Probably in all the cameos. Other people were involved in a way that we hadn’t done before. Like having Shirley Simms from Magnetic Fields take lead vocal on “Miranda in Her Room.” I get a little tired of hearing my own voice all the time, so this was sort of a breath of fresh air. Originally I wrote that to be 2 part harmony the whole way through, but we really loved what she brought to it so we dropped me out in a bunch of parts. Shirley’s an incredible vocalist.

I also did my first co-write – with that guy David Myhr, a Swedish popster who did a ‘songwriting tour’ of the states, meeting with a lot of like-minded folks. Our song “I Don’t Know What to Do” was output from that. He also did vocal parts from Sweden, which cost a lot to bring over to America because, you know, plane fare. On that same song, my daughter added a line to the chorus. Then she got mad because I wouldn’t pay her.

– song for the dumped (ben folds five)

– soho square (kirsty maccoll)

– lonely boy (Andrew gold)

– have you never been mellow (ONJ)

– supper’s ready (genesis)

I never liked that girl anyway.

When more than 26 people listen to it.

That’s kind of a tricky one. There’s a lot of great music that’s qualified as power pop, and a lot of great people who love it. But sometimes I think there’s just as much that’s kind of boring because it just tries to hard to play to that formula. I’d rather just consider myself part of a community of people who like melodic pop music.

Maybe ‘Valley Winter Song,’ because it’s fucking perfect in every way—simple sentiment, the poetry, the melody you feel like you’ve been hearing your whole life. I also think I dream about having written God Only Knows on a weekly basis.

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Well-known for “Five Steps,” the theme song to A&E’s Emmy-nominated Intervention, Klass has licensed numerous songs to TV in addition to putting out three critically acclaimed records—Speaking of The Davenports, Hi-tech Lowlife and Why the Great Gallop—which set tales of love, lust, mean, money-dangling mothers, superstitious panic attacks and the like to a torrent of melodic rock. 

The Davenports’ latest release, Don’t Be Mad at Me, marks a series of firsts for Klass. Shirley Simms of The Magnetic Fields takes lead vocal on “Miranda in Her Room”–the first Davenports song to ever feature a lead vocalist other than Klass. While the duet comes across as seamless, Klass and Simms recorded their vocals in different cities (New York and Boston, respectively), and they didn’t actually meet in person until the following year at a Magnetic Fields show. 

Another song–”I Don’t Know What to Do”–marks Klass’s first co-write. He penned the tune with Swedish popster David Myhr (The Merrymakers) while he was doing a “co-writing tour” of the U.S. last year. As with “Miranda in Her Room,” the recording of “I Don’t Know What to Do” was a long-distance collaboration (in this case, international). 

In addition to his own output, Klass/The Davenports are regular contributors to a popular series of cover projects. They recently contributed renditions of Wham! and Randy Van Warmer songs to the compilation series’ Drink a Toast to Innocence (covering the ’70′s) and Here Comes the Reign Again (covering the ’80s)–records which also featured Mike Viola, Freedy Johnston and Rachel Yamagata. 

Klass is also a member of Look Park, the new project from Fountains of Wayne frontman Chris Collingwood which also includes Philip Price of Winterpills. Last year, the trio played Japan’s Fuji Rock festival and opened for Britpop legends Squeeze on their west coast tour. This past April, Klass and Collingwood opened for British invasion staple Dave Davies of the Kinks.