Like Clark Kent (or Hannah Montana, for that matter), the musician Robert Schwartzman leads a bit of a double life. 

For some, the California native is a singer and composer for Rooney, an indie rock band that surfs between the Beach Boys’ lithium chords and the Strokes’ fuck-it-all lyrics.  For others, he’s a teen heartthrob who kissed Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries, to the jealous groans of a million tenth grade girls.

Now the musician throws a wrench in his own identity crisis with a new mission called Solo Bob.  The project is a series of synth-rock songs and hallucinogenic videos, all circling a character that Robert says, “I used to pretend to be in my bedroom late at night.”

For fans of Mr. Schwartzman’s musical skills, that sounds like a welcome dive into experimental rock ‘n roll.  For the screaming, crying girls we witnessed at Rooney’s Webster Hall concert on Friday night, the simple phrase “in my bedroom” should be enough to hook them, too.

Robert / Bob / OMG-that-cute-guy phoned us from his tour bus in Cleveland Ohio to explain himself.

Good morning!  How’s your tour going?  We’ve all just woken up on our tour bus in Cleveland Ohio. It’s the Rooney tour.  It is gray outside, like, really gray, and um, I think we’re between some buildings.  Usually the bus parks in some random part of town, so we get a really good view of the backs of buildings, air vents, air conditioning.  It’s a new kind of tourism.

What’s different about this tour?  We’re playing our new EP songs! And we got out of our label, so there’s a new sense of freedom.  Being independent has given us a new sense of excitement, and why we’re doing this, and why we’re going to keep doing it.

On the NYLON tour, the Plastiscines’ food of choice was french fries.  What’s yours?  Cereal and rolled up turkey slices! Those can go a long way.  But this is our 8th year on the road, so we get fed by fans, too.  They’re always really good about bringing us cookies.

Do your fans know about Solo Bob?  Um, mostly my friends who call me Bob.  But I don’t refer to myself as Bob unless I’m blogging about Solo Bob, because I think supporting The Bob, it’s a separate thing.

The Bob?  Is that like your version of Sasha Fierce?  Maybe? To me, Bob is character, and it’s also a very specific energy… In high school, I made demos all the time and I’d say into the mic, “This recording was brought to you by Solo Bob!” Those songs always became Rooney songs, because I hadn’t found myself yet, and the music I wanted to make wasn’t just music, it was a character.  Then in 2007 I started to write songs that felt different than what should be in my band.

How will we meet Solo Bob?  In videos.  It’s my goal to have a video for every Solo Bob song.  I’m pulling in all these young directors and exciting people to work with me.  For example, my cousin Roman Coppola is a movie director, a video director, and a commercial director, and he’s always really liked the sound of this project, so we’ve started to collaborate.

Um, details?  Well, I love Robert Palmer, the way he carries himself in his videos, and the way the girls carry themselves, and the airbrushed record covers.  So I showed his videos to Roman, and then we used a green screen with a different outfit for every shot… It’s a visual project as much as it’s a musical project.

When can we buy a Solo Bob record?  Not sure yet, most likely after the Rooney album cycle is over - our new album comes out in Spring 2010! 

Your birthday is coming up – on Christmas Eve.  Does that suck?  Yeah it’s kinda hard – I mean, it’s not hard when you compare it to real things in this world, but I mean, nobody’s ever around for my birthday, and I like togetherness.  I like family time and friend time and I don’t get that on my birthday because it’s this big holiday and… yeah, wow, okay, I’m a little bitter.  But I bought a fake Christmas-slash-birthday tree!  I will go on the record right now, I have the greatest fake tree ever. Nice shape, nice build, comes apart easily.  It’s awesome.
--FARAN KRENTCIL

Watch Solo Bob's first video and download the MP3 "Victim" for free at SoloBob.com

Plus:  Do you love Rooney?  We love Rooney.

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