New Found Glory: “For me, the album is about encouraging people to take their dark times and reverse them!”

For nearly three decades, New Found Glory have stood as one of pop-punk’s most enduring and community-driven bands. What began as a side project rooted in hardcore shows and Florida basements has grown into a 29-year career defined by loyalty, longevity, and an unwavering connection to their scene. For guitarist and songwriter Chad Gilbert, the journey traces back to early influences like Green Day, Sick of It All, and the discovery of a punk and hardcore community that felt like home.

From chaotic early shows in South Florida to major label deals, MTV appearances, and tours alongside bands who helped shape the genre’s explosion in the early 2000s, New Found Glory have grown without ever losing sight of their roots. Their latest material reflects that same ethos, looking back on the venues, friendships, and culture that defined them, while also confronting more personal chapters. For Gilbert, the new record, Listen Up! carries deeper weight, shaped by an ongoing health battle that has reframed both his perspective and his purpose, turning hardship into a constant drive for connection and encouragement.

In our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with Chad to trace New Found Glory’s origins, revisit the chaos and camaraderie of their formative years, and explore how the band continue to evolve nearly 30 years on. From surviving the pop-punk boom and staying true to their identity to finding strength through adversity, Gilbert offers an honest look at resilience, community, and why the spirit of punk, and New Found Glory, still feels just as vital today.

Let’s start by going way back, even before New Found Glory to what got you into hardcore and punk?

“It started with my older brother. Him and his friend Paul would go to local shows and got into punk rock really early. My brother would go to shows and he’d come home and he would tell me how I would like this band or that band. It’s funny, I have some old Elementary school things of me in the fifth grade tutoring a kindergartner how to read, and I’m wearing a Danzig ‘How the Gods Kill’ Shirt and it’s got a giant knife sword with upside down cross and all this crazy stuff. I’m tutoring a kid wearing a Danzig shirt.

I remember my brother going to see Fishbone in the sixth grade and he came home and told me about this band who had opened who he knew I would love. He bought me their CD, they were called NOFX. It was the White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean album. That was the album they were touring on. It was just things like that. I would say the first first band, because back then I didn’t really know labels, the first band from the sub genre I would say for me was Sick of it All. They had an album called Just Look Around, and that was the record I got into.

I got into it because I liked heavy music whether it was Metallica or Pantera or whoever, I liked heavy music, but I always felt like I didn’t fit in. I liked the music, but punk and hardcore gave me a home. It had more meaning, and that’s not to diss those bands at all, but it had a little bit more depth as far as the culture and politics and emotion and things like that.

I grew up never wanting to do drugs and I remember I was a little kid and I had a skateboard and a kid drew… it’s funny because his older brother is Twiggy from Marilyn Manson… his older brother, he was my best friend at the time. He wrote a giant X and an SE on it and I said ‘Why are you writing sex on my board? Why are you writing sex?’ He said ‘No man. that’s straight edge.’ I was in the fifth or sixth grade. He’s like, ‘That’s what you are. You like heavy music and punk and you do crazy things, but you don’t do drugs.’ Then that just opened the door to everything.”

When you find that community, you connect with that, it just takes you down a rabbit hole then, and that’s it.

“I was always open-minded. There’s those gateway bands and that’s what New Found Glory always was. My goal for New Found Glory was to be a gateway band, and that was Green Day for me. I remember being in Summer camp and a different friend, who was a camp counselor from my brother’s school, he would sneak me in the cabin fast food, late at night when everyone was sleeping. He would listen to Green Day and stuff. Green Day opened the doors to get into that so I was never closed minded. I always loved hardcore and I always loved the heaviness and metal. I love metal. I love hardcore. I love the meaning and the lyrics and, but then, with punk rock, I love the melodies and I love the fun and the sing-alongs and that side of things too.

I think that was a big birthplace of how New Found Glory came about then lyrically, I would say I came from more of the emo side of things. Get Up Kids and The Promise Ring, that sort of emotional side. That’s kinda like how it all started. Then I ended up getting into Shai Hulud. I was in a hardcore band called Tension which was a local hardcore band. Then I got into Shai Hulud as a singer and it just kept going and going. I joined A New Found Glory which was more like my fun side project because me and my stepbrother would, in our apartment building, jam riffs. We would jam punk riffs because he was really into punk. This was like when Blink was Blink, no 182. This was when we got our records and got our recommendations from skate videos and Thrasher Magazine and things like that. That was how we would discover new punk bands.

“I liked heavy music, but I always felt like I didn’t fit in. I liked the music, but punk and hardcore gave me a home. It had more meaning.”

So he was really into the punk side. I would sing for Shai Hulud but, when I was home, I would just jam with him on punk songs and we’d write ’em. Eventually these guys who are now New Found Glory, were fans of Shai Hulud, and heard that I played punk on the side and said they were re starting a band and asked if I wanted to play guitar. I did it then I would go on tour. New Found Glory was my side project and I would bring demo tapes and EPs and be like Here’s my side project and here we are 27 years or 28 years later.”

“Beer and Blood Stains”, the new single looks at those shows. What are your favourite memories of those early New Found Glory shows? You’ve talked about them being really chaotic and I think you said slightly illegal…

“It was all about the venue. It was all about the culture and the venue and having a place to belong. There were these two venues, a venue called Cheers in Miami, and a venue in Davy, Florida called Club Q. Club Q was a billiards hall with bikers… I don’t mean bikers like biker gangs, but hillbillies that rode motorcycles, or own trucks or love the rodeo or whatever and they would be at the bar drinking while over in the corner would be a punk or a hardcore show so you had these two worlds that every now and then would clash and then chaos would happen.

There was the one story I talk about kicking the ceiling down and that was a local bar guy who got in a fight… a couple of local bar guys got in a fight with some of the scene kids so the band at the time started breaking the ceiling down with their instruments and ripping the panels. People were kicking the ceiling and the speakers of the venue. It was this chaos. People would get banned from shows. You can’t come to shows anymore so they’d come and they’d get jumped in the parking lot and get beat the crap out of or their car would get jumped on, or destroyed. There’s a lot of things that, being that young, probably wasn’t the best to be exposed to.

Looking back now, they were the best times. They were scary but they built our band, and I think that was a sign of what music can do for people. Make them part of a community where there was locals at a bar who, if there wasn’t this other community, would’ve beat the crap out of everyone but, because of this sub-genre community that to took care of each other, there was a way to fight back. You know those scenes in the movies that would happen where they’d kick the motorcycle over and they’d all tip, that would happen so “Beer and Bloodstains” is a very fun song and it sent myself down memory lane.

A lot of venues, like in Southern California, Chain Reaction closing, a lot of small venues have been closing, so a lot of people, since the song has been out only for a day and a half, have been relating to it in a really deeper way because they’re remembering their little venue that they grew up going to, that’s not around anymore. That defined who they were and helped build their character.”

Going from playing basement gigs to signing like a major record deal, doing things like Warped Tour, being on MTV, what was that transition like and was there a point where you noticed things changed?

“I feel like we’re still figuring it out. We figure it out as we go. We got signed to a major label and we didn’t have a manager. We had a booking agent who’s the same booking agent who we still have. I was a junior in high school, we were really young and we got our manager after.

V13 Cover Story #116 – New Found Glory

It was Mark Hoppus‘ doing when we got signed. He had our records, played them for their manager, and we ended up having the same manager as Blink for years and years because Hoppus was a fan and pass the CDs along.

That’s one of the reasons we got a manager. I would say it happened locally, when I noticed a difference when people just started treating you different in your hometown. We used to play the small venue and then we would play the 300 cap room every weekend then, all of a sudden, we were playing the 800 to thousand cap room. People were waiting outside to say hi to you or to meet you which was weird because I live down the street.”

How did you cope with that?

“I would go to Walmart all the time because I dropped outta school because we got the contract. I would just be bored until tours and all my friends were in school so I would go to Walmart at two in the morning and see which new Star Wars toys were released. I remember getting frisked by the police a couple times because they’re wondering why this kid is here all the time.

But, how I would handle it, it was just normal because I never thought, and still to this day, that’s what I mean about figuring it out, is I still don’t think of us being above anybody. There’s boundaries that obviously I keep to protect my family or myself but I’ve never, ever felt above our fans so I’ve never had to deal with it in a different way because I didn’t feel like I’m a big rock star now. I got a record deal. I’m a dude that plays at the local place that, went on tour and we’re having fun, and then time just kept going and kept going and kept going and here we are on an interview, on our 11th album. I’ve never felt above anybody or special.”

Going back to the early 2000s pop-punk when it really exploded, you mentioned Mark Hoppus and Green Day. When they became friends and people that you worked alongside, did you keep a sly eye on each other’s careers? Was there a lot of camaraderie between bands like that?

“Yeah. At the time with touring, life obviously takes people on different courses but me and Mark, we will text about TV shows every now and then. I haven’t talked to Billie-Joe in years and years but, with them, there was always a comradery, but, they went through their own struggles and went away for a while. When Blink played Nashville here a year or two ago, I went and got to see a little bit of the set and saw everyone. I didn’t get to see Travis, but I saw Mark and Tom and we talked for a little bit in the hall and caught up. Me and Mark especially still connect. Mark has always been, and Travis now too with his label, trying to help younger bands up.

For New Found Glory, our thing was always to try to take the scene and take younger bands and let them know that we came from a suburb, we didn’t fit in. We weren’t professionals. We didn’t have a manager, we weren’t put together. We just like started writing songs and made it happen. We always said,when we’re on MTV and we get to that point, we wanna bring as many people with us as we can. That’s why in our videos and when we would perform on TRL, you’d see me or Jordan or Ian or Cyrus wear a band t-shirt of a younger, newer band. It’s so cool because there’s been so many times where people come up to me and tell me how they know this band because of us. That is so rewarding hearing that because there’s not a lot of ways for bands of our genre to get that exposure. Country music, pop music, hip-hop music, there’s so many more financial opportunities.”

If you look at this genre, or the hardcore and punk genre especially, even these days, word of mouth keeps that community alive?

“Exactly. That’s what I’m saying, that’s why this community is so important in fitting in. You listen to pop music or you listen to country or hip-hop, it sort of makes you feel like you can’t just listen to the artist. You have to be as good as the artist or you have to be successful. No. Music is to enjoy and, and if you wanna feel a part of something, here’s this punk rock music where you can listen to it and enjoy it and also know that there’s people around the world that are just like you as opposed to this sort of goal of just success which comes and goes. What stays is, for lack of better words, the unity built around music, and the experiences of a live show. The experiences of meeting a best friend and listening to the same album, that sort of thing.”

For fans who’ve grown up with you since the early hardcore and punk days, what do you think this record will offer them?

“I’ve been going through a lot health-wise. I’ve been fighting a very aggressive cancer. It’s been a war for the last few years. My life expectancy was six months, and I’ve been alive since 2021, when they discovered it. I’m doing great now. Where I struggle is recovering from the treatments and the chemo. It really took out my legs, and I have a broken back with a titanium vertebra. So I’m dealing with those things, but overall my health is a miracle. My doctors tell me I’m a miracle. It’s unheard of. I have one of the rarest things.

“The album is about encouraging people to take their dark times and reverse them. Don’t let them get the best of you. Use them as your weapon, your strength, a way to help others and help people grow.”

Taking that into the lyrics, and looking at how divided the world is, I think about the chemo room. It’s all different races, religions, backgrounds, and types of people, and everyone is connected through this disease and trying to survive—through happiness, family, and joy. With the album, my message is to encourage people to use their disability as an advantage. Don’t look at your struggles as something that holds you back. I have really hard nights. I cry. Things trigger me, and it’s scary. But at the same time, I don’t think I would change anything.

Everything that’s happened has also led to amazing things in my life, like my relationship with my wife and my daughter. Thinking about things going differently and not having my daughter, I would never want that. So, for me, the album is about encouraging people to take their dark times and reverse them. Don’t let them get the best of you. Use them as your weapon, your strength, a way to help others and help people grow.

Even personally, I started doing a zine because I was home a lot. Doing things creatively became an outlet for what I was going through. I think the biggest takeaway I hope fans get is to look at how divided the world is and realize everyone’s fighting over essentially the same things, they’re just different versions of themselves.

Get along. Be part of something bigger than yourself. Help each other, love each other, go to shows, sing along, hear music, and feel connected. Not just, “What’s the coolest song on the radio right now?” but what actually makes you want to get out of bed every day, be a better person, or gives you the drive to create.”

New Found Glory ‘Listen Up’ Album Artwork

You mentioned the things that make you want to get out of bed and be creative. New Found Glory has always been the four of you. What do you put that down to?

“I think it comes down to how different we all are. One of the reasons we’ve survived and lasted is that the four of us have always communicated, and we’re all very different. I’m nothing like Ian, nothing like Cyrus, and nothing like Jordan, and they’re nothing like me. Our personalities coming together created something special and one of a kind.

We don’t have cliques in the band. We’re on a text right now about a set list, and I’m asking Jordan, “What do you think?” Everyone has a voice. It’s not like two people teaming up against one. Jordan might not write all the words or melodies, but no one could be Jordan. His attitude, his positivity, his voice, and his stage presence are one of a kind. You can’t replace him. And Ian, as goofy and quirky as he is, you can’t replace him either. Ian is Ian. Same thing with Cyrus.

That’s always been a strength of ours. We’re very different, and we’ve disagreed on a lot of things. Those disagreements actually grow the band, because they force you to talk things out. I think that’s a big difference between us and other bands. There’s no tribe mentality. We’re just individuals who play in this band, talk things out, and work through things together.

I think that’s been great for fans too. There are fans who really relate to me, and others who don’t care about me at all but love Ian. Then there are people who only know Jordan and don’t know any other member. So it’s always been a cool strength for us.”

I spoke to a band recently who said that when they go off and do their own things then come back together, it brings them back into that zone again. Is it the same for you? When you go away and then come back to start a new record, does it feel as special every time?

“It always feels fun. Getting together, jamming, writing, and playing, it’s a great experience. This time was a lot different than we’ve ever had, though. I was between cancer treatments, and things got really bad. I’d go into the studio to record, then Dan would drive me to the hospital because I was going through heart failure and almost dying. Then I’d go back to the studio, record again, and two days later I’d be getting an ultrasound. Things got really weird during the recording. At one point, I was on 22 pills of blood pressure medicine while we were working.

Now I’m on none. I went from 22 pills to zero, so I’m doing really well. But getting together with the band feels really good. For me personally, the band never stops. I can’t turn it off in my brain. I’m always writing in my head, thinking of ideas, new ways to present the band to fans, and new ways to engage our audience and keep the community we’ve built going. My brain is always on. I never really have a shut-off time. Even in the hospital, I’d come out of surgery and be on my laptop writing a set list for a show the guys were playing. It’s always going.

Like I said, with the goal of the record, it’s always been a positive release for me, even through this scary journey. It’s been such a positive outlet that I want to encourage fans and other people in the same way. Every time we get together to play, jam, and start writing, it feels awesome. It’s so fun.”

“For me personally, the band never stops. I can’t turn it off in my brain. I’m always writing in my head, thinking of ideas, new ways to present the band to fans, and new ways to engage our audience and keep the community we’ve built going.”

Looking back over the last 29 years, are there any “WTF” moments that really stand out—moments in your career you’ve never forgotten?

“There are so many, it’s hard to think of just one. But looking back, things like going to all those old MTV Award shows stand out. We were kids from the suburbs, and suddenly we were at the VMAs, hanging out with people like Shaggy, Seal, or Puddle of Mudd, or even Hulk Hogan. I remember Hulk Hogan wanting to tell me how much he loved playing bass guitar. Moments like that, being around people I grew up watching on TV, actors or musicians, and just pinching yourself and thinking, “This all came from playing in a garage.” It didn’t come from pitching a record company. We didn’t have a manager when we got signed. It didn’t come from chasing a label. It came from being ourselves, going on tour, and playing.”

The 30th anniversary is next year. Have you thought about what that might look like?

“I don’t really know. We’ve been a band for so long, and we’re going to get our catalog back. How Taylor Swift rerecorded her albums, I’d never want to mess with anything like that, but I thought it could be fun, instead of rushing into a new album, to rerecord Coming Home in a heavier, New Found Glory style. That record always caused debate. It was either a fan’s favorite or their least favorite. So I thought it could be fun to make fans argue again, do they like the punker version of Coming Home or the piano version?

When we play those songs live, they come out heavier because we’re using our normal gear. So that could be a fun thing to do. But as far as 30 years, I honestly forgot it was coming up. It’s pretty crazy. We still have to release this record, and life takes you where it takes you.”

Just to wrap up, looking back over the last 29 years, how would you sum up your experience and that of New Found Glory in a few sentences?

“A rollercoaster. And a constant fight to stay true to who we are. There have been temptations and offers that would have been great for our bank accounts but didn’t fit who we are. That’s been part of the journey, but something we’re proud of is staying true to exactly who we are.”