Quarantine, social isolation… no matter what you call it, most of us – who’re not capable of being the supermans out there saving the world – probably have too much free time on their hands: we can’t go to concerts, enjoy a picnic or go out for a beer with a couple friends. And that’s good. Even though times are hard, we have to follow the rules places upon us and try to help get this situation under control as quickly as possible. So that we can once again go out in the streets, meet each other, go to concerts and appreciate life even more than before.
So if you’re bored out of your mind and would like some help figuring out what to do, we decided to bring you a couple of tips – for all you Simple Plan fans out there. And make sure to read until the very end, where we’ve even prepared a little quiz for you!
Let’s have a look at them:
Yeah, yeah, yeah… we know you’ve heard it a million times before, but we cannot forget this one. You must have heard already that you should be washing your hands multiple times in a day, always for at least 20 seconds. Now, many of you have heard that you can could those 20 seconds by either singing Happy Birthday twice, or singing the first part of My Chemical Romance’s Welcome To The Black Parade. But if you’re not a big birthday person and MCR are not your cup of tea, we have another solution for you. Did you know that the chorus to ‘Addicted’ by Simple Plan is exactly 20 seconds long? Try singing it next time you wash your hands. We’ve even posted a little how-to guide on our Instagram.
Even the members of Simple Plan are abiding by the rules and are self-isolating at home. And how are they spending their time, you ask? Jeff, for instance, decided to use his free time to practice playing his guitar and doesn’t just keep it to himself! Once again, he decided to start recording himself playing the guitar. Check out his Cabin Fever Sessions on his Instagram!
Pierre and Sebastien then went one step further and decided to each do an Instagram live stream, where they answered some questions, played some music and even invited some fans to join them and chat for a little while. But if you’ve missed the past few live streams, have no worries, they will surely do another one again soon! So far, Pierre has done two streams in the past two days plus made an appearance in a live stream on his wife Lachelle’s channel. More’s to come! Make sure you follow Pierre, Seb and Lachelle on Instagram!
You should also definitely not forget to follow Simple Plan on Instagram, as they’ve also recently mentioned they want to start posting some old photos they manage to dig up as well as some old footage – “to make you smile and give you a place to go when you want to remember what life was like before this crazy virus.”
This one may seem like an obvious one, but it’s definitely worth a mention. Music can be quite an impressive cure for anxiety, loneliness and various other issues we’re all facing right now. So turn up the volume and put your favorite songs on again!
TIP: We’re pretty sure many of you don’t remember the lyrics as much as you once have, so why not re-learn them again! Visit our lyrics section, where you can even read up on the meanings of most of the songs, as well as watch the music videos and sing-along with the added lyrics!
And if you’re ready to learn some more info about the band, you can always rewatch some of our interviews with Simple Plan, which we’ve done over the years. Since we always try to come up with some unique questions, these may be a good source of interesting facts for you to get to know the band a little better!
A great source of more information about Simple Plan is obviously their biography – Simple Plan: The Official Story. The guys have actually put it back up on their merch store (in French and also in English), so if you haven’t grabbed it yet, get it now and dive into this amazing collection of materials from Simple Plan’s history. Definitely worth a read! [here’s our review of it, if you’re still deciding]
And last but not the least, if you’re seriously missing concerts right now, there’s plenty of options to get some live Simple Plan music into your life! There’s always the DVD – A Big Package For You – in case you need some complex old school SP fix. For live shows only, we definitely recommend watching Simple Plan’s 2005 performance at MTV Hard Rock Live or their 2012 Live in Australia footage they released on YouTube.
Just because we can’t be around each other doesn’t mean we can’t be there for each other. Text your mates or use this time to call them up, or maybe even Skype with those you haven’t seen in a while and ask them how they are doing. Perhaps you can even finally call your foreign friends and check up on them and maybe practice your English skills a little bit, while being in a company of someone you like and having someone to talk to about the issues you’re facing. Or even better: to cheer each other up.
Maintaining communication with your loved ones is especially important for your mental health. That is why you should make sure you stay in touch with your friends – both for your and their well-being.
And what if you don’t have any friends from the fandom? This is the best time to find new ones! Engage in discussions under social media posts, search for people posting Simple Plan related posts under the #simpleplan hashtag and contact the people you find interesting. Who knows, maybe you’ll even find your new concert buddy!
And if you still don’t know what to do with your free time, we’ve prepared a pretty hard Simple Plan quiz for you – to see how much you’ve been paying attention. We’re looking forward to seeing your results – make sure to tag us is you post them on social media! :)
