From playing small VFW halls to massive sold out arenas, rising from indie rock darlings to mainstream success, Jimmy Eat World (MySpace) have been performing and touring since 1993, their music taking them from being hometown heroes of Mesa, Arizona to international superstars. Despite having a platinum and gold record, eight hit singles, and an aggressive tour schedule, Tom Linton (pictured above, far left), Jimmy Eat World’s guitarist, took the time to chat with Phillyist about the band, his inspirations, and upcoming releases.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us!
Hey man, no problem!

First of all, huge, long-time fan. I remember seeing you at the Wayne Firehouse in NJ with a band called Jebediah, touring off that split EP back in 1999.
What! Oh no way, that’s crazy. That’s a long time ago! [laughter]

If you could do another split with a band, who would you pick?
Well, there are a lot of good bands out right now. I’d love to do one with a band like Spoon. That’d be cool.

So what’s your favorite venue to play here in Philadelphia?
Hmm… maybe the Cadillac Grill or the Theater of the Living Arts.

What shows are the most fun for you to play in front of? Festivals? Big clubs? Small clubs? Theaters?
All of them are good, decent, but festivals are probably my favorite. During a festival we get to play in front of a lot of people who might not get to see us live, and it’s always fun playing those because we get to play in front of way more people, with sets 30 to 45 minutes long. Small shows are great too because they give us more time to play, and for me, it’s a little more fun when the crowd is up in our faces.

What’s your favorite song to play live?
Right now it’s probably this new song from Chase This Light, the new record, called "Dizzy." It was just fun working out, recording it in the studio, getting out the parts and stripping it down. We always get a great crowd reaction when we play that song. I love that.

You’ve always managed to be consistent, from Clarity to Chase This Light, despite changing trends in music. How do you guys keep your cool playing your style of music, while the world of music changes around you so much?
Well, we try to make our records different. We would get a little bored if every record sounded exactly the same, you know? So we try different things on each record. Make the sound a little different from the last. All the experience we’ve had in the studio really helps.

You guys have an extremely dedicated fan-base. Do your fans have a large impact on how you shape your music? Do you feel like there are expectations to live up to?

Definitely. We want to live up to their expectations and keep them happy, however while we want our old fans to stay happy, we also want to reach out to the new ones.

Your last album, Futures, was produced by Gil Norton. Why did the band choose to self-produce Chase This Light?
We produced this record but we also had Butch Vig on board producing, as well as John Fields helping us out with a couple of songs. As far as us doing it ourselves, a lot of the budget we got for the record we used building up our own studio, where we’ve been making records for a long time. For the most part, we wanted to keep a good sound for our record and have Vig executive produce it. He would come in like every two weeks to check us out and our music, and we’d send him songs every day over the internet. It was something different for us and it was a lot fun.

What can you tell us about the upcoming special edition of Bleed American?
There are going to be a couple unreleased live tracks, demo versions of songs, stuff that’s re-mastered, as well as some different versions of the songs and some songs that were worked on during that time period. Mostly all old stuff and demos, stuff from 2000 and 2001 that we recorded, and [laughs] hopefully people will like it.

Some of your band’s influences include groups like Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate. Are there any contemporary bands that influence you?
We’re pretty big fans of Wilco. Our influences are really all over the place. I think all of us would probably agree on Wilco.

What band(s) do you think had the most potential that never hit mainstream? Like bands that you toured with early in your career?
A band called Christie Front Drive, who we did a split 7 inch with a long time ago. All the bands that we loved aren’t really left from like, 95, 96. But there were definitely a lot of good bands. Mineral was great. At The Drive In, they had some success but ended up breaking up.

If you could meet your 20-year-old self what advice would you give? How do you think he'd perceive you?
You know, that's a good question, and I really don't know! I don’t think I’ve really changed much, so far as my attitude towards music.

What's the last show you went to see that you didn't play?
Hmm… the last show… that we didn’t play? It might have been when we went to see Tom Petty at Arizona, but that was a WHILE back, like a year and a half ago or something. When we play the festivals, we usually get to see a lot of our favorite bands though. We did a couple shows in December where the bill, in LA, had Modest Mouse, Spoon, Feist, The Shins… it was just like six of our favorite bands. And we were all on the same bill! Sometimes we get lucky like that.

So you're the guitarist in Jimmy Eat World and I haven't asked this question yet. What kind of guitars do you play?
[laughs] Oh man, I’ve got a lot of guitars. There’s my 1991 Gibson SG, 1980 Gibson SG, 79 Gibson Custom, and my 91 Special. That’s what I usually play live.

Awesome! Well, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. It was great.
Anytime man. Talk to you later.

Jimmy Eat World are currently on tour with Paramore, and will be playing in Atlantic City on May 2nd, at the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, the show is sold out, but if you're up for the drive, they'll also be at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ on May 3rd.