If you haven’t ever belted out the iconic line of “LA, LA, LALALA” from ‘Self Esteem’ or at very least, “Pretty fly for a white guy,” then odds look pretty damn high that you’ve been living off the grid for, well, your entire life.
Everyone knows The Offspring: the TikTok teens that weren’t even conceived at the height of The Offspring’s fame, your tone-deaf mum, even your delightful tea-sipping granny. To put it mildly: the boys are a meteoric success who have been a household name since the mid-90s.
Though it’s been a hot minute since they’ve been in the public eye, after eight long years The Offspring have released their hotly anticipated album, Let The Good Times Roll. We sat down for a chat with vocalist Dexter Holland and guitarist Noodles (real name Kevin Wasserman) and they shared just how damn good their new album is.
“Three words to describe our album,” ponders Dexter deep in thought.
“BEST. RECORD. EVER.” Noodles belts out before the boys cackle with laughter.
Despite being nominated for Best Album for Americana at the MTV Europe Music Awards and being crowned Modern Rock Artists for the Year at The Billboard Music Awards in 1999, the boys are convinced that this album is their greatest yet.
Simply making up one-quarter of the chart smashing band The Offspring is pretty much a free pass to have a huge ego. Despite this, Noodles and Dexter couldn’t be more friendly, charismatic or charming, while still being very confident of how damn good Let The Good Times Roll is.
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“I mean our records are like children, so you don’t really want to have a favourite. Of course, you do, but you don’t wanna admit it,” Noodles begins.
“This record is much better much, much better [than our older records], clearly,” adds Dexter.
“You don’t wanna admit it,” agrees Noodles. “I think this record sounds a lot like some of our older records as far as tone and feel. It definitely has a little bit more of a punk edge but having said that, there’s a song with horns in them and there’s a song that’s mostly all piano. At the same time, it does sort of have a punk old school Offspring feel to it overall.”
Let The Good Times Roll features twelve songs that all manage to encapsulate The Offspring’s trademark raw punk sound while incorporating a modern twist, without sounding gimmicky. When asked what their favourite song is, Noodles and Dexter have a hard time deciding.
“It changes from day to day, I really like ‘Behind Your Walls’. I also like ‘We Never Have Sex Anymore.’ Oh, and ‘This Is Not Utopia’ is pretty good,” Noodles shares modestly.
“I never have sex anymore hits a little too close to home for me,” Dexter interrupts before the boys fall into a fit of laughter again.
“‘This Is Not Utopia’ I like a lot for sure and the single ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’, of course,” he adds.
As Dexter explains, the title of their album is pretty self-explanatory in this day and age.
“We’ve got some bad times rolling right now, the last few years a lot of stuff has happened, there’s been political unrest, I mean we’re living in a pandemic, we’re living in an era where world leaders seem to want to escalate problems and acrimony instead of assuaging issues”.
“People do always look to the US for sure but it’s not just the US, you can see it happening in Hong Kong and you [Noodles] mentioned about Belarus and Russia.”
“You throw a pandemic on top of that and put it all in a blender and mix it up the bad times – it’s a shit show – the bad times are rolling right now.”
Despite being epically famous rockstars for the better halves of their entire lives, Dexter and Noodles couldn’t be more down to earth.
The duo was happy to answer anything asked, made a joke of basically everything and, at times, revealed some insane experiences (things that probably shouldn’t be shared with a journalist) that we’ll keep off the internet out of respect for the legends.
But fuck it, they’re rock stars and their rawness just makes them all the cooler.
One love of theirs that most of us Aussies can relate to though, is the number one item on their rider, “LOTS OF BEER,” exclaims Dexter. “Then some more beer,” chimes in Noodles before they erupt in laughter again.
Listen to ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ by The Offspring:
