Category Archives: interviews

Pierre reveals new info about The Antidote videoshoot & album details in a new interview

by Dominika | Nov 10th, 2021 | no comments

Thanks to our loyal reader Mymie we learned that a Canadian web show called Le retour de 123 PUNK avec Rej Laplanche had Pierre Bouvier as a guest for an interview this week. The interview, which is in French is only available until November 12th through a private link, which you can aquire for free once you sign up for it here.

We asked Mymie to sum up for the most vital information that we would’ve learned in this interview, if we knew how to speak French. And surprisingly Pierre spilled some beans about the upcoming videoshoot for The Antidote and the new album:

  • Pierre said that the videoshoot would take place Tuesday or Wednesday (yesterday or today) in Los Angeles
  • The video is supposed to be edited as soon as possible, so that the music video comes out maximum in just a few weeks
  • He also mentioned that Simple Plan will release 3 to 4 songs before the album comes out

Quite exciting, isn’t it? What do you think the concept of the music video will be like? Let us know in the comments below or on our social media!

Seb teases a release of a music related “something… soon, or not.. maybe”

by Dominika | Jun 16th, 2021 | no comments

Given how long the fans have been making fun of Simple Plan for all of their “soon” phrases, they keep dropping for months before anything is actually released, the guys have already picked up on that and are now trying to be even more careful about what they let out of their mouth, in order for the fans not to be disappointed, if said thing doesn’t get released in the teased timeframe. And that is understandable.

Sebastien tried to wiggle his way out of it again in a new interview that was done with Sebastien for The Dangerous Darrin Show podcast by the show’s host, Darrin Pfeiffer from Goldfinger. There, while answering a question whether the upcoming album was recorded purely in California, Sebastien answered yes, but… he also added a little hint of some brand new recordings, that have been recently done by all members of the band for a little “something” that might be coming “soon”. Seb was very careful about his wordings. Check out his full response:

“No, it actually ended up being all in California for this. We did recently… I can’t say for what, though… but we did recently all do our little parts each in our home studios and brought it together for… eh… for something… that might or might not be coming soon or not. So there’s that to look forward to. Maybe. Who knows?”

Could it be a new single? Some other musical venture for Simple Plan that could be released soon? We shall see. But things are definitely finally moving ahead!

Besides that, there was also another interesting bit in the interview, where Sebastien was asked about whether Simple Plan have any timeline when the record could see the light of day. Sebastien hinted that there is a possibility of us hearing a new single possibly this summer already. That matches what Pierre recently said too about SP wanting to have a new material out for the tour with New Found Glory. Check out what Seb said regarding SP’s 6th album:

“Ah, man, I would have loved this record to come out despite the pandemic. Honestly. It just didn’t happen. So hopefully, hopefully if the world gets going again, I would love for the album to be out in the summer. Or at least like a single. You know? It would be great. The template used to be: the album comes out, single 1, single 2, single 3 and all that. But now it’s the other way round. Single 1, single 2, single 3, album comes out. So hopefully we get into that whole wheel this summer. It would be great.”

– Sebastien Lefebvre [on The Dangerous Darrin Show] –

You can check out both parts of The Dangerous Darrin Show podcast that feature this interview with Seb below:

Pierre confirms Simple Plan will likely have new music out before tour with New Found Glory

by Dominika | May 28th, 2021 | 1 comment

In a new video published by Alternative Press, Joel Madden (Good Charlotte), Jordan Pundik (New Found Glory) and Pierre Bouvier (Simple Plan) got together on Zoom to discuss the upcoming ‘Pop Punk’s Still Not Dead’ tour that Simple Plan and New Found Glory are going on together starting end of August.

Besides the new tour, Joel also asked the two musicians about possible new music of both bands, which is when Pierre confirmed that fans who will be attending the ‘Pop Punk’s Still Not Dead’ will likely be in for a treat for some sneak peeks from the new Simple Plan album, as the band should have some material out by then.

Check out what he said about it and the new Simple Plan album:

“Well, we had a new material that we’ve been sitting on for a while and we’re, I think we’re preparing to figure out how to release it. […] We had a record that was getting released before the pandemic and we kinda put breaks on that cause we didn’t know it it was gonna be worth it not being to be able to tour on it. And now I think we’re trying to figure out how do we wanna release it. Like do we wanna do it like a few songs, a few songs and then a few songs. Or the whole record. But yeah, we have new stuff that we’re super excited about. But I’m excited… they all still sound fresh. We did some stuff with Zakk (Cervini), we did some stuff that I produced, […] we got our guy JVP, who was an engineer on our 4th album and he kind of co-produced with me.

Yeah, I’m thinking that we’re gonna have new music out for the tour as well. But I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think at that point we gotta be putting out some stuff that we’ve been sitting on. So, I’m excited for people to hear it. […] We’ve always felt true to what we sound like and pop-punk runs through my veins […] but our stuff sounds like old-school Simple Plan but with a modern twist to it. And we always have a couple of curve-balls, we can’t help ourselves. Simple Plan always like to put a song on there that the true hardcore fans will be like ‘What the fuck is this?’ so… we’ll see how that turns out.”

– Pierre Bouvier [on Zoom call with Joel Madden and Jordan Pundik] –

You can watch the entire video featuring the Zoom call between Pierre, Joel and Jordan below:

Nick from Sleeping with Sirens recalls Pierre Bouvier’s random act of kindness when they first met

by Dominika | May 25th, 2021 | no comments

Sleeping With Sirens’ rhythm guitarist Nick Martin recently started a successful YouTube channel, on which he likes to share his music, as well as stories from tour. Today, he decided to share a special story in a short video, where he told the story of meeting Pierre Bouvier from Simple Plan for the first time on Warped Tour in 2004 (back with his first band Underminded) and being completely baffled how Pierre performed an such an unexpected act of kindness towards him and his former band. So much so, that it has inspired Nick to continue doing such act of kindness since then.

We wrote down the entire story below, but you can also listen to it from Nick on the video below:

“Back in 2004 [my first band Underminded] did the whole entire Warped Tour. It was our first summer tour, I’ve ever done in my lifetime. But it was also the most gruelling summer: we had to set up the stage, break down the stage, we didn’t get paid, we were in a van.. it was a very very gruelling, very very difficult, hard summer, but it was the most amazing summer of my life at the same time. So there was a stretch of Warped Tour dates that was well over a week long with no days off. And all we were looking forward to was a day off. I remember we were deep into the tour, completely exhausted, completely burned out. And we were just looking forward to a day off when we could recharge out batteries. Like I said, we were making no money, but somehow we scrunched up enough dollars, we said: ‘It’s time for us to shower, call our families and just relax and decompress.’

So we followed the Warped Tour caravan on a day off to a hotel where all the Warped tour bands and production were gonna be staying. And we also heard that the hotel was giving a discount for everybody on Warped Tour. So.. we’re like awesome, let’s shower! So we get to the hotel, it’s completely slammed, full of Warped Tour people, bands, production.. everybody’s there. We went to the desk and I said: ‘We would love to get a room, we need to shower. Please help.’ Their response to me was: ‘We are completely sold-out. I’m sorry.’ Talk about having a moment, when you feel like it’s the end of the world and everything is against you. And then we realized we’re in the middle of nowhere. We would have to drive even further to hopefully find another hotel, we don’t wanna waste any more of our day driving… it was not the answer that we were looking for.

But then the moment quickly changes. Someone taps me on my shoulder, I turn around – Pierre, the lead singer of Simple Plan. Let me quickly preface this that Pierre did not know who we were, did not know what band we were in, we had never met before, we were complete strangers. And he tells me: ‘I just overheard your conversation that the hotel is out of rooms, well, I want to help.’ And then proceeds to give me all of their room keys. It wasn’t just one room, it was multiple rooms for the band and crew. My jaw drops and I was speechless. I couldn’t believe that somebody would do that. That they would go out of their way to just give us hotel rooms without knowing who we are or having never met before. He was such a kind soul for doing that. And he wanted nothing in return. It was out of just kindness and knowing and looking at us and seeing how tired we were, how exhausted, how burned out we were. And it stuck with me ever since then and I’ve also given my hotel room key to other bands, who needed a place to shower, needed a place to charge their phones, to decompress and just talk to family. And just to feel like a human being for a day. And I can never thank him enough for doing that.

A few years ago I ran into him. I think it was on the Alternative Press awards. I told him this story from 2004, that he did this incredibly kind thing for me, that has stuck with me ever since. And he did not remember that ever happening but he was still so kind and I thanked him so much for doing what he did and how it meant to everybody that was with us, the whole band, all of our crew. It just goes to show that any act of kindness big or small can completely change someone’s day or change someone’s life in a really positive day.”

– Nick Martin [in his YouTube video “Two Minute Tour Story”] –

Chuck discusses new album’s release struggles in Disposable Heroes podcast

by Dominika | May 8th, 2021 | no comments

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: