Tag Archives: pop-punk

Pierre on Simple Plan’s new album’s sound: ‘We’re going to keep going in the pop-punk direction’

by Dominika | Feb 8th, 2018 | 2 comments

In an interview recently published by The 13th Floor, a music server from New Zealand, Pierre Bouvier revealed the band’s plans regarding their upcoming 6th studio record and most importantly – on the direction their would like to take with this album.

Pierre revealed that him and Chuck might in fact start writing in a manner of weeks. According to him, the song-writing sessions should then continue at least till the end of 2018, which confirms our projection that the album will be out 2019 the earliest:

“We’re about to start writing the next record. Our latest album came out in 2016, and, obviously, the Fifteenth Anniversary Tour has delayed the process of creating some new material, but I think that, in the next couple of weeks, we’re going to get together and start writing, and, hopefully, by the end of 2018, we should have enough material to hit the studio, and then put a new record out.”

– Pierre Bouvier –

But it isn’t just the timing of the album that interests the fans – it’s mainly its content. Over the past ten years, starting with their self-titled release in 2008, Simple Plan have been known to experiment with different music styles on each of their records. And over time, the band’s musical experiments have been met with diverse reactions from their fans. Some applauded the band for not trying to make the same music over and over again and therefore making themselves stand out in the sea of pop-punk artists. Some however were saddened by the band’s slight departure from their pop-punk roots and the sound of their first two records.

In the interview, Pierre made it clear that he would like for Simple Plan to keep pursuing the pop-punk style and head that direction with their next record:

“At about our third album, we really got into this whole idea of, “We need to evolve! We need to take Simple Plan to a different place it’s never been,” etc; and we tried it, and we did it, and it kinda felt a little bit weird. I think our third album was an album that a lot of our fans appreciate, but I think it went a little bit too experimental, and it went a little off the rails of what people expect and want from Simple Plan. I think that was a lesson that we learned insofar as I’m all for exploration and artistic integrity, but at a certain point, I realized that people, that are fans of Simple Plan, want to hear Simple Plan; just like if I hear a new Green Day album, I want it to sound like what I think Green Day sounds like but new material. I don’t want them to do a country record, or a metal record, because that would be weird. I don’t want them to start adding a whole bunch of stuff they never used to do. You could do it for a couple of songs, but I really like the core, such as when the new Tom Petty record came out, it sounded like his old stuff, and I was like, “Oh, this is cool! It sounds like his old stuff;” so, I’ve come to terms with the fact that, I think, as a band, it’s okay to say, “We’re not going to re-write the same songs, but let’s do pop-punk.”

We like it. I still love that kind of music. Our fans love it. Don’t push it too far, because people don’t want to hear a little country in Simple Plan; they want to hear Simple Plan. For some years, it bugged me to have that mentality, but now I’ve come to embrace it, and I think it gives me a direction of where to go, because I know what people like from us, I know what I like, and I know what we’re good; and it gives us a focus. If we’re to rehash a new sound of Simple Plan, that’s really hard, because where do you take it? My voice sounds a certain way, and it doesn’t really go well in certain styles. Where would we take it? So, I’ve come to terms with it, and I really enjoy it, and I think it’s fun to say, “Hey, you know what? We’re going to keep going in the pop-punk direction.”

It doesn’t matter if radio thinks it’s a dying genre, or if there are people who thinks it sounds like ‘this or this or that’. If you write a good song, and it’s pop-punk, people will like it; because pop-punk doesn’t really mean a whole lot: it just means that it’s got that pop catchiness to it, but it’s got that punk energy and speed, and stuff that makes you want to jump up and down or drive a car real fast; and that’s something that will never get old. So, I love having that direction, and just being able to say, “let’s focus on writing some good songs,” and we produce them the way Simple Plan should and would; and that’s our target.”

– Pierre Bouvier –

You can listen to the whole interview with Pierre for The 13th Floor below:

Rolling Stone named Simple Plan’s debut album among 50 Greatest pop-punk albums!

by Dominika | Nov 15th, 2017 | 1 comment

One of the most respectable music magazines, Rolling Stone, released a new list on their website, which names 50 Greatest pop-punk albums of all time [see the original article here]. And while it could be debatable which of these bands are or are not pop-punk by someone’s standard, it’s safe to say that the list features 50 great albums that certainly had an undisputable impact on the pop-punk we know today – whether it’s because of Blink-182, Green Day, The Ramones, Jimmy Eat World or… Simple Plan.

For Simple Plan it is surely a great honor that their debut album, ‘No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls’, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, is also included on this list – particularly in the 33rd place. Check out what Rolling Stone had to say about SP’s first studio effort below:

33. Simple Plan, ‘No Pads, No Helmets … Just Balls’ (2002)

The teen-comedy film boom of the late Nineties and early 2000s helped to push pop-punk to larger audiences, and Canadian crew Simple Plan excelled at making snappy, catchy, sweet tunes that feel like the big scenes they complemented in flicks like The New Guy, The Hot Chick and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. The dramatic dejectedness of “I’m Just a Kid,” sweeping romance of “I’d Do Anything” and brooding family drama of “Perfect” captured the genre’s signature edge-of-seventeen mindset. “Until the day I die, I promise I won’t change so you better give up/I don’t want to be told to grow up,” Pierre Bouvier sings on the aptly named “Grow Up,” a song that also name-checks Good Charlotte, Sum-41, Blink-182 and MxPx. Adding to the album’s classically pop-punk feel, Simple Plan even got vocal assists from Blink’s Mark Hoppus and Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden on a pair of songs.

– Rolling Stone –

And here’s the full list of 50 Greatest pop-punk albums by Rolling Stone. Are there any albums you would like to add to it?

50 – Discount – Half Fiction
49 – RVIVR – RVIVR
48 – 5 Seconds Of Summer – 5 Seconds Of Summer
47 – Joyce Manor – Never Hungover Again
46 – Good Charlotte – Good Charlotte
45 – All – Breaking Things
44 – The Distillers – Sing Sing Death House
43 – The Ataris – Blue Skies, Broken Hearts… Next 12 Exits
42 – Lagwagon – Let’s Talk About Feelings
41 – The Wonder Years – The Greatest Generation
40 – Bouncing Souls – Hopeless Romantic
39 – Screeching Weasel – My Brain Hurts
38 – Yellowcard – Ocean Avenue
37 – The Undertones – The Undertones
36 – Saves The Day – Through Being Cool
35 – Pennywise – Unknown Road
34 – The Ergs! – dorkrockcorkrod
33 – Simple Plan – No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls
32 – Lifetime – Jersey’s Best Dancers
31 – Tsunami Bomb – The Ultimate Escape
30 – AFI – The Art Of Drowning
29 – Green Day – Kerplunk
28 – The Damned – Machine Gun Etiquette
27 – MxPx – Life In General
26 – The Jam – Snap!
25 – Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American
24 – Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material
23 – Alkaline Trio – From Here To Infirmary
22 – The Rezillos – Can’t Stand the Rezillos
21 – Operation Ivy – Operation Ivy
20 – All Time Low – So Wrong, It’s Right
19 – Good Charlotte – The Young and the Hopeless
18 – Bad Religion – Stranger Than Fiction
17 – Rancid – …And Out Come The Wolves
16 – Green Day – American Idiot
15 – Sum 41 – All Killer No Filler
14 – New Found Glory – New Found Glory
13 – The Offspring – Smash
12 – Jawbreaker – 24 Hour Revenge Therapy
11 – NOFX – Punk in Drublic
10 – Misfits – Walk Among Us
9 – Paramore – Riot!
8 – Blink-182 – Dude Ranch
7 – Generation X – Generation X
6 – Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady
5 – Fall Out Boy – Take This To Your Grave
4 – Descendants – Milo Goes To College
3 – The Ramones – Rocket To Russia
2 – Blink-182 – Enema Of The State
1 – Green Day – Dookie

Simple Plan featured on new React episode: ‘Do teens know 2000s pop punk music?’

by Dominika | Jul 30th, 2017 | no comments

In the latest Fine Bros’ Entertainment’s React channel’s video, today’s teens were confronted with a bunch of pop punk songs from the early 2000s. And for the first time in the React channel’s history, Simple Plan were finally featured in this episode. Right as the first song the teens are supposed to guess, ‘Addicted’ by Simple Plan is played.

Did today’s teens manage to successfully guess the song or the artist? You can have a guess too – and then watch the full video below:

SPIN magazine named ‘I’d Do Anything’ one of 21 best pop-punk choruses of 21st century!

by Dominika | Apr 29th, 2017 | no comments

The renowned music magazine, now websize, SPIN, has recently released a list of 21 best pop-punk choruses of the 21st century. And of course, Simple Plan were featured on the list as well with their song ‘I’D Do Anything’ on number 19. Besides SP, the list also features songs by artists such as Jimmy Eat World, The 1975, Paramore or My Chemical Romance.

Read below what the editor Jordan Sargent of SPIN had to say about this classic track by Simple Plan from their debut album, which came out 15 years ago.

“The Canadian band Simple Plan stepped into pop-punk stardom with perhaps the genre’s most quintessential album title—No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls—which emphasized two very important things: they were boys, but not popular athletes. As such, “I’d Do Anything” made sense as the album’s biggest hit, a loser’s plea to an unnamed girl to recognize that he, really, is the perfect one for her. “I’d do anything / Just to hold you in my arms” it went, in a perfect ascending adolescent whine, and driven by an encouraging guitar riff that seems to say, “Hey man, maybe you have a chance.” Ha.”

– Jordan Sargent (SPIN magazine) –

New poster for the Chuck-produced ‘Resurgence’ reveals more info

by Dominika | Jan 26th, 2017 | no comments

A couple months ago SimplePlan.cz revealed to you that Simple Plan’s drummer Chuck Comeau alongside the Australian director Peter John have been working on a documentary film project titled ‘Resurgence’.

And while the official Facebook and Instagram pages have been quite for a while, the official website for the movie has released a brand new poster, which gives us some more hints about this interesting project.

Firstly, the poster describes ‘Resurgence’ as “a history defining film about the pop punk scene of 1999 – 2004, and its comeback to the mainstream in 2016/2017.”

Secondly, it also reveals a number of artists, which have been interviewed for the film. These artists include Simple Plan, MXPX, Tonight Alive, Finch, Kevin Lyman, John Feldmann, Neck Deep, Sugarcult, Emo Night and many more.

Are you excited to see the final outcome?