A Different Approach

Ben Jorgensen doesn't mind the kids on his front yard, though they do weird him out a little from time to time.

As the dapper, clothes-conscious frontman for steadily rising emo outfit Armor For Sleep, Jorgensen is skilled at making your kid sister go weak in the knees.

But being in a confessional band with yearning, heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics has its price: Everyone thinks they know you, and everyone wants their piece.

"With the way things have gone with the Internet, the line has been blurred between who the fan is and who knows you personally," Jorgensen says. "These MySpace pages are set up to give people 24/7 surveillance of you, basically. You kind of have to keep this relationship up with your fans, and because of the Internet, there's such a demand for content.

"And we play into that," he continues. "On one hand, it's important to give our fans what they want. I'm a social person, and I like being social with our fans. But at a certain point, over the past couple of years, we felt like we were a band in a bubble. Like, whoa, I actually have kids coming to my house. I go out on my front lawn and hang out with them, and I'm like, 'What am I doing?' "

Jorgensen appreciates the attention, and he likes having an effect on people the way his Radiohead records impacted him as a teen. But as chatty and self-effacing as he may be, he's not the kind of guy who's naturally attuned to being the center of attention.

"I started writing songs because I was a shy person," he says. "I was just kind of talking about these things that I really didn't talk about to anyone else. People reacted to those songs, and there was more attention on me and on us, and it just seemed kind of weird, because I'd understand it if the songs were like, 'Come look at me' and in everybody's faces. But it was never about that. I'm not that kind of person."

And so on the band's latest record, "Smile for Them," Jorgensen moves away from the introspective, diary-worthy lyrics that characterized Armor For Sleep's first two albums in favor of a broader world view.

From critiquing hipster enclaves ("Williamsburg") to our obsession with reality TV ("Smile for the Camera"), Jorgensen has made a concerted effort to get outside of his own head this time around.

"I wanted it to be a record that really had 12 different stories on it as opposed to one story with a few twists," Jorgensen says. "It really excited me, coming off our last record, that I could write about different things and really come at a record from a bunch of different angles. We have a song about paranoia about the world ending and there's a song about my friend who is doing drugs. I really wanted to take more of an observational standpoint with this one."

Musically speaking, the album continues to play upon the band's strengths: huge radio-friendly hooks set against adrenalized guitars and Jorgensen's earnest, starry-eyed voice. The band also adds some subtle hints of texture in the form of percolating electronic undertones on tunes like "Hold the Door" and the addition of a string section on "Stars in Your Eyes," a song sure to be played at many a prom this spring.

It's all enabled this bunch to do well for themselves of late, with the band's previous disc, "What to Do When You Are Dead," selling more than 200,000 copies and "Williamsburg" becoming a "TRL" hit.

After seeing himself on MTV and in the pages of "Rolling Stone," Jorgensen's learned that fame is an acquired taste.

Except, of course, for the dudes on his lawn.

"I've learned how much of an illusion celebrity is," Jorgensen says. "Us being on 'TRL,' it's just us being in a TV studio and there's a video camera there. It doesn't elevate us to some other kind of person, but it does change how somebody views us. It just makes me realize that Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, they're just regular dudes who are in movies.

"It humbles me a lot more and makes me understand that people see me in a certain light just because I'm in a TV studio in New York City," he continues. "It doesn't make me any more special than anybody else. I'm thankful for that."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0476.