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Conventional wisdom: Alternative rock outfit Jimmy Eat World, featuring (from left) Tom Linton, Rick Burch, Zach Lind and Jim Adkins, is back with a more experienced view on life on its new album Damage.

Alternative rock band Jimmy Eat World is back with an ‘adult break-up album’, recorded in its producer’s living room.

EXACTLY 20 years ago, four young lads from Mesa, Arizona in the United States, got together and decided to form a band, naming themselves Jimmy Eat World after a picture that guitarist Tom Linton’s little brother Ed had drawn of his other brother Jimmy stuffing the Earth into his mouth.

The quartet, which comprises of Linton, Jim Adkins (guitars, lead vocals), Rick Burch (bass) and Zach Lind (drums), started out playing punk rock music, with Linton on lead vocals. Adkins later took over the singing duties on their groundbreaking albums Clarity and Bleed American, which contained the hit The Middle. Thanks to the success of these albums, the band is now considered one of the pioneers of the emo rock movement in the early and mid1990s.

Two decades and seven albums later, the band members are now in their mid-30s, and are now preparing to release a new album titled Damage next month. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Adkins described the album as an “adult break-up album”, explaining: “I’m 37 and the world around me is a lot different than when I was writing break-up songs in my 20s. I tried to reflect that in what the lyrics are.”

Now, it’s one thing to be 23 and singing soaring, emotional laments like 23 (from 2004’s Futures), but with a wife and three kids now, isn’t Adkins a little old and settled to be writing break-up songs?

When we posed the question to Tom Linton during a phone interview from Los Angeles, the guitarist said, “Well, I think everyone in a relationship has problems ... good and bad things happen in every relationship. Jim is just really good at writing lyrics about that sort of thing.”

All the same, Linton emphasised that not all the songs in the album are depressing break-up songs for grown-ups to cry to. “Some of those songs are like that, but not the whole record. And they’re not all for adults, you can still relate to the songs if you’re still young!” he said.

Having recorded the last few albums in its home state Arizona, the band decided to change things around this time. The quartet recorded Damage in producer Alain Johannes’ Los Angeles home.

Johannes, who also worked on Dave Grohl’s Sound City Players project recently, practically gave the Jimmy Eat World crew the keys to his home.

“We recorded all over his house! He’s got a great place, and his whole living room is filled with instruments from all over the world,” recalled Linton.

“We had all the guitars in his bedroom, and all the different rooms had their own sounds. One area where Zach recorded his drums had a big sound, and another room had more of a live sound.”

Jimmy Eat World chose to work with Johannes because he was the one that had the most ideas for the songs after hearing the band’s demos.

“Al made us play the songs as best as we could, and helped give them a life of their own. He had a lot of different ideas – one was to record the guitar and drums on analogue tape machines, which we used before but have not for a long, long time.”

Linton attributes the longevity of the band to the fact that they are just as excited with what they are doing now, as they were when they first started out.

“We’re more excited every year that goes by, because every year, something new seems to happen to us,” he said. “We get to play in different places, record with different people, and learn more about recording every year ... so we’re always excited by what we do.”

One thing Linton will not be doing in the near future is taking back the lead vocalist role that used to belong to him at the very beginning. “I’m pretty happy right now! Back then, it was not like we all sat down and they told me to stop singing! It happened naturally and for the better.

“I did sing a couple of songs on the last record (2010’s Invented). Do I sing on the new one? I tried, but I got shot down!” he concluded with a laugh.

Jimmy Eat World’s new album Damage will be released by Sony Music on June 11.