Another Offspring Homepage Interviews Noodles

Another Offspring Homepage: What did you think about South America, the concerts down here and the crowd? (Did the Argentina guys spit in you again - hehehe?)

Noodles: We get spit on in different places from time to time, and it's always disgusting. I've been hit in the eyes and even in my mouth. Sometimes I'll get it on my guitar and the stuff smears and makes everything all sticky. It can become difficult to play when it's like that. Besides the gob, our shows in South America went smoothly and we had a great time.

Another: Nowadays, some bands (like Lagwagon for example) don't like to be labeled, neighter as punk, alternative, hardcore or whatever, they prefer to be recognized as themselves, doing their own stuff, simply beeing themselves, they don't like be limited by anything. Do The Offspring think that way too? Do you think this pressure about beeing punk enough is valid?

Noodles: No one likes to be labeled, because even a good label can be limiting. People hear words like "punk," "hardcore," or "metal" and automatically make certain assumptions. But who really listens to a band based on what tag they've been given? We don't care if people listen to us because they think we're punk or if they think we're a classical-folk-lounge act. People will only listen if they like what they hear. As far as being pressured to be "punk enough," such pressure only exists if you take it on. We've never cared about whether or not we're punk enough for other people. To worry about that and still try to make music will only result in failure. You will sound neither punk nor musical. Besides punk was always supposed to be about breaking rules not following them.

Another: After Ixnay came out, people around said that you were an overdosed band, that Smash success was just lucky, that you couldn't repeat it. So, after more than a year of Americana's release and after almost 14 months of tour suporting this album, was all that success expected to happend again? Did you make songs more "pop" (Pretty Fly and Get A Job) awaiting to reach big success again?

Noodles: In 1984 Dexter, Greg K. and some friends, none of whom played any instruments, decided to form a punk rock band. They decided that in ten years they would be one of the first punk bands to go multi-platinum and make millions of dollars. They calculated wisely that it would take about ten years of playing punk rock music, in punk rock clubs, opening up for other punk bands before they could earn enough street credibility to succeed with their plan. They also figured out that this might cause some sort of a backlash within the otherwise harmonious punk rock scene. So they decided that after their first big breakthrough, they might have to tone things down a little as sort of a "cooling off period." They realized that after things cooled off a bit, there would be no stopping them and that punk rock, given a slight pop-rock tinge, would reign supreme. A year later, when they asked me if I would help them in this venture, I said,"Where do I sign?" As you can see, everything has gone exactly according to our plan.

From Another Offspring Homepage - February 4th, 2000