Vote Kerry, ask musicians out, and, oh yeah, check out American Hi-Fi's third album
"In a perfect world, all the geeks get the girls," sings Stacy Jones on American Hi-Fi's third album, Hearts on Parade. For Newmoanyeah readers there couldn't be a more fetching truth than that song lyric, but apparently even guys in rock bands have trouble with the ladies from time to time.

Before AHF's show at Boston's Axis on July 31, I sat down with Jones and guitarist Jamie Arentzen to discuss the new album, their summer tour with producer extraordinaire Butch Walker, and geeky tendencies.

For those of you scratching your heads, think back a few years when you couldn't stop singing their song, "Flavor of the Weak." If I still didn't jog your memory, then visit their Web site www.americanhi-fi.com where you can listen to all of their albums, even Hearts on Parade -- a damn-catchy piece of work that deserves a listen. Or better yet, catch AHF on the road this summer in a spectacular two-for-one show with Walker.

NMY:		How is the tour going?
Stacy:		The tour has been amazing. All the people coming to the show have been really psyched because it's a real cool show. We play before Butch and he comes out and plays a few songs with us. Then, it goes right into his show where he plays a few songs acoustic. Then, Jamie, Drew, and I come back, and I play drums with Butch. It's just a giant segue. There's no set change. We all just play with the same gear and rock it.
NMY:		How did you decide to go on tour together?
Stacy:		It was actually my idea. We were sitting in a bar with Butch one night drinking Scotch and talking. He said, 'My record is coming out and I'm going to have to go on tour.' I asked him about who would play in the band. He had no idea. We sat there and it dawned on me. I said, 'Why don't we be your band? We'll do it.' I called Jamie and Drew [bassist] and they were totally into it. It's been a great thing because we have a lot of fans in common with Butch. But there are people who listen to Butch that don't know us and people who listen to us that don't know Butch. So far it's been a very good coming together.
NMY:		So does this mean you get paid as Butch's backup band?
Stacy:		No.
Jamie		We are really lucky to just get to go on tour with him. Right now we don't have a label so we don't have tour support. Doing this allows us to go on tour. We are signed to Universal in Japan. We're going to take this tour over to Japan in the fall with Butch.
NMY:		A lot of bands do well in Japan. Why do you think that is?
Stacy:		The Japanese love American power pop and it's always been that way. Any band I've been with in that vein has done well in Japan. In the last five or six years, American pop has become more popular.
Jamie		In Japan, even though American pop music is so popular it still only makes up 15% of their sales. Their own domestic market is huge. Japanese artists are huge but there's still enough room for so many American bands to go over and do well. People love the arts there.
Stacy:		The tour there will be sold out before we reach America. We do 3,000 - 5,000 people a night in Japan.
NMY:		Is that strange for you to be so big in Japan?
Stacy:		We have our little pockets here. We'll show up in Seattle and pack this one club. It's weird. It's nice to have it on a larger scale because you get to play better clubs and the kids are real passionate.

Interview with American Hi-Fi: Page one, page two, & page three
Related article: Butch Walker vs. American Hi-Fi
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