Chicago pop-punk band Plain White Ts are playing the 2008 Soundwave festival, and bassist Mike Retondo couldn’t be more excited. “We’ve never been to Australia, and we’ve heard lots of good things about it,” he says. Are they doing any sideshows? “I’m not sure if we are or not… I hope we are.”

PWT have been around for 10 years, with Mike in the band for the last 5 and a half years, According to Mike, they draw their influences from “any kind of good music”. “We love the Beatles, we love Michael Jackson. We like [commercial] pop music too… you wouldn’t really think we’d get much influence from that…”

Having toured relentlessly over the past year with the likes of Jimmy Eat World, AFI, Fall Out Boy and Gym Class Heroes with their only break on Thanksgiving Day (where they performed in the Thanksgiving Day parade in Chicago), the boys are getting ready to take a short break. “We finish up this US tour this month, then home to write melodies and music and stuff,” Mike says. “Then we have a new [headliner] tour… Europe, Spain, then Australia.” As for having a favourite country, he couldn’t pick. “We have reasons for liking different countries, so I can’t really decide which one’s my favourite… they all have different qualities.”

What would he be doing if he wasn’t making music? “I used to work in a machine shop, then I used to work for a package delivery company unloading trucks… I guess I would be doing that, but I was miserable… I’d probably be doing nothing.”

PWT didn’t expect the song Hey There Delilah to be so successful. His thoughts on it? “I like it. I think they should play it more [chuckles]. It’s kinda weird… It’s almost like the song isn’t our song anymore, it’s everyone else’s song; it belongs to the people [who like it].”

Being a popular band doesn’t come without potential embarrassment, though. “All sorts of things could go wrong,” he says, “People will show up and nothing works, or people think the show is on a different day and no-one shows up.”

All craziness aside, Mike’s advice to bands starting out is to “just keep at it”, and for bands embarking on a first tour? “Don’t piss your pants on stage.” I’m glad I didn’t ask about that one.

PWT’s album Every Second Counts is out now.