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n Michel Gondry's brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there's a brief scene of Kirsten Dunst and Mark Ruffalo dancing on a bed in their underwear. Those not too distracted by Dunst's midriff may have noticed the exuberant rock song playing over the actors: a moment of raw musical joy, courtesy of The Willowz.

The Willowz started out as high-school garage band, founded by singer/songwriter/guitarist Richie James Folin and bassist/singer Jessica Reynoza; they were still in college when their debut album became an L.A. sensation. The band's unpolished, guitar-driven sound captivated fans like Gondry, who had a dream about their ballad "I Wonder" and immediately flew the band to New York to make a video — on his dime. Since then, The Willowz have released two more albums and toured alongside other expectation-defying bands like The Gossip, Wolfmother, Ok Go! and The Electric Six.

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Right now the Willowz are wrapping up a tour for their dynamic third album, Chautauqua. The band's current lineup, featuring Aric Bohn on guitar and Loren "Ted" Humphrey on drums, is a rock and roll dream: the songs on Chautauqua sound like modern-day Zeppelin, miles away from the stylized overproduction of the MTV meat grinder. Nerve spoke to Willowz frontman Richie Folin, 24, while his tour bus was stopped at a Little Rock Dairy Queen. — Gwynne Watkins

Tell me the origin of the name.
Jessica had a dream. You know when you're a kid you draw birds and they look kind of like v's or w's? Well she had a dream that all these z-shaped birds were settling in a willow tree, and they would bring us musical enlightenment.

It's like your man-on-a-flaming-pie story.
Yeah. Also, it's better than any other name we could come up with.

You and Jessica started this band when you were teenagers. How has your relationship changed?
Well, we were boyfriend and girlfriend when we started out, but we haven't been boyfriend and girlfriend for a few years. It's too hard to be boyfriend and girlfriend in a band — if you're going through crap, you can't get away from each other.

How did you get Tony Mann from the New York Dolls on your first seven-inch?
Our producer knew him, and sent him some songs and he agreed to play with us. Tony's great. He's like our dad, 'cause he's so much older than us.

You got a lot of exposure from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Did you know how your song was going to be used in the movie?
No, we didn't! And it's funny, because now we see Kirsten Dunst all the time, since she lives in L.A. And we're like "hey, uh, we're that band."

Do you see those same kinds of crazy Michel Gondry visuals when you're writing songs?
Oh yeah, definitely. Michel says that his parents never disciplined him, so he never let go of his child's imagination. Bjork says the same thing; that's why they get along so well. And I think that's why he was attracted to our music, because we're still so young.

What's different about this album than what you've done in the past?
Well, for one we had more time to do it, and two, we didn't have any distractions, like we were out in the middle of nowhere. It's the opposite of what we normally do. We'd get up in the morning and just did it until we fell asleep. But I hated doing it that way because you're faced with all these options and you can go back and change them every day. It just becomes this neverending process and it makes it hard to let it feel raw.

For the new record, are you going to go back to your garage?
We got a studio in L.A. now. I think we're going to try to cut it there, in an actual studio - which none of our records have been. When we started we actually went and recorded at this really nice studio in San Francisco, but it just made it sound real fake, like MTV puerile Good Charlotte. And we worked with a big-time producer dude. He makes hits. We didn't really like the way it sounded. But we're pretty open to anything and everything.

I was watching your bandmates' commentary on Evil Son, the video — it sounds like it was intense to make.
Yeah, Ace (Norton, the director) likes to punish us on video shoots. Like the video for the record before that, we had to jump on these trampolines the entire day with our guitars. And we really couldn't walk afterwards. Aric got stung by a hornet. He's a great guy and he makes great videos, but they're always painful.

If you had to go on a trip and could only bring along five CDs, what would they be?
Oh, some girl just asked me this same question. I'm gonna let our drummer answer this one. (Ted gets on the phone.)
Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Buffett. No, I'm just kidding. I'll pick 'em for Richie. He'd probably say, ah, the first Stooges record, the first Rolling Stones record, Jimmy Buffett —

Do you want to throw one in there for yourself?
I listen to David Axelrod a lot — the record's called Songs of Innocence. The James Gang, Yer Album. And then, ah, Steely Dan — Asia. (laughs) That one's for our tour manager. 

To order Chautauqua, click here.

© 2007 Gwynne Watkins & Nerve.com