Category Archives: media

Brand new look of SimplePlan.com

On the release day of their new record “Taking One For The Team”, Simple Plan also unveiled a re-vamped look of their official website SimplePlan.com. Check it out and make sure to go through all the sections to find all the new hidden info!

RECAP: Simple Plan on Patrick Langlois’ show ‘Ménage à trois’

On Monday evening, the channel V in Canada aired the pre-taped special of the show Ménage à trois, which is co-hosted by one of Simple Plan’s oldest friends – Patrick Langlois. Of course, the older fans among you will remember Patrick as Simple Plan’s former merch guy, videographer, photographer, web guy and so much more. As of right now, Patrick is making it big as a TV host in Canada and in advance of the release of Simple Plan’s new record “Taking One For The Team”, he invited them to his show.

The show is obviously in French and the video is only restricted only to Canada [check it here] but just as Patrick and Seb predicted on the last episode of Man Of The Hour, I managed to get a recap of the episode for you (big thanks to Emilie!).

You can read through it below:

Pierre and Jeff talked about the new album, the song IDWTGTB, that the chorus came naturally. They spoke about how hard it is to renew themselves by bringing new things, they want a good mix between serious and fun. Pat kept making fun of Pierre’s gray hair, he said that when his wife was pregnant with his first daughter, the first gray hair appeared. They also said that the fact they have children keep their positive energy and it motivates them – it’s easier to stay young.

Chuck called David Hasselhoff’s manager to be in the video. He loved the song, he wanted to be part of the joke and he even help to get the copyright of Baywatch for the video. They talked about the critics, who are the most critical of the band. Pierre said Chuck is especially critical of himself. Sometimes it annoys others but it also inspires them to overcome this. Pierre compared Chuck to Steve Jobs for his less-friendly-side almost arrogant but it’s because he works very hard and always means well. Pat added that Chuck won’t be insulted about that but happy, being compared to Steve Jobs.

Lady Gaga, Tom Petty, The Weekend are the artists who most influenced this record.

In the show there is a segment called “90 seconds” where Pat asks as many questions as possible in 90 seconds. Pierre answered the questions:

– Who is the most talented in the band? Me
– Who sucks the most in the band? Hard to say
– Where are the most beautiful girls? Australia
– Who is the most popular with the girls? These days, David
– Of all the prices you’ve received, which one is the most valuable? A Félix, from the ADISQ in Québec
– Where would you would never go on tour? *Pierre didn’t know, Pat suggest Baghdad*
– Country where the fans scream the loudest? Brazil
– Day off on tour, sleep or visit the city? Sleep a little, visit a little
– For or against streaming sites? For
– Which of your daughters will one day take over SP? Soren
– Most beautiful place for surfing? San Diego
– After Nelly and Sean Paul, what would be the hip hop collab of your dreams? Wiz Khalifa
– How many cities have you visited? About 63
– How many shows did you do? About 2000
– How many girls have you kissed? About 2000
– Who would you exchange your career with? Patrick Langlois
– Is it easier to write a song in English or translate it to French? Write in English
– In everyday life, do you think in English or in French? In English

The concept of the show is to talk about what interests the guests. So Chuck, David and Seb talked about what they like.

Chuck’s segment is about golf

– They talk about statistics of golf. Chuck has been playing golf for 6 years now.
– Is he a better drummer or golfer? Average in both, a bit better in drums but he practices golf more.
– Sometimes Pierre and him manage to get invited to prestigious golf clubs on tour.
– They briefly talked about Chuck’s bachelor party in Vegas but Pat and Chuck didn’t remember much about it.
– Pierre and Chuck are equal in golf and they are both competitive.
– Chuck said that the most beautiful golf course is the one where he’s a member of – Lakeside in Los Angeles. Some famous people are members too – such as Justin Timberlake, Jack Nicholson or Adam Levine.
– Pierre and Chuck did a little competition of minigolf which Pierre won.

David’s segment is about motorcycles

– Before they talked about bikes, Pat’s co-host wanted to know about his passion for candles, but Pat told her that they don’t have time to ask him questions about that
– David’s passion for bikes started when he was 14
– He used to drive his friend’s motorcycle, without a license
– He’s had his license for 5 years now
– He had an accident with his bike. He met with coyotes and one of them hit his back wheel. He was driving at 90 km/h, he fell on the road but he wore all his full equipment. He was lucky, he had no scratches, nothing broken.
– He has 7-8 motorcycles
– All of his bikes have names but not the names of old girlfriends.

Seb’s segment is about geek stuff

– He loved the movie Interstellar. He loved the film so much that his wife took him to the Montreal Planetarium (where there is exhibits on space and astronomy) for their wedding anniversary.
– They talked about Lego, Star Wars, video games.
– Ideal Saturday night with his wife: playing Wii, they like lego game and Mario’s game.
– One day, he said on Twitter that he loves lego and since then many fans give him legos after shows. But there are too many so he gives them to his friends and even Benjamin (Patrick’s son).

At the end of the show the 5 guys are together. Pat asked them what song of the new album they are most proud of

Seb: Everything Sucks
Pierre: Singing in The Rain
Jeff + David: Kiss Me

Promo week begins – first photos

The biggest week of this year has just begun for the guys from Simple Plan – their new album “Taking One For The Team” is coming out this Friday (February 19th) and before that, the band members have a lot of interviews and other media appearances to do.

All of the band is now back in Montreal, where this morning they started giving out the first bunch of interviews to local radio stations. Check out some of the photos taken today in the gallery:

Chuck confirms “Singing In The Rain” for U.S. single in new interview and more

Joe DeAndrea from AbsolutePunk did another extensive interview with Chuck a couple days ago and as always, it’s a piece you’ll definitely want to read.

In the interview Chuck opened up about the negative backlash their early releases for this record (namely mostly “Saturday”) received online and the hard times the band had to go through mainly because of that. He also mentioned a different strategy the band is taking with the single that will be marketed for the U.S., which should be “Singing In The Rain”, a song with more of a reggae vibe, which will be featuring R. City (this is also the first interview where Chuck talks about this interesting collaboration). Besides this collab, Chuck also discussed how the featurings with Jordan Pundik and Juliet Simms came about and the differences between having a guest write his own parts and writing them ahead for him/her.

Another big topic of were the interview were the styles that can be found on the album – mostly ballads, pop-punk songs, pop songs and “weird” songs. Chuck spoke about how in the summer the band had most of the record ready but eventually realized they were missing some traditional classic Simple Plan songs, more in the pop-punk genre, which resulted in the pop-punk song-writing sessions, which produced three more songs on the album: “Opinion Overload”, “Farewell” and “Nostalgic”.

If you want to find out more, I wholeheartedly recommend you reading through the whole interview here.

First review of Taking One For The Team gives it 8/10

If you’re in the UK, you may get your hands on the new issue of the Rock Sound magazine, which features the very first review of the new Simple Plan record ‘Taking One For The Team’ (release date: February 19th) that has been published. The review is very favorable, giving the album the rating of 8 out of 10!

Check it out for yourself below:

SIMPLE PLAN
TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM (ATLANTIC)

RATING: 8/10
By: Gav Lloyd

Starting life as goofy pop-punk kids, over the years Simple Plan have evolved into the scene’s elder statesmen. It’s been five years since they last released an album, but the good news is that they’ve still got it. “Taking One For The Team” is full of solid gold songwriting.

Given the youngest bands snapping at their heels in recent years, it’s little surprise that there’s some throwback to their roots on their latest opus. The likes of ‘Opinion Overload’ and ‘Everything Sucks’ are three-chord fun at its finest. While single ‘Boom’ is so joyous that no matter how bad your day is going – whether you’ve left the house forgetting to put trousers on or your cat has been sick on the rug – you’ll still be left grinning like an idiot after listening to it.

However the multifaceted crossover appeal that has seen the Quebec five-pieve elbow their way into charts is still present and correct. Be it the reggae-tinged vibes of ‘Singing In The Rain’. the jazz-hand bombast of ‘Sad’ or the R&B shimmy of the Nelly featuring ‘I Don’t Wanna Go To Bed’, Simple Plan prove they can take the good times in any direction they see fit. It’s so good to have them back.

FOR FANS OF: Good Charlotte, All Time Low, 5 Seconds Of Summer

Check out a scan of the review in the gallery (big thanks to Nick!):