Ahead of their recent three-gig Camden Takeover, Planet Loud spoke to Pierre from Canadian kids Simple Plan about the new direction on their forthcoming album and his love of everything from Kanye West to Avenged Sevenfold.
Planet Loud – Hey Pierre, how’s it going?
Simple Plan – It’s going good, I’m just doing some errands in Montreal..
Planet Loud – So, you looking forward to the new album coming out?
Simple Plan – Oh definitely, yes.
Planet Loud – What can we expect from it? I hear it’s a step in a new direction for Simple Plan?
Simple Plan – You know, that’s a tough question. If anyone out there has listened to Simple Plan before, it’s a nice evolution. We spent over a year making this album and really spent the time to make sure every part was great. I think it is our strongest record yet and it’s got a cool infusion of hip-hop and different styles. We’re not doing hip-hop by any means but there is some loose stuff and some stuff we’ve never tried before. All around it’s a good diverse record – it’s got some fast punk songs, some really slow 80s type ballads – all kinds of stuff.
Planet Loud – Do you think fans who’ve followed you from the first album will be surprised by the new album?
Simple Plan – I think that there are some songs on there that will shock people who are already fans of the band and have been for a while – they might think they’re not even listening to the right band! In the end, I think this record is true to what we are and, even though there are some different things on there, it always come back to the big, catchy Simple Plan chorus and it definitely sounds like us.
Planet Loud – You spent a year writing the album, was it important to avoid writing what come be classed as another pop-punk record?
Simple Plan – Exactly! We had some songs after the first few months and it didn’t feel fresh – it almost felt like we were writing the same thing over and over again and also it’s our third record, we’ve been around the world a few times, we’ve got a lot of fans and played a lot of shows so, at first we were thinking that we should do the same thing and stick to what we know but then, after a while, we realised it was more important for us to challenge ourselves to make something a bit different. You know though, I hate saying that because I don’t think the record is entirely different, it definitely sounds like us but I think it was important for us to evolve and show a different side to the band and to keep ourselves excited about playing music.
Planet Loud – You spent a lot of time for the last two records touring with similar bands to Simple Plan – did you get bored with that?
Simple Plan – I think being in a band you go through different times – you’ll go on tour for a year and a half / two years and the last thing you’ll want to do is play another show. You’ll get back home then and start writing and recording for a while and then you can’t wait to get out on the road. You go through different phases but it kinda balances itself out.
Planet Loud – Have your music tastes changed over the last eighteen months?
Simple Plan – You know, not that much in the sense that I’ve always been open to all different kinds of music. I’ve never really stuck to one kind. I like what’s on pop radio, I like what’s on rock radio, I like to discover bands no-one knows about. I listen to Kanye West or Gwen Stefani or Avenged Sevenfold – I’ve always tried to be open to whatever is out there.
Planet Loud – Obviously Kanye West to Avenged Sevenfold covers quite a spectrum of bands. How has that helped shaped the sound of the new record?
Simple Plan – The music we listen to is a big influence. Like on the radio we heard a lot of music that was very Timberland influenced but at the same I grew up listening to AC/DC and bands like that and bands like NOFX and Lagwagon which are always an influence. What we tried to do was put all that stuff together and make something fresh and different and, you know, I think it worked.
Planet Loud – Was it challenging writing a record that didn’t fall into what was expected of you?
Simple Plan – It was definitely wierd and a bit scary at times as we didn’t know what we would end up with. We just kinda met up with Nate early on and we went into the studio and figured out what we wanted to do and just hammered it out with him. What was cool about this record was that we didn’t give ourselves a time limit, we just allowed ourselves to explore and experiment and try things that we may even throw away. WIth this record it was like lets try it out and see what happens.
Planet Loud – When you heard the final mix of the album what was your reaction?
Simple Plan – I felt really proud. It was a lot of work but it was something that we’d spent our time working on it and it has ended up being something that we are all really proud of. From a song-writing point this record has a lot more to offer with different styles and, even though we’ve got the string section stuff, when you sit back and listen to the record, you still get the Simple Plan style.
Planet Loud – There was a quote in one interview where one of the band says that it is the most excited they’ve been about the band in ages?
Simple Plan – Definitely and I think that is because we’ve tried something new and something fresh and I think we accomplished it so I think, for us, we can say that we achieved something different. We went out of our comfort zone and it is definitely one of our proudest moments.
Planet Loud – It’s the third album for you guys which is notoriously the difficult make or break album. Did you feel under any pressure with this record?
Simple Plan – Yeah absolutely. We’ve been lucky enough to tour around the world and sell millions of records and you kinda feel that you have this obligation, no duty, to make a record that all your fans that you’ve gathered will love. With this record the pressure was definitely from us. It wasn’t like the label were down our necks or anything, they actually let us do what we wanted. For sure, you always have that feeling about whether people will love it or hate what you’ve done but all you can do is take your time to make something your satisfied with. For us, if the five guys in the band like the record then I think most of the fans will.
Planet Loud – You mentioned the label who you’ve been with since day one. You’ve sold over seven million albums worldwide, how did they feel about the shift in direction? Was there any pressure to make what “the fans want” in terms of if it isn’t broke don’t fix it?
Simple Plan – I think they may have had some worries while we were making the record but they didn’t voice them to us. I think our A&R guy came into the studio two or three times and just told us to keep doing what we were doing. There was no pressure really from the label – I think they kind of trusted us to do what we do as we’ve done okay upto now. The thing is that no-one knows how to write a hit record, you’ve just got to go and do it.
Planet Loud – As a song-writer what inspires you on this record?
Simple Plan – On this record, like the others, it’s about experiences that I have been through. There are songs about relationships – we’re all in our late twenties now and I think that finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with is getting important. There are a lot of love songs, hate songs, a song about my brother who spent two years going through cancer, it’s all kinds of stuff. I think it is just a journey of what is going through our minds. We use music as a therapy. The record is basically who we are.
Planet Loud – You mentioned that it’s about a lot of personal stuff you went through. How hard is it to deal with that when you’re fifty thousand miles away on tour?
Simple Plan – Yeah, exactly. A lot of people see being in a band as the best job in the world but there is a lot of things that are tough to deal with like friendships, relationships, you’re always gone, you don’t see your family, your loved ones, it’s always hard to find that person who will accept your lifestyle and there are a lot of challenges that come with the territory.
Planet Loud – Going back to the first record, a lot of kids were able to relate to your lyrics, do you think that they will with this record considering how personal some of the lyrics are?
Simple Plan – I think so because, when we made our first record we were nineteen and our fans were anywhere from ten to twenty five years old. The younger fans will have grown up with us and their lives have changed just like ours. We’ve all grown together. I think that you can always relate to the songs even if it is stuff about relationships because, no matter what age you are, you can still relate to those words and a lot of times the songs are universal in that even though I wrote the song for me, people will be able to see themselves in my place.
Planet Loud – Does it trip you out when you travel 30,000 miles and kids tell you they can relate to your lyrics?
Simple Plan – The craziest thing is when you go to places where the kids don’t even speak English and they relate to what you’ve written. Like you go to Indonesia or Japan and these kids have written you letters and they know the words and they give you all these gifts. It’s pretty awesome to know that people are so into what you do and really want to see you. It makes all the bad stuff worthwhile.
Planet Loud – Okay, have you got a message to anyone out there who that has a preconcieved idea about Simple Plan who might not have heard you?
Simple Plan – If you have a preconceived idea about what to expect then it is probably wrong – and I want to thank our fans especially in the UK – we have a lot of fans even though we haven’t had much mainstream success over there. We’ve had a lot of great shows out there. We’ll see you all in 2008.
Planet Loud – No worries Pierre, thanks for your time.
Simple Plan – Awesome man, thanks for the support. See you in 2008!
Interview by Graham Finney
