Managers are far more than just the progenitors of a hit single. On Welcome..., FOW have amassed a collection of 16 songs - ranging from the power pop of "Mexican Wine" to heart felt ballads such as "Valley Winter Song" to outright country romps like "Hung -Up On You" — which illustrate, both lyrically and musically, the nuance for which this band is renown.

On this album, as they did on their first two LP's, FOW construct a painfully everyday world filled with deadend jobs, losing the girl they never really had in the first place, and the daily humdrum of life in the northeast. But, what really places the band in a class all their own is that, above all else, they have the unique ability to succinctly map the human condition in just three minutes thirty-three seconds, cleaning up radio one vignette at a time.

QueenSizeMusic: So do you ever have a prescient moment when you've written a song and feel as though it may be a hit? Or, rather should I say, once you've written a song, and you're proud of it do you ever feel like, 'Yeah, this song should be on the radio non-stop.'

Chris Collingwood: In a perfect world, yeah. But most of the stuff that's on the radio is complete crap. (Chuckles) I think you know that as well as anyone else. But, if we manage to get on the radio then we're pretty happy about it.

QSM: Well, 'Stacy's Mom' certainly got you on the radio more than any other single you've released, and Rachael Hunter did wonders for the video. Did you go to the Playboy party the magazine threw for Rachael for being this month's Playmate? They even tagged you guys on the cover of the magazine with "Stacy's Mom's Naked Inside."

CC: I did not go. I called to see if I could get the cover of that magazine in some sort of oversized, novelty poster form. And, what happened was, I got through to the head of artist relations, or, publicity at Playboy, and she said, 'I thought you guys were coming to our party tomorrow.' And due to what we originally thought was going to be a scheduling problem we had to opt out of going to the party because we thought we were going to be somewhere else. In fact, originally, we were going to play the party. In the end there was no conflict, and I think Jody and Adam ended up going.

QSM: They did.

CC: Did they have a good time?

QSM: Yes they did, or at least Jody said he did. I saw some really funny photos of the two of them with Rachael. In fact, Jody's holding the magazine up for the camera in one photo, and she's looking at him and giggling like a schoolgirl.

CC: Yeah? I guess they use those shots for publicity and stuff like that.

QSM: At the Grammy's you had a publicist assigned to you to work the press as you walked down the red carpet, correct?

CC: Exactly, in our case it was our former publicist, Bobbie Gale. She was also working a few others as well. You know, you go straight down the line and they pop you in, and it's her job to sell, say, Joan Rivers on who were are and see whether she would want to talk to us.

QSM: What sort of things was Joan asking you off camera?

CC: She was asking us things like, if we were drunk. You know how Jody has that drawl even when he's not drunk. She asked if we were using substances right then. Later on we ended up on her show where she criticizes everyone and how they are dressed. Joan said something about Brian being the intellectual in the group because it looked like a pen had exploded in his pocket. That was because he had a shirt on with a big circle on the pocket. (Laughs)

QSM: Who dressed you for the Grammy's, Angnes B.?

CC: It was a combination of Agnes B., and Tommy Hilfiger. It was a mix of different stuff. They had the opportunity for us to wear all this free stuff — An Evening For Nominees at a recording studio in LA. You go in there and pick stuff out, and they'll give it to you as long as you'll wear it either at the Rock The Vote show, which we did, or at the Grammy's.

QSM: Stacy's Mom is a good song, but does it frustrate you that this is the song that you are best known for?

CC: No, it doesn't frustrate me; we'll take an audience where we can get one. Um, there are worse things that can happen than to have a hit. A lot of bands can go throughout their careers and never get on the radio at all. There is definitely the question that I get a lot, 'Am I worried about being perceived as a novelty act?' And, there is that concern sometimes, but people that have heard our album realize, if they are expecting to hear a lot of other 'Stacy's Mom's,' they are surprised that it's a little bit that it's a lot more diverse than that.

QSM: Yeah, from Stacy's Mom to Hung Up On You, Welcome is certainly diverse.

CC: Yeah, well, in that case those two don't even sound like the same band. (Laughs)

QSM: Well, then there's a song like Halley's Waitress that makes another leap.

CC: Yeah, that's one of my favorites on the record. That's another case in point, that song won't ever get on the radio. That's a defeatist attitude, but I haven't heard anything like that on the radio in a long time.

QSM: So, you're about to go into the studio and record a B-side for your new single, "Mexican Wine?"

CC: I don't really know if it's for "Mexican Wine," or for "Hey Julie." (Laughs) Because, I believe, since there is a much bigger market for singles in Europe than there is in the States they are pushing both.

QSM: What about MTV censoring the video for "Mexican Wine?" What's up with that?

CC: Well, you know, (Director) Chris Applebaum's style is really racy, and, I think, largely, after Janet Jackson's performance at the Super Bowl for which MTV was largely responsible since they were running the show, they probably had no choice. Especially since the FCC is threatening to levy heavy fines against broadcasters that infringe on any indecency rules — some of, which are pretty, obscure, really. For instance, you can't show a woman's body without showing her head, and there was a shot like that and some other stuff that was too racy for MTV.

QSM: Is the video being shown here in the states?

CC: I haven't seen it, and I'm unaware if anyone has seen it. I haven't seen it in it's edited form either.

QSM: The record is headed towards Gold in sales?

CC: Well, I don't want to predict that and end up looking like an idiot, but it's somewhere in the vicinity. By now, maybe it is. I hope it does though.