Pierre on Simple Plan's new album's sound: 'We’re going to keep going in the pop-punk direction'

In an interview recently published by The 13th Floor, a music server from New Zealand, Pierre Bouvier revealed the band’s plans regarding their upcoming 6th studio record and most importantly – on the direction their would like to take with this album.

Pierre revealed that him and Chuck might in fact start writing in a manner of weeks. According to him, the song-writing sessions should then continue at least till the end of 2018, which confirms our projection that the album will be out 2019 the earliest:

“We’re about to start writing the next record. Our latest album came out in 2016, and, obviously, the Fifteenth Anniversary Tour has delayed the process of creating some new material, but I think that, in the next couple of weeks, we’re going to get together and start writing, and, hopefully, by the end of 2018, we should have enough material to hit the studio, and then put a new record out.”

– Pierre Bouvier –

But it isn’t just the timing of the album that interests the fans – it’s mainly its content. Over the past ten years, starting with their self-titled release in 2008, Simple Plan have been known to experiment with different music styles on each of their records. And over time, the band’s musical experiments have been met with diverse reactions from their fans. Some applauded the band for not trying to make the same music over and over again and therefore making themselves stand out in the sea of pop-punk artists. Some however were saddened by the band’s slight departure from their pop-punk roots and the sound of their first two records.

In the interview, Pierre made it clear that he would like for Simple Plan to keep pursuing the pop-punk style and head that direction with their next record:

“At about our third album, we really got into this whole idea of, “We need to evolve! We need to take Simple Plan to a different place it’s never been,” etc; and we tried it, and we did it, and it kinda felt a little bit weird. I think our third album was an album that a lot of our fans appreciate, but I think it went a little bit too experimental, and it went a little off the rails of what people expect and want from Simple Plan. I think that was a lesson that we learned insofar as I’m all for exploration and artistic integrity, but at a certain point, I realized that people, that are fans of Simple Plan, want to hear Simple Plan; just like if I hear a new Green Day album, I want it to sound like what I think Green Day sounds like but new material. I don’t want them to do a country record, or a metal record, because that would be weird. I don’t want them to start adding a whole bunch of stuff they never used to do. You could do it for a couple of songs, but I really like the core, such as when the new Tom Petty record came out, it sounded like his old stuff, and I was like, “Oh, this is cool! It sounds like his old stuff;” so, I’ve come to terms with the fact that, I think, as a band, it’s okay to say, “We’re not going to re-write the same songs, but let’s do pop-punk.”

We like it. I still love that kind of music. Our fans love it. Don’t push it too far, because people don’t want to hear a little country in Simple Plan; they want to hear Simple Plan. For some years, it bugged me to have that mentality, but now I’ve come to embrace it, and I think it gives me a direction of where to go, because I know what people like from us, I know what I like, and I know what we’re good; and it gives us a focus. If we’re to rehash a new sound of Simple Plan, that’s really hard, because where do you take it? My voice sounds a certain way, and it doesn’t really go well in certain styles. Where would we take it? So, I’ve come to terms with it, and I really enjoy it, and I think it’s fun to say, “Hey, you know what? We’re going to keep going in the pop-punk direction.”

It doesn’t matter if radio thinks it’s a dying genre, or if there are people who thinks it sounds like ‘this or this or that’. If you write a good song, and it’s pop-punk, people will like it; because pop-punk doesn’t really mean a whole lot: it just means that it’s got that pop catchiness to it, but it’s got that punk energy and speed, and stuff that makes you want to jump up and down or drive a car real fast; and that’s something that will never get old. So, I love having that direction, and just being able to say, “let’s focus on writing some good songs,” and we produce them the way Simple Plan should and would; and that’s our target.”

– Pierre Bouvier –

You can listen to the whole interview with Pierre for The 13th Floor below: