As bassist and one of the main songwriters for Fountains of Wayne, Adam Schlesinger has crafted a stable of power pop unique in the American music canon. No, he is not just the guy who wrote "Stacy's Mom." Although he did that, too, and the MILF smash of 2003 still represents much that is great about Fountains of Wayne: the big guitar sound, the satiric suburban mise-en-scene, the smart-ass lyrics, the hooks big enough to catch a shark. But Fountains of Wayne can tweak a minor note, too, with songs of quiet desperation about lonely careerists in Brooklyn ("Someone to Love"), or the longing that comes with interstate driving ("I-95"). And that's just on their latest album, Traffic and Weather.
On the day our interview was slated, Schlesinger's wife, Katie, went into labor with his daughter, Claire. As far as reasons to reschedule, this one ranked high. They live in New York with their first daughter, four-year-old Sadie. And that's all the personal dirt I could get out of Adam Schlesinger. Like in his songwriting, he's most comfortable talking about the lives of others. — Sarah Hepola
The title song on Traffic and Weather is about horny news anchors. And you actually write about WNBC anchors Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons getting it on.
[laughs] I always had a big crush on Sue Simmons, which is somewhat inexplicable. Something about the fact that she's been the same age my entire life. And she and Chuck Scarborough don't seem like real people. We met her once, actually, when we went to tape Conan O'Brien. I didn't say much. Just "Hi, big fan."
What did she look like?
She looked like Sue Simmons! Exactly how she looks on TV.
What about newscasters led you to imagine their sex lives?
I really don't know where the idea for that song came from. I just started imagining a world behind the news world. I didn't think of it at the time, but later someone pointed out it's kind of like Anchorman. The concept just seems funny. In a way, it's not that different from another song on the album, "Yolanda Hayes," which is about imagining the personal lives of people in the DMV.
And I can't imagine a less likely place to find romance than the DMV.
Exactly. That one really did come from standing in line at the DMV. Because I live in New York , but I've had a New Jersey ID forever, I kept avoiding it. And I finally went to the DMV, and I had to come back like three times because I never had the right paperwork. It's such a nightmare. You spend the whole day standing there, and I started thinking how wildly inappropiate it would be to hit on the woman once I got up to the desk.
The first song on the album, "Someone to Love," sketches New York as this isolating environment of competition and self-interest. Is that how you see it?
I don't know if I meant to paint the whole city as lonely. I just think it's interesting that you can be in a place crammed with people and be lonely.
You've written a lot of songs about loneliness. I think "Sick Day" [off the album Fountains of Wayne] is one of the great songs about lonely city living. Why do isolated people interest you so much?
When you're writing a song it's more interesting to write about people with a problem than people who are unhappy. Oh, I'm so happy, who cares? My mind just gravitates toward people who are lonely or sad. Everybody's lonely at some point.
