‘Crazier and cooler’

Yellowcard lead singer Ryan Key is interrupted with news.

“We’re doing laundry today? Yea!” he says.

After weeks on the road as one of the headlining acts of the hugely successful Vans Warped Tour, it’s the simple things – laundry, beds and hot food – that Key and his fellow band members enthusiastically look forward to.

“Sorry about that. That was important to know,” Key apologizes. “You don’t know when you’re going to get a chance to do laundry again.”

Those chances have been infrequent for Yellowcard, the Los Angeles-based pop-punk rock band that’s experiencing multiplatinum success with its major label debut, “Ocean Avenue.”

Now that the Warped Tour has wrapped up, they’re heading to Miami to play at tonight’s MTV Video Music Awards. Then they strike out on their own national tour.

“It just keeps getting crazier and cooler,” Key says.

“We’re in a great mood,” adds violinist Sean Mackin, 25. “We’re having a great time right now. What more can you ask?”

Not much. The band’s first single, “Way Away,” can be heard on Fox’s “The O.C.” and last year’s Madden NFL video game. The follow-up single, “Ocean Avenue,” cracked Billboard’s Top 10 and earned the group a VMA best new artist nomination.

“We never expected to do this well. We never expected to have a song that hit the Top 40. That’s super high for a little band like us,” Key says.

Actually, there’s little that’s little about Yellowcard (which took its name from a soccer penalty call), from its big, punk-inspired sound to the use of a violin as a rhythm instrument. Blender magazine described the band’s sound as “Stratocaster meets Stradivarius.”

Yellowcard formed in 1997 in Jacksonville, Fla., at a performing arts high school with Mackin, guitarist Ben Harper and drummer Longineu Parsons. They were later joined by Key and bassist Pete Mosely.

It’s an unlikely combination. Key was influenced by ‘80s glam rock and early ‘90s punk rock, while violinist Mackin studied classical music, Parsons was raised on jazz, and Harper went through a hip-hop phase. Mosely had played with pop-punk’s Inspection 12.

Releasing two independent-label albums and building a local following after moving to California’s San Fernando Valley, the band soon caught the interest of Capitol Records. “Ocean Avenue” was released in July 2003 but gained steam in January when it broke into the Top 40.

Although band members walk the pop-punk walk, from their clothing to their language, the album is a departure from punk’s typically angry lyrics. “They are all kind of positive and affirmative songs,” Key says.

During a recent performance at Randall’s Island, a woman whose husband was killed in Iraq joined the band on stage for “Believe,” a song written in honor of the life-and-death decisions made by police and firefighters on Sept. 11, 2001.

Thousands sang along with the lyrics:

“Think about the love inside the strength of the heart/ Think about the heroes saving life in the dark/ Climbing higher through the fire/ Time was running out/ Never knowing you weren’t going to be coming down alive/ But you still came back for me/ You were strong and you believed.”

“I was thinking about how often we put our lives in the hands of people we trust and we don’t know,” Key says.

To commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Yellowcard is distributing singles of “Believe” to the New York fire and police departments, accompanied by a letter from Key.

“We wanted them to know we’re out telling their story,” Key says, adding that the song “is like a giant thank-you card from us.”