Greg Kriesel: Punk Attitude

"It's about bringing out the power of the song," says the Offspring's Greg Krisel. "I don't think any of us are great musicians. It's more about attitude and feeling rather than hitting the notes and being technically on."

Nonetheless, Greg believes the tour for the Offspring's 1994 breakout Epitaph release Smash - with it's thrash-'em up single "Come Out and Play" - improved his musicianship. "Before that, we'd play 20 or 30 times a year and practice right before the shows. But when Smash came out we probably played 230 shows that year. So going into the next album it seemed like a whole different world." Along the way Greg upgraded from an old P-Bass to a custom Ibanez ATK300 and from a Gallien Krueger 400RB to a G-K 2000RB which powers MESA/Boogie 2x15 and 4x10 cabinets.

Now enjoying the success of Americana (Columbia) and its video hit "Pretty Fly for a White Guy," Greg and his bandmates are firmly entrenched in the world's punk-rock consciousness. Of course, it took work to get there. "When we decided to be a band, nobody knew how to play instruments; we just chose up that night," Kriesel admits adding that he picked bass because he "thought it was the easiest." Rather than taking lessons, he and singer/guitarist Dexter Holland sat down and started to learn their instruments on their own, and in about six months they started writing songs. Several years and a few personnel changes later the band started logging hits. Greg picks "Self Esteem" from Smash as one of his favorites. "It's still one of our best live songs," he notes. Why? "It has a featured bass part, so of course it's better."

By David John Farinella, from "Bass Player" magazine - June 1999