Simple Plan's Pierre looking delicious in red
Simple Plan are finally back with a delicious new single, Save You and hopefully a gorgeous follow-up album some time in 2009.
After they confessed to Still Not Getting Any back in 2004, I caught up with Pierre Bouvier to end his dry spell and find out about the guys’ latest release, what they really think of the Foo Fighters and Dave Ghrol and cuddling Cougars.
Hey Pierre, how are you?
Fantastic, how are you?
I’m super good, how are you enjoying your UK gigs?
We just did our first one in Liverpool last Tuesday and it was great. We hadn’t played there in a long time and the shows were great, the fans were great and there was nothing out of the ordinary or extraordinary.
Fun times! So what is it like coming back after so long, are there still the same faces on the front row?
Yeah, there are a lot of people we recognise; even on this European tour there are still five or six people that are there for the entire tour and playing to some of the same people every night is kinda cool
Wow, dedication! So what has been your most memorable gig to date?
In my life ever? [FF; Yup!] I would have to say pass! No, I would probably say playing the arena back home in Montreal; the first time we played there it was about three years ago and it was sold out to 14, 000 people and it was a very emotional moment coming back after touring round the world and having such a great response it was very memorable for me and possibly the most memorable moment of my life.
Given the chance, who would you love to go out on tour with?
I’d love to go on tour with the Foo Fighters because I think Dave Ghrol seems like a really nice guy and I would like to hang out with him. He seems to be a normal, cool guy and he has achieved so much and seen so much in his life. I think he would be cool to hang out with. And the rest of the guys as well! Foo Fighters: Good music, cool guys.
Aww, delicious. So, tell us a bit about your new single Save You
Well it’s great and it’s a song about my brother Jay, who is a few years older than me and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer and he had a very difficult battle with it over two years and the song is about how I felt whilst he was going into treatment and not being sure if he was going to make it or not.
Does the latest album still sound like old-skool Simple Plan or have you adopted a different sound?
No, I think that it’s taken a different turn as every album we make, we try to evolve and make it sound a little different from the previous albums; we don’t want to keep making the same album over and over again. But all in all it still sounds like Simple Plan which is just really catchy music, every song on the new album is different; there are fast songs, slow songs and heavy songs and there are some blends of urban styles, some rock songs… it’s all over the place so it’s kinda hard to describe, but I think if anyone loved Simple Plan before, they will love this album even more.
Ooh, I love it! So to anyone who still hasn’t heard of you, how would you describe the band in four words?
Energetic, Catchy, Melodic, and lyrically very personal.
What have you guys been getting up to since the release of your last album, Still Not Getting Any?
It’s been about eight years! we’ve just been travelling and doing the same thing in different places; playing shows, seeing the world, doing interviews, meeting people and sleeping on buses and sometimes having a couple of days off at home. The majority of the past eight or nine years have consisted of us playing shows almost every day and living our dream I guess.
Wonderful, but aside from your good selves, who do you think is the best artist on the music scene today?
Lets see…. I really like The Stills who are a band from Montreal, they are friends of ours and I think their latest song is really awesome and it’s a shame that are so underrated and have been under the radar for a long time. They are actually here with us today. [FF: ooh, are you chilling?] Yeah, they are going to come over after the show and we’re going to hang out and have some beers.
Jealous! Who do you look up to within the music industry then?
I think anyone who has maintained success throughout their career. I think that bands who have stuck around and are still going strong are who we look up to; bands like Green Day, U2 and Aerosmith have all been doing what they do for a long time and even though we might not sound like them it’s cool to see that they have been making music forever and people still care!
Very true, so it that where you would like to be in five years time?
Yeah, I think the main goal now in longevity; we enjoy what we do and we’ve had some success doing it and we have a lot of fans around the world and we enjoy playing shows and it would suck if we couldn’t do that anymore; if we went to a venue we had played before and the fans didn’t turn up would just suck. I think the main goal is to keep doing it and have the fans come back and enjoy the music.
So are you going to do a big tour any time soon?
We usually try to hit the main cities, this time around we didn’t do Manchester; we have a lot of places to go around the world so we can’t always concentrate on doing every single city of the UK but I think we’ll probably do more when the next record come out or maybe some festivals this coming summer, it should be fun.
So if you could just listen to one CD for the rest of your life, which would it be?
That would be a very difficult choice! I would say a record that I really love is Thrice, The Artist In The Ambulance. It’s quite heavy but I really like it and I think the musicianship is really awesome and it’s one of those albums that you never get sick of.
What was the last CD that you bought?
The last one I got was actually a band that opened up for us, Kids In Glass Houses. I downloaded that to hear what they sounded like and it’s really good!
When was the last time you felt truly inspired?
Good question, I guess a lot of movies do that to me; oddly enough after seeing a good movie I can feel inspired. I don’t remember before then, that’s kinda sad.
We ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview and Jonathan Ansell wants to know; “If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be?
Just recently I was in Australia and I went to a Wildcat sanctuary where they raise and breed Wildcats and there was a Cougar and she was about seven years old and she was one of the smaller of her breeds and was half tame; so she was a pet but still kinda wild and I was able to pet her and she sat on me and that was a pretty cool moment so I think I would like to have a cougar.
Wow, that’s awesome, I want one in my life! So finally, can you come up with a question for the next person I interview?
Sure, lets see, what would be your favourite city to live in?
And what would be yours?
I would say San Diego I think, I like how it sounds.
Ooh, exciting, I just like how Americans sound! Thanks for your time Pierre.
Bye!
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Simple Plan are finally back with a delicious new single, Save You and hopefully a gorgeous follow-up album some time in 2009.
After they confessed to Still Not Getting Any back in 2004, I caught up with Pierre Bouvier to end his dry spell and find out about the guys’ latest release, what they really think of the Foo Fighters and Dave Ghrol and cuddling Cougars.
Hey Pierre, how are you?
Fantastic, how are you?
I’m super good, how are you enjoying your UK gigs?
We just did our first one in Liverpool last Tuesday and it was great. We hadn’t played there in a long time and the shows were great, the fans were great and there was nothing out of the ordinary or extraordinary.
Fun times! So what is it like coming back after so long, are there still the same faces on the front row?
Yeah, there are a lot of people we recognise; even on this European tour there are still five or six people that are there for the entire tour and playing to some of the same people every night is kinda cool
Wow, dedication! So what has been your most memorable gig to date?
In my life ever? [FF; Yup!] I would have to say pass! No, I would probably say playing the arena back home in Montreal; the first time we played there it was about three years ago and it was sold out to 14, 000 people and it was a very emotional moment coming back after touring round the world and having such a great response it was very memorable for me and possibly the most memorable moment of my life.
Given the chance, who would you love to go out on tour with?
I’d love to go on tour with the Foo Fighters because I think Dave Ghrol seems like a really nice guy and I would like to hang out with him. He seems to be a normal, cool guy and he has achieved so much and seen so much in his life. I think he would be cool to hang out with. And the rest of the guys as well! Foo Fighters: Good music, cool guys.
Aww, delicious. So, tell us a bit about your new single Save You
Well it’s great and it’s a song about my brother Jay, who is a few years older than me and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer and he had a very difficult battle with it over two years and the song is about how I felt whilst he was going into treatment and not being sure if he was going to make it or not.
Does the latest album still sound like old-skool Simple Plan or have you adopted a different sound?
No, I think that it’s taken a different turn as every album we make, we try to evolve and make it sound a little different from the previous albums; we don’t want to keep making the same album over and over again. But all in all it still sounds like Simple Plan which is just really catchy music, every song on the new album is different; there are fast songs, slow songs and heavy songs and there are some blends of urban styles, some rock songs… it’s all over the place so it’s kinda hard to describe, but I think if anyone loved Simple Plan before, they will love this album even more.
Ooh, I love it! So to anyone who still hasn’t heard of you, how would you describe the band in four words?
Energetic, Catchy, Melodic, and lyrically very personal.
What have you guys been getting up to since the release of your last album, Still Not Getting Any?
It’s been about eight years! we’ve just been travelling and doing the same thing in different places; playing shows, seeing the world, doing interviews, meeting people and sleeping on buses and sometimes having a couple of days off at home. The majority of the past eight or nine years have consisted of us playing shows almost every day and living our dream I guess.
Wonderful, but aside from your good selves, who do you think is the best artist on the music scene today?
Lets see…. I really like The Stills who are a band from Montreal, they are friends of ours and I think their latest song is really awesome and it’s a shame that are so underrated and have been under the radar for a long time. They are actually here with us today. [FF: ooh, are you chilling?] Yeah, they are going to come over after the show and we’re going to hang out and have some beers.