My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 396 - BOYS LIKE GIRLS & THE OFFSPRING

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls joins Robbie in the Basement for an extended chat about touring, his career as a singer/songwriter, the resurgence of Boys Like Girls and pop punk as a whole, When We Were Young, Warped Tour, and more! #BoysLikeGirls #PopPunk **************************************** My Mom's Basement is a weekly podcast hosted by Robbie Fox, started in March 2019, to discuss movies, music, comic books, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and more with his friends and idols alike! Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-moms-basement/id1457255205 Follow Robbie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatrobbiefox Follow Robbie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobbieBarstool My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey, My Mom's Basement listeners. You can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. All right. Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement. I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Hope everybody got in on the Black Friday Cyber Monday sales at Barstool Sports. If you didn't and you're listening to this as it drops, the sales are still going. It is Cyber Monday, but I've got a special bonus podcast for you today. I did an hour with Martin Johnson, the singer of boys like girls last week. And it was a really cool chat. So today I will be putting out not only that chat, but on the podcast feed, an

interview with the offspring that came out on the my mom's basement video pages a few weeks back. So today we've got interviews with not only Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls, but the offspring as well. It is a complete pop punk special, a cyber Monday special. Don't forget store.barstoolsports.com 20% off the entire store. But let's get into these two interviews. We're going to run them back to back.

And then of course, Clem and I will be back later this week to break down skeleton crew. First up, Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls. Hello, and welcome back to my mom's basement. Ladies and gentlemen, I am here with Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls coming off a huge tour. You were just on tour for six, seven weeks, I think with Dashboard Confessional and Taylor Acorn. How was that? So good, dude. So yeah. I mean, like, you know, classic like gratitude answer, like, I guess anytime you get to like, be 39 and like home melodies you wrote when you were 17 for a living and you know, that pays for your kids food. Like what and you travel, you know, with your best friends from high school. Yeah. Great. You know what I mean? Um, it epic. I grew up like,

you know, 2003 dashboard, uh, confessional, uh, MTV unplugged. You feel me? Like that was my, that was my DVD, you know, I like ripped off his open tuning thing and you know He's like he's strum the guitar and it just plays open and I was like, how did he do that? And I kind of relearned how to play guitar that way So, you know being able to make you know, make a song together was you know? Really really amazing and tour was super great

Really really fun to you know perform watch the that, you know, new song we did with Chris and Dashboard every night. And dude, I just love to play. I love to play. I know the boys do too. Like a lot of bands and a lot of artists don't love to tour. The only thing that sucks about it is like missing your family. And I had my wife and kid out for a while, which was great and a blessing.

And you know, the times where they're at home, it's kind of hard, but like your superhero man, you get to be a superhero, you get to put on the leather pants and go take a goddamn strut. Like what, like what's better than you get these endorphins? You feel great. Like my day's ultra structured. I don't know. For me, it's the best you know, I came of age like I didn't go to college like I got into a 15 pass fan. So I want to play. That's what I want to do. I want to play. That's what this is what I want to do. I want to play. That's what I, this is what I want to do. I've tried doing other shit, you know, I've tried being a suit, tried being, you know, in a windowless room, making music for other people. I've tried that dude. I've tried investing in real estate.

I want to rock, you know, it's just what I want to do on play. So, you know, Tor was great. Dashboard's awesome. Crew's great. Dashboards awesome. Crews great. Taylor was awesome. She came up and sang to his bed, the one every night with us, which was awesome. Her camp's super cool and fun. And I get depressed. I get seasonal depression when I'm home. So anytime I get the opportunity to call you want to tour this autumn,

light it up, dude. Let's go. I'm to go. Speaking of watch the dude. Let's go. Time to go. Speaking of watch the fire. Where did that come from musically? Because it's a really cool song. Great production has a nice like orchestral backing. Where did that one come from? Thank you. Dude. Every time I walk into the studio, I think the fraud police are going to come in and take my sense.

So I'm faking it every single time. And I remember like messing around, like I was like up. So, um, I'm in Utah now, but I lucky enough to, uh, have a place in Nashville as well. And, um, that's the studios disconnected. It's like in this barn, right? Like it was like a converted barn. So I'm up in the house, unacoustic, super nervous. Chris is coming over, you know, it's like, okay, I'm gonna write a song with Mr. Confessional. Like, here we go. This is intimidating. And so like, I start playing this, this like riff, and I'm like, this kind of sounds like him in 2002.

He's going to hear this little like guitar part and be like, okay, bro, like been like, I was there 22 years ago, chief sport, like let's do this instead. So I had this little lick and a melody and whatever, and I played him a couple of things that, and it was like, we just kind of like, he started singing something like, like a lyric over, over this thing and didn't say that. Um, so I think like, you know, you go in every time I go in, I won't speak for anybody else, but I go in every time being like, if they're going to find out that I have no fucking idea what I'm doing, you know what I mean?

But you go in and it's like, okay, here's this, this is a guitar part. And then it's like, okay, this would be cool with a break beat, I guess. Like should we do some nineties? Like break beat thing sounds like sort of like nineties radio, you know, meets like sort of cred, like massive attack, whatever. So we have like this break beat in, it kind of ended up being a little bit more like early two thousands organic, you know, by the time all was done, done, we started like programming some strings and doing this stuff. And you just get psyched in the room. I run over to the sense and I'm sort of like playing strings

on the sense. And yeah, all of a sudden there's a song in the machine. And I was like, you know, fool them again. Fooled them again, dude. I got him one more time. You know what I mean? But I don't know. Like, I don't, you know, like you say, like, where does it cut? Where does things come from? I don't know. I don't know. You know, I've done it before that I've gone on Spotify and I've pulled up a song and I'm like, let's rip that off today. Today we're going to rip this off and we're going to change just enough that we don't get sued. Watch the fire wasn't that it was sort of like a little bit more of like a, okay, this feels kind of good.

I hope Chris likes it, baby. Well, I'm nervous, you know what I mean? And then you just write a song because that's just what you do. And you've done since you were a kid, you know what I mean? I wrote my first song with like six. So it's like, you're just like, okay, I guess I'm, I guess we're writing a song shit like here we are, you know, so it's a great song. I really dig it.

Thanks, man. Thank you. I appreciate that so much, man. We had a lot of fun doing it. And, and, uh, yeah, when, when you got up, when we got, when I got out of the, the dream sequence and like played it back the next day, I was like, okay, I know what to do. This is gonna be fun.

This is gonna be fun. This is gonna be fun. Which, which cities went the hardest on tour? Do you have any favorite memories? Yeah, let me think. My favorite shows of this tour were definitely not, going to say that. I was, I think Chicago was really good. I think so.

But we left Minnesota right after the show and we so like we played Minneapolis and we go to the airport hotel, you know, and like 3 30 in the morning, my alarm goes off and we get on a flight at six and we flew to LAX. We got in like, you know, a Sprinter van or whatever, you know, those things. And we drove to Bakersfield and that night, which was the next night from Minneapolis with no sleep, we play, I don't know about you, but like when I'm, when I got an early flight, like there's no chance, right? Like I'm, I'm, I'm in, I'm like, I miss my flight. Like I w like, it's like, if I, if I fall asleep,

I like pin up straight, like, I like my alarms going off for sure. So Bakersfield, we played the current county fair and then we drove back at like two in the morning after we did like the headline gig, like a not, you know, like a 110 minute show to LAX airport hotel, 330 wake up once again, not a Chicago was the next show. And so like, I think Chicago was good, but I don't entirely remember. My voice was pretty shot. And I was kind of like screaming it hard,

which kind of like probably sounded cool to them, but hurt to me. I was like stoked that there was a couple of super memorable ones. Like there's this venue in New York city called Pure 17. I know like a lot of people are really like, no. To me, it was like, I'd never played it before. And you're like floating on the Hudson. And so if you're not from New York or Jersey or Connecticut or whatever, like

this venue is like, kind of worth a flight. I thought like, there's these pictures of me playing me us, you know, and like, it's like the Empire State buildings behind me, you know what I mean? And I'm looking out right like I'm playing. We're playing at sunset. And it's like you just see the stache, you know, the Statue of Liberty is just chilling, right, like chilling with the sunset doing and I'm like.

I cannot believe this is my job. This is my job to still write like there's still moments that are just like. I guess this is like I get to play these, like these songs with my boys and like I'm looking at the statue, you know, like I'm like floating in the Hudson. Like this is the coolest. That crowd was okay. They were good. Maybe a little bit like, I feel like those tickets are expensive. So maybe those people a little older. I know that if I'm going to a show, older. I know that if I'm going to a show, I know if I'm going to a show dude,

sparkling beverage, hanging out in the back, arms closed, judging. And if I love it, they get a head nod dude. So like, yeah, maybe some of the like more spendier cost of living places was like a little bit more like that on this tour. Um, dashboard, you know, the dashboard blend, some of the seated places, like, like, you know, dash was like, oh, one, we're like, oh, six, right? So like, you know, if you grew up with some boys and girls, that's a good high possibility that you were 10 and watching it on fuse and like just never went to a show and now you get to go to a show and sort of relive being 11 and like learning great escape on the guitar or something like that. So like a little more of like a hype train. So the East Coast shows were like maybe a little bit more sedude but good. I feel like I loved feel like Seattle was pretty great. I feel like we got added to when we were young festival. I saw that short notice right on a couple days notice. Yeah, band dropped off and we're going

to be in we're going to be in Vegas anyway. We're doing like a sideshow like a warp tour, Kevin lineman. It's like a big charity thing, which was super, super great. We were like, all right, cool. Yeah, we're gonna be Vegas anyway, like bus parked like, I don't gamble. I gamble a little bit. I gamble a little bit. Just just a responsibility. I gamble on football and I play a couple I'll go in, put a little on blackjack. I don't play poker anymore. Used to play a lot of it. But uh, yeah, dude, like, like we were so stuck like this, you know, we, we got at it and it was like, yeah, well let's rip. Like a family reunion for you guys.

I imagine seeing so many fans. Play for food money, dude. You cover our cover a hotel and, and like our crew, like, so I, we get handed to guitars that are in tune and like the PA turns on, like we'll play. Yeah, we'll play. It was sick. I mean, it was like we were really, you know, obviously we weren't a big, I mean, the shows are sold out. We weren't like a big part of it. Anybody buying that ticket. And it was, I mean, it was jammed, you know what I mean? So like it was, it was cool to see that. And we're on one.

We again, you know, next year, so excited to go back and fry my, like my internal organs in the desert. Again, I just like, I can't know how people live there. And yeah, it's, I have to go there all the time. I cover like UFC, fighting for Barstool and yeah, yeah, cool. It's not my favorite. I really don't like going out to Vegas. The heat is hard to put up with. Drama boys and girls drama beef is a black belt in Brazilian. I know doesn't he own his own gym.

He's like he's in the descent of the Renzo Gracie. And it's cool. It's been cool to really to watch his just transformation as a human with you know, like going from like white. Yeah, and he made fast track it like white, you know, and like, he made fast track it like he really, really made it a huge priority in his life during the time kind of we took off like, I know, like 2011, like he was like, maybe it was 2010. He's like doing like a, like a white belt competition, right? Like won this white belt competition, like on gusto and like, you

know, he got his black like 18 months ago, maybe two years ago, two years ago. And yeah, it's cool. Yeah, he got his black like 18 months ago, maybe two years ago, two years ago. Yeah. And yeah, it's cool. Yeah. He's, uh, he's got a piece of a gym in Nashville and, and, uh, and it's, it's epic to see it's epic to say his brother used to train boxers, maybe still does. I see.

Yeah. So there's like a fighting thing in combat sports and family. Yeah. So they go to Vegas, they, they go to Vegas, they're probably same shit. You go see, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, you know, and you cover and what I'm doing, I can't do it. Okay, I got to know who it's Caesar's and like, I'm like, you know, I'm gonna get me the fuck out of here. I got to fuck out of here. Like, I'm just like, I like, I'm my, my, I start, I dry up like a fish. I'm Swedish dude. And I'm like supposed to be at altitude and I grew up in Maine and like, I'm like,

I supposed to be in the cold and I like, put me in a leg like I want so I say I want to do some scarf work, bro, like I Know I like Albuquerque. I don't really like Phoenix so fucking hot. Yeah, I can't do the heat I got a show in Phoenix burns me burns me real quick Crazy as far as as far as bands that you guys have met and toured with over the years, who do you think is the funniest artist? It could be, you know, a one person or a band, um, three or three. You left the most three or three love touring with three or three. Yeah.

We got to do. Yeah. We didn't really tour them back in the day. I had like become homies with them in LA and, uh, I got to write with Sean. We were like writing like when I was like more writing for other people and we were just writing to write cause I was like a, you know, really like respected what he did. And we ended up writing song called the outside that sat on the hard drive from like 2014 until we put out Sunday at Foxwoods and we put it on there.

Um, you know, eight years later. But yeah, we did this speaking our language toilet like 11, 12 months ago and. Ask the boys to do it and I know like. They were like fresh hot being new dads, you know what I mean? They're like, we can do a bit of it. Like if we can fly in and fly out and kind of make it like pretty easy and maybe your sound guy can help, like we'll do it for sure. And I mean, number one, they get the crowd. It's,

I've never seen really like it, like they get the crowd, like hype and just, dude, I like hanging out with those guys. It's just it's it's epic Like I wrote like I don't know any other dude in a band that rode his bicycle across the US other than Sean Sean wrote his bike rock and I didn't even find that out until we were like on this being our language It's where I was like do wait you you're telling me that you you wrote it It's like yeah, dude. Yeah, Colorado to the East Coast or whatever. Like I don't think you do the whole thing, but he was close Yeah um Yeah, did they get the crowd hyped in there. It's just they're, they make me

laugh. They make me laugh, dude. It's, it's fun. I would, if we could have just permanently tore through three, I would for sure. And then of all of the artists that you've met, I assume you've met a lot of your idols through touring and stuff over the years. Who made you starstruck like who made you the most starstruck? You know, I don't want to meet Tom Brady Are you over you you who huge Patriots fan or from Boston? Yeah, I have a fucking 12 tattoo on my pinky No, do you really I was going to Super Bowl in 14 and like I was like, I gotta give it. I got it.

I wear it, you know, I was like messing around L.A. on the strip. I was like, I gotta get what it's like going into a tattoo or shop with some friends and they want to. I'm not like a pick it and stick it guy. You know what I mean? Like a tattoo. I was like, I was getting 12. Now I have an unofficial Buccaneers tattoo, you know, like fuck. And the reason why I don't want to meet Tom Brady or James Taylor or Paul Simon

or maybe, or Bob Dylan is cause like you meet or human man. Yeah. Do you know like you know like you meet these dudes like doing barstool like you go like you interview them and where you see in person or shorter than you and they've got like they don't glow. You know what I mean? You don't glow the same.

They're not larger than life anymore. Yeah, I'm so no, like I'm super grateful to. I'm super grateful to have worked with some of my idols, man. Like, I remember, like, you know. Feldman calls me in to work on the used in like 2012. And I was like, holy shit. You know what I mean? Because like, yeah, holy shit.

Gake. They used, you know, to me, like that record was like, oh, dude, you know, I'm 17 on our first tour in the van all the way screaming it. So I can't even sing the show that night. You know, and it's like, you know, or like doing blank or whatever, or, you know. I think like, you get that like your heart's pounding at the beginning.

And then you kinda like, you kinda meet in the middle as humans. And it's like, OK, I don't want Tom to be no human, you know what I'm saying? Like, I want like he got super hero, got the eye black on. He's got the I just want if I met him, I would want him to immediately be in like the Circa, you know, the Circa 2007 Super Bowl jerk, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, form of the union is not no color rush, like pads on I black on or like

the 2010 like long haired, pissed off Brady. Oh, yeah, that would work for me. But like, I don't want to, I don't want to meet like, I don't know, man. I think, you know, we're all, it's human, you know, human beings, like the end of the day, you know, like I was pretty nervous. John Mayer took my side project. And I came out early. Like I released a song I didn't nobody knew that it was my project. Nobody knew it was like I was the guy from Boys and Girls or whatever. Put a song out like no label like to the to the Spotify or whatever. No photo. No Wikipedia. Mayer is a dog. You know what I mean?

He's like, I fuck with this on on New Music Friday. Who's this kid? I take it on a tour. Sick, you know what I mean? Like the one the one dude is like not taking back door pay all that to take somebody out. You know what I mean? Or like a management favor.

And so I show up day one and I'm like, you know, we were, you know, two buses in a truck with boys like girls. And I'm just like Sprinter van driving, no TM, you know what I mean? No guitar tech rolling my shit out. And we're in Albuquerque and like mayor walks out on stage during our soundcheck. You know what I mean? With Pino Paladino next to him, you know, like a legendary bass player. Steve Jordan's there too.

And like, they're just like, you know, the trio and they're just like side stage. It's like, and I'm like, Oh dude, like we better the PA on like, we better be tight. Yeah, dude. I'm nervous. I'm like, yeah. So that was a pretty, I was starstruck that moment. I grew up listening to air. So that was like, I was like, but it was like, you know, it's ego meets. Of course. Also like I want him to think it's human. Like I want to think I want him to think I'm good. Like little he already thinks I'm good or I wouldn't be on. He would have taken a tour. You know, to mind tricks with you in that moment. I'm so bad. He's gonna think I suck. He's gonna kick me

off the tour. Pete is gonna be like, dude, it's not good enough, you know, and we won't even play tonight. Now we're quirky. You know? Yeah, but it's it's there's a human thing that I, you know, and we won't even play tonight now with Kirk, you know. Yeah, but it's it's there's a human thing that I, you know, I still have it in some capacity for athletes, where there's like still a halo around athletes, musicians, maybe I've met the Wizard of Oz too many times, and yeah, small, and it's the curtain and the megaphone and it's like you walk the brick road you get there and I've been the wizard.

Yeah. So seen it. Yeah. What do you think is the most spinal tap moment you've had on tour? I had an interview that I was like talking about this earlier because I thought it was funny. Okay, so that just it was we were talking about 80s hairband bands and I was like, there's a hairband moment. There's a million spinal tap moments with us because we're just like, I mean, we like, you know,

we kind of like smoking cigs on stage and, you know, the whole thing, you know, it's like, yep, it's pretty spinal. Yeah, all of it. Yeah. It's like, we've known each other 20 years. It's like, let's have some fun. We're going to do this when we're on tour. And let's also just not lie. You know, let's just go and And let's also just not lie. You know, let's just go and let's just like beef. Yeah. You put on the Jackie, you become a superhero, but like, let's not like do. Fuck it. Right. Like this is like, let's take the dog for a walk. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So I'm out on this most recent tour and, and beef has got this like reflective drumhead and the reflective drum head has our new logo, the circle BLG logo and stuff. But like it's it's like a piece of rental trap, right? Which is cool because it's like the lights reflect

off it and shit. He's got this fist to light kit that is see through. So like the lights go through it, but the lights kind of reflect off the kick drum cover head. And so I go over to have my water or vocal spray or like take you know, I drum tech comes out hands me a lit cigarette, whatever the fuck we're doing. And I'm like resting my voice for a second because this is fucking songs that I wrote when I was 18 and can barely sing and I'm like walking over there and Greg comes up to me and he gives me a stuck face right?? And he's like, and he, he goes into the, he goes right up to the, to the drumhead and he just starts primping his hair in the drum head, dude, like 4,000 people watching the show.

You can, I mean, and he's just in the mirror, right in the mirror. And he looks at me like, and then he gets right back in there. And then he turns around to the crowd and he's like, and it was like, it was, I mean, it's like steel panther. Yeah Play the next time I was laughing sister He's fucking with me every night trying to you know, it's good, but we're pretty I mean we go We go we go spinal tap on for sure. Yeah Do you guys like messing with you messing with each other and talk back Mike or anything on stage? I?

Haven't talked about the other guys don't. So my I have a button on my I have like a pedal board that will control like my different guitar sounds, but it also control. It also control like, you know, we like in our in-ear monitors will have like one, two, three, four, two, two, three. So like the video will go off at the right time. Or like if there's something that's happening in the machines that's playing that was like created in the computer that's going to play along with us at the same time as we're playing like it'll go off at the right time or whatever.

I also have this button that will turn my microphone. It'll toggle my microphone off and go really hot in everybody's ears. So if something's fucking terrible happening, I'll use it. Yeah. What the fuck is going on? I can't hear anything. They have our guitar tech Chris who plays aux guitar when I, you know, wanted to strut and hang out with the mic stand. He also does our guitar tech. He has a mic over there too. And he's, we're, we're, we're yelling at each other for sure. Um, there is some bonehead, there's some bonehead talk. Yeah. Back and forth. Usually before the show though, we're like, when we're on stage,

we, we take it pretty seriously, not in a bad way, not in like a take yourself too seriously thing, but I just think like, I think it's really like, I'm not really a tour prank guy. You know, like the last day of tour, whenever he fucks around shaving cream all over the place or something. I just think like that's that you might ruin that somebody's favorite song. Like it might be somebody's favorite song, like it might be somebody's favorite song. And like, what a bummer if they spent 46 bucks plus fees and like, what was like your 45th time that autumn playing the song was there, they've been waiting

15 years to hear it. Like, I don't know. I think like respecting the people who came there to see you is super important. And you know, orchestrating a really, really great show that you're super proud of is important. It's important to me. And I think, you know, dress to respect them, sing to respect them.

You know, like I take really good care of my body when I'm not there, because I really want to respect the people who buy buy who bought the ticket and came and grew up listening maybe to our band or maybe they're just discovering us for the first time. So I think when when we're when it's time to go out there, we're pretty eagle eye on it. We get we get it. We get into character and we and we we we try to put the best show on we possibly can't even if we feel like shit or we're feeling like just like messing around. I love that. I feel like the fans have like taken note of that and appreciate that, especially I'm on all the pop punk forums and the Reddit boards and stuff. And you guys are constantly getting praise for your live performance in particular.

Like I don't do the Reddit. How are we doing on the Reddit? Are we OK? Very good, actually. Very good. Yeah. Like Reddit. Reddit scares me. Oh, yeah, it scares us definitely Scares me on there. It's bad. I mean it's bad for everyone though You know It's like the fact that you guys constantly get positive praise speaks to have your live show really is because everyone catches it The second you have a bad show though or or a bad day and you're a dick

wants to somebody who waited 45 minutes at the stage door and you just like haven't showered and you're grumpy and have pneumonia and you walk out and you're like, oh, I think the picture, you know what I mean? And then like eternalized as being a fucking asshole. Yeah. I have, I have, yeah. I have this thing where I want, I desperately want everybody to like me and I don't know

if that's ever possible. They're, they're not. It's probably not, but I'm with you. I think, I think a lot of us have that Well, it's also like it's it it's funny because it's like I have the ultimate I Have both right? So I have like you walk into a room and you're like fuck this place. I'm better than these fuckers Yeah, but I'll start really really want them all to like me super bad So you're just stuck right in between I Really hope these people like me.

Fuck. I hate it here. I just want to leave them better than all these other people. I don't know what that is, but it's maybe some other maybe somebody else has that. Maybe it's just, you know, I've got a little bit of that because I'm definitely with you a little bit. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. I'd love to talk about songwriting for a bit because as you mentioned, you know, you've done so much, your credits are so eclectic, especially. Do you find it easier to write for some genres than others? Like you've got rock credits, metal credits, hip hop, country.

Is there an easier genre to write in than another? Is it all about mindset? I really wish that I was better at having a lane. Like I think people who have branded themselves really specifically are more successful. And I think because I get bored and then want to prove that I can do this other thing over here. It's actually in some capacity, probably limited. At least the financial return of being a professional songwriter for other people. What does he do?

Because if you want the rock guy, I don't know that I'm really the rock. I could say most of the pop guy fucking in the guy. You know. A lot of countries using them in a country, at least, right? I haven't gone to my Wikipedia in like five years, but I'm sure it's really confusing. You know, I mean, it's really so many credits. Yeah. You know, the country guy, the country guy.

Look, I mean, I moved to Nashville and it's like, you know, you just kind of have like you're kind of. I fell in love, you know what I mean, I moved to Nashville and it's like, you know, you just kind of have to like, you're kind of. I fell in love. You know what I mean? I sold. Yeah. Sold the house in LA like immediately. And I was like, I'm out of here, you know, gone. Like, let's just get fuck out of here. Life's too short. And I went to Nashville. This is a Kakao. I write country music now, which I, you know, I dabbled in, I dabbled in a bit, you know what I mean? And I love, I like, I love country music. I can, you And some girl I was dating in 2004 gave me a mixtape with a bunch of Rascal Flatts on it, stuff like that. I grew up in Boston, so you don't realize there's no country there.

But my family's all from Perry, Georgia, which is country. And I thought Rascal Flatts was like a girl, like a female solo artist, like epic voice, you know what I mean? Yeah. And dude, like, so I mean, it influenced in some capacity that that mixtape like influenced melodies on the first Boys That Girls Record,

but I didn't know I could write country music. It's like, ah, fuck it, I write country music now. now, you know to me man, like that's just what I do now so it is that easy that you just you snap into it and you just kind of like I Grew up doing musical theater, man So I think I grew up to musical theater and I grew up listening to like a widely Eclectic range of things I was in like a ska band You know what I mean? And then I started going absolute punk.net and I started seeing these bands that were like

jumping up and down and didn't have horns in it. And I was like, those bands are cooler than my band. And then a local band like that was big on mp3.com in 2003. Their singer quit. And so like I was like, all right, fuck it. I don't play Scott music or do theater anymore. I'm doing this shit. And you know, I just the first boys that girls record was sort of like theater melodies and like 90s kind of like big arching melodies in major but just like with the chug chugs that I had heard on like the starting line record you know what I mean like it wasn't like I didn't really know that I was 18, dude, I didn't know I was doing I was like Midtown does this thing where they do this to get out. So let's do this thing that goes to get out.

You know what I mean? Yeah, let's figure it out. So I think the same thing happens with. Doing stuff in different genres, I know that when you know. Like doing like the metal stuff, I was a little like help. And then I got in there and it's like, ah, cool. Let's just write. Because I don't know if I'm very great. I don't know if I'm great at writing songs in minor. Did you grow up on metal at all or no? I listened to WAF Boston, which was the rock station, right?

Like, which was like the rock. Get some Metallica in there and stuff. Yeah, yeah, but sort of not, you know, like I liked songs in major. Like I was listening to like, you know, my super formative record buying years. When I was like, I buy albums now like I can afford to buy a tape was like, okay, so I was born in 85 and 39. So like, let's say I was not eight, nine years old, 94 ish hootie and the blowfish ace of base. Exactly. The early Nirvana records, maybe like I was listening to some of the hardest,

but it's kind of like the hardest I would go is maybe offspring or, or like, you know, jukebox music, like the stuff that your parent, like if it had the parental advisory sticker on it, but like something that felt like for forbidden fruit or like hard was like red hot chili peppers, blood sugar, sex magic, just cause it said sex on the cover. That felt tough to me. I don't know, like my parents were older. They had me at 40. And so my dad went to Woodstock. So I grew up on like folk. Yeah. And so I don't know metal was a little less accessible to me. Like, you know, other friends had like younger parents that like, obviously like for so for me, my access point for Metallica was like the load reload, which is like, I guess it's a couple bangers, you know, in the mix on that. Um,

do what is the what is the song? What is the song I can't get enough of? This might be off of reload. So maybe the arguably the best Metallica song. Oh, dude, please don't the fuck. And I've lost my cool factor on Reddit with this. No, that I've lost. Have ever heard of load reload. There is one. It's not memory, dude. It's like there's one that I like. Jack's me. I don't know. I don't fucking know. It's you. It's fuel. It's you. I always get the lyrics wrong, though. Like if I'm going skiing, I will put up a few. But like, that's not cred, like black albums, credit or like, you know, like earlier, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, it's tight, like I'm super into it, but it wasn't like a musical access point for me at all. You know, like Pantera or whatever,

like I, when I was really little, like my cousin Phillip, it was more, you know, it, it always is, is street punk for me, weirdly. So I'll pivot into that. My first show ever was the dropkick Murphy's. My cousin was in a street punk band called the anti heroes from Atlanta, the Boston bruisers and like, there was like, is it the rat scalar in Boston? I was like real nine starter jacket. Nine years old. Holy shit. Oh, dude, like piss overflowing in the urinals, like

like Liberty Spike, you know, this 94 likes a street punk was alive and well brass knucks like the whole thing. And I remember being a little older than that, like like maybe sixth grade, and it was like agnostic front and the unseen and like, you know, bands like that, like first generation casualties. I, I remember like it was more in like, in like late middle school, like eighth grade. I didn't really like street punk, but I wanted you to think that I liked street punk so I didn't really listen to well I just my cousin was in a cool street punk band so

it was like I thought my cousin was cool so like this must be cool even though it's fucking unlistening so I'm gonna like you know so I'm like gonna put I'm gonna put like these you know you remember know, so I'm like gonna put I'm gonna put like these, you know, you remember like back patches and like knee patches and stuff. So I would like have my brown Dickies with like, a charged GBH like knee patch, like I probably should charge a GPH like grand total of 20 minutes in my life. But that um, it, arguably that was like a little bit more in my face than metal, uh, for sure was like street punk. And then it was like theater. And then generally like the songs that you've written for other people, would you say there's

more of them that you wrote with that person in mind or with that person like in the room or is it probably more with them that doesn't sound like or like do you ever write a song for boys like girls or one of your side projects where you just go oh this doesn't fit the vibe of the band um yeah yeah and the other way around so like you'll write you'll write a song and be like, Oh, this is for this other person. Like blood and sugar I wrote with and for the band Camino. Oh, really? His version with them singing in it on my phone right now.

Yeah, like with Spencer, you know, just in, in the room and Jeff came over that night, like cut a vocal and like whatever. And it was like, you know, we're going to maybe do this like boys and girls and the band and band Camino that night, like cut a vocal and like whatever. And it was like, you know, we're going to maybe do this like boys and girls and the band and band Camino that didn't work out. So it's like I songs boys and girls on this. So I'm going to put it out, put it out, you know, so like those things happen. I know like, you know, Sean and I didn't write the outside from three or three out to talk about it earlier in our interview, like, you know, for boys that girls, but it was like, kind of sat on my hard drive being being boys that girls like, there's a song that I wrote with Dan lay us from Augustana on the new Foxwood record called cry, that,

you know, got like, we wrote, we wrote it just to write, right? We'd never I was a huge Augustana fan and we had played some like, you know, college shows together. Um, boys and girls in Augustana, but we'd never written, we respected each other. We'd never written. And it was like, let's write it, dude. And we wrote the song called cry. And like the next day it got put on hold by like, you know, imagine the biggest artists in the world puts it on hold and you're like, Oh fuck, okay, this is awesome. But I kind of want, I wish maybe I could sing it. Yeah. You know, two years later, that artist changes directions. The song gets taken off hold and it was like,

all right, well this'll sit on my hard drive now for the next you know 10 years until we put out a boys that girls record which is what it did and now it's interesting how that works i feel like a lot of people don't know that side of the music business yeah i think like there's a song i wrote with this artist l king yeah and it's called drunk and I don't want to go home. We put a kind of a big song a couple years ago in the country world that crossed a little bit to pop. It's like sort of a summer drunk or a lamp. They would put Miranda Lambert on it and it ended up being really fun. Flew to New York, cut Miranda. I'm a huge fan. Huge fan of L. I mean, we wrote in like 2014. You know what I mean? So long ago. So long ago. And it just sat in the heart of it. And like, you know, I don't know if it was like, it wasn't right for her first record. You know, the one with X's and O's, it

could come out a day, I'm drunk. You know, maybe somebody said like, maybe this is a little hot. And the brand, yeah. Yeah. Or she felt that way. I don't know. Yeah. You know, maybe somebody said like, maybe this is a little hot and the brand. Yeah. Yeah. Or she felt that way. I don't know. Yeah. No, but like I think songs and they find their time and they find their artist, you know, there are songs that like you write just to write that you send to seven artists and one

of them likes it and maybe nobody likes it. And maybe it was written like five years ahead of its time. It doesn't mean it's bad. It's just like, you know, cause you're all still like, you're trying to thread the needle into somebody's brand. And if it doesn't necessarily fit who they are emotionally, spiritually, musically, whatever, what they're going through on the record, like, can be a crap shoot. Yeah. Can be a crap shoot, you know? But I know that like, you know,

I have put out this song called Companion as a night game song that I, you know, I wrote alone and whatever. And I sent it to Elle, like just over text. And I literally was kind of like, whatever. And I sent it to Elle, like just over text. And I literally was kind of like, maybe she should sing on this. But I didn't know. And I was like, what do you think about this song?

She's like, I'm free to fuck out. Like I love this song. And I was like, you want to sing on it? She's like, I haven't seen you in a really long time. You know, you want to, so we did this song, America's Sweetheart for our first record. And it had been like eight years. She's like, yeah, I'm in, I'm in Nashville. And I'm like, okay, I'm in Nashville. You want to come over? And so she just comes over. Like I pick her up at her

at the hotel and I bring her over the house. She sings her parts. And I'm like, you remember that song Drunken? I don't want to go home. We should fuck with that. You know, and she's like, I agree. You know what I mean? And like, then it's like, you know, then, you know, smash cut a year later, Miranda's on it. And it's like on the country chart. You're doing your thing. And it's like, so this is a song that was like forgotten on a hard drive in 2014. So, but it was also a song that was like gonna gonna be a VT feature featuring L King rest

in peace before he passed. Wow. And it's like these things have these like, you know what I mean? Like, it's not supposed to happen until it happens. I mean, there's a song I did that I wrote, like, with a couple guys at this like writing retreat in France, as like, you're just writing, right? It's called Heartbreak Hurt Around the World. And there was like four different artists that put it on hold. Four.

Wow. You know, one artist, like one really big artist put it on hold, went to jail, changed his direction. You know what I mean? A boy band that like came back, put it on hold, you know, wasn't sure about it. And then it was like, dude, like it, you know, ended up being like this, you know, this, this younger kid named Jacob, Jacob Latimore, and then we put T-Pain on it. It was like, you know, this could have been seven different things. Yeah, lucky that it was what it was. Ended up being amazing.

I got to work with T pain. And just like anybody who was born in 85 fucking loves T pain. You know, and I remember the IMT pain app that you could like auto tune your shit on. Oh yeah. And you're really like on when you got early. I touch beta shit like 2011, right? Like, oh, you know what I mean like so I mean it's the music industry if you know if I think there would be a lot more of the thing that

I'm talking about where miracles happen like drunken I don't want to go home or cry or whatever. If there were less non creatives making creative decisions, because I think non creatives that make creative decisions are really afraid of anything that what wasn't created like 45 minutes ago. Cause if it wasn't created 45 minutes ago, surely it isn't good enough and surely it isn't cool enough and surely isn't following whatever fucking tick tock trend is happening right now. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

I've just got one final question for you. I really appreciate the time. Oh, dude, I'm ripping, dude. My daughter's sleeping and she's having a long nap so we can fire away. I'm a huge Oasis fan and Noel Gallagher once said that he summed up everything he's ever wanted to say with three songs, with cigarettes and alcohol, live forever and rock and roll star.

You have to select three songs that you've written that sum up everything you've ever wanted to say. Which three would you select? Epic quote, epic band. Do you have tickets? I do, yeah. Which date? So I got tickets. I do. Yeah, which which day so I got tickets I was lucky and I just got super lucky and got tickets the very first comeback show in Cardiff. So 4th of July

I'm flying my ass over there. You're going to the first one dude. Yeah, I wanted to be at the Exactly like night one like fuck you mate like you like I was there I saw it you saw the tambourine fly across stage to exactly and if it happens, that's fine. You know, it is what it is I got the full experience. I think one or two shows are gonna be canceled, but I think they're gonna go the distance Maybe they don't make it to South America, but I think they go the distance I hope they're gonna do I got tickets for that and then I'm going at and MetLife I'm a Jersey kid. So I got tickets for MetLife Stadium, too. Sorry, dude. I'm sorry. That's a tough That's a tough upbringing for you. Are you are you a Giants fan?

No, we're doing my my grandfather's Giants fan had three Irish sons who just wanted to fight every weekend, right? So they all pick different teams and I wound up with Washington, which wasn't fun until this year It was bad it's been a bad existence. As a do you still call my Redskins? My wife's Cherokee. I'm allowed to say that. No, I don't. I don't commanders. I don't call my commanders. You don't care. A lot of people care.

I know. I don't I don't care because they especially because they've never been good. I'm like, yeah, maybe we need to get some things up. Dude, it's exciting. I think, uh, I think the, um, I think the, uh, I think the NFL will be better with the commanders in it, uh, and in the conversation, cause that division was so annoying for so long with them sucking. Yeah. Uh, I thought you were a giants fan. I was there in Oh, eight, dude.

I was there. The perfect season over grown men crying, terror, terror. All right. I'm going to answer your question. I'm just thinking about it while I delay and talk about football. This is a fucking barstool sports deal. Let's talk a little bit of sports. I usually don't do sports in this podcast. You want to have simple plan on. They were terrified that it was going to be all sports talk. Yeah, they don't know.

They don't know sports. Then they're from fucking Mont they're from Montreal. They don't. Yeah, like the the hockey is it. Yeah, that's it. That's it. We were sweet. We did a little tour in Australia with those guys. Oh, fucking those guys. Not sports guys.

Boston boys, though, did like, you know, hey, man. Greg's got like a full like he's got the red. You know what I mean? Like, like tattoo. You got to love it. You got to love it. How would Liam answer this question? Fuck off. You know what I mean? He'd just be like, yeah. He was the biggest hit, may probably like not great songs that he wrote himself.

And you're like, oh, yeah, those are your favorites. We did. I was watching this. I was watching this YouTube. I just I just watched an old school Oasis. It's just like the era of the rock star is dead. It's fucking over. It's algorithmic based. There's no new rock and roll stars. And it's like, dude, you got to go back in time to find them. And like the not what better time than 90s when people are just bleeding, bleeding money on records. Like, oh, it's

just the best. And he's just announcing songs over. And he's out there like any turns he turns and no free what's not it was he's like what fucking song was it anyway he turns to know and he's like the crowds jumping up and down at the intro and he's like I'm not gonna try to do it British accent because it's all suck but he turns to knowing he's like how about we how about you how about you write a couple more of these, man? Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Have you seen it?

I know the exact one you're talking about. I think they were playing, it was on, I think the 2005. Supersonic dude. It's supersonic. Supersonic. And he's like, yeah, how about a couple more of these? How about a couple more of these, dude? And then he steps up, the arms go behind, the neck goes way high, bro.

And it's just, you know what I mean? And you're just like, this is the best goes way high bro. And it's just You know what I mean? And you're just like this is the best band of all time. Yeah The best band of all time. All right. So the question is three songs that define That sum up everything you've ever wanted to say Fuck Such a different question than what are your three favorite songs you've ever written or what are your three favorite Boys That Girl songs? Sum up everything you ever wanted to say, dude. As much as you can in three songs, yeah.

Okay, I'm just gonna go new record, right? I'm just gonna go Sunday at Fox. We've got to promote something. They know the fucking records, right? They know the hits. We know. Yeah, buy a ticket. You'll hear them. You'll hear them twice, too We'll play the greatest gift three times for you, but I'm not gonna put that on this fucking list Alright, so Sunday Fox woods only let's go

Let's go story of a lifetime About kind of a about kind of a semi quarter life crisis, midlife crisis, rode my bicycle across the United States, 4,500 miles story of a lifetime kind of chronicles the eastern Montana portion. But also talks about a little bit of like a mental break, like, am I going to make it through this? I think that sort of summarizes a lot in my life whether it be getting quitting drugs getting sober You know Kind of being a little bit different in regards to how I approach life than other musicians

anyway, so I would say that lost in wonderland on that record is like super super specific to traveling circus, it's I Lifestyle the touring guy You know, I think it depicts coming of age in a van pretty well and uh, miracle. No, should it be miracle? Look at this track list. Everything I wanted to say. God, I wish I could be as eloquent. I wish I could be as cocky as Liam

and as eloquent as Nolan in those fucking interviews. You know what I mean? Because it's just like- Yeah, that's a deadly combo right there. When I watch Liam, I'm like, I'll never have that bravado. And like, it's like partially the British accent. Like if I had that accent,

I feel like it'd be way more of a dick. The accent's a lot. Dude, the other day I rewatched it. Like I was at one where we were doing this interview and like, like it came up on like came up on tick tock. Right. And it was like cut like, and I, all I said was, I hate this fucking question. And I was being facetious, right. But they cut it in with like all the other artists answering the question really nicely. And I am wearing sunglasses and I'm like, I hate this fun question.

And I ended my first thought, my first thing in the comments, Martin Johnson's insufferable. And my first, let my literal first thought was like, if I had said that in the Liam accent, everybody would have been like, God, like, you know what I mean? Yeah. But you go biblical mate. You go yeah, biblical mate. Um Let's go with

Our fuck let's go with new love on this record because it's about my wife and Know uh, no, and I was going to marry her pretty much. After our first day, I think I wrote it like in between our first and second date, and I, uh, yeah, I was in the studio making, I knew as a boys and girls song and I was in the studio making. Night game dog years record and my friend Ryland, who used to play in Cobra Starship, OK, emo band was in, I guess, kind of more like a like a synth pop, you know, you know, like, yeah, yeah, like sort of cloaked his emo. He's in the other room and I can hear him making this beat.

Sounds like a weird mid 90s like country shuffle I was like Brandon hold on I got I gotta go in there and see what the fuck he's doing this beats hot and so I walk in there and I was like I literally like I Just been on first day with Naomi and I walk in I was like I put me on the mic dude but I Got to run something down on this and I wrote like the first verse and and First chorus of new love and I was like, all right, dude, we'll finish that in a second. I went back into like work on and it just sat on my hard drive until we made this record.

But I do know like looking back at how I felt at that time, I guess, you know, that's the girl, the woman that you'd pick for the rest of your life. It feels like maybe something you. Important. I sum up everything you ever wanted to say. I guess it's part of your legacy. No, so absolutely. That's beautiful. Are your legacy. So I guess that's the three. I guess that's the three miracle is kind of like, sorry, I'm a drug addict, which is kind of lit. Definitely part of my story. Um, but been, uh, been a really, really long time since then.

I had a nice fat Hollywood rail to celebrate anything. It's been 14 years since I've had a good gagger. So, you know. Well, congratulations on that. Oh, thanks, man. Thanks, man. Just trying to make you laugh. But if I could do four, maybe I'd add Miracle into the mix.

Yeah, those are great picks. I feel like people are gonna leave this interview wondering what's on your hard drive now that we're gonna hear in a few years. It's gonna be like, oh shit, that was sitting on his hard drive during that interview. Flaming diesel, dude, just sitting there waiting, waiting to be exposed, dude, just waiting.

Dude, there's too much. It's honestly like, we got it, also Boys and Girls has to put it, we gotta put out a B-Sides record. There was this record that we, there was this like, ran ran like, you know, like 2008 before we did put out the love drunk record, like these garage band demos that like we, we,

we recorded every song off off our first record, um, you know, on garage band, just like in a practice space in hayroll mass, right? Yeah. And, uh, you know, some shittyBand, just like in a practice space in Haverhill Mass, right? And you know, some shitty mic and built in mic, like one SM57 on the drums and some Filipino YouTube kind of thing comes out in a playlist and it's like, boys and girls, heavy heart EP. And like everybody thinks that it's like the leaked next record. And it's like just these like songs that didn't make the record, you know what I mean? And everybody thinks it's love

drunk there like the before love drunk. And so there's like, but there's like, you know, there's 50 others, you know what I mean? They didn't get leaked on the random Filipino YouTube like playlist. So I don't know, dude, I don't know what they're doing up there in the Philippines, but they're the best fans in the in the US and in the US, the best fans in the world. The Filipinos actually, I can tell when there's a Filipino fan in the crowd, dude. The other day there was the energy's up. They're the best fans. Yeah, it's either it's either Brazil. It's like South America or it's the Philippines like Southeast Asia. So Probably Philippines wins

Philippines Brazil how they how they find that fucking thing. Yeah, it's like Jersey, maybe Jersey if it's if you're playing six flags and it's oh nine, you know that all the CM dude You bought roller coaster tickets, you're stoked, you ate seven things of cotton candy. You're 16. It's summer, right? So you got to go with your homies, you got dropped off, dropped off. So your solo mission, you don't got no parents, but you're 16 and you're like ripped Jackson, New Jersey. Yeah. You're ripped on dip and dots.

You're you're and you're there, bro. You're in you're in and it's like, it looks like an arena, but it's not. Yeah. I think all time low is banned. I'm pretty sure. I think they got banned from six flags on our six flags tour in early 2010. I remember when they got bagged, I remember they got bagged from Six Flags. I don't know what the fuck they did, but I remember the crowd rushed the stage and then the security started pepper spraying the crowd

and they started yelling at the security. I think it was that they were trying to defend their fans. We played that show. Yeah. We played that show. Yeah. We played that show. Yeah. We played that show. And I remember the next day. No, it was the next Six Flags show. They did the Six Flags shows where the, you got to ride coasters and cut the line. The shows were huge.

Right. They were so big. We're like, we're the biggest man in the world. Right? Yeah. People were so stoked because they like, you know, kind of like got to do a whole day at the amusement park and also got like a free show, even though the two kind of do this. I did. I remember being great. I loved playing Six Flags. It's the best we did like three years in a row. We like played some in some capacity, but I remember the next one, it might've been Houston six flags over Dallas. Maybe that's kind of like a little closer to, I think it was a Houston one.

Anyway, we're not allowed to talk about all time low on stage because they're like, don't insider, right? We're not allowed to talk about all time. When there's a video of me on YouTube, like I just started, I was like, but if I play a little bit like weightless was hot hot at that moment that there's so I was like, if I play a little bit of weightless and like go into thunder, the they're not going to know, you know, so the crowd goes bananas singing weightless is like, you know what I mean? I think, I think there was a couple of six flags shows that we ended up doing

that gig at this fun. It was fun, dude. I was stuck. We got to, um, we got to play that big all time low homecoming on their 20. Like they're like, celebrating 20 years. Like, oh, awesome. I wanted to be there. Mary weather show. Yeah, it was cool. It was cool. We were really, really, I mean, we, we haven't played shows with them for 20 years. We've been five tours with them. It was just like, it was cool to be a part of their, like, this is the hometown show. I hope we get the same experience like in Boston.

Obviously this year was our 22. We didn't do a big, we know we're formed in 04. Maybe we'll do it in 26 is like celebrating the 20 year of our first record instead. Yeah, that feels right. You know, that feels right. That feels right. I'm getting a little sick of like full album play tours.

We might have to play two fucking albums in order to make it feel relevant or three and four. But, you know, we'll get through it. But I was I was. Yeah, I was stoked to be a part of that thing and do that with with the boys. It's fun. It was full. I was feeling interviewed today. Oh, dude, yeah. Appreciate it. I really appreciate the time. Yeah. Epic, epic chat. How many

people and then and then we'll let each other go. How many people actually ask you if you're physically in your mom's basement? Oh, a decent amount. Yeah, I'm not but a decent amount to it. Not the basement. Not the basement. Unfortunately. Yeah, I moved out right after high school because I got the Barstool gig right after high school. Yeah. Grats, dude. That's the gig. That's the gig. It's my Instagram feed is just fucking pizza reviews. You know what I mean? That's the vibe, bro. That's the vibe. It's a sick gig. Well, we'll get out. We'll slap high fives in person soon. Maybe in Vegas, maybe in Jersey Jersey maybe somewhere else dude. Yeah. Till then.

I'll keep an eye out for Boys Like Girls tour dates next year. It's been an honor, a pleasure and a privilege. Thanks for having me on. Talk to you soon. Thanks dude. Later bud. Alright, welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox and I'm here with Dexter Noodles from the Offspring.

Two absolute legends. We are honored to have you guys in the office today talking supercharged, out now, an album that I think is kick ass. Awesome, thank you. How are you guys? Do you guys like New York? Are you city guys?

We do, yeah. I remember being, the first couple times I was here being a little intimidated by it, but I've gotten to love the city. I think it's amazing. I love New York. I wanna buy a place here. Really? Yeah. In the city, outside of the city to love the city. I think it's amazing. I love New York. I want to buy a place here. Really?

Yeah. In the city, outside of the city? In the city. Yeah? For sure, yeah, I like the energy. It's great. There's so many cameras here. Where do we, where should I be looking?

Any of the cameras. We'll focus on the camera you're looking at. I'm gonna look at, I'm gonna focus on that one that's not even pointing at me. There we go. I went on the official Offspring Archive and you guys have played 25 shows it says in New York since 1994. Do any stick out in particular?

Really? Oh gosh. That many shows? Yeah I mean we used to come and play the Roseland Ballroom. Yeah I got to meet Joey Ramone there. I don't know if that's where I met him but we had a conversation and it was just incredible. That was really great. Jones Beach has always been a fun, fun venue. Of course, amazing. Great, I think the last show was probably one of the biggest ones we've ever done there.

Plus I caught fish, I caught little fish out there. Right on the water? Yeah, don't tell, I probably wasn't supposed to be fishing. I didn't have a license. Yeah, statue limitations. Do you remember Terminal 5, playing Terminal 5? I remember having amazing shows at Terminal 5. That one was really good.

Yeah, we did like two nights back to back there once. So many great ones over the years. You know, as things moved along, you know, we first started playing places like Irving Plaza, I guess. Hammerstein Ballroom, stuff like that. But you know what, if you said since 94, what's not on the list is we did a show,

ABC No Rio show ABC no Rio ABC no Rio on Spanish Harlem. Is that what it was? Yeah yeah yeah that would have been 1990? Probably 1990. I think it was our second US tour, cross-country US tour was 1990. So you just load in it's like a bar the stage is maybe six inches high you load in and the problem is that it was raining outside and it was dripping onto our equipment and there were like live wires around and I was really scared that we were gonna get

electrically shocked that day. You said bar, it was just like a burnout basement room kind of thing really. There might have been a bar set up in the corner. Yeah, not even a bar. Yeah, you know that's the kind of thing, really. There might have been a bar set up in the corner, but. Yeah, not even a bar. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, that's the kind of stuff you do when you're starting.

Oh, of course, yeah. You just play wherever you can, and you know, it was actually, it was all kind of exciting. It was kind of an adventure. What was CBGBs like in the 90s? Of course, CBGB. Yeah. It was a shit hole.

You know the way to say it that's exactly Yeah, most of the places we played before smash for shitholes. It was really we were legendary. I was stoked to be there I thought it was super cool, right? Yeah, it's very long. It's it's not really situated well for a crowd Right. No, don't you think cuz it's very narrow in front and stuff There isn't really any place for the band to go. The backstage is like there isn't really. The bathroom is a legendary. I mean it's just filthy. You know.

Yeah. Yeah. There's always dog shit all over the floor. And so cool to to. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. You feel the energy of a room like that right away when you walk in. Yeah. I want to talk about the new record, Supercharged. I think it's awesome. It's another record produced by Bob Rock, who I'm a huge fan of. What inspired you guys to work with Bob Rock in the first place? I think 2008 was the first time you guys made a record with him.

That was. That was. That was when the record came out. We obviously started working with him a year or two before. At that point, we weren't working with any single producer a lot, and we were kind of looking around for somebody, and somebody brought up Bob's name. And I would have never considered that, because I think, oh, he's the Metallica guy. That's a totally different genre, whatever.

And I didn't realize that he does everything. He's not just Metallica. He's done, of course, like Michael Buble. People wouldn't think that. But his roots go back to the punk scene in Vancouver So he actually has a lot of experience with the OG original bands like DOA and stuff like that. So We agreed to meet with him and just kind of hit it off right away Yeah, his just his knowledge of music and love of music is yeah

What was really he's a super down to earth guy, very knowledgeable. You can talk about anything, and we do. We talk about whatever we see happening in the world. A new record we've heard, something we discovered that's old. And our musical conversations are so much fun. I really learn a lot from him. It's really rad. Yeah, it's great I just I really learned a lot from him, you know, it's really rad. Yeah

It's great. Just yeah, just the conversations we have stuff, you know Tell us some more Metallica stories Their Metallica influence on this record Some of the riffs on it sound heavier like a come to Brazil come to Brazil That's not was really inspired by the phrase come to Brazil Which is come like an internet meme and we kind of designed the song around the phrase. So. We do play the Het, one of, Hetfield had like three

guitars made for him with the EMG, you know, active pickups, and it's heavy, and we did play that on that. I saw some pictures of that. Bob has one of these guitars. The Fokker Mock guitar, he gave one of them to Bob Yeah, Bob has one in his collection and he brought it in the studio and we put it down on that song. That's awesome Maybe that's what you're hearing I love some of the little things in the album to like the string arrangement that comes in there

There's so many different like subtle production things that I think are great Is that you guys suggesting things to Bob picking up influences him suggesting things like that little you know things that just think are great. Is that you guys suggesting things to Bob, picking up influences, him suggesting things like that, little things that just make the song even better? I mean both, right? What does a song need? Bob is really, he's always firing ideas. What about this, what about this? You should hear all the stuff

that doesn't make it on the record. Seriously. Some wacky stuff sometimes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but that's kinda how, I think that. Seriously. Some wacky stuff sometimes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but that's kind of how, I think that's good when you're experimenting with sounds, you know, maybe not different style of songwriting, but sounds, how do you take what we do well

and add something to it? I mean, you take it way over the edge, you know, and you have to try to bring it back, you know, yeah. Yeah, how do you know you got enough of something in a song? You have to keep on pushing it till it's too much and then you pull back. Yeah. I saw an interview with you guys recently where you were talking about how in the early days of the band it was more about the energy than the music per se and obviously you guys have grown so much as musicians since then. How do you find that balance? Because The Offspring obviously is a

band so much about the energy. Is that in mind when you're in the studio of writing the songs for the live performance? Yeah, and it's and it's a little bit more than that. You can have energy, but if it's energy that's not. Directed, it just can become sloppy. We've spent a lot of time like when the pandemic hit, we've spent a lot of time going back and looking at our old songs. And how are we playing them? And how can we bring these all in so we're all in unison and directing that energy the

way the way it should. Then there's times when you know, if the song calls for it, just let it go. Just let it kind of fall apart. This can be good. Yeah, Our first producer once told me something in the studio that I've always stuck with. He says, passion without precision is chaos. And I'm like, okay. And there really is a place for that. But sometimes you do want it to be chaotic.

And that's punk music. Exactly. But I think a lot of what we do to really make it sound right, everything's kind of moving together. The guitar parts. And you don't want it so united and cleaned up that it becomes boring.

That's when you want the chaos to come in. For sure. That's where he comes in. That's me. I'll add the tattered edge to anything. Which song on this album came together the fastest and was the easiest to write? And then on the flip side, which one

was the hardest to get down? Gosh, wow. Good question. Was it light it up or fall guy that kind of happened pretty quick towards the end? It was light it up was. Yeah. I wrote that like in two, two weeks before, right before you went into the studio to finish the record. We're on tour in South America. And you almost thought it was too, too simple, too much like what things

we've done in the past, right? I wanted to have a couple more songs written for the record. And so it's like well I'll just try to think of something that sounds very Very offspring and then I thought maybe this is actually Too too. Yeah rudimentary. I think it's lazy, but you kind of convinced me you said you said Yeah, let it be what it is and if it sounds like old Oscar and then great Is that a struggle when you're in the studio of like you know? There's obviously fans that want your new stuff to sound like your old stuff, but it doesn't want to be derivative

You don't want to just be like you're playing the hits. Do you have a struggle with that in the studio at all I? Think whenever you're trying to come up with something new you know how new do you want it to be yeah? You know? Same, but different. You know? Yeah, I mean, it is easy to overthink it. And so many bands do this. I remember talking to John from the band Cake,

and he said, all roads lead to prog rock, where a band starts, they have some success, they have some hits and all of a sudden they try to complicate everything to show how their musical genius, you know. And like sometimes you just have to put the three chords together and get the fuck out of the way, like you said. Right, right.

That is the challenge, making it, like you said, the same but different. You want it to be familiar, but you don't wanna feel like you're just repeating yourself. Yeah. Right, so, yeah, that takes some doing sometimes to get it to get that right. I think you guys do it really well on this album. Like it feels like a classic offspring album, but it's updated.

Everything about it has a little update has a little bit of flair to it. That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. You're also celebrating 30 years of Smash in 2024. And I saw an interview where you said, sometimes that stuff feels more vivid in your memories than even like two years ago. Do you remember the actual day that you wrote

the songs that have gone on to become iconic? Like the day you wrote self-esteem, the day you wrote Come Out and Play, do those memories come to mind like vividly for you? I remember like, for example, I actually woke up one morning with the riff for self-esteem in my head. Like it was one of those things that came like out of a dream kind of.

So I have memories like that. I couldn't tell you what the date was exactly, but that sort of thing. Songs like Come Out and Play, that was the last song I wrote for the record and coming up with that and putting that together and you know, knowing that we were a punk band, but we always wanted to do things that weren't just punk you know we want to try something that was a little I mean come out and play was was mid-tempo oh my gosh you know so crazy for us or self-esteem but we knew we wanted to push it further than than just a punk band. And songs don't usually happen

they don't occur in a flash except for like parts of them. Like you said, you woke up with the baseline to self-esteem. But I definitely have memories of like, I remember going over the guitar parts for come out and play in the studio before we in the rehearsal studio, before we went into the studio. I remember hearing Black Ball's voice on it for the first time during playback and just going, what the hell? And laughing my ass off and thinking it was great. I did, right off the bat. Yeah, yeah. I thought it was funny as shit. That's great.

But I didn't know that part was going to be in there. We went over all the guitar parts and everything. I knew the song roughly, but I didn't know about that catchphrase really. Right. I didn't want to tell you because I thought you guys would make fun of me. Yeah. You know this really weird wacky part with the guy with the Hispanic voice is going to come in and say this line. I knew they'd go, what? No. So I had to just do it. When you write songs like that, do you know like this is a hit? Like if you were to go back to 1994U and say this is gonna go on to become one of most iconic songs the genre has

Would 1994 you be like no fucking way or would you be like hell? Yeah, it is No, we would have been no fucking way. Yeah, like yeah, you know, we were talking about you know How much the wreck previous record had sold I think? Ignition had sold 40,000 copies worldwide. That's nothing. That's nothing. We were stoked. We thought it was an amazing number. It's okay for a punk band. But so we thought with this song, we're going to double that. You know, we're going to do 80,000, maybe 100,000. And you know, somebody, I think it was our old bass player said, 175,000 copies. We're like, you're nuts. You're nuts. You

know? But we never thought it was going to get You're nuts, you know, but we never thought I was gonna get any radio play You know little on three songs, you know get into the top ten and alternative radio We had no idea that any of that was gonna happen. No way. Yeah, it's crazy. It's amazing Like the the story the progression how the music has now become another thing I saw you guys talking about in an interview people are bringing their kids to see the offspring because they went and saw the offspring as kids. That's like you've become a generational band. That's amazing.

We really have. Yeah. And it's cool. The majority of our fans, when like Smash first came out, their parents hated us. But as those fans grew up, and I think it is a different time and people are a little more tolerant and their kids see so much more than, kids were still pretty sheltered in 94. The internet wasn't what it is today.

There was no social media really to speak of. So it's a different world now. People bringing their kids though, that's kind of like the most, maybe the most meaningful part of what we do to me. Like that really, like, really like really really hits home That's right. So cool. That's awesome And I feel like you guys are one of the bands not every band that you guys came up with are still on their a game Live you guys are a band where you constantly see praise for the live performance in particular

Do you guys still take a lot of pride in that? For sure. I mean first of all, it's what we love to do. Connecting with an audience, there's no feeling in the world like when you take the stage and you start playing and you just see the crowd singing along and getting more and more energetic and it usually builds throughout the whole concert. That's just a great feeling. But we still, we're always trying to see how can we make this better and better? I think we're playing better than we ever have. What kind of elements can we do production wise

to make the show more of a show? How can we incorporate the fans in what we're doing as well? Because when we came up the first 10 years, half the audience would be on stage at any given point and I'd get ready to go do a stage dive. And now it's too big, there's too many lawsuits, the first 10 years, half the audience would be on stage at any given point in the night, getting ready to go do a stage dive. And now it's too big, there's too many lawsuits, and you can't do that anymore. So how do we keep that kind of connection, that kind of intimacy?

And so we're always trying to look for ways to do that. I think early on, I was always interested in songwriting, and I was really interested in the studio. And we did a lot of recording, a lot of time in the studio. And that really, we were better at that than the live thing. We were really pretty terrible live for 25 years. Yeah, it was definitely more energy than precision. Let's just put it that way early on. So it has taken a lot of work and a lot of time.

And I feel like we're in a really good place right now, but it was a lot of practicing to get there. You guys have had some huge live moments this year too. The Ed Sheeran coming up on stage doing a song with you. That one's super viral. I saw you on stage with the Beach Boys at Ocean's Calling as well. How crazy is that festivals they must just be a blast to see a bunch of people you don't see often and then hop up on stage with your friends bring a friend on stage is that one of the best perks of the job absolutely yeah yeah you know I also love playing shows like we've got a show coming up punk in the park where we're playing with Pennywise you know friends that we've played with you know for 23 years now but then yeah when you get to share a stage with an Ed Sheeran, you know, Youngblood, we got to hang out with Brian May and do, you know, have him sit in with us. That

wasn't a festival. Well, sort of a festival. It was a very unique kind of thing. That was a science and music kind of gathering, really, you know. It's the year of the collab. I don't know what's going on. We've never really done this before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can't remember if we ever had anyone on stage really before. The Beach Boys, we've never played with the Beach Boys before either.

That one is, yeah. Was that nerve wracking? Yeah, actually it kind of was, right? Yeah, because they're just legends, of course. You don't want to mess that one up, for sure. I forget how it even got hooked up someone One of our people our team or whatever say hey, you're on the same bill as the beach boys And would you consider doing something with them?

We're sort of we're friends with john stamos because he did a video with us one time and so We thought well, well, i'm happy to do something with them. Maybe john can come and do a song with us And it ended up that part didn't happen But he ended up not being. I think he got a role or something that, you know, had a shoot that came up. Yeah. But they said, well, pick a song. Here's our set list. We've got 30 songs. Pick one that you like and we'll do it. So it was how bad was it? The Beach Boys covered Rockaway Beach, the Ramones song. They did. It was incredible. I didn't know. ocean city. Yeah, I did not expect that

I have a feeling they must be throwing that in and and they totally you know beach boy a fire Right. It's not a great harmony. Yeah, how well it worked, but that's that's I think also a testimony to how How how poppy the Ramones were? I mean they wrote well crafted pop songs and then just threw a bunch of attitude and energy at them Yeah, really punk rock tattered edge. So you mentioned Brian May there Do you guys share like PhD horror stories rocker PhD horror stories? Well, we both we both have a science background and stuff We talk about music mostly actually that makes sense

I should get on I know we should have a we should have a real science conversation sometime did what made you go into this is like going way back But what made you go into that? Realm that career path in the first place. I know that you finished your PhD more recently, but yeah, I Went to college. I thought I wanted to be a doctor. I was a pre-med college. I was interested in surgery and I didn't get into medical school Wow so I don't know I think in college was it you know it's a tough time when you're growing up trying to figure out yeah what you want to do high school is just like just get good grades and something good is gonna happen in

college it's like okay now you actually have to choose something that you want your your life to be and I think that was surgery was the first thing that came to mind I was interested in medicine yeah I was a little but I also loved music of course so I ended up being a graduate student thinking well maybe this will help me get into medical school and so I got a master's in molecular biology and I still didn't get in medical school and you know I was interested in pursuing the band as well so it kind of just went down that road. I liked it a lot, but it started as a pre-med kind of thing.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite fun facts. I feel like all the Offspring fans obviously know. But if you're like, hey did you know that the singer of the Offspring has a PhD in molecular biology? People usually have the same reaction as Brian May having a PhD in rocket science. They're like, wait what? They're like what?

The guy that was soloing up on stage, like having mosh pits in the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you guys feel is the most underrated offspring album in your discography? Underrated. Oh gosh. It's not something I really thought about much.

I'm gonna go with Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. I really like that record. Okay. It did have, well, You're Going to Go Far, is one of our biggest hits. That's the one that just went over a billion streams. Hammerhead got some recognition. But I thought there was a lot of other really good songs

on that that just didn't get up there. Yeah, I think people would say X-Day, maybe. X-Day on the Ombre is an underrated record, because it's that second record after Smash. I mean that's one that a lot of our hardcore fans will point to as their favorite one. And then what's your favorite offspring cover? Like a cover that you guys have done. You've got a bunch of them in the catalog.

Cover? Next to you by the police. I don't know. That was great. That's a really good one. Yeah, yeah. I loved our cover of Hey Joe. Hey Joe. You did Hey know. That was great. That's a really good one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I loved our cover of hey Joe Hey, Joe. Hey Joe back on the day. Yeah

There's a huge Batman fan. I was always partial to smash it up Who is the funniest artist or band that you guys have ever met Funniest. Yeah. Oh, the Vandals. Hands down. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Those guys.

That was a quick answer. They must be. Yeah. Those guys are, I want to say, probably the combined IQ and wisdom and mental power that those guys have is there's no band that could keep up with them. They're all so smart.

They're all absolutely out of their minds. But I love them, they're so funny. I would say the Vandals for sure. We did another podcast recently with a guy who I think is really funny, Bert Kreischer. He was awesome, he's really fun in person and really funny guy. Hysterical, yeah, he's a big friend of Barstool.

He's always around here and causing chaos as he does. Oh, I bet. Yeah, yeah. Then for each of you separately can you name a Mount Rushmore of artists that influenced you as a musician? So four artists that influenced you the most. Okay. Okay. It's gonna mostly be guitar players. I'll throw Joey Ramone up there as the token lead vocalist. Then Keith Richards. Oh gosh, now there's only so many spots left.

You mean like bands or just... You could take it either way. I was just picturing heads. You could take bands or people. Iconic heads. Yeah. So okay, so I got Joey Ramone, Keith Richards. I'm going to go ahead and put Biafra up there, Joey Biafra. Oh, that's good. Yeah.

And then I guess I'm going to have to pick one more guitar player. There's way too many. I'm going to leave some of my favorite off. I'm going to go Stan Lee of the Dickies. Yeah. That's good. I love his guitar playing.

I know. These questions are always tricky. Like, well, how can you say a million of them? Obviously you could have a hundred. I think for sure the Ramones on one side would be a big, huge one. On the other side, Creedence Clearwater and John Fogerty. Yeah. Nice.

You know, in the middle, the Beatles, of course. And then, what else? Sex Pistols, I guess. I don't know. Do you guys within the band have a lot of similar influences or are they kind of all over the place? For sure Dex and I I do probably the biggest influence that tied us together is TSOL an old punk band from Orange County and Huge fans of TSOL. Yeah, Is it interesting now to tour with bands like Simple Plan who cite you as an influence?

Is it cool to kind of be the influence for a lot of the modern pop punk scene? That trips us out. Yeah. We don't really know how to take that end. I love those guys. We've done a bunch of tours with them now. And great guys that I see them more as just equals. You know, I don't, yeah.

I felt like for the longest time, like I never heard anyone say they were influenced by us. You know, you'd hear them say, no effects all the time, or bad religion, those kinds of bands. And you'd hear it in a lot of bands for sure. But I never, didn't really hear bands that sounded like us and no one really talked about it. But we're starting to hear it more and more.

Simple Plan is one of the first ones. I remember meeting them for the first time on Warped Tour 2005. I think it was Pierre who said, man, without you guys we wouldn't be a band. So he was one of the first guys. Or something to that effect. I feel like we can't really take that on in a way.

That sounds really marvelous and heavy and great, You said it's kind of we're something that effect feel like we can't really take that on in a way like that sounds like really marvelous and heavy and great, but it's kind of like Have you guys felt the revival of the scene in general over the past few years beyond just yourselves But the festival scene and everything we hear a lot of you know Pop punk is back and punk music is back. People are playing guitar again. Have you guys felt that? Yeah, for sure. Some of the festivals, festival, easy for me to say, some of the festivals we've been doing, like when we were young specifically,

and you know, in Vegas was huge. But there's been others as well. Punk in the Park, we got that coming up. You know, a lot of the bands we've been playing with. I think Warped Tour is coming back. It is. They're going to do like a couple dates, more of a festival vibe I think than a tour. I think they're going to do six or seven dates on that. Nice. Yeah. So yeah, definitely feels like, I mean, when we were young it was huge. The crowd was there, it was passionate. I know they just did it again this weekend.

So yeah, it's cool to see all this music kind of, I don't know, if it's making a comeback or just still doing really well. Yeah. I hope it's getting people playing instruments, starting bands with their friends. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. If you're listening kids. People don't talk about how much fun it is to just jam in a garage. Yeah, exactly. Go's getting people playing instruments starting bands with their friends exactly. Yeah. Yeah To just jam in a garage. Yeah, exactly go out and make some music. You're right. It is just fun to just We have like a fake pop punk band here that started as let's just make a parody song because I love pop punk I play bass

We've got a guy that plays guitar guy that plays drums and then we had the rap battle world champion Who was like I guess I could kind of try to sing People liked it. So we just kept it going. We our first show is at Irving Plaza It was really really nerve-racking. But since then it's been smooth sailing. It's my favorite thing that I get to do here It's good. Yeah, how fun man biggest blast in the world right on my final question for you guys I'm a big oasis fan and noel Gallagher once said he summed up everything he ever wanted to say with three songs Cigarettes and alcohol rock and roll star and live forever So if you guys had to pick three offspring songs that sum up everything you've ever wanted to say which three would you select?

Wow, that's that's good one. That's that's heavy the kids on our right self-esteem and bad habit and Pick a new song. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Light it up? Okay, but this is the last time. Yeah, okay.

I'll take those three. I like it. Thank you guys for coming in. This was really cool for me. Huge fan for my entire life. Oh, thanks for having us. Really appreciate it. Yeah.

Go check out Supercharged now. Thank you. You're good at this. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.

Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.