Thing is, after listening to their new Calling The World, you can't help but like this bunch. Using an impeccably curated record collection from years spent as a bedroom audiophile, Schwartzman was able to recreate Beatles melodies, Beach Boys harmonies, Cars-era synth progressions and a dash of Cheap Trick swagger to make some very cool songs. Looking at life through the lens of his own romantic experiences, a tack which parallels that other bespectacled patron saint of plaintive love songs, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo, Schwartzman has been fine-tuning this new material for years.

During a recent chat with Schwartzman, he filled us in on mobile car studios, the trouble with happy love songs, and what the hell took so long to make disc number two.

VH1: When did you do most of the writing for this Calling The World?

Robert Scwhartzman: We did most of the writing after we got home from a tour, early December 2006. I have my little process. I like to make demos at home with my little recording studio -- just my computer and a keyboard and a guitar. I started demoing all these songs -- I got in the zone again and I never left my bedroom. I didn't see anybody. I a ghost. It went on for a month, but I built up a collection of demos. Some of them were things I'd started and hadn't finished. I would burn CDs and make my sequence and listen to them in my car, and sing [along] to them. I can figure out what's wrong or what needs work [in the car]. I had ten tracks so I took them to our label and played them. [Geffen] said we should go make a record with John Fields [Semisonic, Andrew WK].

VH1: Given that your self-titled debut came out in 2003, this record has been a long time coming. Why was that?

RS: It's been almost a joke how long it's taken [to put out another follow-up]. We were shocked and everyone around us was shocked that we kept going back and recording and writing. Partly because we kept taking tours and going out and make our fans happy. We basically made three albums, and Calling The World was the third. I wrote a record in between touring on the first album cycle. I had 16 tracks ready to go, that we had played live. Some of the songs are floating around as bonus tracks. It's really cool sounding. It's like our Pinkerton [by Weezer]. It was all live recording to tape, and lyrically it was really far out. But it wasn't exciting to anyone around us, though. Not our label, our families, our girlfriends.

VH1: The process of making albums that have never seen the light of day must be extremely frustrating, yet you don't sound resentful of your label.

TO GET SONGS BY ROONEY AND LOTS OF OTHER ARTISTS, GO TO URGE.

RS: Weirdly, I'm not resentful. Because the business is changing a lot right now, I can tell where they're coming from. It wasn't bad feelings towards the group. They were frustrated and lost and they didn't know what they were doing as well. So everyone's confused. I look at it like we're partners, not like we work for them. I felt like they were letting us make more records and most bands don't get to do that. They could have [dropped us after Rooney]. But they stuck with us, and they let us keep working, and paying for our experimental records and the writing process. I had to accept [the limitations] and keep working. It came down to having a batch of songs that they were going to get excited about. I could kick and scream all day long, but it wasn't going to make our record come out.

VH1: Thematically the album seems very concerned with relationships. Any of your frustrations with the label make it on to the record?

RS: There's a couple tracks on this record that have more meaning than just relationships. "Believe In Me" came out of being frustrated that every song I was writing was being criticized and we weren't able to put a record out, and wanting people to believe in [me]. [But] it was also about my relationship, too. There's a song called "Help Me Find A Way" that's about my father who passed away many years ago. It was the first time I had ever written on a very heavy subject that I had never gone to. I was still feeling frustrated -- our record still wasn't finished, we were still in limbo. My father was a lawyer and a producer and he had a lot of experience with these things, and it would have been really helpful. I remember one night I had this melody and the words just came right out with the melody. They fit perfectly.

VH1: What about some of the romantic relationships you tackle on the album? While love seems to be your muse, it doesn't always seem to be a particularly kind one.

RS: I've been happy in relationships. It's not all sadness. I've tried to write "I love you so much you're awesome" lyrics -- but they don't have the attitude or the edge, or represent what I want to say. I find the problems more interesting. There were things I'm saying in the lyrics that my girlfriend wouldn't have liked, had I said them to her. And she's great, still my friend, but she's definitely not happy hearing the record, considering the lyrics.

VH1: Anything in particular?

RS: I had this girlfriend who was going to college across the country. All the frustration of that long-distance relationship inspired "Are You Afraid?" The girl I was with feared that I was in a band and I was going to be a total a**hole and cheat all the time and all the stereotypes of a guy in a band. When you listen to the words closely, there's a line: "I know my reputation doesn't help you sleep at night," it all tells the story of what was happening.

VH1: Obviously your experience with your record label impacted the album, but what have been some of the other influences?

RS: I would say my brother [actor/musician Jason Schwartzman], because he's a great artist. He knows the business, because he's been through it, and he's struggled. It's been very important to have him in my life. I could talk about everything that was going on, and he was very helpful, My mother [actress Talia Shire] is very creative, too. My mother's father was a composer, her grandfather was a composer, there's all these Italian songwriters and amazing classical musicians [in my family].Playing her my music is really intense, because she really listens and is very honest. Starting out she'd be like, "You're flat." Or, "I've heard this before. It doesn't sound original." I played her this record and she flipped out. I knew I was on to something because she was reacting musically.

VH1: Given your image and how apparent your influences are in your music, do you ever think that you belong to another era?

RS: There's an influence with the past in our pictures, the way we dress, and the music, but we also use modern recording techniques. We're definitely jumping into the modern day with how you break albums and how you promote records. We're not afraid to take risks today. If we were straight out of another time, we would reject everything that was of today. We wouldn't be on a TV show, we wouldn't tour with Fergie, we wouldn't go for a movie soundtrack. We would dig ourselves into a deep hole. We love certain styles that we find to be good, [but] it doesn't have to do with an era, just whether it's good.