THE OFFSPRING's NOODLES: 'We Wanted To Prove That We're Still Relevant In Terms Of Making New Music'

In a new interview with Matt Bingham of the Z93 radio station, THE OFFSPRING guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman spoke about the band's upcoming eleventh album, "Supercharged", which will be released just three years after its predecessor, 2021's "Let The Bad Times Roll", which came out nearly a decade following 2012's "Days Go By". Asked if there was "a sense of urgency this time around" with "Supercharged" to get it done and get it out more quickly than the last time around, Noodles said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, a little bit. We wanted to prove that we're still relevant in terms of making new music. I know that our live show has never been better. We go out and we connect with an audience right away. It doesn't matter if it's a headlining show or a festival, we've got fans there and we can get the crowd going. So you're always hoping that your new music will be appreciated. There's the live show and then there's the creating new music. Those are the two sides of the coin of being in a band. One is immediate gratification, playing live, and then the other one is kind of obsessive compulsive. You don't know if this is gonna work. Then eventually you come up with stuff you think you really like, you think is really good, and you get excited about it. Then you're waiting until the fans hear it. You don't know. You start second guessing. 'What if they hate it?' But so far the reaction to the stuff has been great. I know some journalists have heard the whole record all the way through, and and the feedback I've got has been very positive from the journalists that have heard it."

Asked what he and his bandmates do to keep it fresh and fun every time that they sit down to write and record, Noodles said: "From the songwriting perspective, [singer] Dexter [Bryan Holland] likes the challenge. He just wants to see what he can do. He keeps wanting to beat himself. He's a cross-country runner. He's been running Half Ironmans lately, and he just always wants to beat his last time. And this time he wants to beat his last numbers. He wants to have more radio hits, he wants to have more streams. For me, it's just fun to play guitar on stuff and listen to new stuff and try to be creative. I'm not as driven in terms of wanting to succeed. I'm not competitive, I guess — I'm not competitive with my old self or my new self. I just love playing guitar and singing."

Regarding the decision to release "Make It All Right" as the first single from "Supercharged", Noodles said: "Yeah, there was three [songs] that seemed like obvious choices, and we didn't have a particular favorite in mind, I guess, of those three. There's three songs that are pretty pop-punk stuff, so those seem like the obvious choices for singles. I think we also wanna release a single that's just heavy, one of the heavier ones off there, just to let the fans know we still have that stuff as well, we're still a punk band at heart, we're still these little 15-year-old kids that fell in love with punk rock. But there's three songs, and I think we kind of went back and forth with the label, with management. As far as the marketing and what goes to radio and stuff like that, those in that world know which way to go with that."

Earlier this month, Noodles told Finland's Chaoszine about the recording process for "Supercharged", which will arrive on October 11 via Concord Records: "Yeah, it was good. We worked with Bob again, Bob Rock, our producer. We've been working with him for, like 15, 16 years now. And we just get together every so often for, like, a couple of weeks, two, three weeks. He comes to Huntington [Beach, California] or we go up to Vancouver. There's a studio called The Warehouse that he likes to work at up there. We have our own studio in Huntington. And we just hang out. We talk about music and then we turn on record and try different things and see what happens.

When the interviewer noted that it seems like there is a "relaxed" vibe in the studio, Noodles clarified: "We work hard on what we're doing, especially Dexter. He focuses a lot on just minute details. I don't know how he holds all those details in his head. I'm, like, 'Man, I love it. Great beat. Great groove. Let's go.' He's, like, 'Well, there's one drum hit that's that needs to be fixed here.' Like, 'Whoa, dude. Okay.'"

Asked if they ever end up in arguments because of differences of opinion, Noodles said: "There's times when we all disagree, and Dexter will disagree with Bob, Bob will disagree with me and him, but it's always… It's never… I wouldn't even say argument. There's disagreements, but we just discuss it and we try different things. If Bob makes a suggestion, we'll try it and see where it works. And sometimes you have to sit on that. Like we'll try something new, then we go home and listen to it and go, 'Ah, you know what? I did like it better before,' or go, 'You know what, Bob? You were right. That one part needed to be fixed.' And that's how we work. And it's always good-natured."

Asked if he and his bandmates ever discuss the musical direction they want to take when working on new music, Noodles said: "Each song is is viewed separately. And then once you have a bunch of songs, then you kind of see where the record is going And then you just try to build on that. I don't think we've ever changed that much. We've never done a concept record. We never went, 'All right, we're done with this punk rock pop stuff. We wanna be metal now.' There is at least one song on this record that I would call metal. It's just thrash metal. It's called 'Come To Brazil'… It's one of the most metal. I don't know [about] heaviest. We've got a lot of heavy punk rock songs as well, but this one's probably one of the heaviest metal ones for sure. There's another one too called 'Get Some', which is pretty riff rock, almost metal."

At last month's Download festival in the United Kingdom, Holland told James Wilson-Taylor of Rock Sound magazine about the shorter gap between "Let The Bad Times Roll" and "Supercharged": "The last one took a really long time, and I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I think it had a lot to do with that I went back to school and I didn't realize how much time that was taking. [Editor's note: Dexter resumed his studies and earned a PhD in molecular biology in May 2017.] And before you know it, it's been years and years since you put out a record. And so this time we were, like, 'We're determined to get something out more quickly this time.' So it was, for us, very quick — it was, like, three years… In rock years, like dog years, that's like three months."

Asked if "Make It All Right" was the obvious choice for a first single from the album, Dexter said: "No, I thought it was gonna be another [track], actually. And we just kind of — you know, you start playing it for people around you, your, your friends and family or whatever, and then eventually the people at the label that are gonna promote it, and 'Make It All Right' was the one that kind of kept on coming back as, like, 'We think this is the one.' And I think people like it because it's very immediate — it's not hard to figure out what's going on in this song. And I think that's kind of cool. I like the idea of putting out what I would call almost a summer song. It's just kind of a feel-good song. It doesn't always have to be dark and gloomy or something that's really deep that you have to figure out. Sometimes you just wanna kind of — the joy of life, I guess, is kind of the vibe going on."

When "Supercharged" was first announced, Dexter said in a statement: "We wanted this record to have pure energy — from the start to the finish! That’s why we called it 'Supercharged'. From the height of our aspirations to the depths of our struggles, we talk about it all on this record…in a way that celebrates the life that we share and where we are now. Our single 'Make It All Right' is a great example of this because it talks about the people in our lives who make us feel strong when we are feeling low — our partners in crime who make us feel all right."

He continued: "The album was recorded in three different locations this time: Maui, Vancouver, and our home studio in Huntington Beach, and together with our producer Bob Rock everything came out awesome. I feel like this is the best we have ever sounded! We've been rocking out and headbanging to it for months! And we can't wait for you guys to hear it!"

Dexter previously told the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast about the musical direction of the band's eleventh studio album: "I think it's a David Bowie quote, who said, 'You've gotta make it the same, but different.' It's funny, 'cause it's true. 'Cause if you sound too much like your other record, they go, 'Oh, it just sounds like this record.' And if you change too much, it throws people. And, of course, you've gotta ultimately satisfy your own creativity, what you wanna do. And luckily, I think that we've really expanded the circle of what we can do. We did 'Gone Away' on 'Ixnay [On The Hombre]' and we've done piano stuff and all that, but I think you have to balance that desire to grow with — you don't wanna necessarily be too grown up, if that makes sense. You don't wanna all of a sudden go, 'I'm gonna make a record like U2.' That doesn't necessarily work the best for who you are as a band. We're trying to keep that all in mind."

He continued: "When people ask me, 'What does your new record sound like?', I'll just say 'Ignition', 'cause people go, 'Oh, cool. I love that record.' So, it's not like that. It's a mixture. I think punk is the core of what we've always been, so there's always some of that on a record. And then we usually throw in a couple of oddball songs, but it's always about trying to make the song as good as it can be."

"Let The Bad Times Roll" was a huge global success, hitting career-high chart debuts with seven Top 5 and ten Top 10 international debuts and nine Top 10 debuts in the U.S. The album peaked at No. 3 on the U.K. chart and hit No. 1 on the Alternative Albums chart in the U.S.

THE OFFSPRING first achieved worldwide success in the 1990s with the release of their album "Smash", which sold over 11 million copies. Following "Smash", they continued to release hit after hit, popularizing rock at a mainstream level.

Throughout THE OFFSPRING's career, they've sold over a staggering 40 million albums, and toured arenas, and built a global fan base. "Let The Bad Times Roll" marked the band's tenth studio album and third album produced by Rock.

Originally formed under the name MANIC SUBSIDAL, THE OFFSPRING's lineup consists of Holland, Wasserman, bassist Todd Morse, multi-instrumentalist Jonah Nimoy and drummer Brandon Pertzborn.

Press photo credit: Daveed Benito