Tom Higgenson and Tim Lopez from the Plain White T's stopped by the J-14 office to tell us all about their new album The Wonders of the Younger, which hits shelves December 7! You definitely remember their huge hit "Hey There Delilah", and you're probably rocking out to their newest hit, "Rhythm of Love" — it's featured in the promo for Secret Life of the American Teenager!

J-14: Why did you choose to call the album Wonders of the Younger? Was it because of the song that's on it?
Tom Higgenson: The album was named before the song was written. I already had the idea of Wonders of the Younger — the whole idea of putting together nostalgic childhood imagery. The song was written to drive that point home and that feeling i wanted the album to have. I wanted to encapsulate it all in one song.

J-14: You took a brief break, so what was it like coming back after a little time off?
Tom: The break was only about a month or two. We never really stopped. We were writing the whole time, just working on this album. For over a year and half, we wrote and recorded.
Tim Lopez: I think it was about 8 months, but it took about a year to get all the writing done.
Tom: We wrote almost 50 songs. It wasn't that hard to choose. We all decided pretty easily on the top 20 and from there we just narrowed it down. We recorded 16 songs — 14 are on the album and 2 are b-sides.

J-14: What do you think when you see your song in promos for shows like Secret Life of the American Teenager?
Tom: I've seen the commercials. It's cool. I think anywhere your song gets a chance to take life is a good thing. It gives more people a chance to hear it and get it stuck in their heads.

J-14: Have you ever had a crush that got away?
Tom: Delilah was a girl I thought was really cute and I wrote "Hey There, Delilah" about her. She always had a boyfriend and it didn't really work out. Funny story — when we were nominated for the Grammy, I called her up. We hadn't spoken in a while, but I had just broken up with my girlfriend, and Delilah had just broken up with her boyfriend, so I thought, "How cool! I can take Delilah to the Grammys." Before I ever wrote the song, I joked with her that it would be the song that gets us famous and she would be my date to the Grammys. Since that actually happened, I had to take her to the Grammys. She agreed to go, and for a second there, it seemed like we might get a chance to date and see what happens, but by the time the Grammys actually came up, she was already back with her boyfriend and I was back with my girlfriend.

J-14: What's the best thing a fan has ever given you?
Tom: Our fans are amazing. We had all our equipment stolen around 5 years ago and we told fans about it on our website. Fans really reached out and wanted to help, so we set up a P.O. box and they sent us cards, their allowance, and all kinds of stuff to help us keep our morale up. They let us know how much they loved us and that they hoped we could get through it. And we did — thanks to them.

Photo: Rachel Sheehan

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