Sophomore album launches Hoobastank to rock stardom
By KELLY WILSON
Get Out

The lyrics to “The Reason,” the title track of Hoobastank’s sophomore album, sound as if they’re screaming about infidelities, but drummer Chris Hesse, maintains that things aren’t what they seem.

“Doug claims that it’s not about anyone in particular but about a bunch of past relationships that haven’t worked so he kind of drew from a bunch of them,’’ Hesse says of lead singer Doug Robb’s inspiration for the song. “He’s always very nonspecific like that ... It sounds like a song about regret. When I listen to the song, it sounds like he cheated and he feels bad but I know that he doesn’t cheat and he hasn’t cheated. But somehow it’s a classic song for guys who cheated on their girlfriends and vice-versa.”

Hesse says that the single — which has been turned into a ring tone for T-Mobile customers — is getting a lot of play on easy listening stations as well as rock radio.

“I knew we were doing something right when my parents said three of their friends bought the record,” he says. “We’re either doing something right or something drastically wrong. I’m not really sure which.”

And the successful song is propelling the rock group — which also includes guitarist Dan Estrin and bassist Markku Lappalainen — superstardom. But Hesse says the band is just four regular guys.

“I keep hearing that people are surprised that we’re so normal,” he says. “I think what they’re trying to say is ‘boring’ but they don’t want to say it like that. We are the guys next door and we don’t really dress the (rock star) part. We’re not really playing the rock star game. We’re in it for the music.”

But with the music comes heartthrob status. The band’s frontman was named one of People Magazine’s 50 hottest bachelors in a recent issue.

“We give him a little bit of (expletive) about that,” Hesse says laughing. “They called up for me and I was like, ‘Nah.’ You know what’s really funny is that he looks really hot in that picture. We’ve got a good looking singer. We can’t give him too much (expletive) because anything like that always ends up with good publicity for the band.”