If you don’t know Landon Pigg, it’s only because you don’t recognize him – he’s the kid in the cell phone commercial who strums wistfully about falling in love.  (Watch the first five seconds of this YouTube clip and murmer, “Ohhh, that guy.”)

But the 26-year-old songwriter, who grew up in Nashville and Chicago, has more on his plate than accidental celebrity.  This Fall brings the release of his new album, “The Boy Who Never,” and his feature film debut, as Ellen Page’s boyfriend in the comedy Whip It (directed by NYLON girl crush Drew Barrymore).

We interrupted Landon’s Saved by the Bell sing-a-long at RCA Records for a brief interview…

Okay, so you know the Zack Attack songs, but what about the workout video that Kelly and Lisa did?  The one that goes, “Put your mind to it, go for it, get down and break a sweat.”

Yes! Good!  I’m gonna marry Lisa Turtle, man.  She’s amazing.

Yeah, good luck with that.  So how’s your new album going to be?  I think it’s going to be awesome!  I know, because people like it in the building.

But they’re your label.  Isn’t that their job?  No, unfortunately not!  If they don’t like the new tracks, they pick something really obscure, like, “Hey, seconds 51-57 of that ending track were really good.”  And you’re like, “You enjoyed six seconds of my song?  Huh?”  And that’s a bad, bad sign.  For this one, they’re saying, “If it wasn’t my job, I’d still like it.”  That’s great.

What’s different about this album?  This is the first album I wrote on piano.  Usually I start writing things on acoustic guitar… but now my guitar is just sitting in the corner, waiting for me like an old lover. 

Are you superstitious about that?  No, I’m not attached to any one instrument.  And piano lets you play chords in a bigger way.  There’s nothing I like more than sitting down with chords that fit your indescribable mood, and you can dwell in whatever chords make sense and help to relieve whatever you’re feeling.  That’s my favorite way to start a song.

Are you excited for your next tour?  Now that people know the words to your songs and can sing along?  I’m excited to play the new songs, definitely, but people singing along, that doesn’t happen that much.  More likely, a lot of people know one line of one of songs.  And they’ll sing it and then sort of wait for it to come back again, because they don’t know the rest of it.

That’s what happens when you’re in a cell phone commercial.  Yeah, well.  I’m a Sprint guy myself.

Did the girl that song is about – did she call you or confront you about it at all?  That would smell fishy!  If someone called and was like, “Hey, I know that song’s about me.”  They haven’t called, but undoubtedly they know it’s about them because of the details.  But I haven’t had that talk with them in person.  You know, The Talk.

So you didn’t write that song so she’d hear it and know you were still thinking about her?  I don’t know, not really… I mean… you’re probably… Okay, yeah.  Yes.  Definitely.  You have to retrain your fingers not to dial that person’s number because it’s just so habitual, so that can go into the music instead.

And now you’re going to be in a movie.  How random is that?! And cool!

And you got to kiss Ellen Page.  Did you like her?  I did, but she liked me, too!  I think she just likes people.  She’s a really great, super-nice person and she kind of just likes everybody.

And how was Drew Barrymore as your director?  How did she cast you?  We still can’t figure that out!  On the set, she’s like, “Isn’t this great, that here we are, and we’ve found each other somehow, somewhere in the world?”  She’s just really, really funny and really nice.  She’s exactly like she is on TV.

Is Drew Barrymore your biggest fan?  No, that’s Boys 2 Men. 

Boys 2 Men?!  We talked to Gail King today – you know, she’s Oprah’s best friend – and she’s a very nice lady.  Also, Oprah went to the same high school as my mom in Tennessee, but that’s not why we met Gail.  We met Gail on Oprah Radio, and she says, "I heard about you from Boys 2 Men."  And she shows me this video clip of Boys 2 Men talking to Gail, and one of them says, “Oh, I’m into more obscure music like Landon Pigg.”  I freaked out.

I don’t think you count as obscure music.  You had an iTunes Single of the Week.  Your face was on everyone’s iPod every time your song played.  Yeah, but even the fact that you referenced that is kind of obscure, isn’t it?

Maybe? Not really? Oh, hey, is there anything I haven’t asked you that you want to talk about?
You know when my album comes out, right?

(The Boy Who Never comes out September 15 on RCA Records.)
--FARAN KRENTCIL

See Landon on MySpace

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