Bowling For Soup are back with a new album One New Happy and have just polished off their latest massive UK tour.
The new album sees the fun Texan rockers team up with The Dollyrots and Patent Pending, and both sees them have a go at each other’s songs and serves as the band’s twelfth album.
We grabbed a few minutes with bassist Erik Chandler to talk about where the idea for the tour and the album came from and why they keep coming back to the UK.
Where did the idea for One Big Happy come from?
The whole idea behind the album started about a year ago when we did a 7” split EP with The Dollyrots. On that EP we each just covered two of each other’s songs. Basically Patent Pending and The Dollyrots are kind of our ‘best friend bands’ and the whole idea behind this tour was ‘Let’s get all the people that we tour with the most out on the road with us.’
Then we thought of doing something similar to the split EP and so each band contributed one new, original song and then we covered one of each other band’s songs each. So it’s kind of a mix and match of mutual admiration.
Where did this relationship with the other two bands start?
We’ve known each band for several years. The Dollyrots, for the last couple of years have spent a very large amount of time out on the road with us. With Patent Pending, we’d done a couple of shows with them. I mean, we knew the guys, but last Fall was the first really extensive tour that we’d done with them. Then they went back out with us in the Spring.
The Dollyrots have even shared a bus with us. It was a little bit crowded but it made for a great time. When you spend so much time in closed quarters with people on tour, those friendships and bonds are made fairly quickly and go fairly deep in a short matter of time.
You’ve recently started your own side project, how does playing that music compare with being in Bowling For Soup?
I wouldn’t say that it does compare, it’s just something totally different. Right now, and I think can speak for Jaret [who also had a solo project] as well that it’s super exciting. Not that Bowling for Soup has become boring by any means, but we’ve been doing this band for 18 years and now he and I are branching out and doing something different for the first time since I was 19 years old.
It’s fun to be able to do something different and finally be able to let those songs that we didn’t think really fitted the Bowling For Soup mould see the light of day. So far with both of side projects, the reception has been fantastic, so we’re just so happy that people are accepting that we can do something that isn’t BFS.
This was your 13th U.K tour. What keeps you coming back?
I say this all the time, but it’s the fans. The English fans are just a different breed of music fan. UK and Ireland just have this special something that’s slightly intangible really. People come to the shows to be more part of a community and enjoy the shows together. In the States, a lot of people are there to see and be seen rather than join in with the party and have a great time together. That’s how it is in the UK.
You’ve recently been playing some shows for the troops over in the Middle East. What was that like?
Amazing. That was back in February and we’ve been fortunate enough to do some things that nobody ever gets to do as far as bands go. Playing on aircraft carriers though was just something else entirely though. Those guys out there are amazing
So, it’s been eighteen years, did you ever think you’d be still going so strong?
Not for a second. We’re truly blessed to be able to do this and support ourselves and our families doing what we do. All of us are very acutely aware that we’re only able to do this because of the people who have support us out there for all of these years.
Bowling For Soup’s new album One Big Happy is out now.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in Bowling For Soup