New Found Glory

Wed 2nd Mar, 2011 in Features

New Found Glory are back in Australia for the umpteenth time to play at Soundwave. Their presence here is as regular as Merv Hughes, as the band has toured down under for every album since their virginal appearance in 2002 as part of Warped Tour. NFG are sharing the stage with greats of the rock music industry like Iron Maiden, Slayer and Bullet For My Valentine, but front man and lead singer Jordan Pundik has an unfazed view about the clichéd, hyped theatrics: “I guess we fit into the music industry as we are a band, but personally I never try and get into that kind of thing. I’m more the guy who’s like, ‘tell me where and when I’ve got to play and let me rock the fuck out.’”

Being a man who has seen more of this sun burnt country than many who bear the inked southern cross on their skin, Pundik would have made an excellent tour guide during the the invasion of Oprah and her 450 minions. “I haven’t met her,” Pundik laughs. “ But, I want Oprah to come to Soundwave. Her and I can hang out, we can dance to Gang of Four and talk about Obama.” The flashed image of Oprah donning a black Slayer T-shirt and a pair of skinnies in the middle of a tattooed Soundwave crowd is terribly frightening, as Pundik finishes his indulgent laughing.

Be it the Southern Cross, pin up girl or otherwise, tattoos aren’t like they used to be, according to Pundik. “Everywhere you look there are tattoos. You go into a mall and they’re selling these nylon sleeves for kids with tattoo patterns all over them. I feel like it’s a part of our society now,” says Pundik who got his first tattoo young after his first tour. Pundik’s band along with Vacant Andies, the first band of Chris Carrabba now in Dashboard Confessional, had rented a truck and illegally took it out of the state and played at pool parties “in front of like, two people.” At the end of the tour, when they bought the truck back to Florida, they saw the tattoo shop.

“At the time I was 17 years old, and I wasn’t even allowed to get tattoos yet,” he admits. “But the guy did it anyway. It’s a bit corny. It’s this star and it has Chinese lettering in it, saying ‘friendship,’” laughs the now 30-year-old, whose tattoos have featured in magazines such as Inked and Tattoo Magazine. “We don’t even know if the lettering really says ‘friendship,’ it could say fucking ‘fried shrimp,’ for all we know.” None the less the tattoo symbolises a long running friendship between Dashboard Confessional and New Found Glory.

“I feel that people hold us highly just because we are in a band. If someone got to know one of us, they would realise that we’re just normal dudes, that are kind of boring,” he says, admitting that at times, he must remind himself to remain grounded. One person who that keeps him from the ‘rock star’ life is Van Phillip Pundik, the singer’s first son who was born in October last year. “As cliché as it sounds, it really is one of the most insane things to ever happen,” says Pundik, “He’s actually a really chilled baby which is awesome as my mom always told me I was a really chilled baby. He likes to eat a lot, just like his dad and he likes to sleep a lot, just like his dad. I’m stoked.”

There’s also a fan who helps bring Pundik back to earth. The boy had come up to the band at the peak of an extremely long tour. Pundik says, “His brother had died and he had gone through a series of really bad events over the last year. He told me that without the music, he would have done some bad things to himself. I always think of that, whether we are playing a huge tour, or whether a record sells, I try to always remember why we do it… I feel like what I do really makes a difference,” he states proudly. With that knowledge, after extravagant talk of food and jokes of Oprah, it is hard to think of Jordan Pundik, lead singer of New Found Glory once again as, ‘just a normal dude.’