Sam Farrar, guitarist for Phantom Planet.

Daily Orange: What interested you guys in such a show as this? It’s not the kind of venue you guys normally play.Sam Farrar: It’s not a dive bar with cigarettes and smoking? No, college shows are awesome. Especially shows like this where you’re playing with De La Soul and Method Man. They’re pretty huge.

DO: How’s playing an open-aired venue like this one?Sam: It’s fine to play in open air, but I think we’re more of a dark, seedy club band. A nighttime band.

DO: You guys have had some success lately with the single ‘Big Brat’ off of your latest album and with your biggest hit, ‘California,’ now the theme song for ‘The O.C.’ How are you guys feeling about the current state of your band?Sam: I think we’re pretty excited to finish the tour and start working on the new album. We’re just coming into our own, which is what we always wanted to do. The next album will probably reflect that.

DO: Your last album was a little bit darker than some of your other stuff. Is that the direction you guys are going?Sam: It was definitely an unconscious thing that we just ended up at. We just sat down and recorded it.

DO: One of the biggest changes this time around was no longer having Jason Schwartzman as your drummer. How did you guys come to that decision?Sam: He had a point where there were three movies he was doing. And it just wasn’t fair to us anymore because he just kept screwing up our schedule. We love him to death but it was something we had to do. It was very mutual. He was totally understanding.

DO: So what’s next for Phantom Planet?Sam: We’re writing, and after we finish touring we’re going to lock ourselves for a couple of weeks and take a first shot at working.

DO: Are you feeling like there is any pressure on you guys to keep building upon the success you’ve had?Sam: If there is, we shouldn’t think about it. We just want to keep ourselves happy.

Published on September 6, 2004 at 12:00 pm