Interview with Pierre from In Rock May issuce

[oritsu_luv]

Simple Plan’s ‘Still not getting any…’ has exploded all over the world. The boys themselves are the same as ever; after they’ve finished the photo shoot in the neighborhood around the venue, with the exception of Pierre, who stays for the interview, they go out to have a good time.

I heard that your album ‘Still not getting any…’ is doing really well. What’s your reaction?

Pierre: It’s great. It’s always a happy surprise when a record does well.

But when your first album came out, you said that most of the reviews were crap and they didn’t do Simple Plan justice. That you felt like the underdog. On this album you wrote about those feelings in ‘Me against the world’, and you write all your own songs, right? Now that they albums doing really well, do you feel like people take you seriously?

Pierre: Now I think there are more people who understand that we’re a real band, and we’re not just a flash in the pan. I think when we released our first album there were a lot of people who thought we would disappear from the scene really quickly.

Why? It was a good album.

Pierre: Because it’s pop. Because our music is melodious and catchy, and we’re just normal guys, not crazy or covered in tattoos. I don’t know why but I think there are a lot of people who don’t like it when your first record is a big success. They think that it’s just a whim or something. But yeah, the record’s doing really well, and we’re really happy about that. ‘Me against the world’ is about fighting against those unfair opinions and following your dreams and not caring what other people think.

A lot of pop rock bands, like Blink 182, or Sum 41 change directions on their third album and get more serious, but that negatively effects their popularity and their sales.

Pierre: I like to write songs that a lot of people will like, catchy songs that everyone can sing along with. That’s part of Simple Plan’s mentality, and I don’t think that’s going to change. Of course we’ll keep evolving. I want to keep writing songs that will be hits, that a lot of people will like, so I don’t think we’ll go in a serious direction. But I do think we’ll grow and mature.

Do you want to keep writing about different topics?

Pierre: That’s right. I think everyone improves, and I’m sure the topics I write about will change. We’re going to take some time about half a year from now to write songs, and I’m sure we’ll write about things we’ve experienced and what we’ve seen.

There are a lot of people who don’t think about their lives, and just take everything as it comes.

Pierre: I think there are a lot of people who are passive about life. But you control your own destiny, and everyone has the right to do what they love. If we hadn’t started our band a long time ago we wouldn’t be here now. So your future is for you to decide, and I believe that if you want to accomplish something, you can do it. But that takes a lot of drive and a lot of courage, so what you do is up to you. Everyone is free to do what they want.

There are a lot of people who think that popular bands like you who get to travel the world are always happy, and have no worries.

Pierre: I think that people have that misunderstanding about people in bands. Personally, my life is a lot more complicated because I’m in a band. I mean, I basically don’t have a home.

I thought you moved to somewhere in Canada to be with your girlfriend.

Pierre: I don’t know who that girlfriend was, but I’m not dating her anymore. I’m never home, so we couldn’t keep up a relationship. That’s the thing. No one understands. We don’t have friends anymore…I’ve only got one friend in my hometown, and I talk to my parents every couple of days on the phone, but I hardly ever see my brothers. The only people I ever see are the other band members or the crew…It’s really hard to keep friends, I think it would be impossible to have a relationship. No matter how much money we might have, we don’t have any time to use that money on something fun. And I don’t have a home to go back to…But I’m not complaining. I love what I’m doing, and I want to keep on doing it forever. It’s just that it’s not as easy as people think. We’re always on the move and always working, and sometimes you do get exhausted. I write songs about the hard things that I’ve been through, but we’re still going through hard things now. It’s a different situation when I’m performing, and it’s just that I don’t show it.

Recently Blink 182 announced that they’re going on hiatus..

Pierre: Yeah, that’s the thing. They had huge success, and made a ton of money, and I think they just want to live their lives now. They don’t want to take up the time with touring…I mean, they’ve been living that way for 10 years. When you live that way for a while, you start to think, ‘I want to live my own life, I’m living in a dream world now.’ But I still want to keep doing this, I want to keep doing this forever. I think that they feel the same, they just need a little break. Mark and Tom and Travis have kids and they need to look after their families, and that’s really important.

I think that they’re all going off on their own paths. They were really young when they formed the band, could it be that their interest in music, or their goals in life have changed?

Pierre: Even if their lives change and they want to focus on something other than music, I think that if music is still really important to them, they’ll come back. If they need to do other things right now, then that’s fine. But there’s no reason to know about their lives outside of music. If you live in Tokyo, they come to play once in 2 or 3 years, and other than that, they’re in other places.

What about this band? Will you guys go on different paths?

Pierre: I don’t think so. Our bonds just keep growing stronger. Because I think we’re one of those bands whose members get along really well. We all have the same tour bus, we don’t have separate vans, and we still hit the bars together after the show is over.

But David went to Tokyo alone to see Green Day.

Pierre: I’ve never been to a Bright Eyes show before, so I really wanted to go. (He didn’t end up going) I saw Green Day these two weeks. He’s obsessed with Green Day. There’s so problem with doing our own thing once in a while.

Could you tell me about Damage Control?

Pierre: It’s a show I’m hosting on MTV. We’re done recording, and it’ll be a 16 episode show. It just started airing last weekend.

The Madden brothers from Good Charlotte had a show on MTV which gained them a lot of popularity.

Pierre: Yeah, but the show I’m doing is a completely different type. It isn’t a music show, it’s a prank show. It stars normal kids, and their parents go away for the weekend, and MTV has all these hidden cameras set up.

What do you do?

Pierre: Me? I’m just the host. The parents who are away for the weekend watch the hidden cameras, and I watch with them. The set up is that I have the parents guess what their kid will do, and if they get it wrong, they don’t win any money.

So this means that more people in the US know who you are, right?

Pierre: Well…I guess I’m ‘kind of famous’. Some people know me and some don’t. There were kids on the show who didn’t know who I was. But that’s totally fine.

Could you tell me about your tour with Good Charlotte that starts on 5/1?

Pierre: We all decided it together. We have similar fans, and we wanted to do a tour together for a while now, and we were able to put it together because the timing was just right. We were together for a radio show in December, and we talked to them for about 30 minutes…

Only 30 minutes?

Pierre: Yeah, we greeted each other and started talking about how we should go on tour together, and decided it was a good idea. I don’t remember who brought it up first, but we were all interested in it at the same time.

I heard that there was also a business reason. There are a lot of pop rock bands touring the US right now, and that if your bands got together the tickets would sell. And you can play bigger venues than with only one band.


Pierre: That last time we toured the US it was with MXPX, because we thought it would be better to tour with two bands than one. There are a lot of bands touring right now, so you need to be able to convince kids to buy tickets. Everyone wants to go to festivals like Warped Tour. So we wanted to tour together and make a bigger show than that. We’re able to play in arenas that way too, and arena are good for the kids. The kids tell us that when we play at a small club in an area that might not be very safe, their parents won’t let them go. So more kids can come and see us if we play at a bigger venue.

You’re playing first on the tour, so even though it’s a double headlining tour, aren’t you worried that you’ll look like you’re opening for them? Doesn’t it bother you?

Pierre: We don’t mind at all. They said they wanted to go last, so we said that was fine. We don’t care…I mean, we’d actually rather play first. There’s four bands, and two of them will play for 30 minutes, so plus set change that will take an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes. Then we’ll play for an hour and 20 minutes, so by the time Good Charlotte play, the kids will have been waiting for 3 or 4 hours. I’d rather play first. Because if you play first, the kids are still full of energy, but by the time the show ends, they’re tired out. So I don’t care about looking like an opening or anything.

You have no ego, do you?

Pierre: Of course not. Besides, they’ve already been playing bigger venues in the US. So even if our album maybe did a little better than their’s this time, they’ve got a huge fan base. We really don’t have an ego. We’re not the type.

You met about the tour today, what were your ideas?

Pierre: I’d like to use a lot of red. I want to have a lot of speakers and make it a real rock show. It won’t be something weird or theatrical, I think it will be something really cool, with huge amps and a stage all done in one color, and a huge curtain behind us. How should I put it…I want to get rid of any kind of decoration, and just make it a show purely about rock, about music.

Good Charlotte has a very elaborate set, right?

Pierre: Yeah, they’ve got a set with a graveyard theme. But we want to make it simple, just about the music. We don’t want to use any cartoons or anything.

And you don’t want them to win.

Pierre: It’s not about winning or losing.

Really?

Pierre: Personally I want to do something like Green Day. The important thing isn’t what the set looks like, it’s the music. They really tap into the atmosphere of a live show.

I see. (she laughs) So, you’re nominated for several Juno awards. What do you think will happen?

Pierre: We probably won’t win anything. I mean…if you go with that kind of attitude, if you do win, it’s a big surprise. You don’t get disappointed that way. It’s an honor just to be nominated, and I think that Canada thinks of us as a very important band for the country.

Do you know that your popularity is growing even here in Japan?

Pierre: It’s growing? I don’t know. I think that we’ve always been popular in Japan, so I don’t think it’s any different. We’re still playing in the same venues we did two years ago, and I think that’s because things are going well. Well, this record did sell faster than our first one, so I guess that means we’ve got more fans. But it’s always a lot of fun to come to Japan. The shows are great, and all the people in Japan are so nice.

But fans wait for you at the station and that kind of thing, right?

Pierre: They’ve been doing that for a while.

So you’re used to is.

Pierre: I guess so. In Japan. (he laughs)

What about in the US and other countries?

Pierre: No, I think it’ s only in Asia. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. Maybe they’re more passionate about music and stuff, maybe they go crazier over bands. The fans in Japan and the rest of Asia are like that with us a lot.

I heard you went to meet with the victims of the tsunami, why was that?

Pierre: No, I had to film ‘Damage Control’ and couldn’t go, but Sebastien went. Sebastien and Patrick went to Phuket and met with victims around the beaches that had been the hardest hit.

When did they go?

Pierre: During the MTV Asia Aid concert. They wanted to put photos of it on the website, and show people what had happened. They want to help out financially, and they wanted to go to let people see that it’s alright to go there now. That region’s main financial basis is tourism, it’s important now for them to get the tourists to come back. There are no tourists coming, so the country need tourists quick. So we wanted to show them beautiful pictures and videos, and get people to go back there.

Do you have any news for Japan?

Pierre: Uh…we have a new video coming out. The song’s called ‘Untitled’. This guy named Mark Crashfeld directed it, and it should be finished some time this month. I think it’s going to be amazing.

In Osaka, 3/19/05