ABC Family will hit the beach this summer with the two-time Grammy-nominated band, Plain White T’s, in the 12-webisode original online series, “Meet Me In California,” documenting the behind-the-scenes process of the band recording their second major label album. The online series will premiere on Wednesday, July 30 on abcfamily.com/plainwhitets, with new webisodes streaming every Wednesday through October.

Each five-minute webisode will provide an up-close and personal glimpse of Tom, Dave, Mike, De’Mar and Tim as they work together at a Malibu beach house creating their new album, “Big Bad World,” which will be released on Tuesday, September 23.

The Plain White T’s were featured as the Kappa Tau fraternity band, in the first season of the hit ABC Family original series, “Greek,” before exploding onto the music scene with their two-time Grammy-nominated smash hit single, “Hey There Delilah,” which hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and is the fourth song in history to sell over three million digital singles.  For “Meet Me In California,” the band gave abcfamily.com unprecedented access to detail the process of recording their new album in Malibu and Chicago, as well as while rehearsing and touring around the world in support of the September 2008 release date.

Lead singer, Tom Higgenson, recently answered questions about the web series and the band’s new album.

Question> How does it feel being part of the new media revolution by combining the music and the Internet and TV?  You guys are kind of on the forefront of it with this project.

Tom Higgenson> We’ll we’ve kind of gotten lucky with that now and in the past.  Like when MySpace first came out we jumped on it right away, and we were actually one of the first bands that Tom himself ever put on the front page because they saw us play at Warped Tour or something and he put us up there.  Before it was all corporate and people would pay for the front page; it’s a big advertisement.

 So I don’t know, somehow we’ve just gotten lucky with Internet presence and just kind of being at the right place at the right time.  With the ABC Family series we definitely feel the same way.  This is a huge deal for us, and its perfect timing.  We’re recording a new record, we’re about to go on tour and support it, and just to have that documented alone is amazing let alone putting it online for this Web series.  It’s just a really cool idea and, like I said, we’re just lucky to be a part of it.

Question> How did the relationship with ABC Family come about?  I know you guys did the stuff on Greek.

Tom> I think ABC is partners with Disney.  They wanted an actual band to be on the show Greek to be a part of the show and they met with a lot of bands, and we happened to be one of those bands because of the connection through Disney.  I guess we were just the band that they picked and it turned out great for both of us, because that was before Delilah blew up or anything. 

So they were taking a risk with us and we were taking a risk because we had only seen the pilot.  If the show would have bombed it would have sucked for us.  But we both thought it was a cool idea, we both liked each other, and we went for it and it worked out.  So I think through that connection is how this Webisode came about.

Question> Did you notice any increase in just publicity or albums sales or anything like that after the Greek appearance?

Tom> I think yes.  When Delilah came out on Greek that was really perfect timing because we had performed it on the show and then just as it was really blowing up on the radio that episode aired.  So it was kind of like in everybody’s face; it was all over the place.  It was really perfect timing with that.

 And of course they use the song a lot now for their commercials.  It was kind of the ongoing theme of the show that, “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,” you know that song.  Because of that we definitely saw some spikes on iTunes after the show would air, as commercials were airing we definitely saw spikes of that song for sure from that. 

So yes, I definitely think that that’s becoming bigger and bigger assets of bands just using, whether it’s commercials, whether it’s being on TV shows.  So yes, I’m guessing that even more in the next couple of years that you’ll see that kind of heavy placement in things like that.

Question> What’s your take on this whole new wave of Web series?  Do you see this becoming a medium that maybe more musicians will explore?

Tom> Yes.  I know a band, there are some of our friends’ bands, like there’s a band the Academy Is; I don’t know if you’re familiar with them, but they do kind of their own thing.  Like every few weeks they’ll put up a little video thing of them on the road hanging around and goofing off or something on their own Website or their own MySpace or something.  I know that things like that are happening already. 

Miley Cyrus does her little Mandy and Miley or whatever it’s called, the Miley and Mandy show or whatever it’s called.  She just goofs around on her fricking iBook, like her Webcam, and puts it up online every couple of weeks or something--just her and her friend goofing off and dancing. 

Things like that I definitely think help from a fan perspective to get to know that person a little bit better or get a little bit of insight into their favorite artist. 

I think Rivers from Weezer did some thing, I didn’t see this but the rest of the guys in my band were all raving about it, he was doing some thing where he was writing a song with the fans.  On YouTube he would say, “Okay everybody, I want to write a song so send your ideas to me and then we’ll go from there.”  And then people would send him stuff and he would incorporate some of their ideas and they’d have a verse, and then okay we need a chorus. 

 So definitely more and more, to answer your question in a very long, long way, that will be more and more present and I’m sure more and more of something that bands use to get out there and to connect with their fans.  Because that’s what fans want--ever since YouTube came out now, wow, we can see all these videos. 

We played a new song, brand new in Chicago, and the next day it was on YouTube, because people see it at the show and they put it up there.  So it’s like fans are so used to getting so much content and anything they want that I definitely think bands have to step up and kind of live up to that and give them that content and give them what they want, otherwise they can go get it somewhere else.

Question> You had mentioned earlier that you guys were living in Malibu for a month.  So is that how long you were shooting the series?

Tom> No, the series is actually still being shot.  It’s called Meet Me in California; that’s actually one of the songs on the record that we’ve recorded and it also made sense because we’re recording it in Malibu.  But I think it’s going to go, and I don’t know if this is for sure yet because I’m sure it’s all still getting edited and everything, but it’s going to start out here we are, we’re in California, we’re about to start recording the record, and then we start recording it.  And then it’s going to go on to, okay here are our first couple shows where we’re first playing these new songs that we just recorded.  What do people think, how do we feel about it, that kind of a thing, and then on to this little tour that we’re going to do leading up to the record coming out.  Then it’s going to kind of culminate, I think, when the album actually does come out.  So all this entire time is being documented and it’s going to be part of the series.

Question> Did you have any moments, or any of you in the band, where you kind of held back on doing something because the cameras were around?

Tom> Oh yes, I was about to kick some ass but--  No, I’m just kidding.  No.  Like I said before, we were really comfortable with the cameras.  There were definitely times where we’d be talking about something or even maybe talking shit or something about somebody in the band or, “Man, I can’t believe he did that.  What an asshole,” or whatever and then we’d turn around and there’s Mike with the camera.  And we’re like, “Oh no, you’re recording right now?” 

So I guess in a way we weren’t that phased by the camera because we still went about our normal business.  He may have gotten some blackmail moments, I guess, but hopefully those don’t come out in the show.

Question> What is your best-case scenario that would come from doing the series?  Kind of getting your fans to know you better?

Tom> I’m hoping for like stardom, maybe some movie offers.  That would be great.  I’m just kind of half kidding. 

I mean, yes, the fans I definitely think they want things like this.  In this day and age, like I said, they can go on YouTube and see Miley Cyrus goofing off with a friend.  There are things like that out there, so I think more and more that’s going to become expected of bands.  That’s just going to be one more thing, just like when you’re in a band you make a music video for your single, it’s one of those things that is going to start probably becoming more and more normal and more and more just part of what bands do.  So it’s cool that we can be kind of on the forefront of that and hopefully inspires other bands to do the same kind of thing.

Question> Since you are from Chicago, do you feel like being in Malibu crept into your song writing or your recording approach at all just being there?

Tom> I definitely do.  There is a song, obviously Meet Me in California, actually I wrote that song in Nashville.  Ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to live in California.  I’ve had this weird obsession with California even before I’d ever been there.  So that song was definitely about you know what I screwed up and getting out of a relationship or just saying good-by to people, and I’m going to California.  Meet me in California; if you need me just call kind of a thing or that’s where I’ll be.  I don’t know. 

 We’ve obviously been out there a lot and California is practically our second home right now.  But to actually live there in Malibu for two months and make the record it definitely carried over.  There’s a very laid back feel on this record, I think more than our last record. 

We even recorded it mostly live, and if something was a little bit loose instead of going in and fixing it and making it perfect it would like, “No, no, that’s cool.”  Like leave that fun, leave that excitement, that looseness, because I think a lot of bands lately the way bands record everything is so tight to a grid and so calculated and perfect sounding that we really wanted to try to make more of a classic sounding rock record. 

I definitely think the vibe of being in Malibu, just waking up late and looking out over the ocean, the palm trees, I definitely think being there helped us get that vibe that we wanted in the record.  It put us in the right mood to be able to stay a little bit loose and not worry about being too perfect or getting everything exactly right.

Question> What was the experience like being on Greek just sort of generally?  Did you guys hang out with the cast and crew?  I don’t know if you were shooting for several days or if it was just like an in an out thing?

Tom> We’ve done a few episodes now, I think four episodes or five episodes.  And every time we’ve shot it has definitely been, I don’t know if you’d say in and out, but we get there, we come to the call at six in the morning, we do hair, we do make up, wardrobe, whatever.  And then it’s like we’ll do our scene, we’ll rehearse, we’ll go through it, we’ll go sit around, talk to the cast a little bit, we’ll come back, keep shooting, and then say, “Okay you guys are good,” and then we wrap and then we’re pretty much done. 

So unfortunately we haven’t had a lot of time on the set to really hang out as much as we would want to, but we’ve definitely made friends with a lot of the actors.  Jacob actually, who plays Rusty, he was from Chicago and he had actually seen the band play some of our first shows ever at like these tiny little places in Chicago.

He’s familiar with the band.  So the first day we were ever on the set he was like, “Hey,” and he threw out a name of a band that was five, six years ago in Chicago that we played with.  And we’re like, “What!  How do you know that band?”  He’s like, “Dude, I saw you guys play at all these shows.”

 So off the bat; it felt like we had a friend over there.  Scott, who plays Cappie, is a great guy.  He’s super cool to us every time.  Every time we go everyone is so nice.  We got to meet Dilshad and kind of fell in love with her - there are a couple of very cute girls in the show, so it’s a blast every time we go in.  I wish we would do it more and I wish we would, like I said, be able to hang out a little bit more. 

Question> Does  Big Bad World have a different sound than your previous albums or is it the same sort of sound like you’ve generally had?

Tom> It’s definitely the same; it’s definitely a Plain White T’s record.  It’s not going to throw anybody for a loop.  Any fans of the Plain White T’s are definitely going to hear it and it’s going to be the band that they love.  But I think the difference is it does sound a little different. 

Like I said before, we recorded a lot of the record live, not to a click track or anything, so it’s not going to sound like every other record out.  We wanted to kind of set ourselves apart from a lot of other bands that are recording right now and putting out records and everything.  In 2008 we wanted to make a record that sounds modern and it sounds like it’s of these times, but could have also been a record that came out 30 years ago.  We wanted to have that warmth and that just real sound of real instruments and real people playing those instruments. 

A lot of records now they sound so perfect that it’s like okay, I don’t know if a band played this or if robots played it; it’s so perfect and everything sounds so crisp.  We definitely wanted it to feel like a record that five guys actually performed in a room and played together. 

And I think we really succeeded in that by doing it live and by not fixing every little thing that we heard that could have been a little bit more perfect; we left it a little bit loose.  There’s no auto tune on the vocals; we just sang it and sang it until it sounded great.

 So it definitely is going to stand out from our other records and sound different from I think a lot of other records that are coming out right now.  But it will definitely be Plain White T’s and it’s going to sound like the kind of songs that our fans want to hear.

Check out the Plain White T’s Meet Me in California premiering on Wednesday, July 30^th, on abcfamily.com.