Chris Collingwood Is No Schnook…And Neither Are The Rest Of Fountains Of Wayne

by Will Harris

 (originally appeared in NineVolt Magazine; photo courtesy of FountainsOfWayne.com)

“Do you happen to know what a schnook is?”*

This is Chris Collingwood’s first question to Ninevolt. The lead singer and guitarist/keyboardist with Fountains of Wayne is at home, doing a crossword puzzle, as well as a bit of laundry; he’s just back from his first vacation in years, a trip to St. Thomas which involved a whole lot of sitting around and not doing much of anything...or, in other words, just what the doctor ordered.

On Tuesday, however, he and the rest of the band are headed for Paris...and back to the business of being a member of a Grammy-nominated band.

The Grammys in question are Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best New Artist, the latter coming a bit of a surprise to anyone who’s been following the band since their debut album was released on Atlantic Records back in 1996.

“Yeah, that was a little weird at first,” admits Collingwood. “I was well aware that there was a history of them nominating people who weren’t just on their first album. Apparently, there’s some explanation on the Grammy website about how the category’s supposed to honor artists who are new to the public consciousness or awareness or whatever, but maybe they should just change the name of the category to Breakthrough Artist or something.

            “But, anyway, yeah, it’s a little weird, but we’re still really honored by it. Flattered. I can’t wait to go to the ceremony.”

Collingwood almost giggles as he adds, “And to walk down the red carpet.”

The other Grammy nomination, Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal is, of course, for the band’s ubiquitous single, “Stacy’s Mom,” a song so positively inescapable that it even appears on Now That’s What I Call Music, Volume 14.

            So, Chris, are you concerned at all about the fact that “Stacy’s Mom” and the word “albatross” have the same number of syllables?

            “Oh, my goodness. That had never occurred to me.”

            Oops. Sorry.

            Probably one of the reasons Collingwood hasn’t thought about following up “Stacy’s Mom” is because, honestly, there isn’t another “Stacy’s Mom” on Welcome Interstate Managers.

            “I think a lot of people who hear (‘Stacy’s Mom’), then the album, are surprised,” he admits. “I don’t think the song’s necessarily a misrepresentation, but it’s definitely an anomaly on the album, and they’re surprised that it has more depth. I mean, you wouldn’t expect a song like that to be on the same album as. ‘Hung Up On You’ or one of the acoustic ballads. Not that it’s a bad thing, but if you listen to, say, a Cars album, you’re not going to find a country song on it. And I love the Cars...obviously! But I also love Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, and other people, too.

“Adam (Schlesinger) and I had one discussion when we set out to make this album: let’s make it as varied as possible. Write any damned song you want; don’t worry about making it sound like anything that came before it. I mean, we’re still the same two guys, playing guitars, so most anything we do is going to sound like the same band, anyway.”

            As it happens, Fountains of Wayne really haven’t had the chance to experience the effects of having such a huge hit....at least, not in the concert arena, anyway.

            “We haven’t done a full-fledged tour since ‘Stacy’s Mom’ took off,” explains Collingwood. “We’ve done three tours where we were headlining since (Welcome Interstate Managers) came out, but none of those have been since the single broke and everyone knew it. I’m pretty sure that, the next time we go out, we’ll be playing larger venues instead of just playing for our base fans. I hate thinking about the logistics of things like that, but if you’re only going to go out and play the same club that you played three months ago to the same people you played to then, it becomes a futile exercise. So, hopefully, we can move up a little next time around.”

            Not that the group isn’t already used to playing larger venues. Their most recent tour, for example, found them opening for Matchbox20.

“Yeah, but it’s always different when you’re opening for other people versus headlining,” he clarifies. “Like, for instance, our second-ever tour was opening for the Smashing Pumpkins, so, y’know, we were thrown into the arena environment really early. But what I mean is, it’s different because people aren’t really there to see us. But I’ve always found that it’s easier playing for a larger audience, frankly; it might as well be an empty room, because we can’t see anyone’s face because of the lights, anyway. Personally, I get more nervous when we’re playing for 10 people or for a corporate event or whatever.

Are you at all concerned about the influx of fans that only know you because you’re the guys who did “Stacy’s Mom?”

            “We had some of that on the Matchbox20 tour. There was definitely that part of the crowd who had no idea who we were until we played that song, and then they were thrilled to see us. It is kinda cool, though. I mean, you really realize the power of radio and MTV when an entire arena can recognize your song just from the first few chords. So far, the people who’ve been coming to our shows aren’t people who’ve only heard the single...but, again, it’s different being the opening act.”

            So, as Fountains of Wayne embark on the PSM tour (post-“Stacy’s Mom”), the big question is, where will the song feature in the set?

Will they start the set with it, to say, “Fine, here’s the song, and if that’s the only reason you came, then you can leave and let the people who actually came to see the whole show enjoy themselves?” Or will they save it to the end and force people to be indoctrinated to more of their material before hearing the only song they actually came to hear?

            “You know,” says Collingwood, “that’s actually a very interesting psychological question. So far, we’ve kept it about 2/3 of the way through our set. We’ll probably have to reconsider it at some point...but we’ve never been in this position before!”

            As it stands right now, Collingwood says the group’s set is pretty well balanced between all three of their albums: their self-titled debut, Utopia Parkway, and Welcome Interstate Managers. “But that might change, too,” he admits, “because, up ‘til now, we’ve been playing to our base crowd, who already knew who we were. Now, it might be to new people who only know the new album. Right now, though, we’re definitely not one of those bands where it’s the same set every night. That gets boring. I mean, a lot of bands have to be in a routine, especially if there’s a crew of 200 people working on the show and everyone has to know where the light cues are going to be for each song. We haven’t been quite that fortunate yet. I think we can still feel free to shake it up.”

            The single with the unenviable task of following “Stacy’s Mom” is “Mexican Wine.”  “We shot the video in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago...right before my vacation break, actually,” says Collingwood. “It’s a little over the top. There’s a yacht, and a helicopter shot.” He can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, it’s definitely a little over the top.”

Any celebrity cameos this time around, a la Rachel Hunter in “Stacy’s Mom”?

“Yeah, we were trying to get that guy who hosts ‘American Idol.’ What’s his name? Ryan Seacrest. But I’m not sure if they actually got him or not. We shot the scene with a stand-in because he couldn’t make it to the filming, and they were going to try to get him later. But I haven’t talked to the director since I got back from vacation, so I don’t know if they did or not.”

            Having “Stacy’s Mom” played regularly on MTV and VH-1 didn’t really affect Collingwood a great deal. “When it was in heavy rotation, I tuned in once in awhile, but I really don’t tend to watch much TV, anyway...except for politics and ‘Crossfire.’ Well, and ‘The Simpsons.’ But that’s not really TV.”

            Well, of course not. “The Simpsons” are an institution.

But now that “Stacy’s Mom” has “established the public identity” of Fountains of Wayne (to borrow the phrase from the Grammys’ website), what do you think your chances are of scoring your own celebrity cameo on there?

“On ‘The Simpsons’?!? Omigod, if that happened, I would say, ‘Shut the book, I’m done!’ Because that means you’re REALLY successful. I don’t think there’s any chance; you pretty much have to be a cultural icon. But, seriously, that would be the bestest thing ever to happen to me in my life.

“Almost as good,” Collingwood adds, with an audible smirk, “as winning a Grammy!”

*Dictionary.com defines “schnook” as “a stupid or easily victimized person; a dupe.”  To put Collingwood more at ease, Ninevolt looked this up online during the interview.