Dexter Holland

Singer songwriter for The Offspring

With over 30 million records sold worldwide and a string of catchy hits that you can't get out of your head days after you've heard them, Dexter Holland has accomplished as a songwriter what most of us only dream of. Here are excerpts from his candid interview with Songlounge in Miami's South Beach.

SL - What would you say is the most important element of a good song, the one thing that makes or breaks a song?

DH - The hook.

SL - And by the hook you mean the melody?

DH - Yeah the melody. It could be a guitar riff or a vocal line, but it is the melody either sung or played by an instrument.

SL - How do you come up with a song?

DH - I usually come up with a riff in my head, a vocal and a guitar part, which almost always becomes the chorus then I build from there.

SL - Do you ever come up with the music first and then add the vocal melody later?

DH - No.

SL - Bridges seem to be difficult for some people to come up with. Do you ever have trouble coming up with a bridge?

DH - No. A neat trick is to sometimes use the bridge also as your intro, or to go into it early in the song for maybe a bar or two without giving it all away. We do that in "Defy You."

SL - A lot of artists say they like their demos better than the finished product. How about you?

DH - Never. I make it a point not to listen to the demos too much. If you get stuck on a demo it's gonna be difficult to let go and accept the new version of the song.

SL - Do you carry a tape recorder with you?

DH - Yeah. I sing my ideas into it so that I don't forget them, that way later on when I start recording the demos I can check it just in case I've forgotten a riff or something. It's good to have it as a point of reference.

SL - Is there any particular time of day when ideas come to you?

DH - No, not really. Sometimes at night when I'm falling asleep or early in the morning when I'm still in bed in that pseudo dream state.

SL - Is it hard to translate your ideas from your head to the guitar or another instrument?

DH - Sometimes it's really hard.

SL - Do you ever ask for help?

DH - No. I have to do it myself. That's how I write.

SL - You've had an impressive amount of success (over 30 million albums sold worldwide). Do you think that a good songwriter is born or self-made?

DH - I think you either have it or you don't. Of course you don't start writing good songs from the beginning, you get better the more you do it, but there's something that has to be there from the start.

SL - Did you write a lot of bad songs when you began writing?

DH - Oh yeah, lots. The thing is that you don't know that they're bad when you're writing them. As you grow as a songwriter and get better you look back and realize how bad your early songs really were.

SL - At Songlounge we don't judge lyrics when we review songs just because we want to give people the opportunity to submit songs in any language. As we're sure you've noticed, a lot of songs have become hits in several different languages. Plus a lot of people all over the world who buy records in English don't even understand the words. We feel that music transcends language and that a good melody or hook will come across even if the listener doesn't understand the words. What's your take on lyrics?

DH - I used to think they weren't that important at first, but now I think they are. But you do have a point. Na na nas are good, everyone can understand them (laughs).

From Songlounge