The first dozen or so times I call Yellowcard guitarist Ben Harper's cell phone, he doesn't answer. And his voice mail is full, so I can't leave a message. I get annoyed as I keep hitting redial, but I also understand. Harper and Yellowcard are busy guys who are getting sort of famous, so he's not quick to pick up his phone. Yellowcard's "Ocean Avenue" video just made MTV's Buzzworthy rotation, and the band's sensitive, punk-inflected rock also has been played on The O.C. and in the Madden NFL 2004 video game. The Southern California band doesn't sound brand new, but it does resemble Brand New. It's music that splits the difference between earnest, commercial alt-rock and earnest, college-radio alt-rock. And they have a violin, too! Imagine Good Charlotte getting their Collective Souls kicked in the Shins.
I finally catch Harper as he's on his way to the airport to catch a flight to New Zealand where he's going to play some shows.
You guys are about to head over to New Zealand. Do you expect that every conversation you have over there is going to be about Lord of the Rings?
No, but I'm going to laugh at all their accents. You know what I mean? The Australian accents are funny, the way they say 'Mate."
Are you going to laugh in people's faces?
No, I'm just going to impersonate the accents all the time.
Do you plan on eating kangaroo or anything like that while you're there?
Yeah, I'll challenge a kangaroo to a fight.
OK, but what if somebody tries to feed you a kangaroo?
What?
Yeah, they eat kangaroo over there.
No, they don't!
Yeah, they absolutely eat kangaroo.
You're lying. That's nasty. Poor little guys. I'm going to find out about that and I'm going to get you back if you're lying.
So, your video for "Ocean Avenue," which has obviously already been all over MTV2, is going to be on MTV as a Buzzworthy video. Have you been telling everybody you know to vote for this?
Pretty much. On our website, we talk to our fans a lot. MTV's pushing some really funky buttons, getting us a bunch of stuff right now. I guess they just think we have songs that will do well.
Why do you think they like you so much?
I don't know. A lot of it is just Capitol just banging and banging down their door about Yellowcard since last July. They keep talking to them about us. All the mainstream stuff has been Capitol. That was part of the deal. It's like they're rewarding us for all our hard touring.
They've been really patient with you.
Yeah, MTV was finally like, "All right, we'll put them on."
It's almost like your label was enough of a nuisance that MTV finally gave in.
They just kept going, man. Obviously that has a lot to do with it. They just kept going. They had so much faith; and I'm sure they had a big checkbook.
Your music has been featured in a lot of different places. Do you play Madden 2004 just to hear your song over and over again?
I don't personally, but the guys in the band play it religiously. Sean and Ryan play it most. They don't play it to hear the song over and over again, but pretty much Sean and Ryan play it all the time.
Do you watch The O.C. at all?
Not at all.
You should. It's actually a very good show.
A lot of people I know watch it religiously. Ryan actually tried to date one of the girls on The O.C.
Which one?
The blonde, the one with the short, blond hair.
(
I think he's talking about Samaire Armstrong, who plays Anna, but it's unclear.)
Did he get turned down?
Yeah! [laughs] So far, he got a hold of her publicist. No one's called him back yet; maybe after a couple hundred-thousand more records.
OK, so you guys played free shows in all these lunchrooms all over? Did you eat any of the food?
Yes, we did. We did a few lunchroom shows in our hometown area in California. It worked out really well, and Ryan had a crazy idea to do this for a whole tour. So we would just show up in the morning and roll up in the lunchrooms or set up in the pavilion or whatever and played during lunch. We would go online and tell kids to sign up for it and get one of their authority figures to contact us about playing.
Did you guys get paid like normal shows? How did it work out?
No, we did it for free, for exposure. We got food. They would actually give us a free lunch every day.
So you were getting paid in corn dogs and nachos.
And chicken patties. Those were definitely the best, my No. 1 favorite.
When you were in school did you actually eat the lunchroom food?
I ate the food a lot. I would say Ryan and Sean were bring-your-own-lunch guys. [laughs] I don't know about L.P.
You're managing to talk shit about your band without really being that mean.
No way! That's not talking shit. That's just being funny. I love these guys. I'm going on a 12-hour flight with them, 12 and a half.
Did you hear that Avril Lavigne's going to tour malls all over the country.
[Groans] That's like the boy-band stuff. I just think that with the lunchrooms, you'll actually get more kids you usually won't get at shows.
But if Avril called you tomorrow to ask you to go on tour, what would you say?
Uh-uh. Thanks, but no thanks. Maybe we'd play acoustic in a record store in the mall, though.