Four Hombres

The Offspring Spawn A New Smash

The last time the L.A. punk quartet the Offspring came to town they were on the verge of taking the music industry by storm. Riding on the growing wave of attention from its new single, "Come Out And Play," the band found itself becoming something truly rare around the punk music subculture Ä popular.

Propelled by the raw energy, eclectic Middle Eastern guitar riff and the catchy refrain You gotta keep 'em separated, the first single from 1994's Smash rocketed unexpectedly to No. 1 on the charts and opened the door for subsequent hits such as "Self Esteem" and "Gotta Get Away." Much to their surprise, and to the delight of their independent record label, Epitaph, the Offspring found themselves as the center of a lot of attention. Smash went on to sell over 8.5 million records worldwide and the Offspring had established themselves as a major force in the punk rock arena.

As is frequently the case, Smash's impressive record sales also brought up a whole new set of problems, both for the band as well as for its record label, owned and operated by former Bad Religion guitarist, Brett Gurewitz. As Epitaph scrambled to keep up with the unprecedented demand for the Offspring's latest release, the band found itself in hot demand on stages nationwide. The Offspring toured for nearly a year in support of their disc, and Gurewitz struggled to keep up with the volume of sales the band was generating.

The band's vocalist/guitarist and primary songwriter, Bryan "Dexter" Holland, recalls the hectic schedules of living on the road. "It makes you crazy. Being on tour is like living in a different world, because there's no home. You're literally traveling most of the day, every day. Your surroundings are completely different. The only constant in the whole touring thing is the bus, you know, which is kind of weird. You live out of a duffel bag and after a while it does make you crazy."

Meanwhile, the band's success had spawned rumors that Gurewitz was looking to sell off part of Epitaph or possibly the rights to the Offspring's contract. The band approached its friend and business associate several times to discuss the matter, and each time Gurewitz denied that he had been meeting with major record labels to discuss the band's future with Epitaph.

The Offspring remained loyal to Epitaph, to the point of persuading other bands to stick with the label. But concerns over how the label was handling the band's finances continued to foster a sense of distrust, and Gurewitz finally admitted in 1995 to having met with some big record companies, and that he was looking to sell off about half of the company for personal reasons.

Feeling betrayed and deceived, the band members decided if their future was with a large record company, it would be in their best interest to find the one that best suited their needs.

Holland admits that period in the band's career was frustrating for he and his bandmates, but he is happy to say they've been able to move past it, probably due in no small part to their relationship with their new record label, Columbia.

"You know, I talked about that a lot at a certain time, and it's kind of water under the bridge now," he says. "We definitely didn't want to do a bidding war kind of thing. Our manager manages Social Distortion, as well, who's on Epic. Epic and Columbia are kind of like sister labels, and I admire the way the bands on Epic seem very free to do what they wanted to, like Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine and Social Distortion. If Pearl Jam doesn't want to tour or they don't want to make a video, you know that's OK. I felt like they were very free to run their own careers or whatever, so just based on that, and the fact that [our manager] already knew a lot of the people at the label, it just seemed like it was a good match, so we came to them and said, 'This is what we want, will you give it to us?' And they said, 'OK.' So it was really pretty much just as simple as that."

The band couldn't be happier with the current arrangement with Columbia.

"It's turned out great," says Holland. "They help us where we need to be helped and they leave us alone where we want to be left alone."

The Offspring's first project with Columbia is their latest disc, Ixnay On The Hombre, their first LP since 1994's Smash. The band took a year off to recoup and write after its grueling tour that followed the last album. They headed into the studio last summer with producer Dave Jerden, and came out with 14 tracks that remain true to the Offspring's formula of high-energy guitar work turned in by guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, fiercely driving rhythms by bassist Greg Kriesel and drummer Ron Welty, along with Holland's smartly sarcastic lyrics. Case in point is the disc's opening "Disclaimer" that takes a swipe at parental discretion and the dangers of independent thought delivered by former Dead Kennedy Jello Biafra.

"We spent a few months on it working with Dave Jerden, who turned out to be great," Holland says. "We had picked him to produce the record because he had done some of my favorite sounding records, like the Alice In Chains and Jane's Addiction and Social Distortion records that he had produced were really great. He turned out to be great to work with and I was really happy with the way the record sounded. I didn't feel like he put a signature sound on it or anything. We still sounded like the Offspring. You know, we wanted to be able to experiment with different kinds of songs and I think they turned out great."

The band used some of its old tricks this time around, and worked some new sounds into its repertoire. Manic Latin percussion fuels "I Choose," while those familiar Middle Eastern scales appear once again in some of Holland's impressive vocal work in "Me And My Old Lady." Holland admits that the band makes a conscious effort to try new things in order to keep its music fresh.

"Basically, we'll come into the studio and we'll pretty much try anything, and if it turns out to be stupid, we'll leave it off. That's kind of the mindset we've all had. It makes it so we're not afraid to try something new and that's really what we did on Smash, with a song like 'Come Out And Play' and even 'Self Esteem' and stuff.

"Basically, I was taken by punk rock music, and that's what inspired me to start a band, and that's the music that I love because of the energy, because of the way the lyrics are presented a lot of times. There's a real relevant message and it's usually fairly straightforward, and that kind of thing. But I don't want to just relive and recreate 1983, I want to take it a little further, try to make it something that's unique to us and so we try to bring in different elements here and there, and the Eastern scales or Eastern elements are part of it."

Currently, Ixnay is posting steady record sales as radio stations nationally are beginning to pick up on the third single from the disc, "The Meaning Of Life," even as the disc's second single, "Gone Away," is still making its rounds on the airwaves and MTV. The success of the deeply personal "Gone Away" has come as some surprise to Holland, although it has also been very gratifying.

"It's a song about losing someone that's close to you, of course, and it's interesting that people have really related to it in a lot of different ways," Holland explains. "It is [a very personal song] and it's based on something true, and that's the most I've ever said about it and that's really the most I want to say about it. But what's interesting to me is that although it's something true to me, people have adapted it to where they relate to it because of maybe their grandparents or maybe their dog or something. It's really interesting how they can adapt for whatever their situation is.

"I've gotten letters about it. I got this e-mail here that just came in today from a guy in Utah that says, 'How did you come up with the lyrics for "Gone Away"? The reason I ask you is my 22-year-old wife was shot and killed by her "friend" and I wonder about him and the scumbag she was hanging out with ... but when I first heard the song I literally collapsed, it was so close to home and had such an impact on me.' So, it's really weird when you get a letter like that. That's when I think music can be really gratifying, when you can do something that really hits home with somebody, and we've had a couple songs that I've gotten responses like this to. When 'Self Esteem' came out there were people that were saying, 'Wow, this really, touched me,' I guess. I hate to say that word, but that's what they were saying. It's a pretty amazing thing."

Holland writes most of the band's material, and finds it's easiest for him to work when he's got time to himself. "The way I work on it is whenever I have a free moment I start thinking about something I'm working on or whatever," he says. "So I end up writing songs in the car on the way somewhere.

"Writing on the road on tour is tough. I mean, we did do a little bit of that. You know, but we had some of that before Smash was done, even, we had some of the songs that we came back to and revisited here for this record. And a lot of it was after we got off the road, we had, like a year off that I spent just trying to write the rest of the stuff. It's kind of a weird thing. You just kind of wait to be inspired and just hope you have a good day."

Since the release of Ixnay On The Hombre in early February, the Offspring have done three short tours, one across the East Coast that brought them as close as the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, one in Europe and another in Australia. The band is currently working on its fourth tour in support of the disc, and it will bring the band, along with openers L7 and AFI to the Agora Theatre this Monday, May 19. The band has gotten used to making its tours shorter and more frequent after the marathon road trip that it endured for the last album.

"We figured out a way to tour so that it doesn't kill us," Holland explains. "So what we'll do is we'll go on tour for three or four weeks at a time and then come home for a few weeks, so that we're never gone, like, months and months at a time. You know, if you do it like that, then it's not so bad. So this time around it's been OK, it's been pretty comfortable. I think everyone's kind of doing OK with it."

Holland foresees a killer lineup this time out with their West Coast friends. AFI, who are signed to Holland's record label, Nitro, have toured with the Offspring before, but this is the band's first time out with L7.

"We're both from L.A. and we've kind of known each other for a while," he says. "They asked us to play Rock For Choice about a year-and-a-half ago because they kind of set that up. So we did that, we were happy to do it, and we were kind of impressed with them and this trip came up and we just thought it would be great to take them out."

The Offspring and their fans seem to have a mutual admiration and respect for one another. The band feels a certain duty to deliver an energetic, heartfelt performance and they are repaid in kind by the fans' energy and loyalty.

"That's something that's important, I think," says Holland. "It's important for us to, whatever, deliver the goods, I guess. We try and keep the ticket prices reasonable and stuff, but if a kid spends 15 dollars or whatever, they want to have a good time. And we kind of feed off all that, too. I think the crowd really does go off the band and vice versa. Who wants to have a bunch of Hootie fans come to your show, you know? What's it going to be like? It wouldn't be any fun."

By Ken Advent, from "Scene" magazine