Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to inside the Studio on iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: My name is Jordan runt Dog, But enough about me.
Speaker 1: My guest today are So Cal Punk Legends. Album Smash
Speaker 1: is aptly named. It remains the best selling indie label
Speaker 1: release of all time. It has classics like Getaway, come
Speaker 1: Out and Play and self Esteem. They followed it up
Speaker 1: with x NA on the Ombre and Americana, which features
Speaker 1: songs that to me define rock in the late nineties,
Speaker 1: pretty fly for a White Guy, Why Don't You Get
Speaker 1: a job, and the Kids Aren't All Right. Now they're
Speaker 1: back with their first new album in nine years, and
Speaker 1: it's worth the weight. Called let the Bad Times Role,
Speaker 1: it's inspired by well, the last nine years for a start.
Speaker 1: Songs like this Is Not Utopia, The Opioid Diaries and
Speaker 1: the title track reference this undoubtedly dark period, but there's
Speaker 1: a great deal of hope in there too. I'm so
Speaker 1: happy to welcome Dexter, Holland and Noodles from the Offspring.
Speaker 1: Thank you, guys, Thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 1: So excited to speak to you. First and foremost, huge congratulations.
Speaker 1: The record is here. The good news is your album's here.
Speaker 1: The bad news is it's a pretty bummer time in
Speaker 1: the world right now, And the sentiment is reflected in
Speaker 1: the title Let the Bad Times Role. It's the the
Speaker 1: mosh pit at the end of the world. How did
Speaker 1: you land on? That? Is the title of your album?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I mean, you know, look at the look
Speaker 1: at the world around us? Appropriate for sure, right, you know.
Speaker 1: And there's two ways of looking at Let the Bad
Speaker 1: Times Role. One is that, you know, we have these
Speaker 1: world leaders that kind of want to keep the bad
Speaker 1: times roll and keep people divided. You know, the world
Speaker 1: is We're just so divided right now. The other way
Speaker 1: of looking at it is, man, how bad are things
Speaker 1: gonna get? What else? You? What else you got? I mean,
Speaker 1: bring it? Let the Bad Times role will take it? Man, right,
Speaker 1: whatever we're done fighting, We're just gonna we're gonna make
Speaker 1: the most out of it. What do you got? You know?
Speaker 1: But you had? Stuff is messed up in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, and it's it's still pretty messed up. But
Speaker 1: I don't know. I did text a lot of hope
Speaker 1: in the in the song in the album title, and
Speaker 1: then the song this this hopeful optimism to it. I'm
Speaker 1: glad he picked up on that thank you. At first look,
Speaker 1: you might say, God, these are all pretty dark song
Speaker 1: titles and subjects and stuff, But we try to put
Speaker 1: hope into into our music, and so I think it's
Speaker 1: an important part of our our message what we're going for. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: So this album has been a long time in the works.
Speaker 1: I think I read that first sessions were in August.
Speaker 1: When did you know that you were at the finish line?
Speaker 1: Why did you decide that it was ready in time
Speaker 1: to let it go? Really right as the pandemic was hitting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we kind of realized, yeah, you know, because we've been
Speaker 1: talking about being done. But then we kept we kept
Speaker 1: writing more and more. We kept having this really creative
Speaker 1: period about two years ago, and finally had it done
Speaker 1: with the pandemic and we're like, well, ship, we didn't
Speaker 1: want the bad times to roll that hard out fucking
Speaker 1: bad times rolling. It was infuriated you finally already and
Speaker 1: then you gotta sit on it for like a year.
Speaker 1: We didn't know for sure we should sit on it
Speaker 1: or not, but it just it felt like people's minds
Speaker 1: are elsewhere right now and we can't go out there
Speaker 1: and support it. We can't know, I can't travel and
Speaker 1: talk about it. So let's just take a look at
Speaker 1: what we got. And we got so we got to
Speaker 1: spend some good time on the artwork, you know, really
Speaker 1: kind of taking a look, maybe tweaking some things here
Speaker 1: and there, just fine tuning it a bit, and then
Speaker 1: we started doing like Chris, we did a Christmas song.
Speaker 1: We did a cover of the song from the Tire
Speaker 1: King that was amazing. Thank you, thank you. And at
Speaker 1: some point, okay, man, we gotta stop sucking around the
Speaker 1: records done. We gotta we gotta get it out. We
Speaker 1: gotta get it to the fans. We want to hear
Speaker 1: what the fans are gonna say about this. We spent
Speaker 1: a good long time working on it. I want ask
Speaker 1: you about the artwork. It's so cool. It's like Shiva
Speaker 1: meets Day of the Dead. How how did that come about?
Speaker 1: Exactly right? Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much the idea. I mean,
Speaker 1: I had the idea for a Shiva kind of character,
Speaker 1: and the ideas that in her hands she's holding society's
Speaker 1: ills or you know, some of the things that we're
Speaker 1: gonna explore more in the In the album. You can
Speaker 1: see what violence and drugs or greed or you know, anarchy,
Speaker 1: I suppose are the things she's kind of holding. I
Speaker 1: debated whether to put a virus in one of her hands,
Speaker 1: and then I decided that was a little a little
Speaker 1: too on the note time. I want to be just
Speaker 1: a little more oblique than that. So um, that was
Speaker 1: kind of my initial idea. And then we found this
Speaker 1: guy David, who's a really great artist, and started talking
Speaker 1: through hashing out the ideas, and he really put it
Speaker 1: together and interpreted it and he's just so great. I'm
Speaker 1: so happy that we found him. It looks incredible. You
Speaker 1: said that this is the most cathartic record that you
Speaker 1: you've ever released. I want to ask you more about that.
Speaker 1: Why Why is that? Is it just the amount of
Speaker 1: time that you put into it or specific songs? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean when we grew up, it was those kinds
Speaker 1: of songs that when you when a band would talk
Speaker 1: about being depressed or something that's wrong with the world,
Speaker 1: alienated or disenfranchised. Those are the ones that would help us,
Speaker 1: just me as a kid, the most. It wasn't. You'd
Speaker 1: almost think intuitively it would make you feel worse to
Speaker 1: hear some guys singing about being depressed or whatever, or isolated,
Speaker 1: but it was actually very freeing. It was very much like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not the only one, I'm not alone. It was
Speaker 1: very healing. So that's why we've never been afraid to
Speaker 1: go after those subjects. And hopefully it will mean something
Speaker 1: to other people as well, but for me it certainly did.
Speaker 1: And as you pointed out, there is also the message
Speaker 1: of hope that we will get through all these all
Speaker 1: these things, you know, So yeah, that's it is cathartic.
Speaker 1: Who were some bands when when you were first getting
Speaker 1: into music that made you feel that way that you
Speaker 1: felt spoken to and and less alone. Ts and Well
Speaker 1: was huge for sure. Well and the Adolescence were the
Speaker 1: big ones at that period of time, that kind of
Speaker 1: um teenage years and stuff. Of course, the bands that
Speaker 1: came before were important, like the Sex Pistols and the
Speaker 1: Ramones and you know those those are bands I still
Speaker 1: listened to regularly, and you're a big part of our
Speaker 1: life and stuff. The album is is just so incredible.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about a song that's meant
Speaker 1: a lot to me for many years, and it was
Speaker 1: so fascinating and wonderful to hear you revisit it, And
Speaker 1: that's Gone Away, the beautiful version with piano and strings.
Speaker 1: What made you decide to And I know that version
Speaker 1: has been in your life, I've set for a long time.
Speaker 1: What made you decide to to put it on this album?
Speaker 1: The fans really asked us for it. Yeah, it is
Speaker 1: something we've been playing live for the last four or
Speaker 1: five years. Uh, and it's it's kind of a dramatic
Speaker 1: part of the set um every night, and and taking
Speaker 1: that song, which has probably reached our fans in a
Speaker 1: way as deeply as any song we've ever done, you know,
Speaker 1: as intensely. It really does strike a chord with with
Speaker 1: our fans, and playing it acoustically kind of purifies it,
Speaker 1: strips it down to its to its pierced form. You know,
Speaker 1: you're not hiding the vocals behind heavy guitar, bass and drums.
Speaker 1: And the fans really connected with that during the live
Speaker 1: performance and have been asking us meet and greets, you know,
Speaker 1: on social media, when when can they hear a studio version,
Speaker 1: you know, of the Piano Gone Away, And so we
Speaker 1: decided to do it. Yeah, Oh it's amazing. What was
Speaker 1: it I don't have the word daunting is the right word,
Speaker 1: but what was it like? For you to to to
Speaker 1: revisit that song, I mean, just something that that does,
Speaker 1: I mean obviously comes from such a personal place for you,
Speaker 1: but also it's touched so many people in such a way.
Speaker 1: What was that like to to revisit that. When you're
Speaker 1: working with a song, you know, you do on a
Speaker 1: hundred times, there's sort of this industrialization of the song, right,
Speaker 1: But reworking the song again felt really very emotional, actually,
Speaker 1: because you're kind of re examining the lyrics and your
Speaker 1: feelings about how when you wrote it and what it
Speaker 1: meant and all that stuff, and especially doing it which
Speaker 1: is a piano, I felt like it made the vocal
Speaker 1: a lot more personal, So it was almost a vulnerability
Speaker 1: that was almost kind of uncomfortable even doing it that way.
Speaker 1: That it took a little time to get that performance out.
Speaker 1: We convinced him it was great and that it was worthwhile.
Speaker 1: It's right, I mean, you know, one of the highlights
Speaker 1: of the record for me. I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: about a song that that really blew my mind was
Speaker 1: the cover of the in the Hall of the Mountain King.
Speaker 1: Where did that? Where did that come from? That is
Speaker 1: meant to be this kind of you know w t
Speaker 1: F moment and the record It was out of fun,
Speaker 1: our idea of this would be fun to do. You know,
Speaker 1: we can get away with a short what the funk
Speaker 1: moment on a record? You know, I just have fun
Speaker 1: with it, punk version of a classical song? Right? Who'd
Speaker 1: have thought? A bunch of Greek? Can you think of that?
Speaker 1: He didn't know? He should have, He missed it. Piker
Speaker 1: Biker is somebody who does things in small ways. They
Speaker 1: don't give they don't give it the full effort. Okay,
Speaker 1: Greek was so close it ed Bard, You were so close.
Speaker 1: Don't be a piker. But how's the last year been
Speaker 1: for you? I mean, I know you have your own studio,
Speaker 1: so that's gonna be helpful for at least like making music.
Speaker 1: Have you been been productive musically and and working on
Speaker 1: new stuff or refining the album or what? Have you
Speaker 1: been up to a lot of rehearsing, you know, besides
Speaker 1: doing Tiger King covers. We we uh been rehearsing, you know,
Speaker 1: taking the new record and and assigning who's gonna be
Speaker 1: playing what part where you know, and and how to
Speaker 1: make it sound really good live because it's it's different
Speaker 1: than you know, putting it all on tape, and then
Speaker 1: also going back and rehearsing the old stuff and making
Speaker 1: sure we're locked in in parts where maybe we got
Speaker 1: a little sloppy, or after a while you develop bad
Speaker 1: habits and you're playing and you have to kind of
Speaker 1: correct for that. I do. Anyways, you know, maybe it's
Speaker 1: not just me, or maybe it is just me. Anyways,
Speaker 1: we're getting we've been doing all that. It's been fun.
Speaker 1: We can't play for a live audience, so let's get
Speaker 1: in here and at least kind of connect as musicians.
Speaker 1: And it's been a lot of fun. And Yeah, what's
Speaker 1: the latest with that? Cause I know I'm starting to
Speaker 1: hear some bands are starting to tentatively announce tours later
Speaker 1: in the year early next year. You have you have
Speaker 1: an eye on that yet or is it it's still tbd? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we you know, we want to get out
Speaker 1: there and play, so we're definitely are keeping our eye
Speaker 1: on that and and making sure we're gonna be ready
Speaker 1: to go when when it's say, you know, safe to gather.
Speaker 1: We're looking at We've just announced some shows in November
Speaker 1: were slated to play here in California in October. You know,
Speaker 1: we're hopeful that with the virus, the vaccines rolling out
Speaker 1: and the virus you know, slowing down, and hopefully we
Speaker 1: can put it to bed and and hopefully hopefully for
Speaker 1: the fall. Yeah. Do you have any concert or tour
Speaker 1: rituals or superstitions. I don't know if we have any superstitions.
Speaker 1: I used to have a superstition that I needed to
Speaker 1: drink two or three beers before every show. There you go,
Speaker 1: I've I've I've learned that I can actually play a
Speaker 1: show without Without that, it's not as fun. But yeah, still,
Speaker 1: you didn't want to mess with that superstition to find
Speaker 1: I didn't want to Messa find out some of these. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was invested in that one. We we don't really
Speaker 1: I mean, you know we well, Dexter likes to warm
Speaker 1: He warms up his voice before he plays. That's important,
Speaker 1: especially if you're doing like three shows in a row.
Speaker 1: You don't want to, you know, wear your voice out.
Speaker 1: The rest of us like to get together and just
Speaker 1: kind of play guitar riffs off each other and and
Speaker 1: kind of you know, if we're working in a new
Speaker 1: song or a song we haven't played in a while,
Speaker 1: we run through that a few times to make sure
Speaker 1: we remember how to play it correctly, you know that,
Speaker 1: make sure we're locked in. Really just kind of hang
Speaker 1: out and get a feel for the for the venue
Speaker 1: and you know, warm up a little bit. Do you
Speaker 1: ever have any any spinal tap moments? Oh, my gosh,
Speaker 1: always yeah. I mean that movies just the gift that
Speaker 1: keeps on given because it is so true and so
Speaker 1: accurate in so many ways. And I remember we went
Speaker 1: through a period where we watched it quite a bit,
Speaker 1: even though it's been out for a long time, but
Speaker 1: even by then, by by the time we were doing
Speaker 1: I don't know, self esteem, like we had gone through
Speaker 1: all that, Like we knew all those scenes because we
Speaker 1: had We've been lost backstage. We've been We've been puppet
Speaker 1: Show and the Offspring. Yeah, yeah, yeah, do the jazz honestly,
Speaker 1: but like just all of a sudden through the set,
Speaker 1: We're gonna do jazz, honest Little Brad still frustrates do
Speaker 1: a little brad Well too much, too much fucking perspective
Speaker 1: and race playspective. Yeah, it's great. Dexter. First of all,
Speaker 1: congratulations on your PhD. I feel like I should have
Speaker 1: mentioned that earlier. Thank you. I mean, not only are
Speaker 1: you a touring musician, but you're someone who has a
Speaker 1: page Dame Molecular Biology. What is your take on you know,
Speaker 1: how things are going? Like, do you think we we
Speaker 1: got to totally put you on the spot, But do
Speaker 1: you think we were returning a corner? I do, And
Speaker 1: like I I don't want to speak as an expert
Speaker 1: because it's not what I do for a living, but um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean it's a matter of getting on
Speaker 1: top of the vaccinations for sure. And unfortunately in the US,
Speaker 1: we've actually done a pretty good job of the rollout.
Speaker 1: I think, um, two million shots given right, so crazy? Right, yeah? Crazy?
Speaker 1: I think in California anyway, I've heard have at least
Speaker 1: one shot Like these are big numbers. It's great. So
Speaker 1: we just got to get on top of of that
Speaker 1: before the variants get on top of that. And I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna get there. Well, what else can we
Speaker 1: look forward to us? Wait, no, before you get out
Speaker 1: in the row, what how what else can fans expect
Speaker 1: from you? We've been doing this series of videos called
Speaker 1: how To with the Offspring Um and we've released a couple.
Speaker 1: One is how to Surf and dexter teaches you how
Speaker 1: to surf, and then one where I teach you how
Speaker 1: to bird watch, which I don't know if people are
Speaker 1: really gonna learn anything from these things, but that's part
Speaker 1: of that's part of a joke, because you really don't
Speaker 1: learn how to bird watch it all, or how to
Speaker 1: how to surf. N you can find it on YouTube
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your videos and stuff, but we
Speaker 1: have our own YouTube page. You can see it in
Speaker 1: amongst our videos. They've been fun to make, So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna do one. I think the next one
Speaker 1: I want to do is is going to be how
Speaker 1: to fly fighters yet? Okay, that's why your pilot's license, right, Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And at some point we might actually do things that
Speaker 1: you can learn, Like I could show people how to
Speaker 1: play the solo to kids Aren't all right? Or something
Speaker 1: like that. That would be a little more you know serious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe that would be the how really to how to
Speaker 1: really yeah really the offspring. Yeah, surfing definitely seems like
Speaker 1: something that maybe over a video tutorial kind of need
Speaker 1: to be there. Yeah, how long have you been surfing?
Speaker 1: I mean that's like that's something that's I'm in New
Speaker 1: England kids, so that's just totally foreign to There's some
Speaker 1: surf up there, but it's it's cold. Yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: snowing right now. I'm not kidding, it's snowing right now.
Speaker 1: So um yeah. I mean I started surfing when I
Speaker 1: was twelve and and it's something I've been doing on
Speaker 1: and off my whole life. And it's just there. You know,
Speaker 1: it's the coolest feeling in the world when you catch
Speaker 1: away and you start riding up and down and you
Speaker 1: know it is Yeah, it's just a great feeling, doesn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, it goes by really pretty quick. You spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time out in the water, paddling, watching
Speaker 1: the horizon, looking for bumps to pop up, trying to
Speaker 1: get into position, you know, trying to get around other people.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's a lot of work for a pretty
Speaker 1: short payoff, but the feeling is is incredible. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's really a neat feeling. Well, guys, I don't wanna
Speaker 1: take a too much more your time. It's been so
Speaker 1: great talking you. My last question and this has been
Speaker 1: the question I've been asking everybody as we wrap these up,
Speaker 1: hopefully it won't be able to ask it much longer.
Speaker 1: But if you can snap your fingers and have everything
Speaker 1: go back to whatever your definition of normal is, say
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, what would be the first thing that you
Speaker 1: would do people, You'd hug, places, you travel to, restaurants
Speaker 1: you'd go eat at without a mask, and it will
Speaker 1: be the first thing that you would do. I want
Speaker 1: to go to mothers and have a mason jar full
Speaker 1: of paps, blue ribbon. That is a solid answer. I'd
Speaker 1: like to play show. That'd be fun. Oh yeah, that'd
Speaker 1: be good. That's showing beer. That sounds like a good night.
Speaker 1: We're simple people. We're not pikes though not pikers, bikers, bikers.
Speaker 1: A pike is a fish. Oh we're not. We're neither
Speaker 1: of those things. Fishing, We're not fishing fish offspring, not fish.
Speaker 1: Heard it here first get bit? Yeah, thank you. The
Speaker 1: records incredible, You're incredible. Thank you so much for taking
Speaker 1: the time today. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you
Speaker 1: very much. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside
Speaker 1: the Studio, a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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