*From Newzline - September 17, 2007*

Formed whilst at high school, Rooney have been together for the past five years playing to packed out venues across America and touring with the likes of The Strokes, Peter Yorn and more recently in Europe with Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas. They have already sold close to a million records in the US and now London’s calling.

Sharing the name with another famous Rooney has caused the crowds in Europe to chant the familiar sounds of, Rooney.. Rooney… Rooney.. as sung by the England & Old Trafford faithful.

Rolling Stone Magazine praised their “Crowning Anthems” and deemed Rooney one of its “Ten Artists To Watch” for the year – New York Times say “This year’s most promising newcomer” and have made appearances for the likes of David Letterman and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In April, Rooney hosted a Monday-night residency at Los Angeles’ renown Roxy nightclub during the entire month playing their new album “Calling the World” for their hometown fans.

They were also joined on stage by friends to perform covers including the likes of Phantom Planet, The Donnas, Susana Hoffs (who performed Walk Like. An Egyptian with the band) and Cherrytree Records label mates The Feeling.

Recently in the UK playing shows and promoting their sophomore album ‘Calling The World’ newzline caught-up with front man Robert Schwartzman for a chat.

Newzline: Hi Robert, how are you today?

Robert: I’m fine. We’re in Liverpool in the studio right now recording a song which is kinda fun. We’ve actually never been in a studio in any other country.

Newzline: Cool… what is the song your recording.

Robert: We’re recording a song called Pressure Drop. It’s an old reggae song. It’s been covered a lot but we’re trying to get it in a Nissan commercial so we’re seeing what we can do with it.

Newzline: Well good luck with that! Right, so for those who might not be familiar with Rooney just yet can you tell me a little about the band?

Robert: Yeah, we’re five boys from LA. We met in high school, we liked the same music so started making music together. Like most bands we played a lot of clubs around LA and built up a very strong following from the internet and playing shows all the time. We would make CDs and release them ourselves. We’d make merch, sell merch and play shows after school all the time. After a couple of years all the work we had been doing really paid off and we got a record deal. We made a record in 2002 (released in 2003) toured a ton and now we’ve sold a good amount of records in the US and are releasing our second album ‘Calling The World.’

Newzline: And am I right in saying Rooney were one of the many acts who got their break on The O.C?

Robert: People say we did but I think we actually had a really good thing going before the O.C. It was more of a mainstream exposure thing but it definitely created more awareness for the band.

Newzline: It’s actually quite amazing just how many bands got recognition because of that show...

Robert: Yeah there are so many. And other shows like Greys Anatomy and stuff. You could go through so many bands, like The Fray, all these different bands in America whose songs broke because they played on some show. No bands had ever done the TV thing and with the O.C, we started it.

Newzline: So you were actually the first ones on there huh, crazy!

Robert: We were THE first ones, yeah. I think in America a lot of people know our name because they remember us from that show.

Newzline: You’ve done some acting yourself (Robert has starred in Movies like The Princess Diaries & the fantastic Virgin Suicides). What made you decide to break from movies and go into music?

Robert: I was actually already doing the music stuff. I took time from the music stuff to go and do a movie, so I put the band on hold. I just really love writing music and being in a band. To me it’s creatively more fulfilling.

Newzline: Do you think you’ll ever go back into the movie biz?

Robert: I don’t know, I mean I might do a movie one in a while, maybe a project that involves music, but for me I haven’t done a movie for seven years, it’s not something that I have pursued. There just isn’t time. When you’re in a band you spend all your time trying to make your band work.

Newzline: As you mentioned you have also just released your sophomore album ‘Calling the World’ tell us a little about that...

Robert: Well it took three and a half years to make. The actual record ‘Calling The World’ only took three weeks to make but the whole process took three and a half years because we made three albums…..so each record took about four months to write, two months to produce, then we toured. Whenever we canned the record we went on tour so it put back the process by months. So there are two other albums out there that no-one has heard. So really it’s our fourth studio album but only our second release.

Newline: Wow. So you must have a mega amount of material. How did you decide what songs would end up on the new album?

Robert: I think the songs I was writing at the time just didn’t have the Rooney type of thing. The way they were produced didn’t have our upbeat pop choruses; they didn’t jump out at you. The two other records we made are very different from each other. One of them is very stripped down and live sounding, the other is very produced and super layered, while ‘Calling the World’, to me, is the best of both worlds.

It has the live raw feel but is still produced well and very lush. I wrote all these songs right before recording it. We’d just gotten back from touring and I felt inspired to start writing more music. I felt the stuff that I had been writing in that period was the best that I had been writing and you just kinda get in the groove and go with it. I had the best fun writing these songs too.

Newzline: So what kind of flavour would you say this album has?

Robert: What? Flavour? Well, it’s kinda like a strawberry, vanilla, haha! Well, I feel it’s the right step we needed to take from our last record, it’s not like we left our fans in the dust and I think people who bought our last album will also like this one. Ultimately I think it shows that the band can do more. The arrangements, the writing and also the musicianship is a lot better.

Newzline: Do you have a favourite song on the album?

Robert: Yeah. I really love ‘I Should’ve Been After You.’ When I play the record for someone for the first time I usually put on that song. And I really love ‘Help Me Find My Way’. It’s really different. I think people are sometimes surprised because they’re not expecting that kind of track from us, but I like that it is a surprise. It is a pretty ballad.

Newzline: The first single taken from your new release is ‘When Did Your Heart Go Missing’ so what made you decide to release that specific song?

Robert: I guess in a lot of ways, me and the band feel that a lot of rock music lacks real groove and you just can’t dance anymore to it. Not so much here, but everything back home, it’s so, boring. It just has a great beat, a great lick that’s just kinda instant. Great songs are supposed to instantly knock you on the head and I think it does that.

Newzline: You’ve also toured with some fantastic artists over the last couple of years, Weezer and The Strokes to name a few. Which tour was your favourite or most fun to do?

Robert: We actually have the best time headlining and putting together bills ourselves for our own shows. Its fun picking opening bands and playing a full set. But we toured with The Stokes and that was really fun. We did Lollapalooza with a ton of great bands and we’re doing a tour in the States with the Polyphonic Spree and The Redwalls soon which should be great.

Newzline: You played in Glasgow a couple of nights ago – what was the reaction like?

Robert: It was great. It was a sold out show. We played the single and everyone knew it. There were people who’d obviously gotten the import of our record so they knew all the songs and you could tell because they sang every word. It would be nice if everyone had the record at this point but it only came out today. It was amazing. We did a whole bunch of old songs and new songs. It’s been like four years since we’ve played in Glasgow so it was great.

Newzline: And you must know by now that your band shares its name with a very famous English football star right?

Robert: Oh my god yeah, it’s so funny. You know when the crowd give you a lot it’s the best. In Glasgow between songs everyone was yelling ‘Rooney, Rooney,’ it was awesome though. In America, people know the band Rooney but no-one knows the name so if we’re in a bar and some dudes like ‘hey what’s you band called man’ and I say Rooney, they like, ‘What? Rodney? What is it?’ So we’re actually really lucky that everyone knows the name Rooney here.

Newzlne: You’ve sold a million albums in the US to date, are you hoping for a repeat of that in the UK?

Robert: I think we actually had three million stolen albums. We’re triple rubber. You know steal our album whatever, but as long as people come to the show. If you did steal the album you have to support the band in some way so come to our shows and you can quote me on that! But yeah I’d love success here. I love being here, I love the music and I definitely think there is a place for our band here so we want to be here as much as we can.

Newline: Critics have actually likened Rooney’s sound to that of old school British music, for instance The Beatles, who would you say in British music terms has been a main influence for Rooney?

Robert: I could say all of us, very early on were big ELO fans and obviously The Beatles, The Kinks and Queen. Me, I actually love the Pet Shop Boys. I mean I’m all over the place in my likes. I like Black Sabbath, Small Faces. I think growing up in high school I liked bands like Blur, Oasis. I just love melodic rock and roll music; I’m a junkie for that.

Newzline: And you’re in Liverpool right now, what do you think of the city?

Robert: It’s really cool. We were here once before, about four years ago. I walked around a little bit and got to see some stuff. Today we drove around the city, literally just to get to the studio so I haven’t really seen a lot it, but I wish I could, just to get a good feel for it.

Newzline: You mentioned that The Beatles are an influence of yours. Have you had a chance to head down Matthew Street and check out the Cavern Club?

Robert: No. The first time we came here we walked by the Cavern Club but we couldn’t get in. Maybe this time we’ll be able to check it out. I’d love to just get a sense of the city and discover the streets where The Beatles grew up.

Rooney’s new album ‘Calling The World’ and single ‘When did you’re your Heart Go Missing‘ are out now.

-Sarah