Web Exclusive: A conversation with Nate Ruess of fun.

Although FUN. released their debut, Aim & Ignite, this past August, they’ve been hard at work writing, recording and touring with the likes of Hellogoodbye and Manchester Orchestra since the beginning of 2008. That’s when frontman NATE RUESS moved on from his previous band, THE FORMAT, picked up and traveled to the East Coast where he worked with ANDREW DOST (formerly of ANATHALLO) and JACK ANTONOFF (STEEL TRAIN). We caught up with Ruess as the band are in the middle of a much-needed break, and hot on the heels of the announcement that fun. will be playing this spring’s Bamboozle.



INTERVIEW: Lucy Albers



What’s going on with fun. these days?

We’re getting ready to go on tour in February with Jack’s Mannequin, so we’re just taking it easy [until then]. We might play a couple secret shows and a couple not-so-secret shows.



This will be your second time out with Jack’s Mannequin. Obviously you guys enjoyed the first time?

Yeah, it’s becoming like a reccurring thing. They’re great people and I think they’re very much in our speed, which isn’t exactly any crazy sort of warp speed or anything. We have a great time with them.



Are you excited to get back on the road?

Very. We’ve been home for about two or three weeks now, and we were out for pretty much three months before that. I’m always ready to get home at the end of tours, but the second we get home, I’m ready to go back out. You tend to be really comfortable on the road and that starts to feel like home. And when I’m home, I immerse myself in absolutely nothing, so that doesn’t help at all. I like to think that if I could do anything for the rest of my life, it would be nothing. But then I do it for, like, four straight days and start to go crazy.



Are all of you located in the same area of the country?

We’re kind of spread throughout. We’re honestly from a little bit of everywhere. It makes things kind of annoying as far as getting together to practice and get ready for tour. Then, at the end of tour, it’s like everybody goes their separate ways. So I’ve found myself driving a van to New York, like, cross-country, dropping people off along the way till it was just me.



fun. have been together for almost two years now. Does it feel like it’s been that long?

It still feels new. It’s crazy. Maybe that’s because [the Format] lasted for, like, six or seven years. It doesn’t feel like this been a third of that time. It still feels like the first year. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we didn’t start touring until about a year ago. So I only feel a year old, even though we were writing songs and recording a year before that. We generally take a long time to do stuff like recording. Part of the reason is that we’re very slow as far as just waking up and getting stuff done. We like to take our time. But the other thing is that we’re just very meticulous. I always thought it would be exciting to make a record very quickly. But I don’t know if I’d write songs that good in that short of time.



Have you been working on anything new?

It’s funny you ask that. I was literally just writing a few things [before this interview]. It’s the first time I’ve written with fun. in mind. We’re taking it pretty easy, though. I think that now is the time when we just kind of come up with ideas for the next album.



Do you know when you’d like to have anything new out?

Probably the beginning of 2011. But I’m really bad at timetables and I take forever to do things. So I’ll say that and it will probably end up being 2020. [Laughs.]



I read that both Manchester Orchestra and Jack’s Mannequin had only heard one fun. song before taking you on tour. How does it feel to have that immediate support for your music?

It’s nice. I think there were obviously expectations from the bands that we were previously in and that we wouldn’t be too crazy. It’s not like we had a batch of crazy metal songs to come out with. I wish that were the case, actually. We could have just disappointed everybody. We could’ve just recorded one really great song to send to everybody and then had like 15 terrible metal/Celtic songs. That would have been awesome. [Laughs.] But no, it was nice that they had that kind of faith and enjoyed the songs so much to latch onto us and give us those opportunities.



You guys just released a free Christmas song. Whose idea was that?

Someone had just asked about a Christmas song. I’m not really in to Christmas music. It kind of drives me crazy because my dad is playing it constantly during the season. And Jack [Antonoff, guitar] is Jewish. But Andrew [Dost, drums] really loves Christmas music. Someone asked us to do a Christmas song, so Andrew wrote it and it turned out really cool. I don’t remember what was happening in the studio at that time, but I think we were like, “Okay, let’s not go conventional with this. Let’s just write a fun Christmas song.”



What are you guys up to separately?

Jack just finished up the new Steel Train record, and I’ve been focusing on a little bit of nothing. Andrew has a whole bunch of Christmas songs up on his MySpace. That’s like anti-me. I love Andrew’s music, but if its Christmas related, I might have to pass. [Laughs.] alt