INTERVIEW: Greg Kriesel - Offspring

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Offspring has been in the vanguard of groups like Green Day that blazed the trail that allowed punk rock to re-emerge from the underground and again burst onto the music scene in the mid-1990s. The Orange County punks sold more than 10 million copies of their 1994 album Smash, which again sparked major label interest in punk acts. Otherwise, acts like Blink-182 and MxPx would still be confined to being local underground bands, not the chart toppers that they are now.

After releasing the critically acclaimed, but commercially disappointing Ixnay on the Hombre in 1997, the Offspring went into the recording studio after a short tour to record the group's fifth album, Americana, a mocking examination of the irony and superficiality inherent in American pop culture, which is due out next week. Greg Kriesel, the group's bassist, recently talked to the Daily Trojan about Americana and the group's unlikely success.

"Dexter (Holland, the Offspring's singer and songwriter) was watching a lot of daytime television, that's where the themes come from," Kriesel said about the songs on Americana.

But he warns not to take the Offspring's music too seriously. "We really like the entertainment value of it," he said. "There are a lot of places where people can get their politics and values, and our songs should not be one of them. If you get something out of them, that's fine, but they aren't supposed to be important."

According to Kriesel, Americana stays true to the Offspring's punk roots, but the group takes a few musical risks. "It's something that is a little different," he said. "We have an acoustic song sort of like Self-Esteem' and a little mellower. We have always also screwed around a little bit with the Middle Eastern sound and threw it in."

Although the Offspring's songs are not politically motivated or trying to push a message like fellow punk rockers Bad Religion or Propagandhi, the group is still interested in sociopolitical problems. Following the Ixnay tour, the band played several charity shows to benefit its own F.S.U. (Fuck Shit Up) Foundation, benefiting a host of political and environmental causes. The legendary Jello Biafra, frontman for the now defunct but extremely political Dead Kennedys, came out and performed several songs including the punk classic "Holiday in Cambodia" with the Offspring.

"The Dead Kennedys were the first band we ever listened to, so it was cool to get to play with him," Kriesel said of playing with his hero. "We have been lucky enough to play with a lot of the older bands like the Ramones, Fugazi, the Vandals and Social Distortion."

Following the success of Smash, the Offspring abandoned its independent label Epitaph for Columbia Records. After a contractual spat, Epitaph founder and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz initiated negative publicity for the Offspring, accusing the band of selling out and abandoning the punk scene.

"(The band has) tried to put that behind us and I think Epitaph has too, but they did a lot of talking to the press," Kriesel said. "But everything has finally died down."

When asked whether signing with Columbia after being with Epitaph brought pressure to sell albums and produce radio-friendly singles, Kriesel responded, "Truthfully, if our next album fails, I think that it might. But with the last two, they didn't hear it until it was completely done. They saw what we did with Smash pretty much on our own and left us alone, since they thought that these guys must know what they are doing, even though Ixnay did not do as well as some people thought."

The Offspring, although not the oldest punk band from Orange County, has seen a large number of other groups rise to prominence, then fade into obscurity just as quickly. Kriesel observed, "some of these bands played punk, and when that wasn't cool anymore, then they played heavy metal, and that wasn't cool, and then ska. Or they just weren't focused."

After touring for years and releasing a pair of independent albums while going to school, members of the Offspring never figured they would be rock stars, particularly because their unique brand of pop-metal-punk was commercially unacceptable and had only a small niche of an audience. All that changed in 1994 when Smash had four hit singles released to modern rock radio.

"We never thought that (success) could happen to a band like ours," Kriesel said. "When Nirvana came out, it seemed like a band with a little harder and harsher sound can hit the mainstream. We thought that maybe we could sell as many albums as a Bad Religion-type group, and that was pretty much our highest goal. As far as 'Come Out and Play' and 'Self-Esteem,' we didn't think those were the major songs on the album. ?Come Out and Play' almost didn't make the album."

The Offspring faced adversity even after finding success, having been sued by Murphy's Law, a virtually unknown Boston group, for copyright infringement over the distinctively catchy guitar riff in "Come Out and Play." Kriesel conceded that success brings vultures like Murphy's Law that try to capitalize on it.

"We heard the song afterward, but it was something we had never listened to before," Kriesel said. "It was just a standard three-chord riff. We did research and found out that there were 10 other songs with the identical riff, so it wasn't something we lifted from them. Someone ran into them recently, and they said their lawyer and manager were behind it. It's just one of those things that happens when you get big."

Kriesel described the key to the Offspring's continued success. "We play with the same style as in the beginning, which was a little bit not radio-friendly, but more toward the mainstream than some other bands were. I think that we are a bit more refined and there are some new elements, but the basics are still there. They are pretty straightforward."

By Mike Dutra, from Mojam Music - November 10, 1998