“I don’t think we’re going to threaten the Jonas Brothers,” says James Iha of Tinted Windows‘ self-titled debut, recently released on S-Curve Records. But the power pop generated by the multigenerational band—which also includes Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne), Taylor Hanson (Hanson) and Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick)—is a teenage dream of catchy choruses and withering walls of guitars befitting the former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist. Iha is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all this week; read our Q&A with him to get a glimpse into the formation of Tinted Windows.
Iha: The genre that draws inspiration mostly from the British Invasion and the Beatles; the reference for Tinted Windows. There are different types of power pop, but we probably err on the punky side (Buzzcocks, Ramones, Knack). In high school, I made mix tapes of all those great late-’70s English power-pop songs like “Starry Eyes” (the Records), “Girl Of My Dream” (Bram Tchaivosky) and “So It Goes” (Nick Lowe; pictured). Later in college, I got on the bandwagon with everyone else who had discovered/was discovering Big Star and Chris Bell.
Nick Lowe’s “So It Goes”:
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