Chris Collingwood, guitarist and singer of Fountains of Wayne. Photo by Jared Miller / NBN

A seemingly impromptu interview in a small white tent with white lawn chairs is hardly how I expected to meet the members of the New York-based band Fountains of Wayne. But the atmosphere matched the band members’ relaxed dynamic. Composed of Chris Collingwood (lead vocals), Adam Schlesinger (bass and backing vocals), Jody Porter (guitar and backing vocals), and Brian Young (drums), Fountains of Wayne first became a household name in 2003 with their hit “Stacy’s Mom.”

Although they have since released five singles, they have so far not been able to recapture the commercial success of their smash hit. In the music biz, such a phenomenon is often considered a “one-hit wonder.” To call them that, however, would be a great injustice to their three other albums, especially their latest, Traffic and Weather, which generated plenty of critical acclaim.

Fountains of Wayne released albums long before “Stacy’s Mom” — Collingwood and Schlesinger first formed the band in 1996. While their songs are often denied airplay, they continue to be used to bring lovers together and break up the silence on moping television dramas like Scrubs, The OC and One Tree Hill as well as on the big screen (Just Friends, Music and Lyrics).

The band performed at the Kellogg Centennial Festival on a chilly Saturday night. According to the Northwestern students that attended the concert, braving the cold was a small price to pay. “It was worth standing out here for an hour to hear ‘Stacy’s Mom,’” said Weinberg freshman Chase Jackson.

Others were pleasantly surprised to discover that “Stacy’s Mom” wasn’t the only song they enjoyed. According to Terri Shih, a Communications sophomore, “I didn’t know any other of their songs but I’m glad I came because I liked all of their music.”

Do you like hearing your songs used in movies or on TV?
Schlesinger: Yeah, for one thing, it’s a lot more exposure than radio even. That Scrubs thing, a lot of people heard the song because of that.
Collingwood: This is the first I’ve heard of that.
Schlesinger: You never saw that? It was with Mandy Moore. There’s like a two minute montage. Check it out on YouTube. They actually act out the lyrics. Mandy Moore and Zach Braff. Although I have a little bone to pick with Zach Braff. He made that movie called Garden State and he didn’t put our music in it. What the hell was that about? That record sold a billion copies and we’re not on it.
Porter: They did put it in my favorite movie of all time, which is called Just Friends. “Hackensack” is in that.

What’s your favorite song?
Young: My favorite is “Dude looks like a Lady.” The lyrics just really stick with you.
Schlesinger: It’s about a dude who looks like a lady. [laughs] It’s a metaphor.
Porter: The dude’s a metaphor for a lady.

What’s your favorite song that you’ve written?
Schlesinger: Uh, I don’t know if I really have a favorite.
NBN: “Stacy’s Mom”?
Collingwood: It’s definitely “Stacy’s Mom.”
[laughter]
Schlesinger: Chris loves “Stacy’s Mom.”
Porter: I like the one they wrote in college. It called “Sasquatch.”
Schlesinger: Oh, yeah. That’s unreleased. It’s about Sasquatch. We were about nineteen when we wrote that.
Porter: Tenacious D ripped them off.
Young: What about the one were wrote as a band when we were in Holland called “Pretty Flowers”? Remember that?
Schlesinger: Smoke a lot of pot…
Collingwood: That’s another good one.
Porter: Eat a lot of food.
Schlesinger: That’s the second verse.
[Collingwood plays the song on the guitar. It sounds like it would be an instant classic.]
NBN: That’s better than “Stacy’s Mom.”
Porter: It’s just as good.

What direction do you want to go in with your next album?
Schlesinger: [laughs] We never really talk about direction all that much, you know. Usually we just get in and see what we’ve got, rhythm, and then it kinda gels after a while. Eventually we start eliminating songs and whatever, but in the beginning we just bring in whatever we’ve got.

Have the dynamics within the band changed?
Schlesinger: Not really.
Young: It’s exactly the same.
Schlesinger: Same jokes, same guys….
Collingwood: Same songs.
Porter: Actually, we’re going on two years now without a work-related injury. That’s pretty good.

Have you had a lot of injuries?
Porter: I broke my heart once. On a tour bus. See it bounces and I sleep on my fist so I broke my own heart once. That was the last tour related injury we had. It couldn’t heal because I had to go to sleep again the next night.
Schlesinger: We find that if we all wear sunglasses we look the same as we used to. Brian used to do this thing when were on tour where he’d go into an electronics store and he’d ask some guy, “Does this computer have Yahoo?” And this guy would go into this twenty minute explanation, “Well, you see sir, Yahoo is not something that comes with a computer…” and Brian would wait until the guy was done with the who thing and say, “Well, I was told I need one with Yahoo, so I’m gonna go look at another store…”
Porter: I also remember he would say, “So it doesn’t have Yahoo?” He got a big kick out of that one.
NBN: You must have been really bored.
Schlesinger: We often are.

What was your inspiration for “Someone to Love”?
Schlesinger: It was originally based off of “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles.
[Collingwood starts playing and they all join in.]
Schlesinger: It’s kind of a rip off that idea. Actually, originally I didn’t have a chorus for “Someone to Love” so I was using that chorus and our manager was like, “Well, if you use that chorus, you’re going to have to give Paul McCartney all your money.” So I decided to write my own chorus.

Any specific ambitions for your next album?
Schlesinger: We would like to make one. We’d like it to be good. That’s about it.