The Offspring: “We wanted to make a record that was quintessentially us, and we fucking nailed it”
Dexter Holland and Noodles of The Offspring have spoken to NME about their 11th album ‘Supercharged’, as well as their attitude towards early material and plans for the future.
The punk icons released the energetic follow-up to 2021’s ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ today (October 11), and explained to us how they wanted the new tracks to be reminiscent to their early classics.
“There was part of us that felt like it could be too much like our old material, like maybe we were being lazy or something,” frontman Dexter Holland told NME. “But we decided to stop thinking about it in that hypercritical way. We decided ‘If it sounds good and it feels good, let’s just go for it’. We just wanted something that genuinely felt right for us.”
Guitarist Noodles continued: “I felt that energy building even before the last record was finished, but then we had to release it in the middle of the pandemic, not being able to tour for a year and a half. Because of that, when we could finally get into the studio again we found ourselves starting to look at the songwriting in ways that we never had before.
“We were wanting to get back to it so badly. We found ourselves getting together and rehearsing a bunch, to the point where we knew we weren’t just spinning our wheels, we were doing something new and playing better than we ever have before,” he added, as Holland joked: “Can you believe it? We actually resorted to band practice… That’s how bad things had gotten.”
Check out our full interview below, where the band tell us about their recent appearances with Ed Sheeran and Queen‘s Brian May, their time celebrating 30 years of debut album ‘Smash’, recruiting Yungblud as a hypeman, and whether they can imagine calling it quits any time soon.
NME: Hi Dexter and Noodles. Tell us a bit about ‘Supercharged’, it seems like you’ve captured that same energy that first put you on the map.
Dexter Holland: “We love to hear that because that’s exactly what we were hoping would come across! The approach was straightforward this time. We didn’t want to take too long between records and we didn’t want to have to reinvent the wheel. We were just looking for good, catchy songs. We didn’t even have a title for a long time – ‘Supercharged’ came up at the last minute because we were listening back to the tracks and thought ‘Well, ‘Charged’ doesn’t feel like quite enough does it?’”
Noodles: “It feels really good to be getting that energy in there because we wanted to make a record that was quintessentially Offspring, and I think we fucking nailed it.”
You have a long history working with Josh Freese. What was it like to see him join the Foo Fighters last year?
N: “He’s been on our records for 20 years and Dave Grohl stole him from us! We’re a little pissed off at Dave Grohl for that, but it was the right choice. That’s who I would have picked if I were in Foo Fighters…”
H: “We’re really happy for him, and it worked out for us because we’re so glad to have Brandon [Pertzborn, new drummer].”
N: “Brandon fits right in and he’s into the band, which is always a good sign! He wasn’t even born when ‘Smash’ came out, but one of the first songs that made him want to learn the drums was ‘Hammerhead’ from ‘Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace’. He loves what we’re doing and he kills it every night.”
Speaking of ‘Smash’, this year saw you celebrate the 30th anniversary of the breakthrough album. What is your relationship with that record now?
N: “We’ve always been proud of our records, but especially that one because it was made on a really cheap budget and there was no real promotion for it. It had to succeed on its own, so when it took off in that way it genuinely was life-changing for us.”
H: “To me, the songs still sound as relevant today as they did back then. When it came out, it was just considered a small album by a small band, and it was only after it sold three million copies that it got noticed by big publications. I remember Rolling Stone had this critical eye on it and said that it lacked the depth of Dinosaur Jr but the production was nuanced. I found it funny that this album was being judged in such a different way from when it first came out. All of a sudden we were in the middle of all this crazy stuff and we had no idea it would be considered an album that people look up to 30 years later.”
N: “I’ll mix up which songs are from ‘Ixnay On The Hombre’ and which are from ‘Americana’, but with ‘Smash’ I don’t. That album was life-changing. It’s still fun to play those ones every night and it still feels fresh to me.”
You recently surprised fans by bringing out Ed Sheeran for a performance of ‘Million Miles Away’. How did that come about?
N: “I heard that he was a fan and I saw that we were both playing on the same day at this festival in Northern California [BottleRock Napa Valley], so I suggested we ask if he wanted to join us. He said yes and picked a song that we hadn’t been playing recently, but we thought, ‘Shit, if Ed wants to do it, we’re doing it!’
“When we met him backstage to run through, we immediately realised knew it inside out, so it was a no-brainer. He sent me an email with a voice recording of him singing it too, so I knew it was going to be amazing.”
H: “Hearing him singing our song in an Ed Sheeran-style was surreal. He definitely put a different spin on it and made it sound like a Top 40 song, which was cool. Meeting him in person was not surreal though, he’s just a regular great bloke who we could tell was a fan. We had heard the rumour that he had a tattoo, so we asked him about it and he showed us his Offspring logo! We didn’t expect him to be such a big fan of ours. We haven’t asked him for an official collaboration yet, but maybe we should…”
N: “I heard that he’s said yes to some stuff with Dani Filth because he’s a Cradle Of Filth fan, so we stand a chance!”
That wasn’t the only surprise appearance you had lined up for this summer… You also took to the stage with Queen’s Brian May…
N: “He does a festival every year called Starmus VII and it focuses on science. Dexter found out about it from reading astronomy magazines and he brought the idea of it up to me. I thought it sounded fucking amazing.”
H: “It’s not necessarily known for being a music festival so when he said yes to us playing there, we thought ‘Hey, we should ask him if he can play with us too’. It was this awkward email like ‘How would you, haha, feel about, haha, playing a song with us, haha?’ Not getting any hopes up. He was down, so we picked an old Queen song called ‘Stone Cold Crazy’.”
N: “It was a fun one to play because it was different for us, but also it’s almost like a punk song too, so it worked. We also did ‘Gone Away’ with the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and Brian shredded over some of that too. We’re lucky guys, huh? It’s been fun to be doing more things like that. We then played with Yungblud and, man, there’s our hype-man! If you’re looking for someone with energy, go to him — it’s hard to keep up! He’s phenomenal.”
H: “Part of me wishes we could have Yungblud at every show, purely to hype everybody up all night!”
Punk is having is riding high and selling out some huge venues right now. Bands like Green Day and Rancid are touring together and going from strength to strength, while bands like Sum 41 are playing their biggest shows to date before they call it quits. Where is The Offspring at now?
N: “We’re just getting warmed up! I want to keep it going and I’m still looking for ways to make it bigger than it ever has been before. There are still parts of the world that we’ve never been to; we’ve never played Hong Kong and we’re going to Dubai for the first time soon. These are all things we’re looking forward to.”
H: “We’re having the best shows we’ve ever had. We did our first full arena tour in the UK just a couple of years ago, and it’s almost funny to us for things to be going this well at this stage. It’s like we finally have enough years behind us where we can present a whole body of work that people are familiar with, and a lot of different ages have had a chance to discover us too. All of that is only just sinking in now.”
“For us, it’s never been about getting to a finish line, this is just what we do! We love making music and being creative. Not making records would feel weird to me, and there is nothing better than the connection with the audience that you get from the live shows.”
N: “I hope we don’t quit anytime soon, we’re in the middle of building a new studio so that’d be a nasty legal dispute! We’ll have to stay together for the studio’s sake…”
‘Supercharged’ is out now via Concord. Find tickets to The Offspring’s upcoming shows here.
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
