Phantom Planet
Interview With Jeff Conrad
Words: Aubrey Bramble
Photo: Mike Myerburg

Appearing:
April 22, 2008
Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater

April 23, 2008
The Fillmore, Miami

April 24, 2008
House Of Blues, Orlando

April 25, 2008
House Of Blues, Orlando

Phantom Planet is probably best known for the hit song California, which opened every episode of FOX drama The O.C. over the course of its entire four season run. Jason Schwartzman was also the original drummer for the band; he left after the release of their second album to focus on his acting career. All teen drama and indie movie star cred aside, Phantom Planet is a pretty great, extremely solid pop band. On April 15th the foursome will release its fourth studio album, Raise the Dead, on the Florida-based Fueled By Ramen records. To support the new release and recent label swap, the boys will be hitting the road with Panic at the Disco, Motion City Soundtrack and The Hush Sound on the upcoming 2008 Honda Civic Tour, which will be making stops in Tampa, Orlando, and Miami on the 22-25 of this month.

Drummer Jeff Conrad was a great sport despite extremely terrible cell phone reception and took a few minutes to chat with me about all things Planet while the band was on the road.

REAX:  Alright, so what are you guys looking forward to on the Honda Civic Tour?
JF: We've been doing the last couple weeks since SXSW just in a van with the four of us and it's been cool but it's also been pretty much 8 to 10 to 12 hours of driving a day to make a show the next day, and it's definitely taking its toll on us. Getting on that tour we're gonna share a bus with The Hush Sound so we're looking forward to not driving the long, long distances. Other than that we're just looking forward to playing for as many people as possible and hopefully gaining some new fans.

REAX:  What prompted the decision to sign with Fueled By Ramen?
JC: Well, we left our old label a while ago and were strongly considering just putting out the record on our own; it just seems like that's the way things are going. We had been so frustrated at our old label, having to make a lot of compromises and waiting around for things to happen. We were envisioning this Utopia of releasing songs on iTunes whenever we wanted and that was very appealing. But we met with a few other labels and then we met with Fueled By Ramen. Something that we heard very early on was that the label does not interfere much with the making of a record. They have their bands make their record and if the band is happy then the label is happy. That has not been our experience in the past. So we're very happy so far and really looking forward to seeing what happens with the record.

REAX:  Well, I wish you guys a lot of success. Can you tell me a little about the new record?
JC: Yeah. We made it over the last year or so mostly in Los Angeles at a couple different places with this guy named Tony Berg and this crazy Canadian engineer named Shawn Everett who is a genius. Our singer did a lot of research into cults and cult music, mostly Jim Jones and Charles Manson. He thought that there was just something fascinating about people following a charismatic leader. He was interested in the music they made - how it was extremely hopeful - and then knowing what happened to these cults puts this dark undercurrent beneath it. So he was striving to achieve something like that where on the surface it was very bright and catchy and happy, and then underneath there's something else going on. So there's kind of a loose concept going through the record. If you're looking for something deeper on the album you might find it.

myspace.com/phantomplanet