Offspring Of New Punk

You'd think it would be lesson number one in remedial rock star school: Be careful what you say - especially if you're talking to the media.

But it's a lesson The Offspring's bassist Greg Kriesel unfortunately had to learn the hard way, when an innocuous comment he made last week about the punk-pop band's future was sent out on the newswire.

Suddenly, it became a story about the group's imminent demise, which made headlines around the world.

"We get that question a lot, 'How long are you going to do this?' " Kriesel says.

"It's kind of one of those stock answers: 'Well, I can see doing it for five more years, probably until it's not fun any more - but that could be 30 years.'

"It just amazed me how far this went. I walked into a show the other night and everybody's like 'What did you say?'

"My dad's wife's 80-year-old father heard about it!" It's not the first time in recent memory the band has made news - late last year The Offspring wanted to release its latest album, Conspiracy of One, online before it hit store shelves, but the threat of a lawsuit from its record company, Sony Music, scuttled that bid.

The fact the band and its actions are deemed newsworthy actually says quite a lot about the popularity of The Offspring and its seemingly unlikely rise to rock stardom.

Since forming 16 years ago, the California quartet, which performs tonight at the Stampede Corral, has worked its way up from indie punk group to a major-label arena act, and in doing so, have sold in excess of 25 million albums.

"When we started out, we had no aspirations of being rock stars," Kriesel says.

"We liked the music, and we liked playing in front of people, and making songs and that was it. Every goal we had was maybe a small goal. 'OK, let's put an album out, and let's try to get signed to an independent label, and let's try to go on a tour,' and stuff like that.

"Hitting the mainstream never even crossed our minds because punk rock just wasn't in the mainstream back then."

Well, punk - or some might argue, a diluted version of it - is now an accepted part of the mainstream music industry thanks to the mid-'90s rise of The Offspring, Green Day and newer acts like blink-182 and Canada's Sum 41. And though its popularity may rise and wane, Kriesel thinks there's one thing that ensures it always will be around in one form or another.

"The underground scene still really thrives," he says. "There's always a scene at the club level that's strong and it's always going to stay strong. It's music that's easy to play and there's always going to be a market for it."

By Mike Bell, from Calgary Sun - July 28th, 2001