The emo kings on growing up in Arizona, making it big, and Jim’s annoying wake-up calls
Jimmy Eat World are an alternative rock band from Mesa, east of Phoenix, Arizona. Formed by vocalist and guitarist Jim Adkins, guitarist Tom Linton, bassist Rick Burch and drummer Zach Lind in 1993, they have released 10 albums – including their 2001 breakthrough record, Bleed American. Its hit single, The Middle, peaked at No 5 in the US Hot 100 chart; it has now had more than 1bn streams. The band mark the 25th anniversary of the album with a series of shows this summer including UK appearances in August in Halifax, Cardiff and Gunnersbury Park, London.
This was taken right before Bleed American was released. The photographer wanted to capture the sprawl of Phoenix, so the idea was to go to the outskirts where construction was happening. Beyond that, there was no pre-planned concept or specific pose. We probably would have called each other that morning and asked, “Hey, are you wearing blue?” “I think I’m going to wear red.” “OK, cool. I’m not wearing red.”
I’ve known Zach since preschool – his mother was our teacher; I got to know the other guys in our high school years. We were all in different bands before we started playing together. Back then, if you were into punk rock in a town like ours, you quickly got to know everyone else who was, too. Mesa wasn’t exactly a hotbed of arts and culture.
