Fountains of Wayne, the sparkling self-titled debut collaboration/side project by Adam Schlesinger (Ivy) and Chris Collingwood (Mercy Buckets), has enough going to succeed on its own merits. The New York duo have whipped out a collection of beguilingly bright pop songs -- tough enough to chew, but sweet enough to swallow repeatedly. In a field crowded with Beatle/Nirvana knockoffs, the Fountains of Wayne have risen well above the competition.

Schlesinger and Collingwood had just flown from New York to Los Angeles to scout new sidemen, work on a video and talk about, among other things, writing the title track for "That Thing You Do."

ROLLINGSTONE.COM: So, how's L.A.?

ADAM SCHLESINGER: I couldn't tell you. We came right from the airport to the Atlantic conference room. We haven't seen much yet. So far, so good.

RS.COM: Your record is a very "East Coast" album.

AS: We're both from the East, that's part of it, but really, we inadvertently put all this East Coast stuff in our lyrics and we didn't realize it until after the fact when everyone said, "You guys really made a New York album." I guess we did. Somebody said it was like the East Coast version of a (West Coast) beach record.

RS.COM: There's a definite parallel.

AS: I wish I could say it was premeditated. In fact, I think we'll just start taking full credit for that. Yeah, we planned it.

RS.COM: Did you really enter a contest to write "That Thing You Do"?

AS: It wasn't literally a contest. [The producers] put out the word to various music publishers that they were looking for this song. I have a deal with Polygram music publishing and the people there said, "You wanna take a crack at this?" It was only a contest in that they got hundreds of entries, but it's not like they advertised in Musician magazine with something like "Win Cash Prizes!" It was a happy accident in that I wasn't their first call, it wasn't like "Get me that guy!" But they had the song title and gave us some guidelines about what the movie was about and I got extremely lucky.

RS.COM: Did you meet Tom Hanks?

AS: Yeah, they invited me out for a day during the shoot. That was definitely a rush to go by and see this 500-person outdoor shoot where the band is playing the song you wrote. It was definitely surreal.

RS.COM: I saw Tom playing guitar on Oprah the other day.

AS: No, somebody stop him! He'll become Keanu Reeves, another actor turned would-be rocker.

RS.COM: So you're in L.A. to work on a video?

AS: Yeah, we're meeting with a director. We're thinking of using a goat prominently in it. We have a whole goat-based concept.

RS.COM: Which song?

AS: "Radiation Vibe,' but don't ask about the connection. We figure you can't go wrong with goats. That's always been our motto. We'll be meeting the director tonight to talk about casting the goats.

RS.COM: What's your timetable like?

AS: We want to have it done by the end of the month. That's when the single goes to radio. Maybe by that time there might even be some radio stations playing the song.

RS.COM: Where did Fountains of Wayne come from and why?

AS: We picked this really horrible name because we knew we wouldn't have to fight for it. Chris and I used to be in a band called The Wallflowers before Jakob (Dylan), but he got the name. There really is a place in Wayne, New Jersey called Fountains of Wayne. They sell lawn ornaments and stuff. They're either going to be mighty surprised or mighty pissed.

RS.COM: This album came together really fast.

AS: The writing went really fast. Chris brought over three songs he'd written in an afternoon and we wound up cranking out 20 songs in the course of a week. Some of them we wrote together, which we hadn't done before. We didn't want to labor over it and we didn't want to run out of steam.We wanted it to be pop, even if it has some heavy guitars. We come from a point of view where you write melodies and lyrics, not just make a lot of noise or guitar riffs. We definitely come from more of a traditional songwriting place, you know, Beatles, '60s stuff, Zombies, Hollies, Beach Boys. Chris also got me into a lot of early '80s English stuff like The Smiths, Aztec Camera, Everything But The Girl, Billy Bragg, that period. Real songwritery stuff.

RS.COM: Other than band-related stuff, do you have any big plans for the future? [Schlesinger hands the phone off to Chris Collingwood, who apparently hasn't been paying close attention.]

CHRIS COLLINGWOOD: We're going to get addicted to drugs.

RS.COM: You'll do well in Seattle. And you're meeting with the director?

CC: Yeah.

RS.COM: To discuss the goat.

CC: Oh, so you heard about the goat. Did he tell you the whole thing?

RS.COM: Not really.

CC: Good, let's leave that out. We want it to be a surprise. You know there aren't enough goats in videos