Tag Archives: Alternative Press

Travis Clark revealed secrets behind the song-writing process with Chuck and Pierre in new Alternative Press interview

by Dominika | Feb 5th, 2020 | no comments

In a brand new interview for Alternative Press, We The Kings’ lead singer and also a talented song-writer Travis Clark talked about his recent writing collaborations with other artists – such as Avril Lavigne, Machine Gun Kelly or Simple Plan. For Simple Plan, Travis has been writing with Pierre and Chuck in California on and off for almost year and half during countless songwriting sessions. All that mostly for Simple Plan’s upcoming album.

During the interview, Travis was asked about his collaboration with both Simple Plan and State Champs on their collaborative song ‘Where I Belong’ and how the songwriting process worked “with so many minds in one room trying to put together a song”. This was Travis’ answer:

“So we knew that the tour was going to happen, and then Simple Plan had this idea. They were just like, “Hey, we’re all friends with each other. It would be really cool to attach a song to this tour and have us all be a part of it.”

With “Where I Belong” specifically, I think Pierre [Bouvier, Simple Plan vocalist] and Chuck [Comeau, Simple Plan drummer] had an overall skeleton idea of the song. And they brought Derek [DiScanio, State Champs vocalist] in to write some of the production and some of his lyrics that he sang in the second verse. And then they basically had that song finished and completed other than the recording of it. They were like, “Trav, would you want to do the bridge?” And all of our voices sound relatively similar to each other, so you want to piece it together part by part. And so we all decided that it’d probably be best if I sang the bridge and did that together so that every person had their part in it. But as far as the rest, We The Kings didn’t record any drums or guitars. We didn’t do anything other than sing vocals. And I think it was probably similar for State Champs.”

– Travis Clark [Alternative Press interview] –

Working with Simple Plan was mentioned one other time during the interview and that was when Travis was asked about what his take on collaborating with someone is and how he approaches the way the ideas come about. Travis explained that sometimes is just comes organically after listening to the artist’s story and background (such as Avril Lavigne and her battle with Lyme disease) and the lyrics just roll out. However, according to Travis, with Simple Plan, sometimes ideas came from collective brainstormings and finding just the right word or phrase that the song could be written around. See how Travis explained this interesting process below:

“And other times, it’s different. When I was working with the Simple Plan dudes, it was myself, Pierre and Chuck. And Chuck would sit there, and he would just scroll through his phone and have all these one-word or two-word ideas that could eventually [become the] title of a song. It was funny because it really would kick-start the whole writing session. We did a couple [of] songs that could only exist because he said one word.”

– Travis Clark [Alternative Press interview] –

Sebastien on what we can expect from next Simple Plan album in a new Alternative Press interview

by Dominika | Sep 16th, 2018 | no comments

While on Warped Tour this summer, the journalists from Alternative Press caught up with Seb Lefebvre from Simple Plan and asked him a number of fairly interesting questions to get to know him a little better. The questions revolved around topics such as his name for a potential SP tribute band, which band he would like to cover some Simple Plan songs, which SP song would he re-write if he could… and also the obvious topic of the next Simple Plan album came up.

Alternative Press asked: ‘What can fans expect from a follow up to Taking One For The Team?’ – and Seb’s answer? Check it out below!

I think just another fun album, you know. I think we’re always very slow at writing, so I think the plan is that right after the Warped Tour we’re gonna start writing and as soon as we have something decent, we’re gonna put it out – right away. Cause, you know, it’s fun!

– Seb Lefebvre –

We’re happy to hear that Simple Plan still plan on releasing the album as fast as they can and hopefully not take as long with the process of creating it, as they’ve done previously (in the past the process has taken about a year and half each time, writing sessions included). From Seb’s words we can also see that Chuck’s idea of ‘releasing the new album in batches’ (that he shared in an interview earlier this year), seem to still be in the band’s mind and we might actually get some new SP music quicker, but the whole album would be released over a longer period of time, in parts.

Could we be looking at a 2019 release date then? Let’s cross our fingers! What would YOU like the next Simple Plan album to be like? Let us know in the comments below!

In the next couple of months we will continue updating you on everything about the process of making album no. 6 so if you want to constantly be in the loop, keep checking our news section. For all the major updates, you can also always check back to our dedicated section regarding this new album, which you can access by clicking the button below:

Info about album #6

Which band are Seaway most thankful for this year? Simple Plan!

by Dominika | Nov 24th, 2017 | no comments

In Thanksgiving day spirit, for their latest article Alternative Press reached out to a number of acts and asked them which bands they are most thankful for this year.

One of these bands were the Canadian pop-punkers Seaway, who have previously supported Simple Plan on their NPNHJB tour in the US. And it’s no surprise that Simple Plan were Ryan Locke’s Seaway’s lead singer’s first band on mind, when it comes to a band he’s most grateful for.

Check out what Ryan said about SP below:

“One band that I am especially thankful for is Simple Plan. Growing up, they shaped my taste heavily and inspired me to make music. Years later, after getting to tour with them, my respect for the band grew even more after seeing how hard they work on the road and how dedicated they are to their fans. I really learned a lot from them.”

– Ryan Locke (Seaway) –

Alternative Press features Simple Plan among 5 bands who stood up to security

by Dominika | Aug 5th, 2017 | no comments

In one of their latest articles, Alternative Press named 5 examples of times when bands stood up to security, when they treated their fans badly or didn’t do their job correctly. The bands that Alternative Press mentioned included Tonight Alive, State Champs, Knocked Loose, The Story So Far and… you’ve guessed it: Simple Plan.

The incident happened on the 2012 European tour in Milan, Italy [we reported about it here, back in March 2012]. In case you don’t recall, here’s a little recap of what happened: A fan first jumped on stage out of fun, after which he was escorted off the stage by security. Usually, the story would end here and we would say job well done, security. However, the security then proceeded to beat-up this fan on the side of the venue. When the members of Simple Plan noticed that, they stopped the show (right during one of their biggest hits ‘Welcome To My Life’) and Jeff even went to get the fan out of the security’s hands and brought him back on stage.

Check out what Alternative Press had to say about the band’s quick step-in into the incident and remind yourselves of the video of what all went down that night below:

“Security have a responsibility to step in if a fan jumps on stage because it poses a danger to the artist, but no fan deserves a full beatdown. Simple Plan brought this fan back on stage to make up for it!”

– Alternative Press [link] –

Simple Plan discuss the real struggles behind the making of NPNHJB with Alternative Press

by Dominika | May 20th, 2017 | no comments

Over the past few months, we’ve been swimming in raving reviews about the current 15th anniversary No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls tour, we’ve been reminded by thousands of fans how important that record was for them in their teenage years and how proud of it the band is.

But what was the making of this record really like? And what were the initial reactions to Simple Plan getting popular with their more pop than punk, yet still pop-punk music? If you’ve read Simple Plan’s official book ‘Simple Plan: The Official Story’ (2012), you already know the answers to these questions, but in the recent interview for Alternative Press, the members of Simple Plan gave a bit of a deeper insight into the process of creating their debut album and the hardships that went along with it. Besides the SP members, some past and present key collaborators took part in this interview as well: Andy Karp (A&R for Atlantic Records, Simple Plan’s record label), Arnold Lanni (producer of NPNHJB) and Eric Lawrence (Simple Plan’s manager, co-founder of Coaliton Music).

SIDENOTE:

After the publishing of this article, Jeff Stinco noted on Instagram that the interview did not mention all the positive quotes he had said about Arnold Lanni’s talent and work. “Lanni is a melodic genius and he will never stop unless he thinks the music is perfect to his ears. He made one of my favorite records of all time with Our Lady Peace. He’s tough but we were also very difficult to work with. It made for an amazing record. I am very grateful for the compliments he said about my playing,” said Jeff.

He also took the time to retract himself: ‘I only jumped in the crowd once to talk to a punk rocker who threw a bottle at Chuck: it was in Detroit and Chuck actually got stitches done on that day. I was with him and I almost fainted in the waiting room seeing all the people getting carried into the emergency room.’

This interview is definitely worth reading – and when you’re done, check out also a bunch of behind the scenes photo from Cleveland attached to this article, taken by Bryce Hall.

Check out the whole interview below:

Simple Plan tell the real story
behind ‘No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls’
[original article]

Fifteen years after No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls launched Simple Plan from obscure Canadian pop-punkers to mainstream hitmakers, the band are spending the majority of 2017 on the road, revisiting the album by playing it front-to-back each night.

Before heading to Europe this month and coming back to the States for continued touring in August, the band and some of their inner circle caught up with AP to recount the often tumultuous processes by which No Pads came together. As guitarist Jeff Stinco notes, “There’s a tendency to unify the story and recollect what happened in a very glorious way, and make it sound as if it was one unified front. But I think what’s important is that it was five guys, who had completely different situations getting into the studio.” He pauses to add, “We had to survive.”

JEFF STINCO: The process itself was long. Arnold challenged us a lot. That record could have taken, at the most, two months to make; it took a year. We were living in very close quarters, sleeping in a windowless room with bunkbeds. We were cooking for ourselves, which is normal, but nobody knew how to cook, so it was horrible. It was a tedious process. Arnold had this vision where he would say, “You guys record yourself, I’m going to come back and criticize and edit it,” and that’s exactly what he’d do. He would leave us days at a time in the studio, I would record the whole album, he would come back and be, like, “Yeah, you could do better,” and scratch everything I did. It was frustrating.

ARNOLD LANNI: It may have appeared that way, but when I was a musician, I never wanted people looking over my shoulder. I’d want the producer to say, “Here’s the song. Here’s what I’d like you to do. How much time do you need? An hour-and-a-half? I’ll come back in an hour-and-a-half because that way, I’m not looking over your shoulder as you track it.” It was just to get them to chase what they wanted to chase. If you aim for a target and you don’t hit the target, I have to at least mention it. On some occasions, I’d say, “Here’s what I want you to do. I’ll be in the next room, or I’ll come back in three hours after you have a chance to lay this down.” If it wasn’t what we as a group talked about, I’d come back and say, “Yeah, this is unacceptable.” It was never anything personal; it’s just hard sometimes to explain to a young person what they don’t know. Because Jeff’s such a talented musician, I would have him do things that were probably just a little bit outside of his comfort zone—not in a technical sense, because there’s probably nothing that Jeff can’t play, because he’s just that good—but I was doing things to have him create tension and atmosphere within a track. Things like that, I don’t know if he, at the time being so young, understood Continue reading →