Daniel Cribb from TheMusic.com.au recently did an interview with Sebastien from Simple Plan in which they discussed various subjects from Warped Tour, direction of the next record to the connection with Simple Plan fans.
Check out the full article here or just Seb’s quotes from the interview below:
“They say Warped Tour is a punk rock summer camp, right? It’s true. There’s definitely a lot of bands coming together and helping each other out. Maybe ten years ago it was about who the coolest band was, but I think Warped has evolved from that, and now it’s just about the music and having a good time and the kids coming to the shows and enjoying a million different bands playing. We did it a few years ago in the US and it was great; I think it’s going to be even better in Australia… [Australia] feels like Canada with a lot of beaches and beautiful weather,” – Sebastien on Warped Tour
“It’s crazy how simple it can be to make a difference in someone’s life, and when we saw that, there was no way around it for us, we had to get involved somehow and try to help out as much as we could. We never thought it would be that much work. I mean, it is simple to make a difference, but there is a lot of logistics involved. Whether it’s been locally or abroad, we’ve definitely met some people who we’ve had a positive impact on. We met some kids in Africa who were able to go to school because of our support, and we’ve met some people in our neighbourhood who have a hard time, whether it’s coming out or depression or general illness, and it’s huge. It’s very difficult to grow up nowadays and if we can be there to help, we will.” – Sebastien on the band’s charitable efforts through the Simple Plan Foundation
“There’s part of Simple Plan that just wants to have a good time and not take things too seriously. We really, really enjoyed the philosophy of the last record, which was to just have a good time, and we’re going to carry on in that vein and write songs that are going to be fun to play and tour on, so that’s the general direction of our new album.” – Sebastien on the direction of their next album
“They say you’re only as hot as your current single, so if we have a flop, people will forget about us. We’ve always taken the approach that with every new album we start over, we’re a new band. We always try to make the right decisions and not base it on who we are and what we’ve done before. I think for us, as long as we’re relevant to our fans, that’s all that matters; as long as we’re connecting with them, and as long as we put out music they can identify with and can say, ‘Yes, Simple Plan is still my favourite band’, that’s being relevant to us. I mean, it’s very difficult to be a trendsetter or be the band that everybody looks to and all the critics say, ‘Oh my god, this is the greatest band in the world’ – that’s not what we try for. We just want that connection to the fans, and I think we’ve been pretty good at maintaining it so far and we’re happy to keep it going.” – Sebastien on the band’s connection with their fans
