Having just released “Futures,” the follow-up to the 2001 platinum-selling album “Bleed America,” Jimmy Eat World is already recording new material for an EP due out early next year via Interscope.
“I think it will be just four songs,” guitarist Tom Linton tells Billboard.com. “We’re working on it now and one or two songs are completely done. There are a couple [of tracks] that just have drums and we’re slowly laying down guitars and stuff when we get time during soundcheck. We might throw a couple of covers in too.”
Jimmy Eat World’s current North American tour hits San Francisco tonight (Nov. 1). December will be spent taking it easy and playing a handful of radio station-sponsored holiday concerts, in anticipation of an extensive tour in 2005. Linton says the group has been performing four or five new tracks a night, a number he believes will increase in time.
Considering the anthemic qualities associated with Jimmy Eat World’s 2002 breakout track “The Middle,” the choice of the hard rock-leaning “Pain” as the new album’s debut single appears to be a calculated move to remind fans the band is capable of more than pop radio fare.
“Yeah, maybe a little bit,” says Linton. “Even on the last record, the first song we put out was ‘Bleed American’ and on this record, we started off with ‘Pain.’ So I think it’s always kind of fun starting off with a good rock song for the first single.” Linton says the tentative choice for the follow-up single is “Work,” because, “I guess it’s a little bit more of a pop song.”
Although not known as a political band, Jimmy Eat World cautiously delves into the subject matter on the new album’s title track via such lyrics as, “I always believed in futures / I hope for better in November.”
“On our Web site we have a little link where kids can sign up to vote,” says Linton. “And we’ve been doing stuff to get people to vote. We’re just trying to stay in the middle because for us, I think it’s more important for kids to get out and make their own choice. It’s kind of hard for us. We don’t want to be telling them exactly how to vote or what to do.”
