The Offspring

a job, and the Kids Aren't All Right. Now they're back with their first new album in nine years, and it's worth the weight. Called let the Bad Times Role, it's inspired by well, the last nine years for a start. Songs like this Is Not Utopia, The Opioid Diaries and the title track reference this undoubtedly dark period, but there's a great deal of hope in there too. I'm so happy to welcome Dexter, Holland and Noodles from the Offspring. Thank you, guys, Thank you so much for taking the time.

So excited to speak to you. First and foremost, huge congratulations. The record is here. The good news is your album's here. The bad news is it's a pretty bummer time in the world right now, And the sentiment is reflected in the title Let the Bad Times Role. It's the the mosh pit at the end of the world. How did you land on? That? Is the title of your album? Oh gosh, I mean, you know, look at the look at the world around us? Appropriate for sure, right, you know.

And there's two ways of looking at Let the Bad Times Role. One is that, you know, we have these world leaders that kind of want to keep the bad times roll and keep people divided. You know, the world is We're just so divided right now. The other way of looking at it is, man, how bad are things gonna get? What else? You? What else you got? I mean, bring it? Let the Bad Times role will take it? Man, right, whatever we're done fighting, We're just gonna we're gonna make

the most out of it. What do you got? You know? But you had? Stuff is messed up in two thousand and eight, and it's it's still pretty messed up. But I don't know. I did text a lot of hope in the in the song in the album title, and then the song this this hopeful optimism to it. I'm glad he picked up on that thank you. At first look, you might say, God, these are all pretty dark song titles and subjects and stuff, But we try to put hope into into our music, and so I think it's

an important part of our our message what we're going for. Absolutely. So this album has been a long time in the works. I think I read that first sessions were in August. When did you know that you were at the finish line? Why did you decide that it was ready in time to let it go? Really right as the pandemic was hitting. Yeah, we kind of realized, yeah, you know, because we've been talking about being done. But then we kept we kept

writing more and more. We kept having this really creative period about two years ago, and finally had it done with the pandemic and we're like, well, ship, we didn't want the bad times to roll that hard out fucking bad times rolling. It was infuriated you finally already and then you gotta sit on it for like a year. We didn't know for sure we should sit on it or not, but it just it felt like people's minds are elsewhere right now and we can't go out there

and support it. We can't know, I can't travel and talk about it. So let's just take a look at what we got. And we got so we got to spend some good time on the artwork, you know, really kind of taking a look, maybe tweaking some things here and there, just fine tuning it a bit, and then we started doing like Chris, we did a Christmas song. We did a cover of the song from the Tire King that was amazing. Thank you, thank you. And at some point, okay, man, we gotta stop sucking around the

records done. We gotta we gotta get it out. We gotta get it to the fans. We want to hear what the fans are gonna say about this. We spent a good long time working on it. I want ask you about the artwork. It's so cool. It's like Shiva meets Day of the Dead. How how did that come about? Exactly right? Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much the idea. I mean, I had the idea for a Shiva kind of character, and the ideas that in her hands she's holding society's ills or you know, some of the things that we're

gonna explore more in the In the album. You can see what violence and drugs or greed or you know, anarchy, I suppose are the things she's kind of holding. I debated whether to put a virus in one of her hands, and then I decided that was a little a little too on the note time. I want to be just a little more oblique than that. So um, that was

kind of my initial idea. And then we found this guy David, who's a really great artist, and started talking through hashing out the ideas, and he really put it together and interpreted it and he's just so great. I'm so happy that we found him. It looks incredible. You said that this is the most cathartic record that you you've ever released. I want to ask you more about that. Why Why is that? Is it just the amount of

time that you put into it or specific songs? Yeah, I mean when we grew up, it was those kinds of songs that when you when a band would talk about being depressed or something that's wrong with the world, alienated or disenfranchised. Those are the ones that would help us, just me as a kid, the most. It wasn't. You'd almost think intuitively it would make you feel worse to hear some guys singing about being depressed or whatever, or isolated,

but it was actually very freeing. It was very much like, yeah, I'm not the only one, I'm not alone. It was very healing. So that's why we've never been afraid to go after those subjects. And hopefully it will mean something to other people as well, but for me it certainly did. And as you pointed out, there is also the message of hope that we will get through all these all these things, you know, So yeah, that's it is cathartic.

Who were some bands when when you were first getting into music that made you feel that way that you felt spoken to and and less alone. Ts and Well was huge for sure. Well and the Adolescence were the big ones at that period of time, that kind of um teenage years and stuff. Of course, the bands that came before were important, like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones and you know those those are bands I still listened to regularly, and you're a big part of our

life and stuff. The album is is just so incredible. I wanted to ask you about a song that's meant a lot to me for many years, and it was so fascinating and wonderful to hear you revisit it, And that's Gone Away, the beautiful version with piano and strings. What made you decide to And I know that version has been in your life, I've set for a long time. What made you decide to to put it on this album?

The fans really asked us for it. Yeah, it is something we've been playing live for the last four or five years. Uh, and it's it's kind of a dramatic part of the set um every night, and and taking that song, which has probably reached our fans in a way as deeply as any song we've ever done, you know, as intensely. It really does strike a chord with with our fans, and playing it acoustically kind of purifies it,

strips it down to its to its pierced form. You know, you're not hiding the vocals behind heavy guitar, bass and drums. And the fans really connected with that during the live performance and have been asking us meet and greets, you know, on social media, when when can they hear a studio version, you know, of the Piano Gone Away, And so we decided to do it. Yeah, Oh it's amazing. What was it I don't have the word daunting is the right word,

but what was it like? For you to to to revisit that song, I mean, just something that that does, I mean obviously comes from such a personal place for you, but also it's touched so many people in such a way.

What was that like to to revisit that. When you're working with a song, you know, you do on a hundred times, there's sort of this industrialization of the song, right, But reworking the song again felt really very emotional, actually, because you're kind of re examining the lyrics and your feelings about how when you wrote it and what it meant and all that stuff, and especially doing it which is a piano, I felt like it made the vocal a lot more personal, So it was almost a vulnerability

that was almost kind of uncomfortable even doing it that way. That it took a little time to get that performance out. We convinced him it was great and that it was worthwhile. It's right, I mean, you know, one of the highlights of the record for me. I wanted to ask you about a song that that really blew my mind was the cover of the in the Hall of the Mountain King. Where did that? Where did that come from? That is meant to be this kind of you know w t F moment and the record It was out of fun,

our idea of this would be fun to do. You know, we can get away with a short what the funk moment on a record? You know, I just have fun with it, punk version of a classical song? Right? Who'd have thought? A bunch of Greek? Can you think of that? He didn't know? He should have, He missed it. Piker Biker is somebody who does things in small ways. They don't give they don't give it the full effort. Okay, Greek was so close it ed Bard, You were so close.

Don't be a piker. But how's the last year been for you? I mean, I know you have your own studio, so that's gonna be helpful for at least like making music. Have you been been productive musically and and working on new stuff or refining the album or what? Have you been up to a lot of rehearsing, you know, besides

doing Tiger King covers. We we uh been rehearsing, you know, taking the new record and and assigning who's gonna be playing what part where you know, and and how to make it sound really good live because it's it's different than you know, putting it all on tape, and then also going back and rehearsing the old stuff and making sure we're locked in in parts where maybe we got a little sloppy, or after a while you develop bad habits and you're playing and you have to kind of

correct for that. I do. Anyways, you know, maybe it's not just me, or maybe it is just me. Anyways, we're getting we've been doing all that. It's been fun. We can't play for a live audience, so let's get in here and at least kind of connect as musicians. And it's been a lot of fun. And Yeah, what's the latest with that? Cause I know I'm starting to hear some bands are starting to tentatively announce tours later in the year early next year. You have you have

an eye on that yet or is it it's still tbd? Yeah, I mean we you know, we want to get out there and play, so we're definitely are keeping our eye on that and and making sure we're gonna be ready to go when when it's say, you know, safe to gather. We're looking at We've just announced some shows in November

were slated to play here in California in October. You know, we're hopeful that with the virus, the vaccines rolling out and the virus you know, slowing down, and hopefully we can put it to bed and and hopefully hopefully for the fall. Yeah. Do you have any concert or tour rituals or superstitions. I don't know if we have any superstitions. I used to have a superstition that I needed to drink two or three beers before every show. There you go, I've I've I've learned that I can actually play a

show without Without that, it's not as fun. But yeah, still, you didn't want to mess with that superstition to find I didn't want to Messa find out some of these. Yeah, I was invested in that one. We we don't really I mean, you know we well, Dexter likes to warm He warms up his voice before he plays. That's important, especially if you're doing like three shows in a row. You don't want to, you know, wear your voice out.

The rest of us like to get together and just kind of play guitar riffs off each other and and kind of you know, if we're working in a new song or a song we haven't played in a while, we run through that a few times to make sure we remember how to play it correctly, you know that, make sure we're locked in. Really just kind of hang out and get a feel for the for the venue and you know, warm up a little bit. Do you ever have any any spinal tap moments? Oh, my gosh,

always yeah. I mean that movies just the gift that keeps on given because it is so true and so accurate in so many ways. And I remember we went through a period where we watched it quite a bit, even though it's been out for a long time, but even by then, by by the time we were doing I don't know, self esteem, like we had gone through all that, Like we knew all those scenes because we had We've been lost backstage. We've been We've been puppet

Show and the Offspring. Yeah, yeah, yeah, do the jazz honestly, but like just all of a sudden through the set, We're gonna do jazz, honest Little Brad still frustrates do a little brad Well too much, too much fucking perspective and race playspective. Yeah, it's great. Dexter. First of all, congratulations on your PhD. I feel like I should have mentioned that earlier. Thank you. I mean, not only are you a touring musician, but you're someone who has a

page Dame Molecular Biology. What is your take on you know, how things are going? Like, do you think we we got to totally put you on the spot, But do you think we were returning a corner? I do, And like I I don't want to speak as an expert because it's not what I do for a living, but um, but yeah, I mean it's a matter of getting on top of the vaccinations for sure. And unfortunately in the US, we've actually done a pretty good job of the rollout.

I think, um, two million shots given right, so crazy? Right, yeah? Crazy? I think in California anyway, I've heard have at least one shot Like these are big numbers. It's great. So we just got to get on top of of that before the variants get on top of that. And I think we're gonna get there. Well, what else can we look forward to us? Wait, no, before you get out in the row, what how what else can fans expect

from you? We've been doing this series of videos called how To with the Offspring Um and we've released a couple. One is how to Surf and dexter teaches you how to surf, and then one where I teach you how to bird watch, which I don't know if people are really gonna learn anything from these things, but that's part of that's part of a joke, because you really don't learn how to bird watch it all, or how to how to surf. N you can find it on YouTube or wherever you get your videos and stuff, but we

have our own YouTube page. You can see it in amongst our videos. They've been fun to make, So I'm gonna I'm gonna do one. I think the next one I want to do is is going to be how to fly fighters yet? Okay, that's why your pilot's license, right, Yeah? Yeah, And at some point we might actually do things that you can learn, Like I could show people how to play the solo to kids Aren't all right? Or something

like that. That would be a little more you know serious. Yeah, maybe that would be the how really to how to really yeah really the offspring. Yeah, surfing definitely seems like something that maybe over a video tutorial kind of need to be there. Yeah, how long have you been surfing? I mean that's like that's something that's I'm in New England kids, so that's just totally foreign to There's some surf up there, but it's it's cold. Yeah, yeah, it's

snowing right now. I'm not kidding, it's snowing right now. So um yeah. I mean I started surfing when I was twelve and and it's something I've been doing on and off my whole life. And it's just there. You know, it's the coolest feeling in the world when you catch away and you start riding up and down and you know it is Yeah, it's just a great feeling, doesn't.

I mean, it goes by really pretty quick. You spent a lot of time out in the water, paddling, watching the horizon, looking for bumps to pop up, trying to get into position, you know, trying to get around other people. And yeah, it's a lot of work for a pretty short payoff, but the feeling is is incredible. It's it's it's really a neat feeling. Well, guys, I don't wanna take a too much more your time. It's been so

great talking you. My last question and this has been the question I've been asking everybody as we wrap these up, hopefully it won't be able to ask it much longer. But if you can snap your fingers and have everything go back to whatever your definition of normal is, say twenty nineteen, what would be the first thing that you would do people, You'd hug, places, you travel to, restaurants you'd go eat at without a mask, and it will

be the first thing that you would do. I want to go to mothers and have a mason jar full of paps, blue ribbon. That is a solid answer. I'd like to play show. That'd be fun. Oh yeah, that'd be good. That's showing beer. That sounds like a good night. We're simple people. We're not pikes though not pikers, bikers, bikers. A pike is a fish. Oh we're not. We're neither of those things. Fishing, We're not fishing fish offspring, not fish. Heard it here first get bit? Yeah, thank you. The

records incredible, You're incredible. Thank you so much for taking the time today. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you very much. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio, a production of I Heart Radio. For more episodes of Inside the Studio or other fantastic shows, check out the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast,