In a recent chat on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, The Offspring frontman Bryan ‘Dexter’ Holland revealed that the band wanted to make an album the way U2 did. When asked about where their music is headed on their latest eleventh studio album, he explained:
“I think it’s a David Bowie quote, who said, ‘You’ve gotta make it the same, but different.’ It’s funny, ’cause it’s true. ‘Cause if you sound too much like your other record, they go, ‘Oh, it just sounds like this record.’ And if you change too much, it throws people. And, of course, you’ve gotta ultimately satisfy your own creativity, what you wanna do. And luckily, I think that we’ve really expanded the circle of what we can do.”
The frontman then mentioned U2 and said:
“We did ‘Gone Away’ on ‘Ixnay [On The Hombre]’ and we’ve done piano stuff and all that, but I think you have to balance that desire to grow with — you don’t wanna necessarily be too grown up, if that makes sense. You don’t wanna all of a sudden go, ‘I’m gonna make a record like U2.’ That doesn’t necessarily work the best for who you are as a band. We’re trying to keep that all in mind.”
The New Album Is Done
The band released their latest album ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ back in 2021. The upcoming album will be their first new original music since then.
A few weeks ago, guitarist Noodles confirmed that the album is done, but they haven’t come up with a name yet. He explained during an interview with Atlanta’s 99X radio station:
“It’s done. It’s mastered. All the guys were on the bus and we just listened to the masters of the new record. It’s just done.”
When the interviewer brought up how long it took to record their new album, Noodles replied:
“It’s kind of how we work these days. We don’t go in and just lock ourselves in the studio for six months. We kind of do it piecemeal — a couple of weeks here, a couple of weeks there.”
You can listen to the interview below.