SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

Nearly a decade after New Found Glory formed in Coral Springs, guitarist Steve Klein says the punk band's new CD, Coming Home, feels "like a rebirth … a whole new start." The band's members, who spend about 10 months a year on the road, usually write songs on the bus or during sound checks. But last December, they booked two months at Morning View, a Malibu, Calif., mansion recommended by their friends in Incubus, Less Than Jake and Alien Ant Farm, all of whom have recorded there.

"You think about Malibu, and you think of this big town," Klein says. "But it's actually a small town, and everything closes really early. And that's what we wanted -- to be secluded from everything."

The musicians did everything together, including grocery shopping and cooking. "It made it more intimate and brought us closer together to write these more-sincere songs and talk about where each of us was at in our lives," Klein says.

A topic that continually emerged in these discussions was homesickness, which became an underlying theme in the record. "All the songs aren't about the same thing," Klein says. "But you can tell they're all love songs and about missing home or missing someone or just being away."

Klein is one of two New Found Glory members who still live in South Florida. (The other is bassist Ian Grushka, whose house was just filmed for MTV Cribs.) Despite his attempts to maintain his hometown roots, Klein says juggling relationships and touring can be difficult. "It's definitely a hard thing when you have your conversations on the phone and you want to be there for that person but you can't because you're in Australia or Japan," he notes.

In a phone interview from a tour stop in Detroit, Klein admits that he also misses Coral Springs for other reasons. "It's really, really cold [in Detroit]," he says. "I don't know the temperature exactly but I know it's really windy and freezing, and it was snowing on the way here last night. … Being a Florida boy, I'm not really attuned to this cold weather."

Despite the momentary discomfort, Klein is happy because, a week into a 47-day tour, songs from Coming Home are getting a great response from fans. "You're always insecure before a record comes out," he says, "because all the songs are like babies. Building them from the ground up, from nothing to a finished product, takes eight months, almost the same time as it does for a baby to be born. Now, it's out there, and it's bare for people to see."

Before the CD was released, however, the band leaked a few songs on the Internet to gauge fans' response. "We're really excited about all the kids' reactions," Klein admits, "because [the songs] are a little different. They're a little less hard rock and a little more melodic."

Whereas New Found Glory's previous CDs were produced by Neal Avron, the band recruited Thom Panunzio, who has produced albums for Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Ozzy Osbourne, for its latest project. "We actually co-produced the record with him, which is really cool because we never co-produced a record before," Klein says. "It was liberating to try ideas that may sound crazy when you first talk about them, but you're able to do them because you have time.

"We were able to get this guy Paul Buckmaster, who did orchestra for two songs, and Thom called in his friend Benmont Tench, who plays keyboards in [Tom Petty and] the Heartbreakers. He just added this really cool, '80s-classic-rock vibe."

Klein says the new music translates easily to the stage. "When we were writing these songs, we could tell what parts the crowd would sing along to," he explains. "And it's cool because, now that we've started this tour, they're doing that, and it's been fun."

New Found Glory has been playing about six new songs in each 23-tune set on the tour that will hit Fort Lauderdale this week. Klein is looking forward to seeing friends, family and perhaps eating at Ninja Asian Bistro in Coral Springs. "I always have to go eat sushi there because that's my favorite thing in the whole world," he says.

Since abandoning his dream of becoming a teacher to tour with New Found Glory, Klein has achieved things he'd never thought possible, including touring with Blink-182 and Green Day, two bands he idolized while growing up. "The first song I learned how to play on guitar was 'Welcome to Paradise' by Green Day," he recalls.

Now, bands are looking up to New Found Glory the same way it once looked up to Green Day. In an interview with MTV News last month, guitarist Chad Gilbert seemed amused that musicians only a few years younger than he view New Found Glory as a veteran band. Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz has cited the group as the reason he started his own band. To repay the compliment, Gilbert contributed a guitar solo to Fall Out Boy's forthcoming album.

"It's a cool feeling to say that we've influenced these bands that sell millions of records, that are bigger than our band," Klein says. "We don't feel like a veteran band, because we're still very young guys. It's just a weird thing. We're on tour with this band Cartel right now, and they actually met at a show we played in Atlanta."

Even though some bands might not even exist if it weren't for New Found Glory, Klein can't fathom being some other band's Green Day. "I don't always feel worthy enough," he says, "and I don't even want to think about it, to be honest. If you think about it too hard, you might get stuck up about it. We're not really that way."

With all that New Found Glory has accomplished, Klein cites being given the key to the city of Coral Springs as one of his most memorable experiences. "It's kind of trippy to go from being this garage band of punk-rock kids in high school to getting the key to the city," he says. "I used to ride my bike around Coral Springs. I did all my first things ever there. It's also a cool thing for us to be in Japan and Australia and all these kids are like, 'Yeah, Coral Springs easycore!' because we have that on our T-shirts. We had a huge banner when we toured with Green Day last year, and it said, 'NFG -- Coral Springs, Florida.' It's really funny because not that many bands are like, 'Yeah, Florida!' "

But South Florida shows are the craziest, Klein says, and the most difficult to play. "There are so many people who come to see you, and your family's there and your mom's on the side of the stage, and it's just kind of hectic and stressful," he admits. "But it's cool."

New Found Glory will perform 6 p.m. Saturday at Revolution, 200 W. Broward Blvd., in Fort Lauderdale. The Early November, Cartel and Hit the Lights will open the show. Tickets cost $17.50. Call 954/727-0950 or visit Jointherevolution.net.