Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

On this week's episode of Artist Friendly, Joel Madden is joined by Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan. Simple Plan grew from pop-punk underdogs to genre heroes over the course of six studio albums. In addition to racking up collabs with members of blink-182, Sum 41, and Weezer, the Canadian vets have played on over a dozen Warped Tours and created pop-punk essentials through early tracks like “Welcome to My Life” and “I’m Just a Kid.” The latter experienced a viral moment through TikTok at the beginning of the decade, challenging people to recreate childhood photos as adults and post the results, which featured participation from Will Smith, Ed Sheeran, and beyond. Given that their friendship stretches back to the 2000s, the duo get into it all across a nearly hour-long episode. ------- Listen to their Artist Friendly conversation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.⁠⁠⁠ ------- Follow Artist Friendly! IG: @artist.friendly TikTok: @artist.friendly YouTube: youtube.com/@artist.friendly ------- Host: Joel Madden, @joelmadden Executive Producers: Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Jillian King Producers: Josh Madden, Joey Simmrin, Janice Leary Visual Producer/Editor: Ryan Schaefer Audio Producer/Composer: Nick Gray Music/Theme Composer: Nick Gray Cover Art/Design: Ryan Schaefer Additional Contributors: Anna Zanes, Neville Hardman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, what's up? I'm Joel Madden, and this is artist-friendly. On this episode, I'll be talking to producer, singer-songwriter, and frontman of the multi-platinum band Simple Plan, Pierre Bouvier. Let's go. Smoking on gas and smoking on piv. That's my kind. I don't want to bad times. I don't want to have bad. Well, I was talking to your team about the whole podcast and how well it's doing, and I see all the clips on your Instagram and stuff. And saw you had the rock. Yeah, he was awesome. That was amazing. I love him. Yeah, it looks great. Sounds great. Thank you. Good job. Thanks for coming.

Would expect nothing less. I'm glad you're here. Yeah. I actually wanted you last year, but you guys were like touring and Simple Plan feels like it's busier than it's ever been. It really is. Yeah, it's where it's kind of bizarre. But yeah, I was watching the clips on your Instagram and I was like, when's he going to call me?

When is it? When can I get on this podcast? It looks so good. You have an open door. Awesome. Well, I know that. Thank you so much. Yeah.

I just saw Zach outside there. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's here. Yeah. This place is amazing. You've had it for, what, like 10 years. 10 years. Yeah. It's amazing, man. We feel lucky. It's good vibes, good people. I was just in the studio

on the way back here. I stopped in because Jordan Fish works out of Studio C here. And he's in there with Poppy. And I'm a fan of both of them. And they're also amazing people. Of course. So like, there's always like some artists that you love here. Yeah. And you generally like everybody's just cool as shit. Yeah. It's a great space. You guys have built. something really cool and I think it's it's got to be inspiring to come out here and see all this stuff and thanks man people happening all this kind of stuff thank you I respect that that that entrepreneur ship that you guys have you know I feel like that's something that I've never really kind of tapped into it myself but I look at you guys doing that and I'm like then you know what good

for those guys that's amazing would you say you've never tapped into it ever I feel like not outside of my band right you know like I've I've focused everything on I am simple plan I am in the band and like whenever whenever time off came between being busy doing that that's that's all I got you know I'd be like I need to step away recharge yeah where you guys I think would come back and like do more stuff and plan you know just do some cool stuff and I'm proud of you guys thank you but I feel like the life of an artist especially a successful band like simple plan is an entrepreneurial endeavor the whole way through totally and and a successful one so it's not like you guys tried and failed. Certainly there's people that have had to pivot out of trying to be in a band into some

other facet of music. Right. Everyone you know from the labels, the managers, they all, like, half of them were in bands or were songwriters. So I feel like there's something about the creative entrepreneurial thing that it is to be in a band that does take all of you. You guys have been working for, I mean, I was thinking like, okay, where do I start with Pierre today? So we've known each other for so long. Yeah, first time Montreal, when you guys were opening for MXPX. Yeah, on the bus. We were driving in my, in my dad's old Mercedes taking you guys. Yeah, it was fucking awesome. It must have been what, 2001? 2001. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. That's 23 years ago. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. What were we 21? I don't know. Are we that

We're the same age, right? I'm born in 79. Are you born in 79? 22. We were 22. Yeah. Yeah. Depending on the month.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's crazy how young that is. Yeah, I've been thinking about that a lot about just life in general. Especially when you-MXPX record, life in general. Yeah, exactly. But life. Funny, there you go. You know what?

There's a little segue right there. But yeah, like how things, how it seems so long ago and now how time is going by so fast. You know what I mean? Yeah. And like it's crazy. Now we have kids and. You know, my daughter, my youngest is going to be 10 in a few weeks. Crazy.

Yeah. And like, it's, it's, how old are your oldest? She's going to be 13. So they're two years apart. Yeah. Yeah, you're ready. Not even. They're a year and a half.

Yeah, you're in a half part. My oldest is 16. What? My youngest is 14. That's crazy, man. He's going to high school in September, so they're both going to be in high school. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy.

It just flies by. Uh-huh. You don't necessarily feel older here. Mm-hmm. But, like, you look at your kids and you're like, oh, goddamn, I'm old. I got fucking teenagers. I'm old as shit. Yeah, yeah.

That's how you feel when you look at your life. But I still feel young in my head. I just like still act young, I think. Totally. And I think what's funny is that, you know, when I look back and when we were, when we were little kids or when we were, you know, teenagers, 15, 16, someone who was 30 was really old to me. Yeah.

And I wonder if, you know, I know times have changed and like parents that would pick up their kids back, you know, and they were maybe in their mid-40s, I don't think they look like I look like. And maybe that's just me. They don't. You know, I don't think so either. They looked older when we were kids. Yeah, I mean, look at movies we used to watch, you know, the parents and movies

that just look like so much older. Even the like teenagers in the movies look like. Yeah, exactly. You're like, you're like, you're 28. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it's a little man child. I agree.

I don't feel like I'm that old. But to my kids, I wonder if I'm that. I wonder to, you know, if my kids come over with their friends. Yes, you are. If Mr. Bouvier. You are. You are. You know, you know.

It's a great hair and great beard. Yeah. It's good last name. Yeah. Strong French name. Yeah. No, you do. I ask the same thing because I think I'm cool.

I've talked about a million times. Like, I think I'm cool. And then I'll go around my kids. They're like, dad, just don't come in. Just stay in the car. And I'm like, what are you talking about? You really loves me. Yeah.

I'm the cool dad. And they're like, not actually you're not the cool dad. Not to my friends. Yeah. No, that's crazy. In this generation, I would say we're probably on the younger side of parents, though. At least in like, I think that if we're being really real, we had success building our own businesses of the bands.

And it's a creative space. So there's a lot more freedom in that to like the lifestyle is a part of the brand. So you're living not the average lifestyle, right, no matter how you slice it. And you're living in a more affluent circles. mostly other creators likely successful in their own different creative endeavors and entrepreneurs and people so self-made people so it's a crowd that kind of I think finds itself even though we're all different likely our kids are going to good you know like you're certainly picking your kids school yep you're not like when I was a kid they just put you on a bus and you ended up at a school and that's the school that was around the corner that's the one you're going to yeah I've never been here before. And now you're like picking schools, which schools should our kid be in? That one

learns different or that one. And you're like, so you have these like rich choices to make if we're just being honest. Yep. Totally. Where I'm from. And we made this for ourselves. So it's a choice. So I'm happy to say this. But it's not the average lifestyle. No. No. With that, I think comes a freedom to kind of like build out life the way you want it to be. Yeah. Versus kind of like, and listen, anybody listening could say, yeah, easy for you to say. No, I know. It is easy for me to say.

Yeah. I'm not saying it's not. Uh-huh. So I actually come from the school of you get a good job that pays enough for your rent and you take care of your kids and you put food on the table and that's success. Yeah. I respect that. Yeah.

That's how my parents were hardworking, struggled to make it, but to make ends meet. But that, I think, idea, it's not that I look down on it at all. I just was like, that's not for me. I want to like go and see if I can do better. Yeah. Get after it. Yeah. And live how I want to live.

You know, and whatever that dream is, all of us is different. But it's not necessarily about money, but money affords you the freedom to live the life you want to live. Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny to make money from being in a band too because it's, it's very, you know, people are so attached to, you know, you're in a band and this is, you know, what you create, what you make is like very attached to who you are. It's not like starting a business or even I would say like even being an actor or being like someone that's going up on stage and doing like, you know, musical. Right. People don't look at that person and judge them for, you know.

Their life. Yeah. That's like what you said on stage, how you moved, what you look like in pictures, that is you. So for us, that's what a band is. You know, you're building a brand that is you. And then when you start making money doing that and you start being successful, it's hard because then people have trouble disassociating. like they love you for your music, they love you for who the band is, but then you're also making money doing it. And it's like, there's the whole sellout thing, right? Yeah, yeah. And I'm so happy,

and I'm so happy that that has gone away a little bit and people are, people are embracing success. You know, that came more from the hip hop culture, I think. They were quicker to embrace success and be like, look how much I've made, look at my car, look at my stuff. And that might be a little too much, you know what I mean for me. But like I, you know, it's okay to be successful. And it doesn't mean that, you know, that you're necessarily doing it for the money. But hey, we all need jobs. You know what I mean? Everybody out there, I don't care what you do in life.

You're going to need some money to buy food to, you know, to pay your rent. And though if you can do it while you're doing something that you love doing and you're good at it, you know, that should be a good thing. I don't see it any other way. And if more people like you, if more people like your music, if you've been able to convince millions of people that they love your music, I think you're on to something. You know what I mean? Yeah. And screw the naysayers. And that's what, I think that's where pop punk kind of came from.

You know what I mean? Like at least the early 2000 generations like you and us, you know. It was a real moment of like this kind of idea. Yeah. Like where do we fit in? I don't know where I fit in. But I know I want to be successful. Yeah.

I know I want to make money. I never ever minced words about that in my whole career. Yeah. I think the difference is wanting to do well and make money is a bit of a scorecard. So that's fine. If money's your God, that's different. So, like, I think we all serve some God, and there's good gods and bad gods, whatever your understanding of God is.

Anyone of the people listening, they all have their own ideas. But I just think you'll replace God with something. Some people it's money. Some people it's nature. Fine. That's probably a better version. You know, everybody has something that they're, like, fixated on. To me, the money is always just a sign.

Yeah. Of the times. It also gives you freedom. Like you were saying before, money gives you, money gives you time. Yeah. Money gives you freedom. You know what I mean? If you don't have, if you have very little money, you're going to spend all of your time

chasing more money. Yeah. And you're going to do whatever you have to do to achieve it. And that's not necessarily what you want to be doing at the core of your person. Not always. When you have more money, then you can think about, well, what is it that I want to do? What is it that I want to spend my time on, you know, and that it gives you more freedom. And you can find.

like the balance of I do need to go make a living whatever I'm doing but I also want to be there for my kids yep I want to be there every moment every birthday I'm not missing a birthday fuck that so I don't think there's a price you could pay me to miss a birthday I just don't because because I think it's like some childhood shit I didn't really have special birthdays and I find myself in my adult life like like not really wanting to make anything out of my birthday and I know it's related to it was never a big deal anyways right um but for my kids I'm like it's your birthday it's a big deal yeah yeah to me anyways yeah and I'm not missing it so there's the balance of like yeah no I care about money but not at any cost there are certain things that I just

care about more and like as I think that's the healthy balance of every person they got to find their different for everyone some people birthdays under big deal I respect that it was my wife's a couple days ago and she's like please do nothing i don't want you to do nothing that's how i am but then my wife wants to have a party so we do a big party for her i'm happy yeah she i'm happy just watching her have the thing whatever that party is every year it's like a theme of some kind she loves that she loves to have fun i always enjoy it and i always feel a little bit like this is kind of how i celebrate my birthday right i celebrate hers right mine i'm like i don't do anything just want to hang out with you like family dinner. That's what I want. I just want the whole family to be together. But then, you know,

everybody's got to have their thing that you can't buy from them. I think we all need it. We all need like something at our core, whatever our value system is that like doesn't have a price. And then and then I think that separates you from ever being like a money worshipper. Totally. As simple as that. Yeah. And there's plenty of those out there. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're good at it too. Make a lot of money. I'm not even mad at them. Yeah.

Like a different animal. Yeah. And sometimes I see those guys and I'm like, that guy's a fucking animal. Mm-hmm. And it's a certain kind of animal. And I just like respect it for what it is. That's the cool thing about life, I think, is just like all the different types of animals we are. Yeah.

Totally. Yeah. And there's only a few different types where, you know, there's not like, you know, a million different types of people. No, yeah. But you'll encounter them all. And then later in life, you kind of start categorizing them a little quicker. Yeah, yeah, you get to know the type. You're like, yeah, I've seen a kind of a person like you.

You know, I know that type. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you'll come in contact with them in passing. I don't need them to be different. I just let them go on their way and gather some more information about that thing. Like, I thought I was, you know, thought I knew what that was.

Yeah, so I was thinking about talking to you today because I was like, we've known each other for so long. We've done so much together in our career. I was like, do I start at the beginning? I start at the end? Do I start at the middle? I mean, we've done tons of shows together, tours together, songs together. Crazy. Yeah, it's kind of weird.

You know, my wife yesterday last night, she was like, you're on the podcast tomorrow. It's like, what's the theme? What are you guys going to talk about? I'm like, I don't know. I think it's going to be like, let's just talk about, you know, everything. It's kind of like, you know, it's just kind of a wherever it takes us because there's so much to talk about. because there's so much that has happened, how we met, when we met, the scene that we're part of, that was seen that we, to a certain extent, you know, the early 2000s, bands like a Charlotte

and Simple Plan, we helped build that what it is. Yeah, it's a little world. Yeah. And I think at the time, it was, I don't know how seriously it was taken by everybody. You know what I mean? Well, it certainly was taken serious by the people making lots and lots of money off of it. Right. You guys made the Atlantic system hundreds of millions of dollars, and we made the Sony system

hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah. So it was serious. I never thought about it in that sort of scope. Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Make no mistake. Your masters are valuable property.

Yeah. And they've been making money off of her decades. God bless them. They signed us and we were young and we didn't know what anything was. Yeah. I'm not even mad at it. I agree. But yeah, so it's serious business, but it's music that is young and the energy of it.

It's easy to dismiss it as not as deep as it is, but there's layers to it. And it all comes from a place of trying to make sense of life and of the experiences we had. But at the time, yeah, we were made to feel like it wasn't that serious, even though we were making a lot of people, a lot of serious money. Selling tons of records. I just don't think they realized how deep the impact of that music was having on the generation of kids that was listening to it. And I think now they're coming to the realization.

Here's the way I look at it. I think that, you know, because we sold, our first record sold close to $3 million just in the U.S. Second one, 2.5 in the U.S. I don't remember. Sold a lot of records. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just in the U.S. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So we're probably close to 10 million, you know, worldwide. Easily over. over 10 million. I guarantee it. And I think that they all saw that opportunity. And so did we all and capitalize on it and sold really well. But I think the whole joke of like, you know, it was never a phase.

It's we're seeing that now. You know, like we're in 2024. And there's, you know, this whole genre is coming back in such a strong way. Why? Because the connection that those songs have with the fans is so big. and so deep that I don't think it's ever going to go away until those fans, until we all, you know, go to our graves one day. You know what I mean?

Yeah, but the new, but the young, uh, the young music fans are, are into it. So we played the other night and it was a crowd of from like 18 to 30, 18 to 40. When you were a stage coach or were we at stage? Yeah, yeah, I saw that. That was awesome. Every person there was like, new good charlie. Yeah. And I was a little.

surprise because it's not our i was like oh it's it's kind of a country festival let's see how it goes it's all country music but the modern country fan listens to everything totally just like the modern music fan period they listen to everything i think the fan base is bigger than it was i just think like we're seeing it the shows we've played the crowds have been bigger everyone knows the words to everything that's been the like pleasant surprise you don't know yeah we haven't done a ton of touring you know it's It's been hard for us to figure out our touring behavior. Yeah. We don't know what our, we don't know what that is yet.

But when you're ready, you let me know. Yeah. Because I've always said a good Charlotte symbol plan reunion tour. They would be insane. It would be, this would be amphitheaters sold out. It would be insane. It would be insane. I don't want to jinx it, but I think it would be great.

You're not jinxing it. Yeah. I think it would do great. Yeah. I've always thought like the, the trifecta of bands that are exactly that came out like right around us to me is like good Charlotte, symbol plans. Sum 41. Those are the three to me. That like, you know, obviously there's Green Day, Blake 182. Those are in the category apart.

Yeah. And there's like, you know, Newfound Glory and there's a yellow card. But I think there was, there was a time when if you went to Hot Topic, it was like, Good Charlotte. Yeah. Yeah. And those were the three. Yeah. And we toured together. Like all of us toured together. Yeah. I remember touring with you guys and some and like it was always good. Yeah. We just did some 41 in Europe with them and we did offspring some 41 simple plan Oh is that? It was insane. It was bigger than anyone had anticipated. So the offspring

locked us in as a two support acts. So some 41 simple plan and we flip flopped every night and they didn't know how well the tour was going to go and it basically almost sold out every amphitheater across America Sick. Sick. Last summer. Yeah, I suspected that's how it would go. I think that everyone had had high hopes but nobody expected it to be that big. It was like the, according to, you know, CAA and Live Nation, it was like the tour that

everyone was like, oh my God, wow. Yeah, it was a good ticket. Yeah, it was great. How many shows did do you guys do? How many shows exactly? I don't know. We did like, like a month and a half or so or like five weeks, five weeks maybe. Good. Yeah, it's good. Like 30 shows? Yeah, five shows a week or something like that. Wow. Yeah. How's that with family life? You know, it's, it's hard, but I think that, you know, talking about success and all that stuff. I feel like I have an obligation, of course, to my family. And I feel like the music, as you just said before, I think that bands like us, we're doing it was so much better

than I thought we'd be doing. I know we've done well. I know we've sold millions of records. I know that we've had, you know, big spots on MTV and Z100 radio and Kiss FM or whatever. But I didn't expect that to be, you know, headlining a festival down in Brazil for 50,000 people. Yeah.

a few, you know, a couple of months ago and then playing Australia and Melbourne selling out 10,000 tickets and doing the tours we did in America, Europe. I didn't expect that. So I feel like at 45. Yeah. I feel like I was planning on like managing a career that would slowly decline. And I feel like now it's like skyrocketing up again. So how do I deal with it with my family? I feel like I have an obligation because I, you know, I've got a wife. I've got kids. You know, I want to provide for them. And as you said, when you get to a certain level, now I can choose the school they go to. Yeah, yeah. So, and am I, am I not going to do that if I know I have the opportunity? No, I will. Well, it costs a lot of money. I live in a beautiful place. It costs a lot of money. I want to go on

vacation with my kids. I cost a lot of money. So I see these opportunities now and I see the band doing well and I'm like, yeah, dad's got to be gone for three weeks here and there, four weeks here and there, five weeks here and there. And it sucks, but I feel like it's worth it because, yeah, and, and And I want them also, you know, this is all that I do. All that I do is music. I'm a singer in Simple Plan and I like to do outside productions when I can. But the bulk of what I do is simple plan. So I want to show my kids that, like, Dad works hard.

Because I'd love to just stay at home and surf and play golf every day. But I don't know if that's setting the right example to my kids of like, you know, take the opportunity that you have and build on it. So, I'm a professional. I'm a woman. And, like my music, my is my baby can be able to

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per Yeah. And there's like a maturity to it. Yeah, but it's fun. You know, the first half when you don't care about shit, it is fun. I've had some great times. You know, I had some wild times. But I think it's, this is the human experience, right? We're going through the human experience. It's very unlikely to be where we're at now in our lives spiritually, emotionally. It's very difficult to imagine being there 20 years ago. You have to go through this. Yeah, you have to live the life. Yeah. I do think we're at a time where our generation, of like dads and guys are more sensitive to it.

Totally. So which I think is good. The societal thing for sure. Yeah. And so there's a thoughtfulness to it that wasn't there. But there's no way I could have been to me that I am now at 25. I was so immature. I was way underdeveloped.

I had so much stuff to unpack and work through. But I couldn't have done then. I would have fucking imploded. Yeah. I had to wait. I had to wait to get to the other side of the whole thing. and then unpack it all for like 10 years. Therapeutically speaking, like therapy-wise,

I'm at like 10 years, 11 years in, and I'm like going to the next level. But I've finally unpacked it all. And now I'm like, and there's some old stuff that still pops up that causes me to behave a certain way because there's a hopelessness that I got that I always had.

It moves around, you have to track it. So if that starts doing well. Wackimal. Right. Exactly. I never thought I'd be married with kids. Well, we did that. 18 years in. So the hopelessness moves to work. Well, work just keeps going well and well and well. Okay. So it moves to the next category. And you have to just keep tracking like where it rears up where you're like a bit hopeless.

Like why even try? Maybe it's around fitness. Maybe it's around whatever. So that's where I'm at now where I'm like, I can actually track it and keep an eye on it and remind myself not to be that way. But it took me 10 years to get there because I used to kind of be hopeless about most things is weird to say. So I feel like I'm a pretty positive person. But a lot of that was me overcompensating for what was going on inside. So not to say it wasn't genuine because I was really trying my best. But I think coming to terms with the shit that I personally went through was like the big

mission. And that was what I was able to do by staying home for 10 years, building a family and like dedicating myself to the other work. Yeah. Which I'm lucky I got to do. Yeah. But now it feels like we're, it feels like we're like ramping up to get back on some kind of good Charlotte like mission.

Yeah. I don't know what it is. I know we're going to make music. Yeah. Play some shows, but. Well, like I said, give us a call. We're ready to go. Co-headline, baby.

Or whatever it is. That will absolutely. I feel like, I don't know when, but that like has to happen right yeah yeah yeah I agree at some point I mean there's and there's so many places we could go I mean imagine if we did South America tour together that would be yep both of our bands do really well there you could literally take that and take it to Europe you can take it to Canada US South America Australia Asia South yeah South America South Africa yeah sick have you guys been there sick yeah yeah we went there once we played once there a long time ago a festival

with Metallica. It was Metallica, collective soul, a bunch of, I think, most amazing experience ever. It's so much fun. We did a safari.

Our shows there were sick. Yeah. Australia, sick. Yeah. It's ridiculous. You guys do well in Australia. Yeah. You lived there for a while,

right? Didn't you have like a, was it the voice? I was doing the voice, so I was there a lot for like five years. That's when I saw you with my wife. Yeah. And I think,

yeah, with my daughter, Lennon was like one. Yeah. And Soren was about to pop. Yeah. And you were staying at that hotel in Darling Harbor.

Yeah, yeah. I made a little dinner. It was weird. I got busted for weed there. It was funny. I was staying at that hotel. It wasn't even my weed. Come on, Joel.

That's the whole just excuse in the book. I don't smoke weed. It was like someone was smoking weed. Like I had, like my, I have a bunch of friends there. Yeah, yeah. And somebody came and they like smoked weed

and left like a joint somewhere. I don't even know where it was. It was like a balcony or something. I don't know. And the housekeeper's there found the little, So I'm throwing it out, they reported it. It was like this little. Oh my God.

And they reported it. And I had a, it was like a big controversy. Like I almost got kicked out. That's so crazy. They were cool in the end. Yeah, yeah. Like I talked to the police. All the authorities were like, look, the law is a law.

They called us we have to hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it became like a news story in Australia. It's like a news driven country. So if you're, if the headline of the week, everybody knows it. Yeah, yeah. So it was like a headline like it was like a front page. Like I got.

busted with weed and it was like not like i'm actually not a weed smoker joel madden says it's not his pot yeah and and the young people i was holding it for a friend the young the younger people thought it was cool yeah at the time i mean weeds a lot less like cool now oh my god it's so it's so chill now it's it's so chill now it's like now although it's still kind of weird because you know it's legal in so many places but traveling with it's not legal you can't yeah it's really weird but canada's a lot less intense now going in than it used to be. Yeah. It's still, the Canadian Border Patrol are they're notorious. They're dicks, man. And I'm not saying the American Border Patrol are also pretty strict. They're pretty strict sometimes. But like, people are always like,

Canadians are just so nice. I'm like, wait to see, cross the border. Yeah. They're like, yeah, yeah, it's funny funny. Australians are funny because I find that Australians similar to Canadians. You know, there's something about Americans. Americans are like, freedom. Don't tell me what to do. We love our freedom. Yeah. And by the way, I love that. I think it's great. And I think that that's part of like what I like about America.

And in Canada, we're much more used to being told what to do and be like, well, the government said you're supposed to do that. So we do that. And Australia is very, very similar. So they really like rules or they really like enforcing rules. Yeah, yeah. So I'm not surprised that the housekeeping was like, found a little piece. I have to report this. It's like, just throw it away.

Like, come on. Yeah. I mean, it was weird. The police were cool. or they're probably thinking like we don't want to be called. They were like, bro, we're now we're involved. Yeah. So we're going to, you know, we have to handle this.

Yeah, yeah. And I was like, do what you have to do? What can I say? Yeah. That was my attitude. I wasn't really mad at them. Yeah. The whole thing was pretty pleasant because I get along with Australia very well.

Yeah, yeah. They're great. So the last thing I would do in Australia is. You don't upset people. Yeah. Yeah. And the police are always good to me there. Like I knew that.

Like, there was like a, there was a very warm relationship with, people so like they knew who I was because I was doing that show and it was like very chill the whole thing was pretty chill they were like look dude we got called we have to handle it legally and I was like yeah I get it do it it's not mine but like whatever you have to do yeah yeah and it ended up being nothing like they's like a half gram or something and everyone and you know I got the citation of some kind um I think legally I got arrested but then they let me go right and it was it was it was fine yeah but it was a funny story about that hotel that's funny yeah I never went back what that you never went back I moved

out of the hotel and never went back oh that's funny right after that yeah oh yeah well I imagine that's kind of a dick thing I went to my one of my best friends has a house in Bondi big house and um I neck now I stay in his guest house even to this day when I go to Australia I stay at his house and it's great I love Australia it is to me like it's funny because I think if I think if it was closer I would consider living there it's just really far it's full it's Far. And it's far from what. It depends what is far for you. But like if you like want to keep in touch with friends and family, like it is literally. It's far. It's far. It's an ideal place to live. It's an ideal place to raise kids. The culture is really good. Climate's great. The climate's amazing. The food's amazing. The people are the nicest in the world. Most weirdly like half my friends are Australian. It's weird. I have like a very Aussie side of my life that like I just feel connected to. I see Australians everywhere in the world. Everywhere you go, there's Australians traveling.

L.A. has tons of Australians because it's a very like, it's like the first stop. You fly from Australia to get off. No, I love it. We were just there. We just caught back. The shows are amazing. Great coffee, man. They're coffee culture.

I'm a coffee. I love coffee. Best coffee in the world. Yeah, they have like so many that you can get like fourth wave, third wave coffee everywhere. Yeah. It's best coffee in the world. Great beaches. Great beaches.

And the shows are like the best. like really always been the best. Yeah, we had a great time. Couldn't believe. Pretty great. Yeah, they love you guys there. Evidently. Yeah, we did two nights at the, what's it called?

I don't know what it was. Anyways, not the end more. No, but it's 5,000 people. Two nights sold out in Sydney. Horton, right? Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yeah, Horton Pavilion.

Yeah. And then Melbourne, we did whatever. Rod Laver? Not that one. The one a little bit smaller, 10,000. Okay. Because what labor is like 15 or something. Yeah.

But yeah, it's crazy. It's awesome. I love it. For me, anything over 3,000 is a fucking great show. Yeah. Oh yeah. Like when you get any crowd over 3,000. Anything over 3,000 is great.

Yeah. I love like a, yeah, like a 3,500, 4,000, 5,000. That's like fun. Still feels intimate a little bit. Yeah. I love that I say that. Have you guys done Alley Pally in UK? Yes, we did.

It's pretty good. Yeah. You know what? I don't love that venue. I know it's like, I don't think it sounds very good. Really? Yeah. I love it.

It's cool with all chandeliers and stuff. And like it's very like it's got a cool look to it. Yeah. But like I know we just played it with Sun 41 last year. And I know Pierce DeVille just sold it out, I think. Yeah, sure. Yeah. I'm sure they did.

Pretty epic. Ali Pally. Allie Pallie. Alexander Palace. What's the other place? I think we played it for the first time last year. And I guess my point is that I was a little bit maybe disappointed. I was like, uh, like it's not as good as you thought.

Yeah. As far as like your experience. Yeah. The crowd's great there. Yes. English crowds. Totally. I just like a little bit of seating and Allie Palley's all floor. Yeah, I like a floor. I like a big floor. I like a big floor and I like to have some backdrop. Some people waving to you. Is that when they when they put their cell phones up, it looks really nice.

Yeah. And then you did Brazil. Yeah, Brazil. Brazil was like a couple months ago. That was insane, man. Yeah, like it was funny. We got there. We headline a show in Sao Paulo, which was like 8,000 people, I think. And then we did a festival the next day in Sao Paulo. 50,000 people. Oh, wow. And it was with the day to remember they used boys like girls. I'm forgetting some, but all time low. Right. It was great. It was like when we were young junior fest.

Yeah. And it was like two stages side by side. And like it ended with like confetti fireworks. When we finished perfect, it was like we're playing the last course, freaking fireworks going off. Sick. We have drone shots that are just mind blowing. But it was funny because I got there. And I was a little nervous because it was our first time back.

We did a European tour. And then we had like a two week break or 10 day break. And it was like a first two shows coming back at it. And I was like, this is going to be really big. And I'm like, we're playing for like an hour and a half or so or an hour and 10. And I was a little nervous. And I didn't know what it was going to look like. You know what I mean?

So I purposely didn't go because everyone would come back off the stage, what is all time lower the use or whatever. And they're like, man, have you seen the crowd? And I'm like, no, I haven't. And I'm like, I don't want to see it. I'm like, I'm already a little bit nervous. And I just want to like keep it in, you know? So I wound up backstage and stay.

there, stayed there. And I walked out on stage. And when I saw the crowd of 50,000 people in front of me, I was like, like, what is happening? And that was one of those moments where... Dude, I felt that way when we were young. Yeah, when we were young, it was insane. Dude, it was like 80,000, 90,000 in front of us. Like, that was so much fun last year. It was fun. Yeah. It was really fun. You guys had a sweet spot of a set. We played at 5 o'clock. Yeah, we played like, we play was us and then offspring. Yeah. And then Blank and then Green Day. Yeah. So it was a sweet spot. Yeah, you got the sweet spot. Like, that was the, that was the, that was the, right when running gets dark.

We got the, we played the, the other stage. Yeah, we played the other stage. I think right after you guys. Yeah. Yeah, right after you guys. When you guys are finished and it was like, so great, cools down a little bit. Light show now means something. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah, we brought the lights, pyro. We brought everything. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it was cool to see you guys there. Are you guys doing it this year? No.

No. But we would do it again. It was fucking fun. Yeah. And then we just did a one-off little like a one song in the middle of Wiz Khalifa set. Yeah, stagecoach. I saw that. I saw that footage.

Yeah. It was so fun. Yeah. I love stagecoach. My wife, it always falls on my wife's birthday. And she's a big country girl, California girl. Yeah. And we were in the car coming back from, we're on a little project, a little building project

and came back. And they were playing it live on on, on serious. So we were listening to Miranda Lambert. She was like, oh, I wish I was there. It was cool. Yeah. But that first day or Saturday, it was really windy. So they had some friends,

LaShelle had some friends that were there. And they were like, oh, my God, it was so blown out. So you guys are working on a documentary right now? Yeah. What's the, what's the- For Amazon. And it's like, basically, I think it's kind of like a sort of, let's look at the career and like, we're still here and how well it's going and

where it came from. And just kind of like a recap, I think. It's like a retrospective. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah. Sort of like, you know, the band started like in 99, basically. Yeah.

So a 25-year sort of recap. Yeah, that's 25 years is real, man. Yeah. And Chuck and I, we had a band before symbol playing. I'm sure maybe you know that. But yeah, so we've been playing together for 31 years. That's crazy. Yeah.

It's getting long. It's a long time. And I love Chuck. You know, we're like, we're, it's so funny that we ended up, you know, being in a band together and we always have been because we're so different. You know what I mean? And I think that really, that it really helps us because I think if I didn't have someone like him to be like the more manager side of it and the more like drive side of it i don't know that i would

have that and i would kind of like maybe fizzle away and you know i bring the creativity and the front man the singing the all that stuff and he writes with me but he does you know he's just like yeah he's the left side of the brain yeah you're the right side yeah yeah yeah yeah and some people have it both yeah but you know we're kind of like but accepting those differences because then when i when I was younger, I actually kicked him out of the first band we were in because I was like, I don't like you, you're not like me and it's not going to work. Right. But then I realized with a little maturity, I was like, oh, hold on, I need that, you know.

I can respect the differences and realize that their value, you know, the value of those differences. So how did you go back to him after you kicked him out of the first band? So the first band, we had, we made a few like demo tapes and stuff. We recorded a record in my parents' basement and then we made a full-blown album on an indie label in 97 and went across Canada tour with 10-foot pole and toured with mxpx in 98 I think and then kicked him out because it was like we were just too young and immature and I was like you're not cool so what was the conversation when you went back to him so when I went back I had heard through

the grapevine because we can to the band continued and I'd heard that he was like building a new band and it was like with some guys from my high school which we all went to high school together and and so I like was starting people were like did you know Chuck starting a new band I was like, oh, cool. He's like, yeah, it's with like Jeff and Sebastian from high school. And I was like, oh, cool, cool, cool. And then I met another record with that other band. And it was kind of like fizzling away because the record was good,

but it didn't have, we didn't have that driving force behind it. And the collaboration creatively, you know, was not quite the same. He's good with concepts. So anyways, I ended up going to Sugar Ray record, Sugar Ray show, because I used to go to all the shows back in Montreal because I used to, you know, I knew the show junkie. knew the promoters and we just we'd always just get in for free yeah so i ended up being there and he was there too okay so we saw each other in a crowd we hadn't spoken like a year and a half and uh it was

kind of like hey man how's going you know good to see you you know we kind of hugged it out and he was like you know we should go have some dinner sometimes because now i'm making i'm starting a new band i'd love for you to hear what we're doing and i was like yeah that's cool that's cool that's cool that's cool so we ended up having dinner like the following week and kind of buried the hatchet because it was it was a nasty kind of breakup but we buried the hatches and it and like you know he said come see the band so i went back to his parents basement where we used to rehearse and uh saw jeff and sebastian and some other bass player guy um and uh they had a couple pieces of songs and it was more like reset was super metal it was like j j jill jic jic jac the the guitar

player in that band was literally a metal fan so all he could do all he cared about was and i was getting tired of just going jigigig jig and i wanted to like drum the guitar you know So what Sebastian and Jeff and Chuck were doing was kind of like more influenced by you know, Blink 182 and like kind of a little more poppy side and I was like this is cool. I like that. And that's when he was like, well, if you want to come join the band, you know, we're looking for a singer and we've had a few

and I don't feel like anybody's kind of nailing it the way you used to. And so I was like excited because he also kind of baited me. He was like, we got major label interest and we got like stuff going on. And I was like, okay. well my band's kind of fizzling away slightly i know chuck is like a business guy and i was like i know that if i joined this band he's going to like reach out to labels and we're going to get a manager and it's going to be like way more serious yeah and so when he said you know yeah we've got some major label interests and stuff i was like all right let me give it a try so i we started writing some songs

together we wrote i'd do anything yeah like one of the first songs we did and uh i was like i was hooked i was like this is like more what i want to be this is the sauce yeah and then jason flommer signed you. Yeah. So you know Andy Carp? Yeah. Andy Carp was A&R and Jason Flom was the president of the label. And so we harassed Andy Carp. We just like send him demos and stuff. And he was one of the, one of the labels that responded and said, you know, keep me in the loop. I don't want to sign you guys, but I like what you're doing. Keep me in the loop. So we just kept going back in the studio and making more demos. And we got him on the hook. He came down to Montreal to watch us play. And yeah, after the show. We'd like packed this bar with like 200 friends. And we actually passed out

lyric sheets like the day before like, learn the songs. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, and we played a show to like a little tiny bar about a little bigger than this room here. And, uh, Andy at the end was like, I think we want to make a deal. And so he called up Jason and Jason's, yeah, I like this band. Cool. Yeah. When we were going through our bidding war and stuff, Jason was one of the, yeah, was one of the main contenders. We didn't sign with them, but we've been friends ever since. You know what? I bet you if you sign with them, he would, signed us because every label was looking for their their you know newfound glory good charlotte you know some 41 they were looking for their own yeah i don't know you know i think you guys would have gotten signed

we didn't sign somewhere yeah but it might have changed the course of what that path would have been yeah yeah i remember that that was an exciting time yeah we didn't know anything about it we were just like how do you get signed yeah and then before you know it all the labels were coming to a show so we did the same thing we were like all of our friends everyone you've got to come to this show we packed out this club 400, 500 people made us look like we were the hottest band in the area. I mean, we were building a thing there. So it was already, we were getting to open for like blink and getting to open like regionally for these bands. So we were doing stuff. Yeah. But like we put the extra elbow grease in until you make it baby. Pack that club out. And yeah, it was a I remember that

night because we tried really hard. We were like getting everyone we knew to come. And in the end, we signed with Epic. But it was, uh, it was exciting. It was, uh, it was, uh, It was a wild time. Yeah, it's cool. And Jason's a cool guy. And, like, he actually came out to our show. We did a U.S. tour, I want to say, like, two years ago or something like that. And we played that peer place, peer 27, B.

Yeah, yeah, whatever was called. Pier 14. Is it 14? I think it's 20-something. 27, whatever. Whatever. 28. Pure 17.

17. Yeah, something like that. One of those peers. Good venue. Yeah, it's great venue. And we play it and Jason came out because his kids who were babies when we came out are now, like, you know, adults. And they like the band.

Yeah. And he came out. And it's, funny because when we first got signed, Lava would bring us out to MTV, VH1. That's kind of how we broke. We broke through TV first. Yeah, yeah.

Which is, you know, kind of unorthodox. But Jason would come with us to these meetings. We'd go to a conference room and we literally buy these shitty little. And I don't mean like little. I mean tiny instruments. Like an amp this big, a drum kit that's like, you know, a baby drum kit. Yeah. And like Andy Carp would go to Radio Shack and buy like shitty like,

light things, like little globes things, and we go to MTV into their offices and we'd like schedule a meeting and we play. But like a tiny rock show. Like, and Jason would come and be like, his whole speech was this and this is what's funny. He would go out and he would say, all right, what's all you people's MTV? Thank you guys so much for being here. You know, we always think you guys here. You deserve the best. You want the best. You love the best. They weren't available. So here's simple plan. And then we started playing, you know. And people would be like, what the hell's going on here? And they would, obviously it worked. It worked. So when we played in New York a couple years ago, Jason came out and he introduced us that exact same way on stage. It was really cool.

And the night we met was on the MXPX tour. You guys came out. You had just signed, I think. Possibly. Yeah, yeah. You were in the process. Yeah. I think we're about to get signed because you had your demos. Yeah. Like a CD of your demos. And you were like either you had just signed. We either had or it was in the works. Or you were about to. You were like right there. Yeah. And then you guys like drove us around your parents car and had a night. I think the that Benji, I still remember this because, you know, we were, we thought you guys were super cool because you were, you were ahead of us a little bit, right? So you already had like, you already had the record out. You already had a little bit of following. You're on a big tour. And so you're like,

hey, yeah, you know, we'll take you guys out. You want to go somewhere. And we're in the car with my dad's old BMW. Yeah, yeah. And now, sorry, old Mercedes. And it sounds fancy, but it's not. It was like a old, it was old Mercedes. I'm driving around. You guys are in the backseat. And I think Benji said, like, you guys know where we could find some crack? Yeah, yeah. I wasn't sure if you were joking and I was so like uh I don't know let me think about that yeah I remember that and I like Chuck and I are like oh my god what do we get into and then you're like we're arrested with you man and I was like oh shit that's so weird yeah we're so naive you know yeah that was fun that was a really fun tour yeah it was super fun it was really funny by the way yeah that

that sounds like us yeah like you guys get to score us some some crack cocaine yeah just kidding. Yeah, yeah. Never done crack in my life. No, no, me either. I heard it's great, though. I was always terrified of drugs. But that was a fun tour. That MX, PX tour, I still always say that was like one of the most important tours we ever did because not only were they such nice guys and still are, we learned a lot about building your touring life and building like your crew and building like going from like a bunch of kids in a van to like a touring. Like this is a business. Like you need it to run well, to do well. And then you want to build good relationships with all the venues around the country and around the world.

And that really comes down to like how you run your crew and who you have on your crew. And you remember Mark Holloway? Yeah, of course. I just saw him because he's with his tour manager. I just saw him. I think that he, I saw him in Vegas, didn't I? I think when we were young. I just saw him how long ago.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he was our tour. I saw a bunch of people at stagecoach that I've known forever.

Greg Teal, I saw all these guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're all still there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was so great. All the work tour, the Kevin Lyman group, they're all out there. It was great. I think it's Shelly doing catering, right?

To Doa catering? Probably. Yeah, yeah. I didn't go to catering. Yeah, yeah. I wish I would. Shelly land baby. Yeah, yeah.

Love her. Do you have a record? No, so it's time to go back in the studio. We just did it a little project. So Disney realized that a lot of pop punk bands and rock bands are covering all these Disney classics. Yeah. And they're like,

people really love them. They're getting millions of spins. They're like, let's do an official version. So Disney is doing like Mickey Goes Pop Punk or something like that. Okay. And it's like boys like girls, we're the Kings,

us. I think Yellow Card. I think a bunch of people and we're all covering classic soundtrack songs. So we just did one. That's coming out soon. Sick. But it's time to get back in the studio. It's time to get back to writing.

And it's like, it's funny because it's such a big endeavor to make a record, especially this late and a, career when you've had success and you have fans that care and you care and what's the mark, what's the target? You know, what are we trying to do? Yeah. And I think there's a part of us, you know, you got to balance that artistic side of you that wants to do like, I don't want to do any of that shit. I want to do something completely out of left field. But then the smart, I think, the smart man in me is like you build a brand, you know what I mean? And like people, you know, I think

it's disappointing even for me. If I hear a band that I love come out with a record that sounds completely different. That's not what I want. I want you to do what, you know, what you sound like. Yeah. So that makes it hard to like get back in the studio or get back into writing and be like, okay, how we're going to, now we have to do something that sounds like what we've done in the past, but it's fresh and it's got to be cool and it's got to be this. So anyways, it's a big endeavor. But we're going to start. I was just thinking about when I left the house, I was like, you know what, it's time for me to start writing some music. Yeah, that's the artistic journey. Yeah, trying to figure out. It's hard. It is hard.

I mean, we're talking about the same thing. We're like, what's the record? What's it sound like? And I don't even know. And by the way, some artists, they need to go left. It's something else. So I don't know what it is for us. But, yeah, blocking out a month or two and putting your sights on making a record is a hard thing to do.

I think what I would like to do is I would like to try to make a record without overthinking it. And I don't know if I'm capable of that, but I would like to make a record where we get together and like, let's write it in a month. Yeah, yeah. And that's it. And like, we're doing like, put it out. We're writing three songs a week for four weeks.

It'll be 12 songs. And then just put it out. And like if it's, because we, we notoriously like, I think on our third record, we wrote for like a year. Yeah. Like 80 songs. You know what I mean? Well, when you're trying to follow up two records that sold millions and millions of copies.

Especially when the industry is changing. You know, we did the two first. records and then nobody was playing pop punk anymore and they're like okay well you know yeah you guys are nobody wants to hear someone playing anymore what are you going to do now you know yeah you get on the other side of that and you you appreciate like that is what it means to have a career over decades is those moments too yeah totally this is make no mistake right now look I think we're entering a decade of guitar music I think so instead it was up 600% in the last year wow um so it's it's we're coming into an era of people want to discover bands, listen to rock music,

and that's going to be great. It's already great. We're seeing it with a lot of bands we work with. They're just like flying. It's amazing. On the other side of that is obviously it goes up and down and up and down. So when you're in a career long enough, I think you learn that. That's just what it means.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited. You know, we'll see we come up with. But I think that, yeah, my daughters are 10 and 12, and they listen to bands with. you know, guitars in it. Yeah. Yeah. And they're into it. So we see. Congrats. Thank you, man. Same to you guys. I'm always so happy to see all you guys are doing. And like I said, like I'm not really an entrepreneur outside of my band. And when I see what you guys have built and like this place here and the Veebs and the management and Madden and all that, I think

it's really dope. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. That means a lot. It's been a long time. We've known each other. Yeah. And I'm always happy. I see your life from the outside. And it's, it feels like a who's figured out what life's about. And that's nice to see. Yeah, well, thank you. There's a lot of people don't get on the other side of entertainment success and land in a place where they can be healthy, live a long time,

and enjoy life. The old kind of all the best things in life are free is true. Like the things we enjoy the most are the things that we build with our partners, with our kids. And I never take it for granted when I sit around it the dinner table with my family and feel those moments of just peace and happiness. And all of that was provided to me from this career, from these fans, from this music, from

this scene. So I never take it for granted. I know how hard it was. I know how hard we worked. But at the end of the day, to be able to land there and actually feel it is a huge success. A bigger success in my mind than the 50,000 people in Brazil, even though that's amazing. The documentary, amazing. But the big success. to me is being able to sit there with your family and go like this is good like all the other stuff icing i'm going to keep getting after it but this is i protect this yeah it's the core i'm happy you're there thank you man it's awesome bro we keep working on it all the time you know every day yeah yeah yeah thanks dude thank you i hope you enjoyed today's episode of artist friendly if you really liked it

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