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When Five Iron Frenzy decided to call it quits at the end of 2003, that wasn't the last we'd see of lead singer and sometimes goofball Reese Roper. In 2004 he returned with a new band, dubbed Roper, which released its debut album, Brace Yourself for the Mediocre, in the fall. Joined by lead guitarist Jonathan Byrnside, bassist Johnathan Till, rhythm guitarist Stephen Till, and drummer Nick White, Roper has been crisscrossing the country spreading the word about his new band's pop-punk melodies—and with a nod to the late, great Five Iron with a cover of "Handbook for the Sellout" on the set list. We joined Reese Roper backstage at Club Three Degrees in Minneapolis for a recent conversation.

Reese Roper (left) with his namesake band.

How is Roper different from Five Iron Frenzy?

Reese Roper With Five Iron, there were eight people putting their ideas into a pot, and sometimes if someone had a great idea, it would get muted by everyone else's input. It was hard to have one direction with Five Iron. It was hard to have a direction with anything, with the way we did tours, or what we did on stage, or where we would go musically, or what we were doing ministry-wise. So I think, with this band I'm trying to not make the same mistakes we made in Five Iron.

Five Iron was presented with a number of opportunities to make it in the general market and blew it. I don't want to make those mistakes. I want this band to be able to succeed in the general market. I want to do that just because I feel … Well, I just think there's a lot of Christian bands that can only play for other Christians, that don't have the chops to make it in the general market-or what they're saying isn't relevant to the rest of the world, it's only relevant to this Christian subculture. I would like to be relevant to the world and have a relevant ministry to the general market.

You started writing and recording for Roper less than six months after Five Iron called it quits, and you didn't even form the band's current lineup until after recording. Why did you launch into Roper so quickly?

Roper That was mostly Frank's advice [Frank Tate, 5 Minute Walk records]. I wanted to take a couple years off, but he wanted to strike while the iron was hot, while there was still buzz out from Five Iron. He wanted to be able to build off of that. I don't think our goal is ever just to take over where Five Iron left off. I loved being in Five Iron and I loved all the things that we had, so I want to try and keep as many of those fans as possible, so hopefully we'll build off that.

What's it been like being back on the road?

Roper I keep getting this feeling like I'm experiencing this very, very strange sense of déjà vu. We started out in the same tour bus that we were in for all the last tour with Five Iron because Frank owns it. Then he rented it out half way through the tour so we went back to a 15-person van, which we did for five years in Five Iron. It's weird being back in a 15-person van and remembering all these things I didn't want to remember. Like how to sleep in between seats, or finding the best place to sit to not feel the bumpiness, or how to back up with a two-ton trailer behind you. That kind of thing is kind of goofy.

But it's cool, [because] there was a feeling for me on the last [Five Iron] tour that I might not see a lot of people ever again, friends that we made. I'm getting to see them again and that's encouraging.

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