My, How You've Grown

They've turned down a potential tour with Stone Temple Pilots, a spot on a Lollapalooza tour and, yes, even Woodstock II. Ill-fated acts of pomposity? Inexperienced stupidity? Actually, it's neither. The Offspring, 10-year veterans of the California punk underground, have done things at their own pace from the start. And, in spite of their low-key approach, they've sold eight-and-a-half million records on an independent label. Not that other talent scouts didn't notice-- Columbia Records owns claim to the Offspring's recently released major label debut, Ixnay on the Hombre. Recently, we spoke with bassist Greg K. (for Kriesel) and he explained the culturing of impressionable offspring into mature, marketable adults... and the reasoning behind passing on such high profile gigs... The album (Smash) had just broke out. It had been out for a couple months and, all of a sudden... We wouldn't have felt comfortable playing all these shows right away. We figured we'd start slow and just sort of build up where we were and that's what we're still doing now.

Question: Do you ever look back at something like Woodstock II and say, "Gee, we should have done that?"

Greg K: Not really. Not after watching it. I know the only reason why you would've done it would've been for album sales and stuff like that, but I don't think it would've been fun for us. I mean, we sold eight-and-a-half million (albums), how much that have helped? It would've given us another 50,000 (sales), or something like that.

Question: Have you ever stopped to think of where you stand in the music industry?

Greg K: Yeah, sometimes. I think about other bands and it's hard to think of ourselves in the same category as a Pearl Jam-- we really don't. We think, "Whatever." We just do what we do and somehow things started happening.

Question: At what point did the band realize it was becoming a success?

Greg K: The two hit songs, "Self Esteem" and "Come Out and Play" are pretty much what did it. It's basically that simple. Before that, nobody really ever payed any attention to us. We were just touring the whole time. It ("Come Out and Play") went up pretty fast once it hit the Billboard charts. It started climbing, like, 30 spots a week. All of a sudden, it just kept going and going and going. Once we started hearing "Come Out and Play" at baseball games and it was on Entertainment Tonight, we thought, "Something must be going on here."

Question: With the move from Epitaph to Columbia Records for this album, the secret's definitely out of the bag-- the Offspring aren't just the underground rage anymore. Does the band feel now is the time to take off? Columbia's expecting sales...

Greg K: I guess there's pressure in that way. When we signed with them, we said "We're still gonna do things our way," and they were fine with that. We told them from the beginning we didn't want anybody in the studio. We didn't send them a demo tape, they heard the album when it was done. They haven't pressured us as far as videos or tours, that's all our decision. They said, "Well, you sold eight-and-a-half million albums pretty much by yourselves, we're not gonna interfere with that. Obviously, you did something right." If this would've happened ten years ago, when we were younger and just coming out, we probably would've done everything that was asked of us. But, since we're a little older... We're just gonna start with a club tour and build things up. We're not going to do the high profile stuff right now unless we feel comfortable doing it.

Question: Isn't it daunting knowing that your last album sold eight million copies from out of nowhere?

Greg K: Yeah. I think a lot of people are saying, "If you don't do what you did last time, is it a failure?" Obviously, we can't expect to do what we did last time. I imagine if this album totally flops and sells 200,000 copies, then they (Columbia) might have a different attitude about it. Everybody was expecting it (Ixnay) to debut number one and we came in at number nine and they're saying, "Is that a big disappointment?" It's just, like, "Whatever", I think.

Question: Do you feel there's a time when Offspring will be doing huge tours and become a household name?

Greg K: I don't know. A lot depends on what happens with this album, because I think, with one album, people just write you off as a fly-by-night. If this album does well, then I think we'll be established and it's not gonna take two or three albums before people say, "Okay, I guess you're for real." We don't know. We would like to eventually-- I don't know if we'd necessarily play arenas-- but, we'd like to move up and step on.

Question: You performed some tunes from this album in your live show before the album's release. Were you concerned that fans might not have been receptive to the songs they haven't heard?

Greg K: The shows went really good in Australia, the Big Day Out shows (this past January). We played three or four (new songs) a night because, you know, fans want to hear stuff that they're familiar with. You know, if I go to a concert, I want to hear stuff that I know. We wanted to let them know that we had new stuff coming out.

Question: The Offspring did 227 shows within a year. How does that affect your life outside of music?

Greg K: Um, well, you're not at home (laughs). We did it in a way where we'd tour for a month and then come home for maybe two weeks. It wasn't like we were somebody like a Metallica, where they're just out for what seems like years at a time. We like the taste of the home life.

Question: Does the band enjoy touring, or do you just see it as a necessary evil of the business?

Greg K: A little bit of both. I like playing live. I think sometimes it gets a little tiring because you're away from home and in a different city every night. But, I think, the way we do it, it's always new for us.

Question: Tell us about the kind of fans The Offspring attracts.

Greg K: Last tour, it got pretty varied, but, for the most part, the average person was maybe and 18- to 20-year-old kid. They even get younger, like, in their early teens and maybe 10 years old, some of them.

Question: That brings up an interesting point, because some descriptions of your music in the press have included adjectives like "bubblegummy kid-pop" and "teenage rock." How does that affect the band?

Greg K: Well, that's the thing. People are gonna describe it however they want. We don't write stuff that's geared for a 12-year-old kid or anything like that. It's the same stuff that we've been writing for 10 years. Before, it used to be like hardcore punk and more for the slammer crowd and, all of a sudden, it's the same music, but now it's bubblegummy. So, I don't know.

Question: The surf-/skate-/snow-boarding culture seems to take to the Offspring well...

Greg K: That started a couple years ago with Epitaph when they started putting the songs on some of the videos. That just seemed to really take off and I think it's just 'cause it fits well with the whole sport and the attitude. A lot of guys say they listen to us before they go out and it helps them get all pumped up and ready to go.

Question: Getting back to the labels... In past interviews, Dexter (Holland, vocalist/guitarist) expressed great satisfaction with your former label, Epitaph, which the breakthrough Smash was released on. He said the band had not planned to switch labels, even though there was talk of other offers. So, why the switch to Columbia?

Greg K: A lot of stuff happened over the last year-- actually, the last two years. We had always intended on being on Epitaph. We negotiated with them for a long time and, basically, things just sort of fell through...

Question: With negotiations, you mean?

Greg K: Yeah. We felt that we couldn't deal with them anymore. There was some uncertainty with the company itself and it got down to where... well they're saying now that we just abandoned them, which isn't true. Both sides decided that we can't do this anymore, so we sought out Columbia. It was the first time we talked to a major label. We needed to go somewhere and we worked out something with them.

Question: What kinds of legal problems resulted from that falling out? Isn't Epitaph considering you AWOL?

Greg K: That's all been settled. We still technically owed them another album and we expressed to them that we just didn't feel comfortable doing it anymore and weren't happy with the label. This album was going to be a joint deal with Sony and Epitaph and, at the last minute, Epitaph pulled out of that. They were substantially rewarded by Sony, so they did okay (laughs). They didn't just say, "Okay, see you later," - they made out.

By A.J. West