Simple Plan finally releases its third album entitled...Simple Plan!

Why did you title your third album ‘Simple Plan’?

 

We had many ridiculous names to give this album yet nothing seemed appropriate. We could feel there was a kind of novelty with this album, that we were changing and evolving and we wanted to mark the importance of this record. The record is opening many new doors for us and we aimed to point out this difference with our first two albums. We thought that naming our record with a name as farcical as the first two wasn’t making any sense.

 

You have collaborated with music’s greats such as Nate ‘Danja’ Hills (Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Duran Duran, Nelly Furtado), Max Martin (James Blunt, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne) and Dave Fortman (Evanescence, Mudvayne). How was it working with them?

 

Each one of the collaborators worked with us at a different period during the making of the album. When we met with Danja, we had no written material yet. We went into the studio without knowing how anything would pan out. He came with beats, us with pieces of songs: we composed in the studio and eventually came out with three songs (‘The End’, ‘Generation’ and ‘When I’m Gone’). We were so excited; we thought the material was so fresh and new that we wanted to continue writing by ourselves so that we would have enough material to return in the studio with Dave Fortman. We re-recorded the songs we had made demos for with Danja: we wanted to unify the sound throughout the album. Dave truly understood the mix of electronic and rock, he really ‘saw’ the project as a whole. Then Max Martin came aboard. We thought that the song ‘Generation’, which was already recorded and finished, wasn’t on target and Max agreed with us, so he helped us to focus our ideas and to restructure the song. We wanted to work with the best in the industry and for this album, we had no budget limits. We met with several producers but many did not really understand what we wanted to achieve so we chose to work with people who liked our ideas and who were passionate like us. 

 

What are your musical influences? Have they changed since your last album?

 

I think that when you start a group, it is music from your adolescence which is the most important, so all of the California surf groups: Bad Religion, No Use For A Name… But now, ten years later, we listened to music which was much more pop: Kanye West, Justin Timberlake…

 

There are 11 songs on your new album, was choosing the songs difficult?

 

Not at all! It’s strange because there was lots of material to choose from, some finished songs and some unfinished ones, around sixty ideas. We recorded around fifteen songs but truthfully we had the luxury of time with this album so we took some time to ‘live’ with the songs, to listen to them in our cars. And after a while, what is of the best quality comes out. There is a song entitled ‘Drive Me Crazy’ which could have been on the album because it is so wild, but at a certain point you must decide how many songs of the same genre you will have on the record, it has to be diversified. So we decided to keep it and release it later.

 

…on your next album?

 

I don’t think so, I believe we will make it available before. I think that you must release music while you are making it, otherwise it becomes dated.  

 

Why ‘When I’m Gone’ as the first single? Was it as easy as choosing the 11 songs?

 

That was different, it was tougher.  When you make a record you really appreciate, that you are proud of, choosing a song to represent the entire album is absolutely absurd. ‘When I’m Gone’ represents a facet of the record, the Danja sound, yet while preserving our identity. I hope we will have the opportunity to release several singles from this album so that people see its various facets.  

 

Your album was recorded in Montreal, Miami, Stockholm and Los Angeles.  Is there a difference or is being in a studio the same regardless of the city?

 

Not really. We travel to work with our collaborators, but it’s good to change environment, at one point it starts to linger, you take up bad habits, it becomes chaos. The change of cities allowed us to rejuvenate ourselves. It has been really important for the album because these changes gave us new energy at each step.

 

Pierre (Bouvier, the singer) said that with this album, you hoped to leave more than a trace, what does he mean?

 

When you make your first album, you mostly do it to go back on tour, you’re a bit naïve, you don’t really know how to do it so you make your ‘thing’, you release your album and then you hope that it will work and for us it did. With the second album we questioned ourselves, we wanted to remain strong in shows, to add energy on stage, so we went into the studio, came out with the record and we went back on tour. For this one we really took time to reflect, what do we want to be as Simple Plan, what is our identity…and that is why the process took more time. To research, explore.  With this record we wanted to make a more ambitious album, one which will remain important in our career and if one day it becomes a classic, well that would be great. We never know…

 

The album just came out, it is #1 in Quebec and Mexico, #2 in Canada and Brazil, and #3 in Japan. Does it correspond to your expectations? Do you follow your sales or do you concentrate on music?

 

I think that musicians who say they do not know their position on the billboards are liars.  For us it is important that the album get heard but not necessarily straight when it comes out. Anyway we never really had success the moment a record came out, it always took us weeks, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

 

We are currently in the MusiquePlus studios for the interview and soon you will perform. While you are answering questions there are lots of fans outside screaming and waiting for your performance. How does it make you feel to hear their screams?

 

I find them courageous because it snows and it is really cold outside! I find it cool and flattering that people have waited all this time, it’s almost been four years since the release of our last album. Our fans are faithful and we appreciate it a great deal! But what is most surprising is that it basically is the same thing in every city we visit.  In Brazil we come out of our hotel room and we can’t go in the streets because there is a security barrier, hundreds of people are waiting for us and screaming our name. After having been secluded in a studio for so long, a situation like this arrives, it is surreal!

 

You have a brand new website, on it there are many videos of the group in slices of life moments. What was your motivation?

 

It all began even before we had a record contract.  We always wanted to be accessible to our fans, it’s been our mission since the beginning of the group. When we first started there was absolutely no other way to promote ourselves than on the Internet.  People would share our songs, talk about us on the Internet because no one else would, the radio did not play any of our songs. It has been an excellent way for us to get known and we simply continued doing it! Anyway we are used to it because there is someone constantly following us and filming us.

 

The Simple Plan of today meets the Simple Plan when you first started: what would you tell yourselves? Any advice?

 

I regret absolutely nothing of what we’ve done. I would tell myself to take more pictures.  There are too many things to remember.  One day I want my kids to see the pictures and say, ‘my dad really was a rock star, that story is true!’

 

Visit www.simpleplan.com to know everything about the group!

 

 

By Vanessa Schneider

(BUM interactif)

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