“Resurrection” isn’t just the name of New Found Glory’s new album, but the word also represents the band’s goal of coming back to life after facing some hardships.

The four-piece group is releasing Resurrection through Hopeless Records, which it joined earlier this year after working with other indie labels (as well as more major labels like Geffen Records) for years.

Even after being a band for 17 years, not much has changed for New Found Glory as far as ethics go. Sure, things have gotten more expensive and their fan base has grown tremendously, but they’re still the same guys they were since the beginning, according to guitarist Chad Gilbert.

33-year-old Gilbert said fans can expect that same token New Found Glory blend of pop-punk and hardcore on Resurrection.

Back when the Florida pop-punk group started in 1997, recording its first album Nothing Gold Can Stay in 1999 only cost $1K.

“I was 16 and worked at a movie theater, Jordan [Pundik, vocals] worked at some deli and Ian [Grushka, bass] worked at a bagel shop,” Glbert said. “The five of us all took $200 of our own work money and made the record. Fast forward to now, we still have the same sort of outlook and work ethic. If you follow our band and know our band, nothing is going to keep us from doing this. The heart and soul of the band has never changed.”

To promote the album and repay its fans for sticking with them, New Found Glory will play a free tour, including a stop here in Long Beach at Fingerprints on October 4.

Gilbert said the recording experience was different from past albums because, this time, they were working with only one guitarist instead of two. Former guitarist Steve Klein and the band parted ways after deciding that legal allegations against Klein didn’t suit the group’s best interests.

Being the only guitarist posed a challenge for Gilbert, who didn’t want to fake anything for his fans.

“Before, when we had two guitarists, I was stuck in a certain way of writing where I wrote a lead and a rhythm part,” he said. “We didn’t want to record the record like we were pretending there was an extra guitar. We wanted to commit to the one guitar part, so I challenged myself to write one guitar part per song that you could sing along to even if there was no vocals. When you think of bands like Rage Against the Machine, you sing the guitar riffs more than the vocals sometimes.”

When asked what the new album sounds like, Gilbert simply said, “It sounds like New Found Glory.” The album blends elements from the band’s past seven full-length releases into a single 13-track record.

“It’s this fusion of different things combined,” Gilbert said. “If you like heavy music, there’s something in there for you. If you like fast, punk rock, there’s something there for you. And if you like the Get Up Kids and the more melodic stuff, there’s songs there for you, too. I think if you’ve been a fan of New Found Glory for a long time, these songs are going to make you think of Nothing Gold Can Stay and then there are going to be songs that make you think of Coming Home and Sticks and Stones. Because of that, it’s sort of its own record. I think every album we’ve ever released sounds like itself.”

This combination of melody and aggression has allowed New Found Glory to create a distinction for itself over the years. One of the things the band is most known for is its insane amount of energy on stage, which Gilbert attributes to the group’s roots in the hardcore scene. Even Pundik, now 34, still jumps into crowds and straddles barricades while holding out the microphone for crowd surfers looking to sing along.

“[That energy] is just inside you,” Gilbert said. “It’s emotional when you’re on stage seeing people singing along and you’re thinking about how long your band has been around. It feeds the energy. When we were growing up and starting out in South Florida, there were two venues, and those were our stomping grounds. We would only play with hardcore bands because there wasn’t a pop-punk scene. We wanted to bring that hardcore energy to punk rock.”

With New Found Glory being pioneers of the pop-punk genre, bands that grew up listening to them, like All Time Low and The Story So Far, have paid homage to them by naming themselves after New Found Glory song lyrics. Gilbert attributes this to his band’s commitment to being a positive influence in the scene.

“My hero was Kurt Cobain and after he killed himself, I remember saying to myself, ‘Man, if I ever get in a band and get anywhere, I just want people to know they don’t have to be some druggie celebrity weird rock star dude to be successful,'” he said. “Whether people like it or don’t like it, that doesn’t matter. We’ve done something that’s gone far enough to alter history. Even with All Time Low, they got extremely popular but I bet 50% of their fans don’t even know New Found Glory. To me, that means that something we did affected this band and now what they’ve done has inspired these kids. It’s sort of like this chain reaction getting people to do good stuff or not waste their lives.”

Gilbert promised the Fingerprints show (and every one thereafter) would be a good time, but didn’t want to disclose the set list. (He only hinted that they would play songs they don’t normally play live.)

“I think people will be psyched and it’ll be a fun surprise,” he said. “Whatever we play acoustically, besides the new songs, we won’t do at the electric shows.”

New Found Glory will perform new and old songs in acoustic form and host a meet-and-greet on Oct. 4 at Fingerprints, located at 420 E. 4th Street. Admission is free when you pre-order Resurrection from the store.

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