Offspring Prep For Next Album

Dexter Holland says Offspring will enter the studio in June

The Offspring will enter the studio in June to record the follow up to 1998's Americana. Although they only wrapped up that LP's promotional duties last fall, frontman Dexter Holland, speaking from his home in Southern California, said the band was anxious to begin work on new material, nine songs of which are in the demo phase.

"We came home last Christmas and we kind of took a month just trying to recoup and we started thinking, 'Well, do we want to get started on another record right away?'" Holland says. "We're all pretty excited about the way things have gone so I spent a couple of months trying to come up with some new material and then [started] jamming out these demos."

Holland has been working on material in the band's own newly built studio. "I built one in an industrial space down the street from my house," he says. "The last [album] I demoed in a spare room of the house. This time we wanted to have a place where we could expand a little bit, so I went in there and spent the last month staying up all night and making noise."

The Offspring are hoping to make the record harder than past efforts, according to Holland. "We've done enough records [where] people kind of know what we sound like, and people used to [say about 1997's Ixnay on the Hombre], 'Oh my gosh, that's such a departure for you guys.' But I think people now know more or less what to expect," Holland says. "I like taking chances and going in different directions. That's part of what the whole demoing process is about, where I feel free to experiment. But I kind of wanna make this one rock a little more than the last one."

Before heading to the studio, the group will play a benefit concert with X, Pennywise and others for the family of late Social Distortion guitarist Dennis Danell at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater on May 6. "A lot of really cool bands are coming together and playing together for what's a really good cause, and it would be hard to get this bill together normally," says Holland.

By Jolie Lash, from Rolling Stone - May 2, 2000