THE OFFSPRING To Resume Work On New Album In January

THE OFFSPRING will return to the studio next month to resume work on its new album.

Guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman spoke about the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2012's "Days Go By" during an interview with Front Row Live at this past Friday's (December 15) "Punk Rock & Paintbrushes" holiday art event in Los Angeles.

Asked about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for THE OFFSPRING's 10th studio album, Noodles said (see video below): "We're working on it. We were in the studio all this week. We finished up for the holidays on Tuesday, Wednesday, and then we're gonna get back in the studio as soon as the new year [rolls around], in Janauary."

Asked how different the process is this time around compared to the way THE OFFSPRING made albums in the past, Noodles said: "We kind of show up and throw everything at the wall with the microphones running. We used to kind of write stuff together, but the last few years, what we've been doing is kind of writing in front of the microphones. Just like, 'Hey, let's try this,' set it down, lay it down, and then if it's something that works, we build on it, add to it, and then sometimes the original riff or lick or idea's gone, obliterated and new stuff takes over. It's interesting how we do it now. Where we used to have a song in our head, a chord structure and a drum beat and then put it all together and then go in and record it, we do it a little differently now. But it's very relaxed, it's very fun — it's just a different way of trying to create songs, but it's no less creative, for sure."

According to Noodles, THE OFFSPRING tries to keep an organic vibe through some of its recordings. "What we'll do… Like if we know a song needs that kind of live feel, we wanna, all four of us, be playing at the same time, at least for the basic tracks," he explained. "We'll kind of demo a song and go, 'Okay, this could work, the song's cool, but we need to all get in there and play it together.' And we have a studio where we can do that now. So we'll do that. But a lot of times, it's just… you start a song and then we have Pete [Parada, drums] come in. We have this idea, 'Let's lay down the drums and then rebuild it on top of that.'"

THE OFFSPRING issued its ninth album, "Days Go By", five years ago. It spent 2014 on the road promoting the twentieth anniversary of its breakout album, "Smash", by performing the disc in its entirety at a number of shows.

In April, THE OFFSPRING played its 1992 album "Ignition" in full at a benefit show in Berkeley, California, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of 924 Gilman, a nonprofit music and art community space.

Photo credit: Sam Jones / MSO PR