While it may be tempting to view the entire ‘90s through grunge-tinted spectacles, the reality is that by 1994, the movement was starting to lose steam, and a new musical sub-culture was being dragged kicking and screaming from the underground to the mainstream – pop-punk. Spear-headed by Green Day’s punk-fuelled masterpiece Dookie, Rancid’s critically acclaimed Let’s Go, and, of course, The Offspring’s six-time platinum third record, Smash, pop-punk was now no longer for the disenfranchised youths of California, it was for the masses.
As The Offspring’s breakthrough record turns the ripe old age of 30 this year, we caught up with frontman Dexter Holland, in a rare break from his insanely busy schedule, to discuss the legacy of the album and the impact it had on the band, and their brand new album, SUPERCHARGED – out on 11 October.
“That was a crazy time for us; it's when everything changed,” recalls Dexter to us via a Zoom call. “It was something that was very natural. It's just where we were at the time. We didn't have coaches or managers or any of that kind of stuff. We were just lucky to have someone that we convinced to put out our record,” he laughs.
I do remember once, right before we recorded the record, we'd done some shows with NOFX, and we were like, ‘Wow, these guys have amazing gear’
Now, with over 11 million copies sold, it’s easy to forget that Smash was not a major label release. It was actually put out by the independent label Epitaph Records, owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. As such, Smash was recorded on a shoestring budget and at breakneck pace, too. “The budget was very small. We had to do the whole thing in 10 days,” recalls Holland. “I mean, we couldn't afford anything. We bought the cheapest stuff we could. I do remember once, right before we recorded the record, we'd done some shows with NOFX, and we were like, ‘Wow, these guys have amazing gear.’ It was legit stuff, it was Mesa/Boogie – and I really liked the sound,” says Dexter.
“So we actually pooled all our money, all the stuff we made, the whole band fund, and we were able to afford one cabinet and one amp to share,” laughs Holland. “So that was the amp we used for Smash. It was a Mesa Boogie [Mark IV].”
Moving on to the guitars and The Offspring frontman reminisces on how the band couldn’t even afford to buy new six-strings for the recording sessions. “As far as the guitar goes, the guy at the Mesa Boogie shop was trying to sell these guitars called Tom Anderson. I said, ‘Gee, that's really nice, but I can't afford that.’ He goes, ‘Well, you bought the amp. Why don't you borrow the Tom Anderson and just give it back to us when you're done?’ So even the guitar was borrowed,” beams Dexter.
When asked if there was a point in the writing or recording process of Smash where he realised this was going to be such a turning point for the band, the punk singer discloses that the thought of such a high level of success never really crossed his mind at the time.
“You know, I've read interviews [with] Courtney Love talking about being in the studio with Nirvana saying, ‘We just knew when we heard In Bloom, not even Teen Spirit, it was going to be huge.’ I don't think it was like that [for us],” admits Holland.
When Smash started to really go big, it took everyone by surprise, we were all shocked.
“We probably wouldn't let ourselves believe it. At the time, the biggest band we knew of that was doing anything close to punk was Bad Religion. They sold around 200,000 [records]. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can't imagine selling that many.’ [We thought], maybe we could sell 100,000, you know? And that was about as high as we thought – that was the ceiling of where we thought it could go. So when Smash started to really go big, it took everyone by surprise, we were all shocked.”
Sometimes there’s real curveballs on our record, you know, but at the same time, some of those songs end up being our biggest songs
Now, it’s fair to say that The Offspring aren’t ones to rest on their laurels as a band. Since Smash, they have released a string of highly praised albums, had countless hit singles, and, with over 40 million records sold, will go down in history as one of the most successful punk bands of all time.
Turning our attention to the band’s highly anticipated new release, SUPERCHARGED, released on October 11, we wanted to gain some insights into what we can expect from the new album.
Straightaway, we can see that Dexter is just as excited to talk about the new record as we are to hear it. “You know, I think they're going to find it familiar in a good way,” reveals Holland. “But it’s always important for us to keep on expanding our horizons, I don't want to just serve up the same exact record we did before.
“Sometimes there’s real curveballs on our record, you know, but at the same time, some of those songs end up being our biggest songs. Like, Why Don’t You Get A Job was a very different kind of song. “On this record, it's not so much like that. It's sort of a little bit more straight up the middle. I just wanted to be very direct and very immediate – that just feels like where we're at right now.
"We've had this great career where we've explored a lot of different kinds of musical ideas, but right now, it feels like I just want to swing for the fences and hit it as hard as I can. I want people to go, ‘Fuck yeah!’”
We're having a lot of fun showing the fans that we're still around and reconnecting with them. That was kind of the mindset of this record
So far, we’ve had two glimpses into the new record: Make It All Right and Light It Up. In our opinion, the latter harkens back to the band’s 1998 release, Americana. When asked if it was a conscious decision to invoke the style of this fan-favourite album, Dexter enthusiastically tells us that it is definitely a track for The Offspring devotees.
Taken aback by our praise for the track, Dexter says, “I take that as a compliment, thank you very much. It was one of the last [songs] we came up with for the album. And I kind of thought, the way it wants to go sounds like Americana. Maybe five years ago, I might have said, ‘Well, I'm going to put a different kind of lead in the chorus just to make it have a different kind of sound.’ You know, we get so much feedback, like ‘We like your old stuff,’ you know, that kind of thing. I'm like, ‘All right, let's just make this one for the fans.’”
Now, there was a nine-year gap between the band’s ninth record Days Go By and their tenth, 2021’s Let the Bad Times Roll, something that the frontman was determined not to let happen again – choosing to dive straight into making this new album.
“The last record was nine years, and the reason for that is that I went back to school and I finished up my doctorate,” Dexter informs us. “So, what does that tell you? Where did that get me? I wasted nine years! I could have been putting out a record,” he jokes. “We didn't think it was going to take that long. But this time it was very much deliberate.
“I don't want to take that long in between records now. I want to get back at it,” he asserts. “We're having a lot of fun showing the fans that we're still around and reconnecting with them. That was kind of the mindset of this record.”
Digging deeper into the frontman’s approach to songwriting, we wanted to get Dexter’s views on the band’s unique ability to switch between darker songs such as Come Out And Play and lighthearted anthems like Pretty Fly For A White Guy and Worst Hangover Ever. We were intrigued to know how he maintains that balance on a record and if he consciously thinks about those different styles when he sits down to write.
But then I realised I'm not always happy, I'm not always sad, so why can't my music reflect that?
“I really struggled with that for a long time because I felt like maybe it was causing us not to have a real band identity,” admits Dexter. “Like, when you're listening to Joy Division, you know what you're going to get, right? But then I realised I'm not always happy, I'm not always sad, so why can't my music reflect that? So I kind of just came to peace with it that way,” says Holland.
“Maybe it's not the best, quote, 'branding', but it's true to who we are,” he continues. “You know, a lot of times, you don't write the song, the song writes itself in a way. It's not like I have a master plan of what the song is going to be, you kind of just have a little kernel of an idea, I guess. Then you take it in a [direction], almost where it naturally wants to go. More and more over time, I let that happen more freely instead of trying to direct it,” reveals Dexter. “I figured let it go where it's going to go and then we can always scrap it rather than trying to make it into something it doesn't want to be.”
SUPERCHARGED has a familiar face in the producer’s chair, with Bob Rock returning for his fourth release with the band, having previously worked on Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace; Days Go By and Let The Bad Times Roll. When asked about the guitars used to record the new album, Dexter divulges that they relied heavily on a plethora of vintage guitars provided by Rock, and Dexter’s own trusty 1965 Gibson SG Junior.
“He's really great, and he's a super guitar nut, gearhead guy," Dexter says of Rock. "I can say, ‘What was the guitar set up for Black Dog by Led Zeppelin?’ And he knows the guitar, and the amp is a Supro, and what most people don't know is that there's a certain pedal in there that no one [else] used. He's got it down, which is so much fun.”
When asked if he tracked using his usual Ibanez RG and Mesa/Boogie combination, the singer reveals that the band used a collection of retro guitars. “So we experiment with a lot of different stuff, and what's great about [Bob Rock] is that he'll have guitars that are different sounding, but by being different, they complement each other, and it makes it bigger and wider. We used a lot of vintage gear.
“We switched it up every song. I have a ‘65 Gibson SG Junior that is kind of the workhorse. What's cool about these guitars though is that they're not like pristine old guitars. Bob's like, ‘It's cool when they're kind of f**ked up.’ They're kind of like beaters because they're just cooler and they sound just as good as the ones that cost 10 times as much – you don't have to have one that's got the best paint job on it,” chuckles Dexter.
With a career that spans decades, it would stand to reason that the process of making a record has changed a fair bit over the years. We wanted to know what Dexter thinks has changed the most from their ‘89 self-titled album to this new release.
“I think what's different is that we used to go in for one long stretch and knock out a record, and now we go in for lots of short stretches,” reflects Holland. “Sometimes, you know, after 10 days in the studio staring at each other in the room you're not really sure what to do next.
“So, I want to get out, especially because we have a lot of tour days to do. Then you just sit on the song for a couple of weeks or a month, and then all of a sudden you're like, ‘Oh, I’ve got five ideas to try. Let's go back in and do it.’ So, knocking it out in shorter stretches is actually more productive.”
If you’ve been keeping up to date with the pop-punk titans, you’ll have undoubtedly seen them take to the stage with rock royalty for an emotional rendition of Gone Away, featuring none other than Brian May. When asked how that went down, Dexter divulges that it was pure persistence on his part that made it happen.
“Well, I have to confess, I chased him down a little bit,” says Dexer. “You know, he's an astronomer, of course, and I like astronomy, but I'm not an expert in it by any means. I heard he has an astronomy convention that he hosts every year. It was kind of his baby, and he has musicians play, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I would love to be part of this.’
“So we kind of lobbied for it a little bit and said we'd love to come play, and we worked something out,” adds Dexter. “They were very receptive and let us come over, and then, you know, once we were in to play, I said ‘Well, can we push it one step further, how about joining us on stage?’ You know, never thinking that he would say yes – and he did!”
“He played one of our songs with us, Gone Away. Then we played Stone Cold Crazy, which was just surreal. I mean, you're here with one of the biggest legends, not just in the world but of all time! And I've got to say, he’s a lovely man,” shares Holland. “Just the nicest guy. He hung out with us in the dressing room after for half an hour. We had a drink together and chatted, and it was just an amazing experience.”
“I've got to tell you a funny story about that, too, because we've been doing the Gone Away thing with just the piano for a while, and when he was going to join us for the song, he sent me a voice memo by email. He goes, ‘I have this idea, you can call me crazy, but what if we did something where we kind of extend [the song], and it’s brought back big at the end, and I'll come in then?’ So I've got to say it was kind of his idea, and I just said, ‘Whatever he says, the answer is yes.’ It ended up being really cool. I think we're going to incorporate that into our set now.”
For sure, I absolutely would collaborate. You can tell him. Tell him for me
Of course, May isn’t the only famous face to join Dexter and Co. on stage recently. The band was joined by pop sensation Ed Sheeran for an energetic performance of Million Miles Away at BottleRock Napa Valley, an experience that certainly left a mark on The Offspring frontman, who exuberantly states that he would definitely be up for a collaboration in the future – something we’d most definitely love to see.
“I mean, [Ed Sheeran] has got to be the biggest one for sure – just because the genre he is known for is so completely different from where we come from. But in talking to him, we learned that he was a fan of all kinds of bands growing up, even super gnarly hardcore bands. It turned out that our album, Conspiracy Of One, was his first CD,” Dexter informs us.
“We got in the dressing room to hash out a song before we played it, and we had heard rumours about this tattoo. He lifts up his shirt and he's got a big Offspring skull, and we're like, ‘Yeah, that's the best thing I've ever seen,’” laughs Dexter.
When pressed about a possible collaboration with the pop star, Dexter admits that the band is most definitely up for it, but they were playing it cool on the day of the festival performance.
“We said, ‘Look, you guys, don't say anything, don't come on too strong. We're not going to say anything on the day.’ But you could put the word out there. For sure, I absolutely would collaborate. You can tell him. Tell him for me,” laughs Dexter.
As to who else we can expect to see hit the stage with The Offspring in the future, Dexter is not giving too much away, but does reveal that the idea of surf legends The Beach Boys joining them has been floated around – something he’s certainly not opposed to.
“You know, things keep on coming up. Like, the Ed Sheeran thing. I didn't even know that he was a fan until right before then, so that was a surprise. I didn't think the Brian May thing would happen. Now, of course, people are saying, ‘Well, who are you playing with next? Who else can we do stuff with?’ Lately, people have thrown out The Beach Boys as a possibility. It's kind of fun. I wouldn't have been into that before,” admits Holland, “but it's ended up being a really cool thing to be on stage with these guys.”
The Offspring’s new album SUPERCHARGED is out everywhere on October 11 (preorder), and you can catch the band live at various gigs and festival slots worldwide. For more information, check out offspring.com.
