PUNK chart toppers The Offspring have sold millions of albums and had hits with Come Out and Play and Self Esteem. Now for something different: the power ballad.
TWO words you don't expect to be associated with punk chart toppers the Offspring: power ballad. But right there in the middle of their new album Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace is an old-fashioned radio-friendly slowie, Kristy, Are You Doing Okay? Guitarist Kevin ‘‘Noodles'' Wasserman says frontman and main songwriter Dexter Holland brought Kristy to the band as a finished tune. ‘‘It is a little different. We've messed around with those types of (slower) songs over the years but they've never made it on to a record. It doesn't seem like a big surprise to me because I've heard all those songs, but Offspring fans might go ‘What?' But not everything has to be hardcore.'' The song is about an abused child -- one of the Offspring's most sensitive moments. ‘‘I think it fits on this record,'' Noodles says. ‘‘This is one of the most varied records we've done. We've been moving in that direction more and more in increments throughout our career.'' That career has seen the Californian band sell more than 38 million albums since forming in 1984, breaking into the mainstream 10 years later with hits Come Out and Play and Self Esteem. Rise and Fall marks the longest the band have spent on a record -- more than two years. ‘‘Too f---ing long,'' Noodles jokes. ‘‘I think it was a curse from trying to call our last album Chinese Democracy.'' The band received a ‘‘cease and desist'' letter from Axl Rose when they threatened to name 2003's Splinter after Guns N' Roses' 10-years-in-the-making Chinese Democracy. The irony is they've beaten Rose to the punch again. ‘‘We didn't want to f--- with the guy that bad,'' Noodles says. ‘‘I don't know what demons he's dealing with on that record. We just spent a lot more time trying to make this record something extra special.'' The band recruited A-list producer Bob Rock for their eighth studio album. ‘‘We were a little sceptical because of his pedigree with Motley Crue and Metallica,'' Noodles says. ‘‘I mean, The Black Album is a great album, but it's a huge heavy, big album, and not the way we'd want to sound. But once we got to know him it was fine. He's one of the bros. Plus he used to do lots of little punk bands back in the day.'' Rock also adapted to a punk band working at a not-so-punk pace. ‘‘He's so patient,'' Noodles says. ‘‘This record took a long f---ing time. We've never taken so long making a record and I don't think he has either.'' So long did the album take that the Offspring booked an Australian tour for February as part of the Soundwave festival. They thought they'd have the new album in the can. They were wrong. ‘‘There was some tension with deadlines, but you can't push it when you want it to be right,'' Noodles says. ‘‘Deadlines are arbitrary. The songs have to come first and be the best they can be. But you can do that for 10 years -- ask Axl Rose. At some point you have to go ‘OK, I've done all I can do to this song'. Dexter always quotes Paul Stanley -- ‘Records are never finished, they're abandoned'.'' Playing two new songs live -- Hammerhead and Half Truism -- gave fans the chance to provide instant feedback. It also meant bootlegged copies hit YouTube hours after the band hit the stage. ‘‘We had a look at a few of them,'' Noodles admits. ‘‘We first did Hammerhead last August in Japan. You'd think the Japanese dudes with all their technology would get a decent recording of it, but it was horrible. People were going ‘The song's good, but what a shitty recording'.'' The Offspring have adapted well to the new digital frontier. They were one of the first bands to offer an entire album online for free legal download, and had cameras in the studio to let fans watch them at work. ‘‘It's the way the world's going, there's no point swimming against the tide,'' Noodles says. ‘‘The internet is a neat thing. It's making people return to the grassroots. You've got to be creative, see what works.'' Though last album Splinter saw the band's sales dip, Noodles isn't worried. ‘‘In this day and age if that's your obsession you're f---ed. All bands are shifting from trying to make money on records to trying to make it playing live. ‘‘We've always spent s---loads on touring and not done it very smartly from a financial point of view.'' Indeed, the Offspring are in the process of workshopping a new touring regime that will see them out on the road for long stretches at a time ‘‘for financial reasons''. But they have to balance that with family life: Noodles has spent the past year fishing, shopping and singing choir with his kids. ‘‘I've got a five-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter,'' he explains. ‘‘I've got two different baby mommas -- I'm trying to keep current!'' Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (Sony BMG) out now.
