Smashing Punk Kings

From underground punks to MTV favorities - ten years since their inception, the Offspring finally have a Smash.

The Offspring are punk rock’s latest sucess story, and nobody could be more surprised than tha band themselves. As their recent album, Smash (Epitaph), sells by the truckload, these four friends from high school continue to play it fast, loud and raw.

The rebellious progeny from ultra-suburban Orange Country, California, the Offspring have been together for over a decade. They used to make fun of rock stars, but they know better than to laugh now. Their single, "Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)," has matured into a monster hit, their album is quickly approaching platinum status, and it’s safe to say that the Offspring have all the qualifications for being larger-than-life rock stars - minus the arrogant attitude.

In a recent conversation with Flux, Offspring singer and chief songwriter Dexter Holland revealed himself as a man clearly embarrassed by all the fuss, and shares with us his thoughts on fame, lighter fluid and his secret double life.

FLUX: How does it feel to have a hit on your hands?

DEXTER HOLLAND: We realy shy away from the whole sucess thing because that’s not why we started this band. We were just playing punk rock, and doing it for years and years with no recognition. We did it because we loved the music and enjoyed what we were doing. Whatever happens now is nice - it’s great - but we try not to take it too seriously.

FLUX: Are you surprised at how popular you’ve gotten?

HOLLAND: Oh, absolutely! When we recorded this album, our last one has sold maybe 15.000 copies, so the possibility of us getting played on the radio or anything like that was pretty much nonexistent. Especially because this kind of music is not generally considered acceptable by the mainstream - so, for something like this to happen, it really took us by surprise.

FLUX: What do you think is unacceptable about the Offspring?

HOLLAND: The fact that we don’t play by the rules. We don’t do the stuff that everyone wants us to do. We don’t play the big shows for the big tickets prices. We don’t do the long guitar leads and the big extended outros of the songs and say "thank you, good night!" after every show. We don’t want to do that. This is punk rock - and punk rock has never been accepted.

FLUX: That’s part os its political element to punk music. Are your songs themselves socially conscious as well?

HOLLAND: I’d say they’re more topical than straight political. But that’s another thing that’s good about punk rock. There’s something in it that you can digest. It might not necessairly have a heavy message, but when you hear the lyrics, it makes you think a little. It adresses something that’s relevant.

FLUX: That’s ceirtainly the case with "Come Out and Play." What inspired you to write that song?

HOLLAND: I was sick, stuck in bed for a whole week. I was trapped watching horrible daytime talk shows. One day Montel Williams had on these kids who said they had to bring guns to school to protect themselves. And I was thinking how ridiculous that was, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would make a cool song.

FLUX: Tell me about the song "Bad Habits," which ia about shooting at people who cut you off on the road. Has that song been na inspiration to anybody?

HOLLAND: Oh, God, I hope not! We’ll see what happens with it. On our last record, we did a song called "Burn It Up," which was about a pyromaniac. It was kind of silly, not seriously at all, and we played this show and these kids showed up with this charred can of lighter fluid with "To the Offspring" written on it, and they said how they had burned something down for us. People will always take stuff too literally, but it just makes them look stupid because it’s really obvious that’s not what we mean. People like "Bad Habits" because it’s a release and they like cussing.

FLUX: Do you attribute any of the band’s sucess to MTV exposure?

HOLLAND: No. Most people don’t realise that. We already had a strong fan base in the snowboard, skateboard and surfing crowd when this record came out. I really think that kids like us because of the whole album, not just the single.

FLUX: Word has it that you’re in the process of getting a Ph.D. in microbiology at the University of Southern California. True?

HOLLAND: I’ve taken a leave of absence. Originally, this band was a side project, something that was fun to do - but it’s turned into more than that. The important thing about this is not to let anyone write your ticket. People in school look at me and say, "I can’t believe you’re in a band," and the guys in the band say, "I can’t believe you’re in school." You don’t have to limit yourself to one thing or be different from anything you want to be.

FLUX: Before Smash took off, was the Offspring something you saw pretty much only as a hooby?

HOLLAND: Yeah, definitely. It’s the only way we could have stayed together. If we has wanted to make it, we would have done something more mainstream in the first place. We did this because we were friends and we would be at each other’s houses on the weekend, drinking beer or something - it was just a fun thing to do.

FLUX: What does the band have planned for the future?

HOLLAND: The way this band has always worked is by not thinking past or our next show - take it one day at a time and see what happens. We didn’t know how far this is going to go. We could be history by the end of the year. People could be so sick of that "keep ‘em separated" line that they may hate us for the rest of eternity. Then I’d have to go back to school and avoid the public for the rest of my life.

By David Grad, from "Flux" magazine - 1994