AP采访Simple plan

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I might be starting off with a sore subject here, but I noticed that your past three albums all debuted at #2 on the Canadian charts. Think the new album’s got what it takes to de-throne Adele for #1? She’s probably going to be your biggest competition.

The good news is that there's not that much coming out on that date! It feels good. It's exciting. It'd be amazing to have a number one record in our home country. It'd be sick. But we'll see. I have no idea. It's so crazy. It's hard to predict nowadays with record sales. In our scene and in the types of fans sometimes ... it's not Micheal Buble or Adele where it's an older crowd that still buys a lot of physical albums. However, we do have a lot of passionate and very devoted fans that care about having the actual CD and the art and everything. But really at this point, it's not really our focus. We just want to get this music out and just want people to hear it, however they do -- if they want to stream it, they want to buy it on iTunes, they want to buy the physical, they want to borrow it from their friends, I don't care. As long as they hear the music.

How confident are you as far as singles go with the record? I know "I Don't Wanna Go To Bed" is doing pretty well on Canadian pop radio. Are there any plans to push it to U.S. radio anytime soon?

That track was never the plan to go to U.S. radio. It's kind of weird because we're doing a different strategy for the U.S. single. We're going to go with "Singing In the Rain." That's going to come out around spring time, so like March/April. We feel it's a very summery song. We want to time it with nice weather coming back, so it's a little strange. In a way, it'll downplay our expectations a little bit of how the record's going to come out and how it's going to debut on the U.S. chart because we really didn't have a lot of radio action. We purposely didn't put out something because we wanted to start with that one, so that's the plan that'll go in March or April. We'll see what happens. But I feel like that song is awesome. For me, it's one of my favorites on the record. I feel it has the potential for people to like it and hopefully for radio to embrace it. We're cautiously optimistic.

You've got the R. City feature on it going for you too, I think. They just had that big summer hit with Adam Levine.

Yeah, they had like a number one record around the world. It's amazing. I love that band. I love their style. What I love the most is how it's a band from the Virgin Islands and they're the real deal. They live and breathe that reggae vibe. The accents and everything. They're legit. We love having that kind of influence. That's not exactly what we do, we weren't brought up playing that kind of music, but we've always loved it and have tons of respect for it. We got the chance to work with Sean Paul on the last album so that dancehall vibe was already sort of part of some of our songs. To have guys like that who are amazing at what they do and they come from that scene, it's pretty cool. It makes the song more special, more exciting. To have a chance to have an artist step up and be part of the song, it's great. On top of it, like you mentioned, they also have lots of big momentum. They just had a huge song. And also, we got to meet them, and they were just the nicest, most awesome guys ever. They came to the studio and we worked hard on the part and we went back and forth. It was just really pleasant and really cool. When you meet people you respect and they turn out to be really good people, it makes it a lot more fun. I hope if it can help get a foot in the door, that'd be great.

So this album obviously didn't come out last year despite hoping it'd maybe be released around October. What was the reason behind pushing it back a bit?

We pretty much had a finished record around mid-summer and we were contemplating a release in the fall, but then we started playing the record and listening back and just felt like something was missing -- like it wasn't complete. We felt like we were lacking some elements on the album. Mostly I would say songs that were more in the vein of the classic Simple Plan songs. We were lacking a little bit of the hard-hitting, high-energy type of songs, even though we had been writing for a year and a half. To be quite honest, we were a little bit burned, and a little bit like, "Oh my God, I'm so glad we finally have the record done and we get to go back on tour."

Me and Pierre sat down and we had a talk with the whole band and were like, "You know what, guys, we feel we need to go back in and write a few more and kind of focus on making sure that our fans would get the kind of songs they expect from us." Also, for us, we were listening and we were like, "Oh man, we need a few more of those classic Simple Plan songs for the live show." We needed a few bangers for when we go out on tour and we wanted to make sure the show is fun and has tons of energy. We're going to play those songs for the next two years, you know? We need to make sure the record has that energy that's really important to our band. So we went back in around October-November and we actually did one more month of writing and we came up with three songs that ended up on the album. We've got "Nostalgic," "Farewell," and the first song off the record, "Opinion Overload" -- those were all written in those last sessions before we could say the record was done. It ended up being kind of crazy because we had to adapt more. We had to make a deadline. We finished writing the songs in late November and we were in the studio in early December. We finished everything in between Christmas and New Years. I think when I look back, I'm so happy we pushed ourselves to write a little more and come up with more songs, because it changed the whole vibe of the album. If you take out those three songs, it's a different type of album.

It's cool too because you've got "Opinion Overload" coming out tomorrow along with the music video. From the clips and photos I've seen from the shoot, it seems really similar to the "I'd Do Anything" video with the whole small club atmosphere. Was that the idea behind it?

I mean, we didn't try to copy "I'd Do Anything," but I think it was important to us to do a video that was sort of "back to our roots," you know? With no crazy narrative or crazy production. Just take it all back to what this band is all about, which is playing live. That's what we love to do, that's what we've been doing since we were 14 years old. That's where the band, in my opinion, really comes alive. That's where we have the most fun. We ended up going back to the sweaty, small rock club and having a bunch of fans there and made a pure performance video. I don't think we've ever really done an only-performance video. The song sounds like it has the spirit of our first and second records without sounding like a 2002 song, so we just wanted to have a video that would match that. We actually finished it early this morning, so it's done now. I'm very excited for fans to see it.

As far as future music videos go, I have to wonder if you're going to be using the sports theme you've got going on as a video treatment. I feel like "Kiss Me Like Nobody's Watching" would be perfect for a video where you're all in uniform just getting demolished in some sport.

[Laughs] It's so funny, I had this awesome concept idea kind of like that, like of us getting literally destroyed. There's a cool twist ... I'm not going to give it away, but that's something in the air. I'm really stoked on how the whole album shoot came out. When you see all of the art in the album booklet, it's pretty cool. I feel like art is sort of a dying breed. You don't see a lot of elaborate photo shoots or concepts anymore. People are just kind of like, "Hey, let's just do a press shot" and nothing else, because nobody cares, nobody buys the physical. I don't know, man. I grew up being such a fan of album art and being so stoked when my favorite band would come out with something exciting or something conceptional. Some of my favorite album covers that we've done like No Pads or Still Not Getting Any, they all had a really cool concept to it. Even Get Your Heart On. We like to dress up and make fun of ourselves a little bit and just have something playful and not take ourselves too seriously. So the art came out really awesome. I can't wait for people to see the whole thing.

We got lucky. There was no way we could pull off this shoot, the budget would've been insane. But I personally called, like, every team in Montreal. Like the Montreal Impact, which is the MLS soccer team, I called them up and they gave us permission to use their stadium and their uniform. Then the Montreal Alouettes, the football club in the CFL, they gave us their locker room and their unforms and everything. Then we went to the tennis stadium which has the ATP Tournment in Montreal and we used that. It was so rad. It was cool to do it in our hometown as well.

In addition to learning the album wouldn't be out until 2016, we also found out that "Saturday" wouldn't be making the record at all. Was this due to the backlash the song received or was it just a creative decision you guys decided to make?

It was a mix of both, to be honest with you. We had the song and we felt like, "Hey, it's ready, let's throw it out there." Then it came out and we had the reaction of, "Eh, a lot of fans liked it but a lot of fans didn't like it at all." A few people that were involved with the album really, really, really loved the song. They're like, "I'm telling you, it's awesome!" It's always exciting when you have people embracing something and you're like, "Ok cool, let's run with it and see what happens." But I think deep inside we had that gut feeling about the song and we were like, "You know what, I don't think it's really us." It didn't really feel right. I think the few times in our careers when we didn't follow that gut feeling, it came back to bite us in the ass, so I feel like that's what happened with that song. That's one of the biggest lessons. Even though we've been doing it for such a long time, there's still lessons you learn. It's a humbling thing. You have to be smart enough to accept it. When we got the comments and the feedback, we were like "Fuck ... we kind of agree." [Laughs]

Even from the start, there was this weird vibe around the song. It was the first time we ever used a "sample" on a song. The whole "S-A-T-U-R" bit. We've never used that before. When you use that, you have to go and clear the sample, and it was the most difficult and weirdest thing. We wrote this whole song around it and then we had to sort of beg permission to use it and it was a weird process. Basically, we kind of realized it wasn't for us. We'd rather just write everything as opposed to sampling or whatever. Some bands do it well, but for us, it just didn't feel right. We were like, "We just don't want to put it on, fuck it." As we kept writing new songs, it just didn't fit in anymore, either. It didn't feel like it was part of our top fourteen, so we made the call to not include it. It's still out there if people want to hear it, but we decided it shouldn't be on the record.

I was on the “Saturday” YouTube page and saw a comment that was like, “This song is probably just their upbeat/poppy one, the rest of the album will have the meaningful ballads that we all know and love,” or something like that, and it was really interesting because I realized a lot of your fans probably solely listen to you because of those ballads instead of those upbeat ones. Is that something you realize while in the studio? Do you ever find yourselves writing too many pop songs and say, like, “Oh man, we have to start ballads now, we can’t screw this up,” just because of how important they are to fans?

It’s always been a part of our sound. We’ve always done it. I think it all started with having “Perfect” on the first record and how important that song became to us, to the fans, and our career. It kind of defined the band in some ways. Maybe if we would have had the first record and there was no "Perfect" on it, maybe the band doesn't have the same kind of career. If you're just a band that has just the fun stuff and up-tempo and super poppy stuff, maybe you're lacking a little bit of substance. Maybe you're lacking a little bit of honesty and being real. I think that's what our fans appreciate. They see the honesty.

When we grew up, we always loved very diverse records. We loved bands like Guns N' Roses -- they had these epic, super emotional ballads. For us, it always felt like an album should have peaks and valleys and different vibes. You should feel different emotions as you listen to it. We're still attached to that album format and having something that takes you into diffferent directions, different places. It's true that throughout our career, the sort of slower, more emotional, more meaningful, "heavier" subject songs, they've been important. On the second album we had "Untitled" -- a song that meant a lot to a lot of people. Then on the third album we had "Save You" -- that was the song Pierre wrote about his brother who had cancer. On the last record,Get Your Heart On, we had "This Song Saved My Life," which talks about the power of music and everything. It's become something the fans love and expect, and I say that with a lot of modesty. We love writing these types of songs and I think we're good at it. That's part of our arsenal of things that we can do and do well. Not that we have to do a ballad every album, but it just feels right to go back to those songs and make sure we have stuff that feels heartfelt, honest, and genuine. Stuff that feels more powerful, in terms of emotions and everything.

On this record, we definitely have a few songs in that vein. We've got "Perfectly Perfect," which is in that tradition of all the pop-punk acoustic ballads have been done throughout the years, like "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day or Plain White T's' "Hey There Delilah" and all these awesome songs. And then you've got "Problem Child," which is a song I feel our fans will definitely feel is important for them. I think, hopefully, it'll mean a lot for them.

The ballads on this album aren't really what people are used to seeing in a Simple Plan record, mostly because "I Dream About You" has this ambient-electronic vibe to it, and I think Juliet Simms' voice really adds to it. It has this dark, eerie feel almost. How do you feel about that song compared to the slow, but more arena-rock type song like "Astronaut" from Get Your Heart On?

It definitely has a darker vibe that we've never really touched on before. We kind of came up with the song and for a while we had it. We were like, "It does feel different." We kept playing it around to people and they're like, "It's such a great song, it's so cool, it's so different." I think it came out really great. I think adding Juliet's voice on it added a whole new dimension to it -- made it more interesting story wise. Lyrically, it's a very simple idea. The idea is that tons of people dream of having all this money, being famous, whatever, and I'm just happy dreaming about you, you know? It's simple, but the melody and the way the whole production is, it makes it feel a little creepy and a little haunting. That was the idea, so having the female voice really adds the story, since you get the two perspectives. I think it came out great and is a great album closer. It's different for us. I have no idea how the fans will react to it. I hope they like it. I think they will. We thought it was cool and we kept going back to it. We just felt it'd be a cool and different thing to try.

I think the big thing a lot of people are going to say about this album, and I'm kind of guilty of it too, is that it's this "throwback" or "return-to-form" record, when I don't think that's 100% the case. You've never really done a song that's totally like "I Refuse," you know? So is it frustrating to grow as a songwriter over the years and write a great song and then somebody's like, "Cool! Sounds like a song from when they were 17!" -- even if it wasn't said maliciously? And you're just like, "Wait, that's not exactly right ..."

It's funny, Pierre and I talk about it all the time. There's something quite ironic about the fact that ... like, when we first came out with No Pads, it was really successful, but there was also a lot of backlash on the record. It was the whole era of Good Charlotte, and us, and Blink, and New Found Glory, and all these bands that were getting a lot of shit for being "pop punk" and being too pop. It's weird now to imagine that because for people who weren't there, I read some stuff that was literally vicious about the scene. It was gnarly. And at the time, people were like, "This record is so pop, it's so this and this, it's not real punk rock." It's so funny to have people say now, when we put out a song like "I Refuse," which I think is super fast and aggressive -- way more aggressive than anything we ever had on No Pads -- those people say, "Oh yeah, totally throwback!" And I'm like, "Wait, I thought our old stuff was super pop?"

It's almost like the perception is stronger than the reality of what actually was on those records. If you go back to No Pads or Still Not Getting Any, I think they're high-energy records, but like you said, there weren't a lot of songs that were as heavy as some of the songs on this record. I feel this is one of our heaviest, most rocking records -- especially after adding those three songs I was talking about it. It made it a lot more rock and a lot heavier. I see it as throwback in the sense that we wanted to re-capture the spirit that we had when we made the first and second record, but in terms of songwriting, I think it's way better and we've evolved a lot. We've made progress as a band. I think we're better, I think we play better, I think we write better. But we wanted to re-capture what people loved about the band. It is the energy, it is the fun. The super catchy, up-tempo type of songs we can do well, you know? I hope people will get that out of the record, but at the same time, it's 2016. We can't just go back and make the exact same album that we've done before.

But if you hear the whole record, I think there's a lot of songs that are in that style. We've never really done something like "I Refuse," except from maybe "Thank You" on the second record. Every album we ever made, there was always different vibes. I think maybe that's why it's hard to sum up exactly what Simple Plan is, because we're always trying to change it.

I'd say you could split this new album into four parts almost: the ballads, the pop-punk ones, the weird ones, and then straight-up pop ones. I think you could do the same thing with Get Your Heart On, too.

We just want to give ourselves the license to try different things and not be pigeonholed as one thing or another. I think it explains the longevity of the band in some ways. If we always did the up-tempo songs, I don't know if we would be at the same level that we're at today. If we only did Top 40 songs, I don't think we're still here today. These bands can have success, but there's no substance. They come and go, because there's nothing to hold onto, and people don't want to see them live because they don't feel the energy. It's hard for a band like that to connect with a fanbase, as opposed to a rock band, or even bands from the scene. There's just something more real and honest about it. If we didn't have the ballads, we wouldn't have the same connection that we have with our fans. We get so many people that write us letters or come to our shows and they're like, "You understand who I am and what I'm going through. It's like you're writing my life and my stories and that's why I love you guys." That's what Simple Plan is, being all these things.

In some ways, if we get asked the question, "How are you guys still here after 17 years?," I think it's really because we're not just one thing. I wouldn't call it a formula, but we've found a balance between all the things we like and dimensions we have as a band and that's what makes us who we are. So that's why on this record it was so important to add those songs because we felt like we were lacking those high-energy rock songs.

I feel like the guests on the album amplify the diversity almost, because even though you can do a pop or pop-punk song completely on your own, having Jordan Pundik on "Farewell" just brings it to a whole different level. What went into Jordan being on the song? Did you always all of those guests on the album in mind from the start?

I think we're just trying to work our way to have every single awesome pop-punk singer on our records. So far, we're doing pretty good. We got Joel from Good Charlotte and Mark from Blink on the first record, and then we had Alex of All Time Low and Rivers from Weezer. Now we've got Jordan from New Found Glory. We've got a pretty good roster. [Laughs]

We've been friends with Jordan and the guys from New Found Glory for a long time. We've played shows with them all over the world and I think we share a lot of the same similar story. We started around the same time and they're still around and doing great. I think there's a lot of common ground. It's always important to keep that connection to where we come from, to what we grew up on. As teenagers, our idols were Strung Out, Ten Foot Pole, Lagwagon, No Use for a Name, and Pennywise -- stuff like that. It's in our DNA. No matter how pop some of the songs get, we truly do love that scene. Even making this record, we always go back to those bands and still listen to them. The way we arrange songs and the way we think about music, its been formed and built on from listening to all these bands. I think the music you listen to as a teenager is really what has the biggest impact on you as a music listener. No matter how diverse your tastes will get as you get older, you're never going to find a band that makes you feel as passionate as how you felt when you listen to those early-teenage bands. For me, it's obvious. It's really hard to find something that makes you feel as excited again, you know?

It's important to us on every album to have a guest that sort of connects us to the scene still. That was the idea with Jordan. I think he killed it. It's so crazy. When he comes on, it sounds like it was written for him. His voice just works perfect. I think as fans and as a band, it's always fresh to have different people. We've never worked with him before and it was just really cool. He was so nice about it, he was like, "Of course I'll do it, I love you guys." He went over to Pierre's home studio in San Diego and it came out great.

As far as the other guests, it's different. We like to have fun. We were always fans of Nelly in the early 90's and just thought we had a song that was really different from us and were like, "What would make it more fun and exciting?" We thought, "What if we had a verse from Nelly? Well ... it's not going to happen." But we called him up and he was into it. He's really melodic. The way he raps, it's almost as if he's singing sometimes. It's super catchy and I've always been a big fan. We kind of came up at around the same time in the early 2000's. We had played radio shows with him and everything. I think he did a really good job on it. As far as Juliet, same thing. We saw her on Warped Tour and knew she had an amazing voice. We called her up and she was super into the idea. She came up to the studio and did a great job. Again, super nice and really cool. I think we just like to have guests because it gives a different buzz on the record. It makes people excited.

Is there a difference between having the guest on a song co-write it versus just having them sing what you write? Jordan didn't write "Farewell" but Nelly wrote his verse. And then Rivers wrote his for the song on Get Your Heart On, too. So does it change when the artist is actually in the studio offering their input on the part they're singing on?

Not necessarily. I think it's a little easier when you write the song with someone to sort of ... I mean, not to convince them, but to sort of be like, "Hey, wouldn't that be cool if you sang on this?" With Rivers, it's funny, when we wrote the song, he was like, "Oh man, I love this song. I'd love to sing this song. If you guys don't use it, make sure you tell me because it could totally be a Weezer song." So we were like, "Holy shit, that'd be cool. Hold on, let's not use the song, let's make it a Weezer song." [Laughs] But then we knew he was stoked on it because he was part of writing it. Right away you know that the artist going to be interested in doing it because he wrote it with you, so hopefully he likes it. But when somebody doesn't write it, you have to hope they're going to like it because they have no real connection to the song. So that's the real difference. When somebody writes the song with you, they'd be into the idea even more because they've got the attachment. But then again, for example, Jordan didn't write that verse, but for whatever reason, when we approach people, we have the demo and we try to imagine who can really do a good job on it. For us, it was, "Oh shit, we would love to have Jordan on the record. I feel like 'Farewell' would be the perfect song. I can hear him sing it." Sure enough, when he sang it, it was exactly like we invisioned it and it was awesome.

I was listening to Pierre talk on Shane from Silverstein's podcast and he was saying how a bunch of songs had been written for the record but only a handful were 100% done. Are there ever times when you maybe write an amazing verse or chorus but can't shape the rest of the song around it, so it just dies? Does it kind of piss you off that those parts are wasted, or do you end up using that chorus or verse for something newer down the line?

It happens. You'll get really stoked on something, like a riff or a chorus idea, and you try to work backwards and write the rest of the song, then it doesn't come together as good. On every album, there's always parts that keep coming back and Pierre will be like, "Hey, remember we had this really sick chorus or really cool guitar thing?" It might take months sometimes. We keep bringing things back and one day it's not working. Then you take something and try it again three months later and it's still not working. Then finally, a week later you try it again and it comes together and it sounds cool. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you have this awesome little part but don't know what to do with it or where to take it, and it sucks because you see the potential but can't figure out which direction it needs to take. We had this joke where we'd have this new format of songs, that are just 30 second choruses, and we wouldn't have to write the verses or the bridge.[Laughs] We'd just have thirty of them on a record or something.

On the second record, we had the chorus for "Untitled," literally, the whole time we were writing. We just had that chorus. We knew it was amazing and it really stood out, but we could not figure it out. Then we were mixing the record and Bob Rock was like, "You need to finish that song." It was like five days before the end of the record, and the reason why it's called "Untitled" is because we weren't sure if we were going to change the lyrics or not. We knew the song was going to be on the record but we didn't know if it was going to take a different direction or not. That's why we called it "Untitled" [Laughs] This way, it was artistic but at the same time, we at least leave our options open. We finally finished it the day before the mixing was done, and wrote all the lyrics and everything. But we knew there was something special about that chorus. It's easy to write a verse around it but it has to be as good as the chorus, otherwise it ruins it. Sometimes it's not that you're not capable of writing something around it, it's just maybe you haven't figured out something that's good enough.

How many leftovers are there from this album that could be released right now and you'd be satisfied? Are we ever going to hear any of those in the future? Something like the EP that we got from the last album?

I think so. It was really cool to have an outlet last time around for the songs that didn't make the record. I think doing the EP thing is something that kind of works for us. I'm not sure exactly how many songs, but there's definitely between 5-10 songs that could be released now. They didn't fit on the record and I'm not sure they'd be the one thing I'd want to put out. But it's hard to say. I wouldn't want them to come out before the record, but on an EP or something after, then that'd be cool. There's a lot of songs that will be released down the road. We don't really keep songs for the next album. If they didn't make this one, then they probably shouldn't make the next one. We always start from scratch. We actually recorded two more songs that didn't make the record that are fully mastered and that I think are really dope. Then there's 5-6 demos that could've been on the album. They were contenders until the very end. It was easy to bring the list down to 25-20 songs, but what was tough was bringing it down to 14. David, our bass player, was like, "You guys are insane! We're not putting that song on it? I can't believe it, I'm so bummed." But it's because you have to make choices. You can't have five ballads. We had a song that was very similar to "I Refuse" and we had to pick one or the other because they were so similar. You don't want to have the same kind of record and have 2-3 songs that sound the same. So that song definietly could be released and I think fans would be stoked on it.

Pierre also touched on the fact that you guys have written together for so long that sometimes it's hard to communicate when your ideas differ. I know this is a dramatic turn here, but have you ever found yourself so frustrated that you say like, “You know what, maybe this is it for us, we’ve been around long enough”? I only ask because that’s something The Summer Set just went through with their new album and they just talked about it the other day. I’m wondering if you’ve gone through that or even if you've never felt that way, if you had any advice for younger bands that are going through a bunch of crap with the industry or their recording process and they feel like throwing in the towel because of it?

I think the process of this record in some ways made us kind of question if we want to be in a band. And lots of it was because of some of the backlash and some of the criticism and some of the comments. Obviously, when you write something and when you do something, your hope is ... I mean, you're realistic, you know it's not going to happen ... but your hope is that everybody is going to love it. When it doesn't happen, it can be a little crushing. It hurts. No matter how much success you've had or how many fans you have ... even if you have 90 amazing comments, you'll always remember the one that's not good, way more than the hundreds of good ones. And that's the one that stings.

If there's one band that has gone through that, it's definitely us. I'm not sure exactly why, but we've definitely been the target of that kind of stuff, and we're definitely aware of it. It's not like we live in a bubble where we don't know and we don't read the stuff and we don't hear about it. I think sometimes it definitely weighs on you, man. It hurts and it sucks. There have been moments where we've been like, "Holy shit, is this really worth it? It makes me feel like shit." But at the same time, I think a lot of the record, we ended up writing in a reaction to that and tried to make an empowering album that says, "You know what, carry on. It's okay to be who you are. Some people won't like it and some people will take issue. But at the same time, it's up to you to follow your heart and do what's right for you."

I think the culture we're in right now, it's never been easier to be discouraged. It's never been easier to be made fun of or to be hurt by what people think. I'm talking bands or even just regular people. There's almost like this license to bash everybody and to say the meanest, most intense stuff online. You're behind your keyboard and you feel like you can say anything you want. I think people don't realize that maybe it affects people. We definitely went through that on this album. But then you have to realize that you build something that's worth protecting, something that's worth it to keep going, something that's worth the effort. Because we've got all these fans that are waiting for the songs, and also, we owe it to ourselves to not destroy what we've built and make sure we don't give up just because there are days that are tougher than others. I'm not trying to do a pity thing at all. We're very fortunate. We've been very lucky. But there are moments where it was harder than before. The industry has changed a lot and the whole scene has changed a lot, too. Our sound is not necessarily the most mainstream thing right now. It's not like the most popular thing. Things evolve, though, and that's normal, but sometimes it makes it a little harder to figure out what you should do as a band.

And also, what you were mentioning before, sometimes being in a band for that long, it's almost like a disadvantage. People love "who's new?," "Who's coming out now?" There's always a buzz when you get something fresh. When you've been around 16 years, there's a little bit of fatigue. "Here they go again," you know? Sometimes I wish you could be that new band again.

But within the band itself, as the years go by, especially with Pierre and I, when we write, we're kind of used to each other. I know what he's going to do in terms of his approach to songwriting and he knows what I'm going to come up with in terms of lyrics and ideas. Sometimes you end up not appreciating the other's contributions because you're so used to each other. You expect it, you're like, "Eh, alright, whatever. Here he comes with his ideas," you know? That's why we tried to work with other people on the last record. We would come up with something and Pierre would be like, "Eh, alright," and some other guy would be like, "No, it's awesome! What are you talking about?" and it's like, "Oh ... really?" It just gives you a fresh perspective when it starts to feel like a routine. But songwriting is hard and it takes time and there hasn't been a lot of people that came to work with us that came out with the most amazing thing in five seconds, you know? It's hard for everyone. It was reassuring for us too, because it was like, "Okay, so it's not just us going through a hard time writing songs for an album."

I think, for me, what it did was that it made me appreciate Pierre's talent for melodies even more. Every time we'd work with someone, I would always gravitate toward his melodies and his aesthetic and his ideas. They were always my favorite. I just realized that I was a big fan of what he does as a writer. Even though we've been working together for 17 years ... if you count our first band, 22-23 years ... I'm still his biggest fan. I still love what he comes up with and I think he still loves working with me.

Awww.

It sounds really cheesy, but it's true, though. We haven't lost that respect for each other. You ask for advice for young artists, and I think that the biggest thing is ... don't forget that being in a band is about being friends and also to never lose your respect for your bandmates. Just knowing that you're not more important than the band itself. A lot of people, I think, when they get into bands, they hit some success and think they can do it by themselves or that they don't need the other guys and they're just dead weight. They start to imagine that things will be better if they had a different drummer, or a different guitar player, or a different singer, and the reality is that it's not true.

Maybe it could be true. But you'd have other issues with that other person. You have to learn to just talk and work out whatever issues you have in the band. Our trick, for us, is if there's an issue, we lock ourselves in a room and we don't come out until we're friends again. That's how we work and we haven't had any line-up changes in 17 years so obviously, it has worked for us. I think with the years, you realize what you've built is really precious and you become even more eager to protect it and make sure that it doesn't get destroyed. It becomes even more important to you as the years go by. Now, we've crossed the path of just being in a band together. We're like brothers, we're like family. Yeah, we'll have some issues sometimes, but we're just going to keep working through them.