OFFSPRING LOOKS INWARD : BAND'S GOAL: DON'T LET SUCCESS GET IN THE WAY.Byline: Mark Brown Orange County Register Last time the Offspring kicked together a batch of new songs, the guys figured the usual people would hear them - their friends, family members, a few thousand fans in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . Oh, they heard them, all right. The album, ``Smash,'' spurred by the hit single ``Come Out and Play (Keep 'em Separated),'' went on to sell 5 million copies across the country and an additional 3.5 million overseas. In short, the Offspring proved the commercial breakthrough for the Orange County rock scene. And now? ``I'll be trying to write a line and all of a sudden go, `Oh (shucks shuck n. 1. a. A husk, pod, or shell, as of a pea, hickory nut, or ear of corn. b. The shell of an oyster or clam. 2. Informal Something worthless. ), does this pass the 6 million test?' or whatever. `My ... dog ... is ... brown' or something. Uh-oh, better rethink that one,'' confessed Offspring singer and chief songwriter Bryan ``Dexter'' Holland. Hanging out at the Garden Grove Garden Grove, city (1990 pop. 143,050), Orange co., S Calif., a suburb of Long Beach and Los Angeles, on the Santa Ana River; founded 1877, inc. 1956. Many of its residents work in nearby aerospace and defense installations, and there is light manufacturing. office of the band's Nitro Records Nitro Records is an independent record label created and owned by Dexter Holland (lead singer and founder of The Offspring) and Greg Kriesel (bassist for the same band). They started the label in 1994. - an independently distributed imprint for young groups who are where the Offspring was five years ago - Holland has to face the question: So, what is a formerly struggling, now-rich suburban punk rock band to do when the whole world is waiting for a new album? ``You'd be lying to say it doesn't affect you, though that's what bands usually say: `Aw, it doesn't affect us.' But it kind of does,'' Holland responded. ``But the thing is, if you really let it get to you, if you freeze up, then you're dead. You've got to do what it is you do, so you've got to figure out some way to just get past it.'' The band got past it. The result hit stores on Tuesday, when ``Ixnay on the Hombre,'' the Offspring's fifth album, was released. And Holland, guitarist Kevin ``Noodles'' Wasserman, drummer Ron Welty Ron Welty (born February 1 1971, in Long Beach, California) was the drummer for the American punk rock band The Offspring from 1987 (though Dexter Holland said in an interview that it was 1986) through to 2003. and bassist Greg Kriesel Greg Kriesel (for short, Greg K.) (born Gregory David Kriesel, January 20 1965, in Glendale, California) is a bass guitarist and second backing vocalist for the punk band, The Offspring. Kriesel is one of the founding members of the band alongside Dexter Holland. had plenty of other things to get past as well. As with Nirvana, Green Day, Pearl Jam and others, they had to defend being a punk or alternative band earning millions of dollars. They had to defend themselves to fans angry that they could no longer see them in Huntington Beach Huntington Beach, city (1990 pop. 181,519), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast, across from Santa Catalina Island, in an oil-producing area; inc. 1909. It manufactures aerospace vehicles, aircraft parts, optical instruments, and heat transfer equipment. bars. They had to defend leading what the media dubbed the ``punk revolution'' from comfortable Orange County, for crying out loud. They also had to deal with the backlash of success: A major-label record deal with Columbia and huge headlining gigs made them targets of fellow musicians. ``Not to mention any names, but mostly bands that we didn't know,'' Holland explained. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what their beef was. If they were jealous, they felt like they deserved it or whatever. Some older punk bands 0-9
``It's easy to get caught up in that and feel (bad) about it until you realize that the whole thing about the music you're trying to make is to try to reach the average kid and not to have any kind of pretenses about who is cool enough or not cool enough to listen to the music,'' he continued. ``All that elitist e·lit·ism or é·lit·ism n. 1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources. (junk) is what caused a lot of punk rock to start in the first place.'' After 18 months of worldwide acclaim and sellout concerts, the band members came home, played a small secret gig or two, but basically disappeared into their old neighborhoods. ``What surprised me the most was how not-a-big-deal it was,'' Holland said. ``I think everyone expects (that) all of a sudden you're going to be swarmed and it's just going to be drugs and whatever and everything else. And it's not like that. It's really not. We don't get recognized. We're not hounded. I'm not getting stalked by anybody, you know? I still hang out with my friends and they still call us (jerks) whenever they see us.'' Things aren't completely the same, of course. Holland gave up his stint as a career biology major at the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission . ``Noodles noo·dle 1 n. A narrow, ribbonlike strip of dried dough, usually made of flour, eggs, and water. [German Nudel. had a promising career as a custodian. He had to give it up. Ron was shoveling muffins at a muffin shop. He had to give all that up,'' Holland said with a laugh. ``Those are the kind of sacrifices you have to make.'' Part of what makes it easy to joke about was that they had no real expectations of success. After releasing songs and albums on its own, the group signed to indie Epitaph epitaph, strictly, an inscription on a tomb; by extension, a statement, usually in verse, commemorating the dead. The earliest such inscriptions are those found on Egyptian sarcophagi. Records for ``Ignition'' in 1992 and hoped it would be successful enough to have music help pay part of the rent once in a while. Despite some jabs at the media and the world in general on the new album - particularly on ``Cool to Hate'' and ``All I Want'' - Offspring members want it made clear that this doesn't mean they're complaining about what has happened. ``When we used to have regular jobs or whatever, I seriously thought I'd commit suicide if I had to do a 9-to-5 thing for the rest of my life,'' Holland said. ``But it's great now to not have to dread getting up in the morning, knowing that you have to slave for somebody else for the rest of the day and your life isn't yours till 6 o'clock that night.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: The Offspring album ``Smash'' sold 5 million copies across the country and an additional 3.5 million overseas, making the formerly struggling foursome a now-rich band. |
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