Simple Plan at Welcome to Rockville 2026 - PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you love then too? Censure? Wow for you? You like another trud on my it's not cat jobs Jetted on Scream the Box. Up to up. This. It's pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio. And I'm here with Sebastian from Simple Plan. How's it going? Oh, it's going amazing. How could be bad? We're welcome to Rockville, man. I know it's our first time here. I think we're very happy to be playing.

0:45 Really yeah, So I know you've probably played other wimmer festivals. Right man, we've We've played a little bit everywhere these types of festivals around the world. One of the biggest ones is in Germany where they have this. Big rocking, rocking ring. It they go on a racetrack. Yeah, that's huge, that's super fun. It's kind of wild that may festivals like I do download that's a racetrack. How many are in race tracks? But what perfect place for it though? Right, it's big, the amenities are great, and everybody's super comfortable. So now this is probably true in all racetracks. Let's see what you found out. I'm gonna give you a trivia question. You ready, sure? I just walked in let's do it. See the colored seats? Yeah, why are they colored?

1:29 I was I was gonna ask, you see, look at that, so it looks like it's full. Okay, So on TV it looks like the whole and then even kind of drivers because if you look up there and just sitting there, it's like it looks like the stands are full. Wow. I've never been to a racetrack that had that big a slope though. On the On the that's pretty awesome. Oh, I gotta tell you something funny. Okay, So first time we came to Daytime because this used to be in Jacksonville, and I have it with me now too. I brought my skateboard and I told the person that runs Medium. I said to her, I'm like, if I ride the wall on my skateboard, well I lose my media credential. She goes probably, I'm like, okay, I'll wait till the end, right, Yeah, No, it's smart, right, yeah, Like could you imagine did you see that wall?

2:21 Yeah? Could you imagine going on a skateboard like I would break every bone in my body. Of course, we were told on our way in that if you're not going at least forty five miles an hour. You're sliding off so on a skateboard, there's just no way. And I was tall, it's like eighty wow. Okay, so you imagine that your stats are probably better than mine. Who knows, but you're here, yeah, and it's a massive festival, and let me tell you, I was out there. There are a lot of people waiting for simple Plan. That's that's good to know, you know, like when it's it's when it's your first time playing a festival, you never quite know what to expect. Although I think that festivals that are like sort of general specific these days have gotten a lot more accepting of like different types of bands that show up here.

3:04 And then the. Fans just want a good show and just want to have a good time. Really well. That's the thing I love about the Wimmer festivals in the United States, which is how the Europeans do it is I was out there to cover some show out there earlier and there was some techno band mm and then you have like Waka Flaka, you have simple plan, you have my cam, bring me the horizon, food fighters. Like it's like all these genres that they're similar but may not be together or all here. Yeah, it seems that the question that we asked the fans and I was do you love music and do you love a good show? Yes, then come to this festival exactly.

3:45 And that's what it's about, too. Like to me, coming to a festival is not coming here. We were talking about this earlier to people that go up to rail at eleven thirty and they never moved a whole day. Me, I'm all about learning who's my favorite band? Yeah, you know that's the beautiful thing. Or even like a band like yours, there may be somebody out there or some kid out there that never heard your music and they become a fan. That happens. A lot of people have at least never seen us live, you know, so now they actually get to see us, get to hear some of their favorite songs, hopefully, and then go from states to stage, stick around from band to band and enjoy the whole day. And it is a whole different experience to see a band live. Okay, Yes, there's bands that I didn't really like till I saw them live. One of them played the other night, like god Smack. I didn't like them till I saw him live, and then I'm like Okay.

4:38 That's good to know. We were on tour on a warp tour once with a band called Don Broco, and it's after when I saw them live, I was like, oh my god, this band's awesome. And then I got into the record, so the live show got me in. Same with tonight's headline or bring Me to Rise and right. I never listened to her music until I saw him at Danie Wimmer Festival and I'm like, fuck, how did I not know about that? Yes, yeah, they're awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing them. So tell us what it's like for Simple Plan in twenty twenty six. I gotta tell you life is good. I think, you know, like we've grown into this phase of our career, if you want to call it, that, of our journey where people come to see us and we don't have to be promoting something that's current, you know, like we've always been sort of attached to our current video, our current single at radio, and that's not the case anymore.

5:32 We show up and people show up, and everybody's there to hear the old songs and some of the new and we just want to give the best show possible and give the people what they want, and we just step on stage and have a good time. Well, and you go cross generational and I can tell you this for a fact by what I'm about to say next, but also you like you never leave people that were your original followers, like they all it's like the occult almost like they all. One of my daughters was total hip hop person as a teenager, but her favorite band from being a teenager is Simple Plan. Oh that's good to hear it, thank you. So figure that out. Somebody that doesn't even listen to rock or punk or metal your your favorite band.

6:19 Well, that's amazing. I mean that's something we've seen people now come to our shows with their kids, so they're introducing a whole new generation. There's people that might have been too young back in the day to come see us, and now they're coming to see us. And I think like with our latest album, and I think that's sort of the inspiration for our next one, we're going to meet is like we're kind of like diving in. We're just doing more Simple Plan, you know, and we like it and fans love it. Well. People still relate to the lyrics. I know for my daughter, that's true. It's like you know, the whole I'm just a kid is like probably her mantra then and still you know, and then my grandson out there in the crowd, who will be at your set tonight out there, and he is a huge simple plan fan.

7:03 So it's like you go from me to the daughter to the grandchild, and that to me is true music when it can transcend time and multi generational. Wow, great story. Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate that. Oh my pleasure. So what else in twenty twenty six can you talk about? Man, It's it's one of the very first times that we've got the whole year mapped out, Like we've got a bunch of these festivals throughout summer. Then at the end of July we start on a big US headline tour for about a month. Then shortly after that we go on a big. European tour for about a month, and shortly after that we go to Asia for a big headline tour Southeast Asia, so we're hitting Philippines, Singapore and all those fun places that we love to go to. And then it's Christmas and then we'll see what next year brings. Right, we're working on new music, right now, so that's coming in the near future.

7:56 I love that. So I always want to hear from Mars a bit around as long as you have. How much harder is that creative process too, after you've created all these songs, to create more. It's it's not easy. I got to tell you. I think you kind of have to get out of your head, you know, kind of have to do what you feel like you want to do, as opposed to trying to figure out what people want to hear. I think people that are looking for music like yours will find it because there's so many ways to find new music now, and trying to convince someone that might not know you is not the right approach anymore for somebody that has that old for a man that has that bled on the pop side before. So I think we're just going to write songs that we love with the right energy and then the people will either come or not.

8:42 And I totally agree with that philosophy. Like, as a musician, you need to be the fan of your own music or else how is anybody else? And you're not going to be the fan if you're trying to appeal to other people. I think we've written a few songs in the past that may or may not have made it onto an album that we're like, Okay, let's try this, let's see what happens, and that then may not have come from the right place. So that's why they stayed in demo form, you know. And now whenever we're like, oh I really like this drum beat, let's go, let's go fasten this one. I like this hook, let's just go for it, and you know, worry about the rest later. We've also heard a lot negatives for you know, how music has gotten with streaming apposed the way it used to be and all that, and just how twenty twenty six is compared to eighties, nineties, you know, and how it is for an artist, I like a different spin.

9:34 What would you say as an artist is the benefit of how music is now compared to when you first started, right? I think? I think the best thing about the way things are now is very nerdy, but it is the data, you know, Like I remember in two thousand and two, tho thousand and three, when we're first coming out, we had to guess like, okay, maybe we have fans in Germany, let's go, and then you have to rely on a promoter that, oh, I heard some people like you here. Let's book a show for like two hundred people. Let's go, let's go to Brazil for the first time, because we think you might have fans there. Now you know, now you know where everybody is, you know what your strongest numbers are. You know where you have the most hardcore fans that come back month after month to keep on listening to your band.

10:15 And that's how you plan your tours. I think even to add to that that you get to find out how to more cater not to people, but care yourself, but cater to what really works, because you'll see, you'll put up one real and you'll put up another reel and you got to figure out why this one went viral and this one didn't. Yeah, some I know what you mean. Sometimes I guess there's a bit of luck in that. But I truly have to say I did not expect we would ever be in charge of our marketing as much as we are now through social media. You know, like twenty five years ago, there was a whole department at a label that was to help you get the word out so that people would buy your album and then that would benefit us because those people hopefully.

11:02 Would eventually come to the show. You know, nowadays it's like do an interview or shoot half an hour's worth of content. Is like, I think the content's more beneficial for the band, you know, show more personality, you'll reach more people, you know, and there's all of that that's attached to it. I also think people like to be able to have like what they feel is direct contact with you. They don't need to meet and greet, they can be on your social media. That transition was kind of easy for us, Like we were the type of band back in the day that would go and hang out of the merging with after the show because we wanted to talk to people. And even on our very first website, I think we had like our email addresses were on there, like StEB at simple plan dot com.

11:44 You could reach me that way if you wanted to chat, you know. And then so like transitioning to social media and reading comments and replying to people, that's just kind of like the band that we are. Maybe even a lot easier. I come from the tape training days and writing a letter railing off, and you know, it's a lot easier just sending the DM it kind of is, but there is a lot more more noise as well, so you know, like the kind of the bad part that I guess that is the bad bar so but you know, I from what I've noticed and what we do anyways, I don't know if it works for everybody, but whenever it feels genuine, then it's going to connect to the people that are can relate. Sure story one story, good, bad, crazy, whatever in your whole musical career. What sticks out of your mind.

12:33 Most whenever people ask us that, I gravitate to the very first photoshoot we did for the very first album cover. We're all sitting in a bathtub because we're like simulating that we ruined the whole wedding because we showed up and we crashed it. And we're in the bathtub with the Brian and the bridesmaids are there, but we actually put water in the tub because we wanted it to foam. And then when on the light, the lights fell in, so we all got electrocuted, and lucky for us, there was five of us because I think the charge split in five and then we all jumped out. Power went dark. There were sparks everywhere, like we could have died right then and there before the first album even comes out. Wow, So it was very scary. Everybody on set was extremely careful after that.

13:15 But I mean, yeah, we're here, you're here, you're here at Welcome to Rockville. You're getting like, I'm excited, everybody else here is excited, and it is like the best festival promoters festival for bands like you, which leads me to my last question. How do you feel Danny Wimmer treats the artists? Oh, well, so far, so good. I mean, it's it's everything speechy. Everybody seems like they're in a good mood. Everybody's hanging out and that's usually a good sign. Right, nobody's in their trailer. There's like and it's hot, it's very hot, but nobody's staying in the ac. Everybody's outside hanging out, talking and having a good time. And that's usually a good sign that the festival is doing.

13:58 Well because it's a commedian Now. There it is, and that's what it is. Well, thanks a lot for giving us so many years of great music and still killing it and give us new music, which I'm very excited about. Yes, And is there anything else you want? The listeners to know that coming up that they should look out for. Yeah, it's just if you follow us on Instagram or TikTok or whatever, you'll get all the news. So there's more touring to be done, there's more albums to be coming out and released, and new music and all. The good stuff. Nice well, thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thanks for having me. Hey what's up. This is Sebastian from the band Simple Plan and you're listening to Pipeman on W four c Y Radio.

14:42 Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man on W for CUI Radio.