Friends from another planet

By CATHRIN SCHAER

Yes, there is an actor in the band. Actually there are two - and one of them has worked as a model. But the Californian guitar-pop group, Phantom Planet, are so much bigger than one actor's vanity project. At least, that's what they say.

"It can be a little disheartening," says drummer Jason Schwartzman of the fact that he's probably best-known to New Zealanders as the schoolboy genius in Wes Anderson's darkly humorous 1998 movie, Rushmore.

"Because, really, I only got the part two weeks before the movie started and I'd been in a rock'n'roll band for four years before that. So it kinda sucked that the movie came out before the record. It was like, 'Oh, he's also got a band'. And something I'd been working at for four years became an 'also'."

And the rather good-looking lead singer/actor/model Alex Greenwald, who has appeared in the film Donnie Darko as well as a few ads, is quick to point out that, "I just look cute but I'm not a model. It's just a hobby."

"He needed the money," Schwartzman adds.

"The thing is," he continues, "there always has to be something that gets in the way of the music. I mean, if we were big and fat and ugly then people would probably want to talk about that."

"I just know that as long as I feel good about it and proud about it, that's all that really matters," Greenwald says. "I actually think the worst thing would be to have everybody like you. We are fine being dissatisfied because I personally have a theory that when an artist becomes content with their work, the work gets worse or the output becomes less."

Happily, at the moment that doesn't seem to be a problem for Phantom Planet.

The band were formed in 1994 when the members were all still at school in Hollywood; four years later they were signed to a major record label and released their first album, Phantom Planet Is Missing.

Another four years and a change of record label later, the early-twenty-somethings are releasing their second album, The Guest.

And, at least so far in the States, the reviews have been relatively positive.

They have been called Los Angeles' answer to the Strokes, although this is probably more the result of their wardrobes than any real musical similarities. The look is thrift shop, retro-funky.

Or it could have been their Strokes-like celebrity connections - Schwartzman is the son of actress Talia Shire and producer Jack Schwartzman, and is a far-flung member of the Coppola clan.

Phantom Planet have also been described as an "N'Sync for the Ghost World set" - that is, a good-looking boy band for the more alternative 12-year-old.

A bit of both descriptions is probably on the mark when it comes to the new album. Music on The Guest swings from, at best, a cross between the Replacements and Travis to, at worst, Weezer meets Dawson's Creek.

The one over-riding impression is of genuine pop-rock potential. Combine this with the good looks and the people they know and you start to suspect that Phantom Planet could easily become bigger than the two-actors-and-a-model thing.

Have they grown up much since they started the band as teenagers? Why yes, Schwartzman and Greenwald agree, they have. Indeed they feel like they've gone through a kind of musical puberty.

"When you're going through puberty, everything is new," Greenwald says. "That's what the first record felt like. We'd never been in a studio. We were just learning to play our instruments properly. I don't think we're totally mature or anything now, but I think for the second record we knew more about what we were doing."

"Our songs now have facial hair and balls," says Schwartzman, who gets all the best lines.

Both agree that being on the road for so long and playing live gigs has played a huge part in their finding some rock'n'roll maturity. "You just change so much as a person on the road," Schwartzman says.

Touring was also something that made Phantom Planet believe they might, possibly, one day, maybe, make it as a professional rock band.

"Success is subjective," Greenwald muses. "It was a year ago, the first week of our tour in a van. And we made it out of California, y'know, out of that Los Angeles pit. And I thought, 'We are successful'."

"When I saw the Idaho city limits, I was like, 'We've made it'," Schwartzman adds.

And they've had a similar experience right here in Auckland, after playing a small promotional concert on Saturday night.

"[On Sunday] night we went to see 24 Hour Party People at the movies and when we were leaving we walked by this group of kids," Schwartzman relates. "And as we walked by they applauded and said, 'Good show'. They'd obviously been to the gig and they had nothing to gain or lose by telling us that. But they'd enjoyed the show and to me that's what matters."

"When something like that happens all of a sudden everything makes total sense," Greenwald adds. "There were smiles on their faces and they knew our music, kind of knew us. To us it felt like they were almost friends of ours, friends that we had made here in New Zealand."

* Phantom Planet's The Guest is available now.