Category Archives: David

Simple Plan’s South American tour kicks off today: David not to attend

AUTHOR: Dominika | 22. May 2018 | 2 comments

The final leg of Simple Plan’s 15th anniversary tour of their debut album No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls will kick off tonight, May 22nd, when the band walks up on stage in Buenos Aires, Argentina before leaving for a week-long tour in Brazil.

The members of Simple Plan are already present in Argentina since yesterday – some even managed to already get some tourist stuff done in the afternoon, such as Seb, who already published a bunch of pictures [check them out].

Unfortunately, just as we’ve expected, the local fans will once again get to see Simple Plan only as a quartet, as their bass player David Desrosiers is still absent from touring due to his on-going battle with depression. The band will very likely discuss his absence on stage, as they’ve done frequently on all the shows during the past year.

What can we expect from this tour?

But even without David, Simple Plan have proved over the last year that they are more than capable of running a fantastic show even with this little handicap. As far as bass goes – sometimes David’s pre-recorded tracks are be used and sometimes Chady will be there to lend a hand on the bass guitar during some parts of the shows.

Fans who will be attending the shows are surely also curious about the setlist. Given that the shows have rarely changed over the course of the past year, we are fairly sure about the following setlist to be used – as always, Simple Plan will be playing their first album NPNHJB in its entirety, followed by a “best of” encore of songs from their other records. Check it out below:

1. I’d Do Anything
2. The Worst Day Ever
3. You Don’t Mean Anything
4. I’m Just A Kid
5. When I’m With You
6. Meet You There
7. Addicted
8. My Alien
9. God Must Hate Me
10. I Won’t Be There
11. One Day
12. Grow Up
13. Perfect
Encore:
14. Shut Up!
15. Jump
16. Boom
17. Your Love Is A Lie
18. Jet Lag
19. Summer Paradise
20. Crazy
21. Welcome To My Life

But most of all, this will be the very last opportunity for the fans to see this special anniversary show as these will be the last shows SP will be performing it at. Simple Plan have exactly 6 upcoming No Pads shows planned for South America – one in Argentina (Buenos Aires) and 5 in Brazil (Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro and Uberlandia). Out of all of these, so far only Sao Paulo is sold-out. The remaining shows still have tickets available.

If you’re attending any of the upcoming shows and would like to help us with the updates – info, pictures etc. – hit us up on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) or send us an e-mail!

Let’s get touring again!

Chuck discusses David’s well-being and the odds of his return for South American tour

AUTHOR: Dominika | 13. May 2018 | no comments

With the final part of the No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls anniversary tour, which will take place in Argentina and Brazil, being just weeks away, the question of David’s possible return on tour has arisen once more. You may recall that a year ago, at the end of May, right before the start of the European tour, David revealed his long-time struggles with depression and excused himself from touring with Simple Plan indefinitely in order to work on his mental health and get better as soon as possible.

Since then, the rest of the band have remained outspoken about the issue, usually mentioning at every show that David is still very much a part of Simple Plan and while giving their friend time and space to deal with his illness, they managed to perform as a quartet (with a little help of their friend Chady, who picks up the bass for a few songs at every show) for almost a year now. But what are the odds of David returning for the last few shows before the end of the tour cycle?

In a recent interview with Tento Mais Discos Que Amigos with Chuck Comeau, the reporter asked Chuck about David’s well-being and how he and his band deal with this topic when communicating with their fans. Read Chuck’s answer below:

It’s been an interesting and obviously sad situation for us, we’ve never had to deal with this before, with a band member going through mental health problems. He is going through a difficult time, so as friends and bandmates, we feel sad that he has to go through this. It was not something we imagined we had to face and when he told us about what was happening we were definitely shocked and surprised, and very upset at the same time that our friend is going through it.

At the same time, we think the right thing to do is make sure he stays well and gets better. So if he thinks he can not travel the world on tour now and prefers to stay at home, that’s okay. Stay at home, rest, work on the points you have to work with yourself and know that this is the number one priority for us. All the fans still want to see us, and we did not want to put any more pressure on David. Otherwise it would be like “Hey man, we’ll stop playing until you get better,” and that would put a lot of pressure on him. So we say, “Take the time you need, we can do good shows even with 4 people, we’ll have the bass guitar going there even if you’re not with us.”

We had explained to our fans what is going on, that he’s focusing on his recovery and I think they understood. I think the fans were incredibly understandable and respectful. I think they are also happy that we are still playing, although many would like David to be there, but for now he cannot do that.

We do not know yet whether he will be in Brazil with us or not. He has not done this show with us since touring the United States last year, but we have played a lot since then and we still feel the show is a great show. Obviously it’s a bit different because David is not there but it will still be a lot of fun for the fans. I’ll talk to him in the next few days and see how he feels. We hope he can come with us and be there, but if he’s not, we will respect this, go the same way and play the best show we can for our Brazilian fans. We hope you understand.

– Chuck Comeau –

As you can see, the decision whether David would be going to South America with Simple Plan or not has not been made yet. However if we take in consideration the nature of touring in South America, which is often very crazy, it does not seem like the easiest place for David to return to touring. We’ll keep you posted once the decision is made.

Seb hopes for new Simple Plan music by the end of 2018 & discusses David in a new interview

AUTHOR: Dominika | 10. April 2018 | no comments

Ahead of the upcoming Australian tour, Sebastien Lefebvre did an interview with the Australian website May The Rock Be With You. In this interview, Seb discusses mostly the concept of the No Pads tour and summed up the past year, but he did also mention quite a number of information regarding the next plans for the band, which mostly include making a new record.

Sebastien’s words match his bandmates’ recent interviews, in which the guys have previously stated that they would like to focus on finishing the 6th Simple Plan album as fast as possible, as they don’t want their fans to wait any longer for the next release. Apart from that however, Seb also hopes to already have some music released this year…

Check out what exactly Seb has said regarding new Simple Plan music below:

“[…] Right now we’ve obviously got a couple more places to go on tour, but we just started a little bit of time off now, we don’t have any major tours until the Australian one so we’re sort of getting a bit of rest, I’ve already started working in my studio and I’m sure the other guys have as well and just trying to come up with some ideas, see what sticks, see what doesn’t and we’ll get to it more officially in the next few weeks or next month or something like that.

[…] As soon as we start writing and things go amazing and every song that we write is great, then we’ll head in the studio quite quickly because we would love to take a little less time between albums. However everybody wants to see this anniversary tour so we have to take a little break from writing to travel to come see you guys and other shows this year here and there which will be fun because there’s always shows to play here and there, but that is the plan, we’re gonna try to focus on writing and recording and the album I think that’s the theme for this year.

[…] By the end of 2018 Simple Plan will release some new music, that’s what I’m hoping for, maybe not a full album, maybe not anything but hopefully by the end of the year something will be out, that’s what I’m crossing my fingers for – but don’t put that on the schedule, don’t put a date on that, don’t go crazy on the fan sites – that’s just what I’m hoping for.”

– Seb Lefebvre –

As you can see, things are definitely not set in stone just yet and there’s still a whole record to be written, recorded and published, but the band is certainly already looking through all its options: Seb has already begun looking for some inspiration and in the coming weeks, the band may in fact start working on new music. At this point we also know that Simple Plan plan on breaking their “no writing on tour” rule and would like to also work on their music throughout summer – while on Warped Tour.

However, there’s still one question left to be answered: what about David? Simple Plan’s bassplayer has not been performing with the band for the whole past year, while he’s been trying to get better at home, as he revealed last year that he’s been struggling with depression for quite a while now. The question of David will of course be crucial when it comes to the planning of any new tours as well as the recording of the next album, so it was only natural that the reporter asked it in this interview with Seb as well. This is what Seb replied:

“He’s been dealing with a tough year so he’s been taking a lot of time to rest and stay at home, he’s going through a very difficult depression so he’s just slowly getting out of it, and he’s still in the band obviously so don’t start any rumours but he and us felt it was better to stay home and rest instead of getting on a hectic touring schedule all year that was extremely busy. At the moment he’s just making sure he feels good.”

– Seb Lefebvre –

There’s currently still no word on whether David wants to rejoin Simple Plan on tour anytime soon, but it doesn’t seem very likely at this point – especially given the nature of the destinations Simple Plan have on their schedule next. Keep checking back – if anything changes, we’ll let you know right away.

In the meantime, we’d like to ask you to please continue allowing David to get back on his feet again on his own time.

Reset to reunite with its original members this year!

AUTHOR: Dominika | 25. January 2018 | 1 comment

If you’re a fan of Simple Plan, surely you’re heard of the band Reset before. Reset was founded in 1993 and at some point in time three members of Simple Plan made some of their first music-related memories in this band. Pierre and Chuck were the founding members of Reset and David later replaced Pierre after his departure from the band – not for long, though, just a few months later he left the band also to join the Reset-renegades in the newly started band Simple Plan. After all these years, Reset’s fanbase is still going pretty strong and it is them who can start getting very excited about this year!

Philippe Jolicoeur, Reset’s lead singer, guitarist and only remaining founding member, announced yesterday that there is some very good news coming up for Reset in 2018, while also posting the reunion picture from Amnesia Rockfest 2014 featuring himself, Pierre, David and Chuck. Philippe also confirmed that a reunion with the original members of Reset is tied to this good news.

Many fans are speculating that the original members could repeat their last reunion, which took place in 2014 at the Amnesia Rockfest festival in Quebec. The festival has since renamed Montobello Rockfest and will be taking place from June 14th to June 16th 2018 in Montobello, QC.

Whether the band will perform at Montobello Rockfest and whether David, who’s been absent from Simple Plan’s tours for almost a year now, will be a part of this reunion, is currently unknown. Keep checking back for more info!

Remind yourselves of the music video for Reset’s song ‘My Dream And I’, which is very specific for its use of Pierre Bouvier’s vocals in its recording, but with David Desrosiers playing the role of the waiter in the video. The two have however never been in Reset together at the same time:

Frank Joly shares a picture of young David from Reset times

AUTHOR: Dominika | 20. January 2018 | no comments

Simple Plan’s sound engineer Frank Joly recenly did some digging through old photo albums, when he stumbled upon an a photograph of David Desrosiers taken in the year 2000, when he toured with Reset.

In this picture, we can see a 20-year-old David smiling while he plays the bass for Reset, where he replaced Pierre. The picture was quite possibly taken just a few months before he eventually joined the original members of Reset – Pierre and Chuck – and their other two friends Seb and Jeff – in their new project: Simple Plan.

Check out the photo in its full size in our gallery: