Despite the fact that Simple Plan haven’t been touring as much in 2013 as in the previous 2 years, this year has still been filled with interesting and noteworthy news about the band. So, to follow up with the tradition (see the recaps from 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012), let’s look back at what this year has brought us and what major (or not so major) things happened in the world of Simple Plan news.
Here is the recap of 2013:
SimplePlan.cz kicked off January by releasing the first fan review of Simple Plan’s newly released biography book “Simple Plan: The Official Story”. Just a couple days later, Chuck, Jeff and Pierre were very pleasantly surprised by receiving the “Personality of the Year” award by Radio Canada/La Presse and watching the reactions to this award from some of their fans from all over the world that have kept the news secret from more than a month. The first Simple Plan show of 2013 took place in Montreal, Canada – at the Hockey Night Canada event – but sadly without Sebastien who was still on his vacation at that point, and who was replaced for only that one show by Patrick Bouchard.
With the start of February, SimplePlan.cz released a video of the Skype interview with Chuck Comeau in which Chuck revealed many new interesting information about the band’s plans for the future and SP.cz also released later that month an interview with Simple Plan’s graphic designer Fred Jerome. The members of Simple Plan were honored that month with the Queen Elisabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for their charitable work with the Simple Plan Foundation. In the meantime, Chuck and Pierre started working on the Simple Plan EP and also invited Taka from ONE OK ROCK to the studio in LA, where they recorded the Japanese version of “Summer Paradise”. It has also been announced that “Summer Paradise” reached the TOP 50 most played videos on MTV in 2012.
Things started getting more crazy when March came along. Pierre and Chuck started co-writing songs with These Kids Wear Crowns in LA and after that returned to Montreal, where they were joined by the rest of the band to participate as the judges in the Ma Zone D contest. After that Simple Plan went back on the road with a first stop in Indonesia, where they played at the Viva La Vida event. 
With their short Japanese tour coming up, the Taka version of “Summer Paradise” was released alongside a lyric video and later on also an official music video. Shortly before heading to Asia again, Chuck attended a couple of panels at the Canadian Music Week and gave many interviews. The band members also accepted the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award, once again honoring their great work with the Foundation. During Simple Plan’s stay in China, the official music video for “This Song Saved My Life” has finally been released after many months of being post-poned. The video is very special as it features fans’ own videos and messages. After China, the boys headed to Japan where they attended the Punkspring festival tour, which gave them the first opportunity to not only sing the Japanese version of “Summer Paradise” live with Taka, but also have River Cuomo from Weezer join them on stage for “Can’t Keep My Hands Off You”.
In April, MTV EXIT released the long-awaited documentary about human trafficking online, which features Simple Plan and their trip to Vietnam in 2012. Various members of Simple Plan went back to studio this month: Pierre and Chuck to record the next version of “Summer Paradise” – with the American duo MKTO, and Sebastien to work more on his side projects producing the songs of Andee-Anne Leclerc, Wilfred Lebouthillier and Jaren Gelf. All the guys then met up at the signing session at the Salon International Du Livre de Quebec, where they signed the copies of their new book. That month, Jeff also worked on getting his motorcycle licence.
The most interesting news that came in May featured Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut, playing Simple Plan’s song “Astronaut” in space. During May, David visited South Africa, Chuck attended the C2MTL conference, where he also spoke at one of the panels and him and Pierre attended the filming of the video for the MKTO version of “Summer Paradise”. Seb also started working on Wilfred Lebouthillier’s upcoming single “Je M’y Perds”.
In June, Simple Plan got back on tour with a rather short trip to Europe where they played a few shows and festivals in Austria, Germany and Russia. The band also released the music video for “Summer Paradise” feat. MKTO and Seb and David were featured on All Time Low’s show on Idobi Radio called “Full Frontal”. Just like every year, July and August were the “festival months” – with Simple Plan playing a couple of festivals around Canada. Pierre and Sebastien also went for a mini-acoustic-tour to the United States, where they played for a few fans at various radio stations.
The guys kept things chill in September. Both Jeff and Chuck took parts in a couple of campaigns – Jeff in the Le Support campaign and Chuck promoted the La Presse+ app. 
At the end of the month and mostly during October, the band members started recording the songs for their EP – starting with Chuck in LA, Seb, David and Jeff in Montreal and finally Pierre gave the melodies his voice back in LA. In October, Wilfred Lebouthillier released his new album, produced by the Lefebvre brothers, so naturally they both attended the release party and even performed with him on stage. The band got back together for a short trip to Mexico, where they played alongside Fall Out Boy at MTV World Stage. During this month, Simple Plan were a part of the In Their Shoes auction, in which a pair of Simple Plan designed Converse shoes has been auctioned off for more than $900, with all the proceeds going to the Simple Plan Foundation. Towards the end of the month Simple Plan’s cover of “Justified Black Eye” was featured in the tribute album of the late Tony Sly and Simple Plan also started writing songs for album #5.
At the beginning of November, Simple Plan held their annual Simple Plan Foundation benefit event – this year along with their friends – Coeur de Pirate and Les Trois Accords. But most of this month was devoted to the release of the band’s first ever EP – “Get Your Heart On – The Second Coming!” which included 7 songs that didn’t make it to their 4th studio album. The band partnered with various media (including SimplePlan.cz) and revealed previews of the songs from the EP throughout the whole month of November. Jeff Stinco became involved with the Rocksmith 60 Day Challenge and spent a few days in Toronto mentoring the contestants. At the end of the month, Simple Plan returned to Australia, where they played as one of the headliners of the local version of Vans Warped Tour with an additional date in Perth in December. The EP finally came out worldwide on December 3rd, which was also the date of the release of the music video for “The Rest Of Us” that featured tour footage. Through Warner Music Australia, the band also released an official lyric video for “Ordinary Life”. The band then surprised its fans by releasing the promised “live DVD” from the Melbourne show in 2012 for free on YouTube.
And what can we expect from 2014? Most of the year 2014 will be devoted to the song-writing process for Simple Plan’s 5th studio album (which is suspected to be released in the first half of 2015). The band agrees that they want to go more back to their pop-punk roots with this album and want to take their time to write the best songs possible. Because of this, fans should not expect the band to do any major tours around the world. Simple Plan may be taking part in some events, like festivals, but definitely will be more concentrating on the next record than touring. The song-writing process could be ongoing until late summer, when the band should be returning to the studio to record the newly written songs. As far as the band member’s personal projects goes: Jeff should be opening some new restaurants in 2014 and Sebastien will keep on working on more of his (and his friends’) music, along with recording the weekly Man Of The Hour podcast, which continues with its 14th season in 2014.
But don’t worry, even though there might be a lack of SP concerts in the next years, there will be plenty of other SP-related news. Stay around to keep being updated on the process of creating the next Simple Plan record in the news section of SimplePlan.cz – and now also in this new always-updated section about the 5th album.
