New Found Glory returns to their glossy punk roots

While most commercially successful rock bands manage to gain popularity for four or five years before fading away into obscurity, New Found Glory’s longevity and flexibility defines their success.

After making a splash in the early 2000s, the Florida punk band is in the midst of a comeback. Their 2009 release Not Without a Fight (Epitaph) outperformed their last major label effort, 2006’s Coming Home (Drive-Thru/Geffen). Hopes are high for their most recent release, Radiosurgery (Epitaph). It’s a throwback effort that reinstates longtime producer Neal Avron and returns the band to their punk rock roots.

Radiosurgery is a concept album tracing the course from break-up through recovery. It’s based on the romantic troubles of one of the band’s members, which might’ve been a touchy subject for some, but not this group. Having made music together since high school, they share a tight bond.

“I can’t stress this ‘family’ word enough,” says guitarist Chad Gilbert. “We always say that the record itself is a reflection of what’s going on with us at the time.”

Avron was a big player in the process. He produced three of the quintet’s first four albums. For the last couple of sessions, New Found Glory tried different things, such as enlisting Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus (Not Without a Fight). Avron consulted the band long before the official sessions. Though they’d recorded an album’s worth of demos, Avron suggested they write even more.

“It wasn’t until we really felt we had a strong group of songs that we went into the studio,” says Gilbert. “You can’t necessarily do that when you’re just getting to know somebody.”

What emerged was an exceptionally lively album that mixes old-school vibrancy with today’s production-heavy pop-punk sound.

“We used some of those old influences and just what’s going on in pop-punk today and bridged the gap,” says Gilbert.