The Offspring
Dexter and Noodles on opioids, sex droughts and growing old disgracefully.
Citing Cali punk godfathers like X and the Dead Kennedys – but spinning that influence into a more palatable racket – The Offspring sold over 11 million copies of 1994’s Smash to a post-grunge audience ready for something sunnier. You know them best for Self Esteem’s ode to a flaky girlfriend and Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) ’s skewering of a wannabe hipster, but singer Dexter Holland and guitarist Kevin ‘Noodles’ Wasserman tell us their tenth album Let The Bad Times Roll is more socially charged.
What’s the significance of that title? Dexter: It seems to wrap up our times right now. We’ve had a lot of shit over the last few years, but we’re not out of the woods yet. Noodles: Trump is gone, but Trumpism isn’t. Trump is more a symptom than the cause. The main thing is people not looking at each other’s viewpoints, they’re just screaming at each other, largely over Twitter and Instagram. I think if people were looking at each other’s faces it might not be so vitriolic. It’d be more like: “Okay, I see your point”, instead of: “Fuck you, you suck!”
What things are you writing about on these songs?
Noodles: Well, there’s We Never Have Sex Anymore. That’s about when the passion in a relationship begins to wane.
Dexter: People always write about hooking up, right? I remember someone from the label saying: “Why are you writing about not having sex? A few years ago the biggest song in the world was Get Lucky. Who wants a song about not getting lucky?” But actually, not getting lucky, that’s most of us.
What, even rock stars?
Noodles: Well, we’ve been married a long time now. Not to each other.
What’s The Opioid Diaries about? Dexter: Addiction is not a new story, but in America we’ve had this onslaught of prescription medication – we’re talking about Oxycontin and stuff like that. Noodles: And it’s not the guys from Mötley Crüe. It’s the church-going kids, the blond-haired, blue-eyed quarterback, right? They break their ankle one season, they’re given Oxycontin. Next thing you know they’re on heroin, because their prescription ran out and they can’t afford Oxy any more.
Do you have any favourite memories from the sessions? Noodles: Every once in a while we’d get in Dexter’s plane and go to a punk show in Fresno. Dexter: Is that bad – to fly a private jet to a punk show?
As a punk band, who are the role models for growing old gracefully? Noodles: We’ve played with some iconic bands over the last two years, like Fear, X, the Dead Kennedys. I think playing this kind of music keeps us young. Dexter: They’re a little bit older than we are, but they look great.
How about the British punks – did you ever meet John Lydon, for example? Noodles: We were in a documentary called Punk. Johnny Rotten was on a Q&A panel with me, talking about this documentary, and he was drunk and obnoxious. I was cringing from ear-to-ear, because it was such a beautiful, horrible experience.
“Is it bad to fly a private jet to a punk show?”
Who are your own ‘offspring’ – do you hear your influence in modern punk? Dexter: I don’t hear a lot of bands that sound like us. So maybe no one wants to imitate us?
Let The Bad Times Roll is released on April 16 via Concord.