It’s been a while since the members of the band have done any interviews, especially given the current pandemic situation, which is why it is even more surprising to hear that Chuck recently gave a very in-depth interview to Yesod Williams (from the band Pepper) for his podcast Disposable Heroes.
In the episode, Chuck discussed multiple topics from the band’s unexpected fame on TikTok last year because of the “I’m Just A Kid” challenge all the way to the current forms of releasing music and how Spotify has changed that. Chuck also confirmed that Simple Plan’s a New Found Glory’s co-headlining tour, which was supposed to take place in the U.S. in spring 2020 (and has been indefinitely postponed twice already) is definitely still happening – when the situation allows it, of course.
The most interesting part of the interview came when it was time to discuss Simple Plan’s upcoming 6th album they’ve been working on since 2018. Chuck said that there is a number of reasons why the album has not been released yet: being in the middle of the process of switching labels, the uncertain times due to the pandemic and therefore not being able to promote it the best way they could: touring.
Check out this excerpt from this interview, in which Chuck discusses the reasons why the release of the album has been postponed:
“Well at first, the first initial thought was to let’s see what happens [when the pandemic hit]. But then obviously all the predictions and everything were a little off in terms of not just ours but the world in general. And I think… today is one year since our last show. […] Which is insane when you think about that. And I think literally March 12th, we were about to fly out for a show and I remember the whole world changed when the Trump went on TV and the borders were shutting down and the NBA cancelled their season. […] And I think everybody thought, okay, you know, three four months, five more months, we’ll be back on tour, we’ll be back working. So at that time, it was like let’s see what happens and then you keep doing that, you keep doing that. And now we’re a year in…
I think what’s been challenging for us is that we’re in the middle of changing labels. We just finished our deal with Atlantic and we’re looking for a new partner and trying to figure that out. So I think it has complicated the process, it has made it a little longer, cause right now, it’s hard to talk to people, to have meetings, to make sure you choose the right partner. So that added a level of complexity to the whole thing that we didn’t expect. And on top of that to try to find like your new home, like how you’re gonna release new music, you know, throwing in everything that happened, throwing in the whole TikTok thing, which took us by surprise and was gigantic and trying to figure out how do we release music – it’s been a challenging year to say the least.
So I don’t know if we’re waiting for touring to come back, per se, I just think we have a lot of things that have to kind of align. But I’m hoping… I know that our fans have been really patient and I know that we’re kind of stretching the elastic of their patience. And like we need to put it out. And even for ourselves. Like… we’ve been living with these songs for a long time now, we’ve recorded them, you know, we can’t wait to release them. It’s just… it’s been weird. It’s been disappointing, to be honest. It’s been kind of heartbreaking. Like, why can’t we just, you know… put this out.
But there’s also the fear of, like, we worked so hard on it, you don’t wanna put it out and have it just kind of go away and nothing happening. Like, I look at All Time Low, good friends of ours. They put out a record, they’ve done all the virtual shows and they have the biggest hit of their career with Monsters. And they’re like stuck at home. It must be amazing on one end, cause you’re like oh my god, we finally have that song, and we finally have what we’ve been chasing for for so long, but it’s probably also pretty heartbreaking because you’re like, man, like why did it have to happen this year, you know?”
– Chuck Comeau [in the Disposable Heroes podcast] –
You can listen to the entire (over an hour-long) Disposable Heroes podcast with Chuck Comeau below:
During his time in the pandemic, Pierre Bouvier tried to keep himself busy by getting involved in multiple music projects outside of Simple Plan, helping out talented new and also some established artists and working with them to make their new releases better. One of these artists, a 29-year-old Italian singer/rapper GionnyScandal, who’s made his name known in Italy all the way back in 2011 with his first album, which then immediately topped the Italian TOP 10 best-selling records on iTunes of that time.