| Simply a great band
The inaugural 1000 Islands Music Festival features hip-hop acts like Snoop Dogg, Akon and Kardinal Offishall at the top of their bill. So will Montreal rockers Simple Plan be adding any hip-hop to their performance?
"I've been known to pull out some freestyling on stage," lead singer Pierre Bouvier said with a laugh during a phone interview. "I remember one show we played somewhere in New York State, and it was a purely hip-hop lineup. We got on stage and you could tell the crowd had no idea who we were. But doing those types of shows you learn to adapt, and we learned to make it our own."
Simple Plan might not be a rap group, but they're the biggest Canadian act at the festival.
In the last seven years, they've grown from being a pop-punk group -- a title Bouvier doesn't like but admits the band started out with -- to some of the country's biggest rock stars. They've sold more than nine million records in Canada alone, but they're not stopping there.
"As a band, you always see where you can take it further," Bouvier said. "We can have more fans, play more shows, and we could be even better musically. We always try to push it."
The band rose to prominence with their 2002 angst-fuelled album No Pads, No Helmets ... Just Balls that featured hits like I'm Just a Kid, Addicted and Perfect. Follow- up albums Still Not Getting Any in 2006 and their self-titled third studio album in 2008 have garnered the band worldwide success and plenty of new fans.
Bouvier said the band feels pressure to produce since they've set themselves a high standard.
"I think that's what makes it happen," he said. "I think you have to realize a lot of people come into the business and have trouble doing a follow-up record. They don't feel that pressure. And every record that comes by, there's always a certain nervousness and a certain worry that we're not going to be able to deliver. ... That gives us the energy or the passion to make an album we will feel is better than the last."
Simple Plan's anthem rock music is tailored to playing huge venues. Bouvier said he loves playing arenas, but there is something about playing to fields of people that can't be replaced.
The band tours around the world -- they played Tel Aviv and Dubai in December and they're playing Moscow later this year -- but they love playing to Canadian audiences.
"There's definitely a feeling when we play at home, people know us," he said. "Whenever you get on stage in front of an audience at home, you get that feeling of kind of being part of the project. They're like, 'Hey, they're our boys.'"
After touring throughout 2008 and early 2009 in support of their third album, the band have spent the summer at home, playing a few festivals along the way.
"What's typical of a band is you spend as much time writing and you go on tour and don't write for a year and a half, and you lose your confidence, your chops, and your flow you had when you were writing," Bouvier said. "We've been home writing a lot and it's been really coming back."
Bouvier said he and drummer Chuck Comeau usually start the writing process, but the whole band is involved.
"Sometimes it's a pain in the ass and makes it more difficult. It's difficult to accept people's criticism," he said. "Everyone's got to be involved a little bit. I think that works on all levels."
Bouvier thinks the band's next album will be released in the spring of 2010. He said the writing process has been going well.
"I think over the last three records we've delved into such different styles and different sounds," he said. "This last one definitely had some songs that people would press play on a certain track and think, 'OK this might be the wrong CD, this can't be Simple Plan.'"
He says the way they approach making a song is to simply make a song that is great, "and we don't really care if it sounds like country or like rock."
In addition to selling out arenas worldwide, the band is known for their extensive charity work.
The Simple Plan Foundation, started in 2005, has helped raise more than $500,000 for various causes.
"Because of our situation in Canada and the coverage that we have, it was an opportunity for us to maybe convince people to give more," Bouvier said.
"We try to put a spotlight on different charitable organizations that maybe wouldn't have that opportunity otherwise."
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