On Monday, Jeff Stinco and Sebastien Lefebvre from Simple Plan attended the taping of the Penelope McQuade talk show where they talked about their new book Simple Plan: The Official Story and also their involvement with the Desjardins contest, who’s winner – Élie Gagné – was also present at the show on Monday.
You can now check out a couple of pictures from the show in the gallery:
And here is already the first video of this show that appeared on YouTube – it is in bad quality, but the only high quality video is available on the talk show’s website and is available only for Canadians (nevertheless, here’s the link):
And thanks to Helene, here is the English translation of the whole interview that you can see on the video above:
Penelope: For the past 10 years Simple Plan did 1047 shows in 52 countries, they traveled the equivalent of 44 times all around the earth. They used 12564 drumsticks and 85324 guitar pics. Let’s applause for Sebastien and Jeff from Simple Plan!
Penelope: What I just said is fascinating, it’s in the book “Simple Plan: The Official Story” which was released last fall to celebrate the 10 years of your first album “No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls”. This is really interesting because in the great beginning of Simple Plan there was a disagreement with your parents [talking to Jeff].
Jeff: Well yes, that was difficult to go through. My mom bought my first guitar so she was enthusiastic about her son practicing music. But at the same time it was not supposed to interfere with my studies because I was a good student. My dad thought it was just a hobby, for him I was not supposed to start a career as a musician. Obviously now it’s different [laughs]. They just wanted the best for me. They didn’t want me to become the cliché like the musician who takes drugs and fails everything.
Another guest: There are? [talking about drugs]
Jeff: They are all the same! [laughs]
Seb: I have to say, at the beginning, Simple Plan did not sound that good [laughs]. We recorded songs thinking “We’re gonna have success one day”.
Another guest: So there was the ambition to succeed? Was that the dream?
Seb: Yes, that was the dream.
Jeff: I remember us sitting on the couch at Chuck’s and planning to see the world together. We wanted to travel with our music, that was the idea. But it took a lot of time.
Seb: We used to run after success. As soon as there was something interesting like a successful radio, we did not hesitate to go there.
Penelope: Have you ever been boo-ed off the stage?
Jeff: We played in front of 12 people in Germany.
Seb: They didn’t boo but they were definitely not interested in the show. We were having fun on stage and suddenly we saw people not moving at all…
Penelope: What is easier for you, succeed with your band or succeed with your girl?
Seb: Oh.. I have realized that the older we get, the easier it is. The five of us know how it works, we know how to live together…
Another guest: That must not be easy to have a relationship when you’re always a thousand miles away from your girl…
Jeff: Yeah I have found this very difficult. I have been with someone for 12 years so…
Another guest: Well yeah 12 years but If you remove the years of touring it’s not 12 years anymore [laughs]
Jeff: [laughs] It was difficult because we leave all the time. When we were younger, there were not as many technologies as there are now: no Skype – we used phone card…
Penelope: As there are three members of the band missing – I have to ask: What pisses you off the most about them? [laughs]
Jeff: David is always late, always.
Seb: Yeah we received fines but I think they should increase it because he doesn’t care.
Jeff: What is the system?
Seb: 5 dollars per 5 minutes [laughs]
Jeff: What can we say about Chuck… Oh, he must be watching… [laughs]
Penelope: Some fans grew up with you, 13 years ago they were like 10 years old and now they are adults, can you find them cute even if you’ve known them for years?
Jeff: Oh… You can watch but it’s weird… It’s like the nanny phenomenon you know… [laughs] So you can watch but by far, carefully.
Penelope: Especially when they show up with their mom at one of your shows, or when moms show up with their daughters [laughs]
Seb & Jeff: Yeah it happens.
Penelope: You’re very close of your fans, like really. I mean you touch them, you take pictures with them. How do you not catch any diseases?
Seb: Oh I just catch them I don’t care. I can’t say “no kisses, no autographs, no pictures”. That’s love.
Penelope: So we’re going to ask someone to join us. He cannot wait, he won a contest that you guys have judged. Here is Élie Gagné! Hi, how are you?
Élie: Hi! I am fine obviously! I’ve won $5000 thanks to Simple Plan and I’ve been able to give $5000 to Shoes.
Penelope: I would like to know why Élie is here with us tonight
Jeff: We participated in a contest with Desjardins that allows young musicians to express their talents and their charity work. We wanted to find talented people and we found Élie.
Another guest: I feel like you’re linked to young people, why?
Jeff: They come see us at shows, it’s often teenagers and we feel like we’re responsible. We talk to them a lot and they openly talk about their problems and their stories with us so we’ve been searching for a way how to help them.
Seb: That’s why we created the Simple Plan Foundation, to keep in touch with them.
Penelope: So Élie, why do you think you won?
Élie: I don’t really, they judged my talent [talking about Jeff and Seb]
Jeff: You’re excellent!
Élie: Thank you, thank you so much.
Penelope: Did they give you advice?
Élie: Yes, at the final round of the contest we spent a day with Simple Plan and Desjardins
Penelope: So what advice was it?
Élie: Advice about my song, how to contract it so that it would be more precise, more catchy and just overall better. It was a very good advice.
Penelope: So what is this contest about? What did you win?
Élie: $5000 for myself as a singer-songwriter. I will buy myself a new guitar and pay my studies with it. The other $5000 goes to Shoes, as I said before, it’s a show that I have organized for 3 years, and I’ve been participating in it for 6 years. This show will bring money to “Opération Plein Soleil” that helps young people to develop themselves as musicians or any other career. [plays a song]
Penelope: Thank you Élie I hope you will join Simple Plan sometime (laughs). Thank you for joining us, we will keep talking about you.