New interview with Jeff Stinco

Source: SPB.com

My colleague Bruno from Simple Plan Brazil had the opportunity to interview Jeff and thanks to him we’ve got some new cool info about Simple Plan!

– before the album’s release date (June 21st) we should hear at least two Simple Plan songs we’ve never heard before
– the first single should be out within a month
– the boys would like to return to Brazil two times during this record cycle – for the first time in fall (-> that would mean the other possible tours, like the Europen could be in winter or spring)
– the guys are thinking about doing a live DVD documenting their tours in Brazil
– the new album should include 4 or 5 collaborations, maybe even with a woman

You can check out the whole SPB interview below:

(Update: March 14th – 2nd part of the interview has been added)

Daniel Fernandes from Arujá asked: What is your best memory from Brazil?

Best memory… there have been a lot. I mean, the last tour was definitely a highlight, we had such a great time, going to new places was great: Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Recife… We had a fantastic show in Sao Paulo… We had some fun nights out too, like amazing nights out, so we kept great memories of that trip! You know, on past records, we’ve kept Brazil for the end of our touring cycles, which is not the best for you guys… But we always kept it for the end because it’s so much fun for us. It’s like being on a holiday with great live shows thrown in as a bonus. It ends a record cycle on a great note. Because of that on this record, we’re hoping to come to Brazil twice.

And will it be the last concert and the other in the middle of the tour?
We’re probably gonna start in the fall ‘coz we have a lot of festivals in Europe and in America during the summer. So, we hope to come to Brazil for the fall.

We wish you would come to the Rock In Rio but we don’t know if you’re going to…
I heard a lot of rumors, I don’t know if they’re true yet.

We’re trying to do a campaign to help but we cannot confirm or deny anything.
I can tell you that we would love to play and I believe it’s a possibility.

Let’s hope! I will be there because Britney Spears probably will make a concert there and I love her.
Shit! I absolutely need to be there too then! (laughs)

Remington from Vancouver asked: What is your dream concert lineup.
All Time Low would be awesome. It’d be great to have Hey Monday. It’d be fun to have Weezer, a bunch of great artists that we love. I also love My Chemical Romance. We’ve never played a show with MCR. Actually, we played some Warped Tour dates with them, way back. I’d love to play some more shows with them, love that band.

Fernanda from Sao Paulo asked: What is the hardest song to play on Guitar Hero?
On Guitar Hero? You know, I heard that there’s an Yngwie Malmsteen song now on it. That’s gotta be the hardest. I’ve never tried it but I can imagine it’d be really hard. I can’t remember… I’m actually pretty good on Guitar Hero! I don’t know, I can’t think of a hardest one… maybe a Rush song.

We want to ask you about the new album. We know it’s about to come and we are all excited! We already heard “You Suck At Love”, it’s a great song. We heard some demos as “Around The Corner” and “Famous For Nothing”, great songs but they won’t be on the album, right?
No

But about the album, what are you guys expecting from it? The last album was a bit different for us and for you guys too, it was a different kind of sound. Do you guys think that the fans will receive this album in a better way than the last one?
We kinda just follow our hearts when we make a record. When we did the third one, our aim was to try new things, push boundaries for us, and we achieved that. It was a fun record to make and we’re very proud of it. On tour, some of our fans were saying: “we love that sound but we miss the crazy energy of the first and second records”. I understand what they mean. They’re such fun songs to play live… So, for the fourth record, we tried to blend the best elements of those three first records, mix it all up. It’s definitely a rock record yet it’s diverse. We’ve picked from 60 songs that were written for the record so we really had a chance to pick the greatest ballad, the greatest rock song, the greatest punk-rock song, and the greatest “different for Simple Plan” song. We picked whatever our favorites were amongst those 60. It’s kind of a best of what we do right now. But I’m super happy with it, I think our fans are gonna love it. Our close friends, when they heard the record, were like “yeah! it’s super kickass! We’re stoked about it, love those faster songs!”… There was a great reaction towards “You Suck At Love”. There’s actually more songs like that on this record and I think that’s gonna bring insane intensity to the live show. We get a lot of old-school Simple Plan fans that were there on the first record and they were writing us about “You Suck At Love” and they’re like “Fuck yeah!” It’s that kind of energy that we missed from you guys and it’s cool. Again, I’m super proud of the third record but obviously, when you make a new record you’re like “alright, this is our best”, you know? I’m pretty excited! For me, 21st of June is really really far away but the good news is that we’re gonna release one, or maybe two songs before the record comes out, on top of “You Suck At Love”. I think it’s gonna make my wait easier. I’m so anxious to see what our fans think of the record.

Any idea of what song is going to be the first single?
We’re discussing it, it’s between two songs but we haven’t made a full-on decision. But it’s between a song that people never heard of and a song that’s been discussed over Twitter a little bit.

And when will it be released?
I’m pretty sure that, within a month, there’s gonna be a single out.

Paloma Kinny from Sao Paulo asked: What was the music video you enjoyed making the most?
We’ve been making videos now for eight years so we made a lot! Recently, I looked at a bunch of our videos and they brought back such amazing memories. “I’m Just A Kid” was a fun video for me, it was our first and it was such a big production. Turned out great. Come to think about it, my favorite video is “Don’t Wanna Think About You”. I just love that video. It was a fun video to make: we ran around Los Angeles for two days, like mad men. It’s so energetic. It was kind of a tip of the hat to “24” which, if people don’t know yet, we’re all super big fans of. “Perfect” was fun too except that it got me pretty sick; getting wet on a rooftop in the middle of the night can do that.

One thing I think about your videos is that you always make something big for the videos, it’s not just a simple video. Except for “Save You” but it has a meaning behind the lyrics so the video doesn’t need to be the best. But you guys always make such big productions for the videos!
In the case of “Save You”, I think that out of respect for the lyrics, for the subject matter, we had to kinda step back and let the song do it’s thing. We always try to have good storylines in our videos. Next video will be a fun one. We’re all on the same page about that.

Just a curiosity, if you didn’t know about it, but I was talking with a fan from Saudi Arabia and she said that they had to censor the girls from the “No Pads…” album cover.
Yeah, I know… It’s weird because they’re not even naked! For brazilians that’s like everyday attire (laughs)…

Katherine from Sao Paulo asked: If you could change instruments between the band members for one concert, what instrument would you like to play and why?
You know, I should really kick my ass and learn drums properly. I’d like to play drums, it’s an awesome instrument. What song could I play on drums? I could maybe play “Save You” with easier fills! (laughs)

This is a question that a lot of fans from Brazil want to know… Keith from Mairinque asked: Is there any chance of recording a live DVD here in Brazil?

It’s funny that you mention it. We’ve always wanted to record something in Brazil because it’s clear by now that the Brazilian fans are some of our craziest and amongst our best fans in the world. We’ve always wanted to document a tour there. We’re definitely entertaining that idea. We also have to take more pictures while on tour, make more videos too. I feel we were kinda lazy on the last tours. Also, Patrick wasn’t out with us on the whole touring cycle so he didn’t film as much. Now we have a friend of ours, Sim, who’s coming on the road and he’s gonna do some of the stuff that Pat did. A Simple Plan in Brazil DVD would be awesome and should happen.

But Patrick was in Brazil in the last tour and he did a documentary about Brazil for MusiquePlus…
Do you really think he would’ve missed that? Well, Patrick basically did not do any other touring in the world except Brazil, he wanted to be here for Brazil cause he knew it be so much fun…

_______________________________________________

2nd part:

Anna Clara from Belo Horizonte wants to know about the third album. You guys said on an interview that you would like to work with will.i.am or Gwen Stefani. Did you really worked with them or are you still planning on working with someone like them?
You might have heard the stories by now: there are many collaborations on this record. There are four, maybe five of them. There are definitely a lot of cool things going on this record. It’s not with Gwen Stefani or will.i.am but it’s with some very interesting people. There are many surprises on this record. There are things that people are going to be like “Alright! That’s cool, it’s different!”

Are you guys planning on working with a girl or not?
Maybe… (laughs)

Another question from Anna Clara. A lot of fans make fanfictions and fan arts. She asked if you guys check these things and what do you think about it.
Oh yeah, I’ve read some! On Twitter I get a lot of art like drawings of us. I get a lot of pictures, and I get to see a lot of fictions. I read some of it but truthfully, with Twitter you know how it is, there’s just so much going on that you could spend the whole day in front of your computer screen and not do anything else but at some point you have to do something with your life. I catch as much as I can… It’s very simple, people always ask on Twitter “how do you pick who to respond to?” or “How do you pick what questions to answer?” Well, I just turn my computer on and whatever is on my screen, in my face at the time, is what I answer. I can’t go through it all, it’s impossible!

Another question, again from Anna Clara. Some bands and some artists give names to their fans. I don’t know if you know that Lady GaGa calls her fans “Little Monsters”. If you guys could call SPFans a name, what would it be?
(laughs) “Little Monsters”? That’s funny, that’s really good actually… I don’t know! It’s dangerous, name calling is dangerous, you gotta be careful! I prefer not to call them a name. I try to learn people’s names as much as possible and I’m not too bad at it. All around the world, in the first row, I usually know like five or six people by name. So yeah, I try to learn peoples names as much as possible and not name call.

Junior Casemiro from Ibitinga asked: What do you think about some celebrities who can’t handle the fame and end up in jail or rehab?
Well, I don’t know… Frenzies like Lindsay Lohans, are hard to understand. She’s gorgeous, she’s good actress, and a decent singer she seems to have it all. Did I say she’s beautiful? Makes you wonder what she’s missing… Going to rehab to fix yourself is highly commendable in my opinion. What fascinates me these days is why we take such pleasure watching people hit rock bottom in public? The Charlie Sheen story: why do we watch Charlie Sheen embarrass himself on Twitter, on television, on radio with such pleasure? We should really let the guy fixes his issues privately yet we’re all curious to read what he’s gonna do next. He clearly has issues! You know, let him fix it and don’t give him a public, it only seems to make it worst… That’s what I think… When someone goes to rehab and comes out of it stronger, that’s remarkable.

It’s hard to talk about this, I feel for Lindsay Lohan. In 2002 she made a campaign with you about drinking and driving…
And a week later she got caught… I know. She was young, dealt with so much pressure, lots of responsibilities. We judge people easily, but being in a situation like hers must be hard. I guess being in Simple Plan makes us celebrities too but Lindsay Lohan is at completely different level. It’s a crazy level where everything she does people know about, anywhere she goes she gets recognized and everything she does is scrutinized. Imagine like… let’s say you get into a minor car accident. If you’re Bruno you discuss with the owner of the car you hit, you exchange numbers and you pay to get the car fixed up. If you’re Lindsay Lohan, chances are it’ll be the news and it’s gonna be a big deal. So, that kind of life brings extra pressure for her. In the case of Simple Plan, Pierre gets most of the attention and the pressure that comes with it but it’s definitely not at the same level of Lohan nor is it an issue for him. But at that level I think it definitely can have a negative effect on someone’s stability. Lindsay Lohan was so young when she started. She got famous so young…

I know about this because I’m a Britney Spears fan and she had some problems too.
Yeah! She had a breakdown, right? It’s really sad.

She has a lot of paparazzi chasing her, everything she does will be on websites or tabloids and the headlines will be “Britney is crazy!”, “Britney is doing something bad!” or anything like it. We don’t know what was behind her, why she was doing this.
I think she’s got some health issues and it’s unfortunate that people don’t let her fix herself privately.

I got some questions about tattoos, what do you guys think about tattoos about you guys or inspired by the band?
I think it’s crazy and awesome! It’s really, really intense! When I meet people who tattooed my signature, my face or lyrics on them it’s intense but very flattering, it’s such an honor! Whenever I see a tattoo like that it makes me think: “God, I gotta become a better person because I wanna live up to that tattoo!” But it’s great, I thought for a long time of getting a Hendrix tattoo but I never did it… I guess that when you admire someone a lot and when someone’s music made a difference in your life, some people might want to express it through their ink. I see some really good Simple Plan tattoos these days.

I have one…
What do you have?

In my leg, it’s the same symbol that Pierre has.
Oh cool! I should get that one too. I said that I’d get it done ages ago! Since the 2nd record…

I did this tattoo after the last tour because I was with you guys in a lot of concerts and I thought that you all were very nice with me so… why not? Even if the band is not my priority anymore in the future, or the website I think that what we lived in March ’09 was one of the best moments of my life. So why not memorize this moment with a tattoo?
I see it that way too. I like meaningful tattoos. My tattoos have a very strong meaning for me.

Some fans are asking about Twitter and Facebook. What do you think about keeping in touch with the fans through these websites?
I think it’s a great way to connect with fans. It reminds me of when we started, we had a website with all our e-mails addresses on it and fans would write us directly. It was at a time when the band wasn’t as big so we could reply to everybody. It would be next to impossible now. Twitter allows us to reconnect with our fans in an effective way. Really it’s a great thing, it allows us to respond to fans in very personally. Best part is you have a great excuse to write short sentences: you only have 140 characters. It allows us to communicate with our fans. Unfortunately, it only touches the crowd that’s actually active on Twitter, too bad it doesn’t reach all our fans… A lot of fans tell us it allows them to feel closer to us and kind of feel part of our lives. I think it’s cool but it’s definitely strange that we offer so much information about our personal lives voluntarily. I’m still not completely used to it but I guess it’s where we’re at right now.

But I think you guys use Twitter in a great way. Some people use it to talk about their lives and stuff. You also talk about it, but just important things and in a way that your privacy is still yours.
Yeah, we’re careful about that. We’ve always wanted to keep some kind of privacy, but again, it’s not easy.

And you have all the rights to have privacy, I don’t think the fans should cross that line.
We have very respectful fans to be honest. I think some of the younger fans are very avid to know what’s going on in our lives but in general our fans are super great about privacy.

I have a question, but it’s for Chuck. Remington wants to know if he is planning to direct more music videos…
Oh, for sure he is.

He did a great job with the “I Fall For You” video.
Oh yeah, its good! I was a bit jealous; we should’ve used that idea for Simple Plan! (laughs)

Do you ever think about doing something like Sebastien did?
I’m really busy with a lot of things; I’m really, really busy. There are a lot of things going on my life so I had to decide to focus my music making 100% on Simple Plan. Sebastien is always writing; always, always, always writing. For him it’s a lifestyle. I don’t write nearly as much as he does. I have a lot of different musical interests that keep me busy. Simple Plan is pretty time consuming too. At some point, I just have to prioritize. I won’t say I’ll never do it but not right now. Too bad there’s only 24 hours in a day…

Sometimes we can’t do everything we want…
There are so much things I’d love to do: I would love to fly planes, sail a boat, work on my classical guitar chops and play concerts, climb, dive… time flies.

In my opinion I’m really happy for him, he’s doing his thing, it’s a little bit different from the band and I think he’s really happy with the response from the fans.
Me too, I think it’s a great thing.

We all love the work and it’s great for us because we don’t have a new cd yet so we can hear some songs from Sebastien.
Exactly, it makes the wait for a new SP record a little more tolerable. (laughs)

Well, we don’t have any fans questions left, do you want to say something?
I can only say that I’m sorry that the record is taking so long to come out, it feels that this record is been ready for so long. We finished recording it in November so I’m really excited for it to come out and for us to start touring again. The energy between the band members is amazing. We’re all very good friends and get along so well. I’m very fortunate to be in a band with such great guys. Last year was tough for me and the guys were highly supportive. We’re super energized, we’re all in good health, good spirits and we’re really, really happy to be touring again. After twelve years of knowing each other and still being in the same band, with the same guys, is something to be proud of. It’s exciting for us to start another cycle with this fourth record and go for it full tilt.

Just one more thing about Twitter, I think that the best thing about it is that fans can keep in touch with you and David because you guys are not so active in MySpace like Sebastien, Chuck and Pierre. And you are using it a lot…
(laughs) I know… I didn’t use MySpace so now I’m like “oh, I got get onto that Twitter thing!”.

I remember when you were in studio for the third record and you were making some posts on MySpace blog. You said you would try to write one post per day and you used to write big posts. This is one thing I like about you, you put passion in your work and the fans recognize it.
I try to. I’m a passionate guy, definitely.

Well Jeff, I think that’s all… Thanks a lot, this means a lot to us and we can’t wait to see you in Brazil! Send big hugs to all the guys!
Thank you Bruno and I’ll pass the message for sure! Take care, bye bye!