Thanks to Emilie, SimplePlan.cz prepared a short recap of the long-awaited and recently released documentary Vie de tournée, who’s new episode focuses on Simple Plan, their Brazilian tour and includes extensive interviews with all band members.
Instead of a complete full translation (since the video is 45 minutes long), we opted for a recap, which will give you an insight into some of the interesting bits that were discussed in this TV special:
– It’s always tough to leave their kids at home and go on tour. For Chuck, the band has always been his priority but now that he has a kid, his priorities have slightly changed.
– The tour life can be very hard especially for those, who are in serious relationships. A few years ago, Jeff went through a difficult separation from the mother of his two daughters (Zoe and Maya). She was there since the beginning of Simple Plan. It felt like a big failure to him. Jeff struggled with this change in his life quite a lot. It always took him several days to adapt to being at home alone after the tour, but he has learnt a lot and the guys helped him.
– The guys adapted their tours to their fatherhood and David had to follow the lead. He feels like he lives a completely different live than them, because he’s single. But even though he has no children of his own, he loves kids and says the guys have beautiful children.
– The tour in South America this documentary revolves around (December 2016) was the first tour without David. He said that his body was letting him know it was very tired, so he listened to the signs. He needed to step back. For him touring includes way too much movement and it doesn’t allow him to feel grounded at the same place long enough. So he tries to slow down as much as possible. During the guys’ tour in Brazil, he went to his mother’s home in Matane to recharge himself.
– The other guys were initially afraid of not having David on tour, but they quickly changed their attitude on how to solve this problem. Logistically, it’s very complicated to do a tour in Brazil, so they really didn’t want to cancel it – plus, they really wanted to go. According to the guys, it’s always very special to be in Brazil, there is a big buzz around the band, big excitement that they find in other countries too, but here’s it’s accentuated, crazier and more chaotic.
– The guys had a meeting on how it will work without David. They explained that David had pre-recorded the bass tracks except for the first album, so Seb was going to play bass and Chady guitar on some songs.
– David focused on the positives messages that he’s received. Someone even sent him a video of Pierre on stage, where he said: “Sing louder, so that David can hear you!” It touched him very much.
– Sometimes it’s hard to find a balance on tour. For Pierre, it’s to accept that there is no balance. When he doesn’t want to get up to catch a flight but he has no choice, he takes a deep breath. The guys take it one day at a time, one show at a time, even one hour at a time.
– This tour was the Pierre’s first return on stage after their previous Canadian tour being canceled due to Pierre’s vocal chords problems. He spent 2 weeks without saying a word, the third week he spoke a little and the fourth week he began to practice and warm his voice. The guys supported him – they only canceled shows 3-4 times in 15 years.
– Sometimes there are some tensions between the members of the band, especially between Pierre and Chuck. One example being having to often wait for Pierre to do the encore. Chuck wants everything for the shows to be by the book.
– In Brazil and other countries in Latin America, it often happens that the fans stay at the same hotel as SP. It’s more accepted to be a fanatic there. But when is it just too much? According to SP, it depends – sometimes they can handle a lot, they have the energy to do it, but sometimes they know just after waking up that is not a good day.
– Seb discussed the obsession of some fans to have pictures with them everytime, even if they meet them multiple times in one day: “We see some fans at the airport, take a picture with them, it’s cool. Then we go to the hotel, the same fans are there, we take a picture, cool. Then the soundcheck party, take another picture, the stage is behind, it’s different. Then the VIP party, we can talk some more there, it’s fantastic. But then they arrive to our hotel, it’s late, we want to go to bed because we have to get up early the next day, and the same fans are there – so maybe that picture is a little too much…”
