A PEOPLE'S BAND

The members of Hoobastank have been plenty busy promoting a new album and playing college campuses as part of MTV's Campus Invasion tour, (though the closest they come to Indiana University will be at rival Purdue University on April 18) but they were able to take a few minutes in Chicago to answer questions about the band's direction. The alterna-grunge foursome made a quick stop in the Windy City before winding down the east coast to hit Florida this week. \nThis tour is decidedly different from their stint fronting for Linkin Park last year, in which the band was allotted a mere 20-minute interval to warm up the crowd. This time, they're the ones packing the hall for 75-minute sets, culling hits from their self-titled debut album (which went platinum within weeks), and their 2004 release, The Reason.\nThe latest album's a bit more mellow than Hoobastank's previous offerings, but bassist Markku Lappalainen says the change wasn't conscious.\n"We thought our new single ("The Reason") was the best song to put out, regardless of how heavy or soft," he says. "We definitely had softer songs on the first album, and it's not like this is the first ballad we've ever written. We just like the song a lot." \nThey're also part of the Rock the Vote campaign, and volunteers will be on hand to register America's youth to take part in the upcoming presidential election. \n"This band usually isn't the one to stand on the soapbox and preach anything, but that's something, obviously, that our country is founded on," vocalist Doug Robb says. "Anybody who's complaining about the lot we're in right now, unless they put their two cents in, really has no right to speak about it."\nThey also spoke out about music piracy on the Internet, punctuating their disapproval with boos and grunts. \n"It hurts everyone in the long run," drummer Chris Hesse says. "It hurts the mom-and-pop record stores, the people at the record companies as well as future bands who want to get signed. People downloading music for a band with only marginal success don't realize the likelihood for (that band) getting another chance gets smaller and smaller. Instead of supporting that band's record, illegal downloading makes it look like no one is interested."\nThe band's doing their part to give back to industry hopefuls, however, teaming with credit giant MasterCard to promote a marketing project which affords college students and recent grads interested in breaking into the entertainment industry the chance to direct a video for the band's latest single.\n"A lot of things do get handed to us over the course of touring, but not everything -- at least to us -- is as interesting and cool as this was," Robb says. "It keeps the fans involved creatively with us; we're sort of a fans' band. It's a win-win thing, you know?"\nThey'll be looking for creative people with ideas and the charismatic confidence to speak up and be heard. And they "can't be lazy," Hesse says. \n"We want somebody who really wants to do this as a career, not just someone who wants to take pictures of the band," Hesse says. \nRobb says the work which goes into making videos is important because they ultimately represent the music.\n"They see videography as a creative art," Robb says. "It's an aspect of music that visually illustrates portions of songs that may go uncolored by mere onstage performing."\nLappalainen agrees.\n"It's amazing to see what happens by putting visual and musical aspects together," Lappalainen says. "It's really cool and people hopefully enjoy it."\nAnd despite their success, the men of Hoobastank claim they're just another "cheesy band" from California. \n"We're going to call ourselves cheesy before some pompous critic does," Robb says. "Honestly, I wouldn't say we're a critically-acclaimed band. We have great fans, and we're more of a people's band. We're not reinventing rock 'n' roll, and that's what a lot of critics are looking for ... We don't put on an image -- there's not a lot of leather pants and underwear and socks and stuff. We're not cool, we don't do coke and we're just four very normal guys with great backgrounds, good families and nothing to bitch about. That's what makes us different"