Yeah, in the sense that some reviews we've gotten have stated it in those terms, that the rest of the album isn't ten more songs of "Hey Now Now." But I don't think I want that. I wanted to have a nice, broad scope of songs and some highs and lows. It comes with the good and the bad, and I'm just happy to be here.

FREEwilliamsburg: CMJ called "Hey Now Now" a "fit-for-iPod-commercial groove." Is that a compliment or insult?

J: In principle, I see no problem with Top 40 pop. If a huge audience got behind this song, I think that would be great, and I'm not even speaking about the money, though that would be great as well. (laughs) It broadens the palate of what you're hearing on the radio, and it's also a very sincere song. It's a very cathartic song for me. I was going through some awful stuff, and I just had to get all emo. (laughs) I don't even know if people are paying attention to the themes of the song. I've read where people have listened to the first to lines of the chorus and actually think the song's about riding a bus and getting really excited about that, and I think it's funny. So I have no problems with the idea of it being that accessible or widely heard.

FREEwilliamsburg: What musicians did you most identify with when you were growing up?

J: The thing that got me started was Sonic Youth. Their album, Dirty. Before that, I was listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which was a step up from Michael Jackson, my childhood favorite. The Chili Peppers were a great source of rebellion, you know, they said bad words and stuff. But I remember I had my mom buy me the cassette of Dirty. I had been reading about it, and it was like the first note hypnotized me. I consciously thought that this was something totally different, and it changed my whole world view or something like that. So I got a guitar a few months later. The first eight years of my whole, I don't know, music life, was me trying to make Sonic Youth type experiments.

And then there was another big event that changed that: I was on this trip-I grew up in California-and I was on this trip to New Orleans, and the only thing we could get on the radio was country and oldies stations, and we certainly weren't going to listen to country. (laughs) I started listening to these oldies stations and started realizing how brilliant these pop songs were and how brilliant it was to write a pop song that was such a gem. I'd looked down on it as if experimental rock was a higher art form. From there I decided that I wanted to try to start writing pop music, which is the hardest thing for me to do. The reason this band has been around for four years and is only now starting to do something is because it took that long to develop. For three years, there was a sort of in-between stage. The songs were all right and interesting but definitely not what I wanted to do. That's my long answer to your short question.

FREEwilliamsburg: So do you feel like now that you've written a pop record you're headed back toward the Sonic Youth type experimentation?

J: I haven't really thought consciously what it is we want to do next. I have felt a little constrained. All of our songs are verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge, etc. At first, it was a great experiment to try to put things together organically because I wasn't always good at that sort of thing. But, yeah, I do see myself wanting to challenge myself and us more and combine what I used to be and what I am now and make something that is very unique sounding but horrifically catchy at the same time. If you break it all down, I come from an art rock background, so I'm never going to forget that. I'm curious to expand and explore how a song can be a pop song but be something else as well.

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you currently more interested in playing live and touring or getting back into the studio?

J: In one sense, I want to get back into the studio because I don't feel like the way people have perceived this album is how I perceived it or want it to be perceived.

FREEwilliamsburg: How so?

J: I think we're getting pigeon-holed in some ways in this new-wave thing, and that caught us by surprise. Part of it is because I'm such a detail-oriented person that when we were recording this album, I wanted to expand-I always thought rock expanded its rhythmic potential in the 70s. We all love the Beatles and the Stones, but rhythmically they weren't doing a lot. In the 70s there was James Brown and Kraut rock and Joy Division, and I think all that rhythm is so much more interesting. We wanted rhythms like that, but with the pop sensibilities of Bowie and the Beatles and the Kinks and all that. So I was intrigued in the studio when we would add all these acoustic guitars and Rhodes and Wurlitzers, really warm instruments, on top of precise, pulsating rhythms. And then we looked toward Bowie's Berlin-era stuff for some of the synthesizer textures, but I think the combination of some of the rhythms and some of the synth makes people automatically think new wave because that's everywhere. I feel like if you look at the details of it, it's a lot different, and we're much more on the acoustic side-I mean, we're not an acoustic band, but we're more on the acoustic side, the warmer side, 60s sort of stuff. I'm curious to explore what it is we're after and finding an even bolder way of presenting it.

FREEwilliamsburg: Not too many musicians like to be compared to other musicians, but you're often in the same sentence as the Kinks, Bowie, and Ian Curtis. What are your thoughts on those comparisons?

J: (laughs) What we're after is to try to be as good as the bands that we love. It's not like I don't like contemporary bands, but a lot of times people say "Oh, it's like the Strokes or it's like Interpol," and it's as if no one's listened to music before 2000. Probably for my own ego, I'd prefer to be compared to the originators. (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: It seems like when people think of the music community in NYC they think of 80s throw-back dance rock. Do you guys feel a part of that?

J: Not so much in sound, but in our place in rock n roll right now, I think we're a lot more mainstream, in motivation even. Like I have no problem with teenagers in Wisconsin digging our music and buying our t-shirt at Hot Topic or whatever because I was one of those. It doesn't have to be only for people living in Williamsburg. I think a lot of New York still has this art rock side to it that a lot of bands are a part of. I guess my point is that I don't know too many bands that have the mindset that we have. Most of my friends that are in bands, their intentions are more on a local level.

FREEwilliamsburg: So you guys are looking to tour and hit the radio?

J: Oh yeah. I've never done that before, so it's really exciting.

FREEwilliamsburg: No one who lives in New York is from New York. What's the story behind your ending up here?

J: When I was living in Santa Cruz, a friend of mine had a contact in the Hal Hartley office. He's a pretty cool director, and I was into him a few years ago. I had gone to film school, so film was really my thing, and I just called him up one day and said, "Hey I really want to work with you. I live in California, but I'm moving to New York because I want to work with you guys." They told me they were about to shoot a short and didn't have anyone to help out, so send a resume blah blah blah. We were in a dialog about it, and they said yeah, this looks good. Come out in a couple weeks, and we'll start shooting. So I quit my job and sold my car and flew out there. The day after I arrived, I went to the office-this was about a week later - and was like "Hi, I'm here. I'm the kid from California." The secretary looked at me awkwardly and said, "You know, we filled your position with an NYU intern." I don't know why or how, and I was about to get my little California rage on, but Hal Hartley was sitting like two desks over, so I was also a little star struck. (laughs) So I kind of gave them my resume again, and that was it.

I still worked in film on different projects, but I realized that it was not an art form just because you were working in film, especially when you're young. It was such a bureaucracy and I wasn't fulfilled at all. I'd played music for years prior to that, but I didn't think it was my career. I started again, and I thought it was much more emotionally fulfilling. The connection with the audience, it has so much more of a connection with people, and I really enjoyed that. Not being hidden away in my room typing and then five years later maybe it'll come out.

FREEwilliamsburg: Who would you love to ask to produce one of your records?

J: I'm not sure if they're alive-actually, it would either be Ken Scott or Tony Visconti. Ken Scott produced the Ziggy Stardust album and he worked at Abbey Road, so he was an engineer on the White Album. I think Ziggy is maybe my favorite album, not just the song, but the recording. The snare on the first song, "Five Years," I find really amazing. The type of echo and reverb they used is such a warm feel, and the strings compliment it well. With the Visconti one, he did T-Rex. There were some albums where he had strings on every song, but they were very understated. He made everything beautiful and lush, even the smallest song. I would love to have that kind of warmth.

FREEwilliamsburg: What was the first concert you ever went to?

J: I went to a New Year's Eve concert at the Cow Palace, which is near San Francisco, with Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana. I think that was the year of the Nevermind tour. (laughs) Isn't that quite a first concert? What was your first concert?

FREEwilliamsburg: I saw Amy Grant in the middle of the Bible belt in Texas in a huge stadium with my sister, and it was pretty amazing. I think I was nine or something, and to see somebody that big was great.

J: I went to Christian school growing up. Didn't Amy Grant officially cross over to not calling herself Christian?

FREEwilliamsburg: Yeah, and she got a divorce with Gary Chapman and married Vince Gill, which was pretty racy for Christian circles.

J: Is she at the bottom of a gutter right now dealing with her sins?

FREEwilliamsburg: I hope she doesn't feel too bad, but she did kind of forsake her crowd…

The Cloud Room will be touring on the West Coast in June, appearing in L.A., San Francisco and Seattle. In July they're either touring from Chicago back to New York, or they're heading over to London for a few shows.

And Amy, if you're out there, you're not alone: Romans 3:23.