{"id":22238,"date":"2017-05-20T18:49:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-20T16:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.simpleplan.cz\/en\/?p=22238"},"modified":"2017-05-20T20:19:54","modified_gmt":"2017-05-20T18:19:54","slug":"simple-plan-discuss-real-struggles-behind-making-npnhjb-ap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simpleplan.cz\/en\/index.php\/simple-plan-discuss-real-struggles-behind-making-npnhjb-ap\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Plan discuss the real struggles behind the making of NPNHJB with Alternative Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Over the past few months, we’ve been swimming in raving reviews about the current 15th anniversary No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls tour<\/b>, we’ve been reminded by thousands of fans how important that record was for them in their teenage years and how proud of it the band is.<\/p>\n

But what was the making of this record really like? And what were the initial reactions to Simple Plan getting popular with their more pop than punk, yet still pop-punk music? If you’ve read Simple Plan’s official book ‘Simple Plan: The Official Story’<\/a> (2012), you already know the answers to these questions, but in the recent interview for Alternative Press, the members of Simple Plan gave a bit of a deeper insight into the process of creating their debut album and the hardships that went along with it<\/b>. Besides the SP members, some past and present key collaborators took part in this interview as well: Andy Karp (A&R for Atlantic Records, Simple Plan’s record label), Arnold Lanni (producer of NPNHJB) and Eric Lawrence (Simple Plan’s manager, co-founder of Coaliton Music).<\/p>\n

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SIDENOTE:<\/b><\/center><\/p>\n

After the publishing of this article, Jeff Stinco noted on Instagram<\/a> that the interview did not mention all the positive quotes he had said about Arnold Lanni’s talent and work. “Lanni is a melodic genius and he will never stop unless he thinks the music is perfect to his ears. He made one of my favorite records of all time with Our Lady Peace. He’s tough but we were also very difficult to work with. It made for an amazing record. I am very grateful for the compliments he said about my playing,”<\/i> said Jeff. <\/p>\n

He also took the time to retract himself: ‘I only jumped in the crowd once to talk to a punk rocker who threw a bottle at Chuck: it was in Detroit and Chuck actually got stitches done on that day. I was with him and I almost fainted in the waiting room seeing all the people getting carried into the emergency room.’<\/i><\/div>\n

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This interview is definitely worth reading – and when you’re done, check out also a bunch of behind the scenes photo from Cleveland<\/a> attached to this article, taken by Bryce Hall.<\/p>\n

Check out the whole interview below:<\/p>\n

Simple Plan tell the real story
\nbehind \u2018No Pads, No Helmets\u2026 Just Balls\u2019<\/b><\/font>
\n[original article<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Fifteen years after No Pads, No Helmets\u2026Just Balls launched Simple Plan from obscure Canadian pop-punkers to mainstream hitmakers, the band are spending the majority of 2017 on the road, revisiting the album by playing it front-to-back each night. <\/p>\n

Before heading to Europe this month and coming back to the States for continued touring in August, the band and some of their inner circle caught up with AP to recount the often tumultuous processes by which No Pads came together. As guitarist Jeff Stinco notes, \u201cThere\u2019s a tendency to unify the story and recollect what happened in a very glorious way, and make it sound as if it was one unified front. But I think what\u2019s important is that it was five guys, who had completely different situations getting into the studio.\u201d He pauses to add, \u201cWe had to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

JEFF STINCO:<\/b> The process itself was long. Arnold challenged us a lot. That record could have taken, at the most, two months to make; it took a year. We were living in very close quarters, sleeping in a windowless room with bunkbeds. We were cooking for ourselves, which is normal, but nobody knew how to cook, so it was horrible. It was a tedious process. Arnold had this vision where he would say, \u201cYou guys record yourself, I\u2019m going to come back and criticize and edit it,\u201d and that\u2019s exactly what he\u2019d do. He would leave us days at a time in the studio, I would record the whole album, he would come back and be, like, \u201cYeah, you could do better,\u201d and scratch everything I did. It was frustrating.<\/p>\n

ARNOLD LANNI:<\/b> It may have appeared that way, but when I was a musician, I never wanted people looking over my shoulder. I\u2019d want the producer to say, \u201cHere\u2019s the song. Here\u2019s what I\u2019d like you to do. How much time do you need? An hour-and-a-half? I\u2019ll come back in an hour-and-a-half because that way, I\u2019m not looking over your shoulder as you track it.\u201d It was just to get them to chase what they wanted to chase. If you aim for a target and you don\u2019t hit the target, I have to at least mention it. On some occasions, I\u2019d say, \u201cHere\u2019s what I want you to do. I\u2019ll be in the next room, or I\u2019ll come back in three hours after you have a chance to lay this down.\u201d If it wasn\u2019t what we as a group talked about, I\u2019d come back and say, \u201cYeah, this is unacceptable.\u201d It was never anything personal; it\u2019s just hard sometimes to explain to a young person what they don\u2019t know. Because Jeff\u2019s such a talented musician, I would have him do things that were probably just a little bit outside of his comfort zone\u2014not in a technical sense, because there\u2019s probably nothing that Jeff can\u2019t play, because he\u2019s just that good\u2014but I was doing things to have him create tension and atmosphere within a track. Things like that, I don\u2019t know if he, at the time being so young, understood <\/p>\n

PIERRE BOUVIER:<\/b> There were some difficult times, for sure. We felt like it was a pretty big opportunity for us and we didn\u2019t want to mess it up because if you mess up your first record, you\u2019re kind of doomed. I think Arnold is really an artist, and I think he gets caught up in that \u201clet\u2019s make this the best that we can\u201d [mentality]. We were working with Arnold for about a year-and-a-half before we got signed, so we spent a lot of time together and there was a lot of clashing of opinions. He came from a different world than we did, and he wanted to push the quirky, pop side of what we were doing. We were more of the pop-punk guys that wanted to keep it a little more simple. He would say there was no dynamic in the band. We were all perfectionists. Some days, I\u2019d sing vocals for a whole song\u2014lead vocals, backing vocals, everything. I\u2019d spend hours and hours and hours while he was out of the studio, doing something else. Then he\u2019d come back at night, at 9, 10 p.m., and listen to them, and be like, \u201cYeah, I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m feeling that; we\u2019re going to do that again tomorrow.\u201d And I\u2019d be like, \u201cWhat? I just sang my heart out all day and that\u2019s not cutting it!\u201d<\/p>\n

DAVID DESROSIERS:<\/b> It was my first time in a proper recording studio. I was very overwhelmed and intimidated by the process. Arnold\u2019s vision for the band was that the singer was singing weird stuff and the guitar players should use different types of chord structures, whereas we just wanted to play really hard.<\/p>\n

PIERRE BOUVIER:<\/b> Arnold was really trying to make us sound unique and different and one of the ways he was doing that was pushing me to sound\u2014and I\u2019m quoting him\u2014\u201cto sound more whiny.\u201d There were some singers back in the \u201980s that to my ears sounded kind of goofy, but he was like, \u201cPush the teenage, annoying voice more,\u201d and I was like, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t like it!\u201d When I listen back today, I think that record is the one where my voice sounds the most whiny and it really irks me. I find it hard to listen to.<\/p>\n

DAVID DESROSIERS:<\/b> Arnold had this analogy he would use: \u201cRight now, I\u2019m John McEnroe, and you guys can\u2019t return my serve.\u201d We always wanted to say, \u201cHow about you try to be the retired excellent tennis player who\u2019s now coaching this new tennis player?\u201d [Laughs.] I think that would have worked a little better.<\/p>\n

ARNOLD LANNI:<\/b> I do agree with the fellas that it was tough. I think a lot of it was due to the fact that they were just so young and eager. They knew who they wanted to be; they were full of piss and vinegar and protective of what they wanted to do. What we all understood was we all wanted the same thing: We wanted to make a record we were proud of and we also wanted to make a record that was hopefully going to stand the test of time. To do that, what I tried to bring to the table was, how could we set ourselves apart from everybody else, and that was probably the hardest thing for the guys to understand at such a young age.<\/p>\n

ANDY KARP:<\/b> You had a lot of strong personalities. Arnold\u2019s a taskmaster, and he\u2019ll tell you that. He works singers really, really hard. I was up there fairly regularly during recording and I remember feeling a little bit like a psychotherapist, sometimes like a diplomat, but that comes along with the job.<\/p>\n

PIERRE BOUVIER:<\/b> Arnold was really pushing us to the extreme to the point where sometimes we\u2019d just want to be like, \u201cGo to Hell, dude. I think this is really good, and I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d [Laughs.]<\/p>\n

ARNOLD LANNI:<\/b> I always knew, because they were good kids and they were arguing for the right reasons, it wasn\u2019t a pissing contest, where it was just about winning for winning\u2019s sake. They just wanted to make a great record, and we just disagreed a little bit about how to get there. I kid with the guys now and say if we went back and tried to make that record now, I think 90 percent of the things we thought were challenging probably wouldn\u2019t be an issue today by virtue of the fact that we\u2019re a little bit older. I remember after the record was done, we didn\u2019t talk. We didn\u2019t speak for a while and it wasn\u2019t anything personal; it was just that they were really challenged. I applaud them because they never quit, they never, ever quit. I\u2019m kind of notorious for trying to get the most out of somebody, but I never asked them to do something that they couldn\u2019t do. I think looking back, it\u2019s been 15 years and that record still holds up. Melodically, it\u2019s a masterpiece. The songs are amazing and that\u2019s because there was a lot of friction.<\/p>\n

PIERRE BOUVIER:<\/b> There\u2019s no right or wrong and I think for young guys who just got signed, we thought we knew what we needed and he thought he knew what we needed and they weren\u2019t always the same things. At the end of the day, I think the record was great. Our relationship with Arnold was tested many times during that record, and by the time it was done, I would say we definitely needed a break from each other. There were probably some bad words that were exchanged about what we thought about each other, but what\u2019s great is that after all that time, our relationship with Arnold has become better and solidified and we realized all the positives he brought to the record. It says a lot that today, we\u2019re good friends. We just needed a moment after that to breathe. It was such an intense period.<\/p>\n

The tumult behind them, No Pads, No Helmets\u2026Just Balls was finally released March 19, 2002, to little acclaim. The band initially wanted to go with \u201cAddicted\u201d as the lead single, but a movie opportunity arose and \u201cI\u2019m Just A Kid\u201d was the mainstream\u2019s first introduction to Simple Plan. After initially stalling, the record took off, eventually selling more than 3 million copies worldwide. Fully immersed in the MTV generation, the band began to feel the blowback from their success, with fans accusing them of being sellouts, among other things, that summer on Warped Tour. \u201cI anticipated there would be some of that backlash,\u201d Andy Karp explains. \u201cI also had in my mind that this could be the first pop-punk boy band. They were good-looking guys and they could sing their asses off and they had songs. But it\u2019s hard for an American audience to perceive a band like them as credible as a punk band. I think that was a little bit unfair,\u201d the A&R rep added. \u201cBecause they really did the work and by the time they finished that Warped Tour, I think a lot of bands had respect for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

JEFF STINCO:<\/b> For us, playing the whole Warped Tour was an achievement unto itself. It was definitely a difficult tour, but an important tour. You\u2019re coming out of two years of shit touring, not very successful touring, and then you\u2019re doing Warped Tour. Simple Plan was perceived as an alternative band and suddenly you get played on MTV. Now kids come to the shows and tell you you\u2019re selling out. It\u2019s the same fucking music, dude. It\u2019s the same record. We\u2019ve been playing the same record for the last three years! You\u2019re telling us we\u2019re selling out? You should see my apartment in Montreal\u2014I ain\u2019t selling shit!<\/p>\n

CHUCK COMEAU:<\/b> We came out right as pop-punk was exploding. There was a lot of pushback against all these bands. We were probably, in people\u2019s minds, the worst example of that scene, the sort of mall punk. We had kids that were into the heavier bands, the more punk-rock side of Warped Tour, that gave us a lot of shit about our sound and the album and the band. I think we\u2019ve dealt with it in a lot of different ways.<\/p>\n

JEFF STINCO:<\/b> I would have these arguments with punk-rock kids after the shows and try to make them understand that what they were saying was actually very, very hurtful and made no sense whatsoever. I would have multiple conversations after shows with kids. If kids were throwing bottles, I would jump into the crowd and talk to the kid and just discuss with them, make sense with some of them. I took criticism very difficult. <\/p>\n

CHUCK COMEAU:<\/b> At the time, the whole selling out thing was extremely taboo. It\u2019s amazing to me how it has changed in 15 years. Now, you\u2019re rated on how popular you are and how many followers you have and how big you are. When we came out, it was the complete opposite. You were not supposed to want to be big and popular and famous. You were supposed to be happy to be a small underground band, and we never really felt like that. We always felt like we wanted to reach people, we wanted to play in front of a lot of people. I thought some of the criticism was unfair. We just followed our hearts and did what we believed in.<\/p>\n

PIERRE BOUVIER:<\/b> I think there\u2019s something attached to the band and I\u2019m not really quite sure why it\u2019s been there. Once you get successful and you\u2019re in people\u2019s faces who maybe don\u2019t necessarily want to be fans of yours, that can always cause a little bit of an issue. I also think Simple Plan has always been on the poppier side of pop punk\u2014not as heavy, not as aggressive. For some reason, the genre of the Warped Tour pop-punk scene is very interesting; it\u2019s an interesting animal, whether you\u2019re cool or not or whether you fit in. It\u2019s followed the band throughout our career. Some of the Warped fanbase just does not want to like us. It\u2019s very bizarre because it\u2019s just music and it feels like high school some of the time.<\/p>\n

ERIC LAWRENCE:<\/b> There was a conscious decision made. The USA is the most fragmented country on the planet when it comes to separating genres of music. In America, a record company will pick a path, but in other parts of the world, music doesn\u2019t exist that way. Some years after this record, Simple Plan played a festival opening for Metallica in South Africa and no one questioned a thing. If you tried to do that in USA, Simple Plan would get murdered, probably literally. Knowing we wanted to reach into the rest of the world, we wanted the rest of the world to look at them as a pop act and not a punk act. So we went straight to pop radio instead of first going to alternative. There was a short-term fear on the credibility front\u2014if we don\u2019t come up in alternative radio, will they be cool?\u2014but the long-term fear was if they only live in alternative radio, how do we break this band around the world? We did this knowingly. We talked with everyone about it, including the band. We went to pop radio first and it wasn\u2019t really done before with a rock band on an American label. We knew that would lead to some problems: And one of those problems is you go on Warped Tour and some people are throwing bottles at your head because they think you\u2019re a pop band.<\/p>\n

Having survived the adversity, 15 years later, the band and the album\u2019s surrounding players have mostly warm feelings regarding the No Pads time period. \u201cWe put out a record that we truly cared about,\u201d says Comeau. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an attempt to put out something that we hate and make a lot of money. It truly was a reflection of our tastes and what we loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

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