Simple Plan’s lead singer Pierre Bouvier recently appeared on the podcast The Plug with Neil Griffiths, where he discussed the band’s history, the legacy of pop-punk bands in the world of music and also the band’s future plans.
When being asked about whether the band is already preparing another album, Pierre confirmed that there are plans for new material being worked on next year, it’s now just the quesiton of time scheduling, due to touring keeping them very busy for most of next year. But Pierre seems to be certain that at least the creative process of writing the 7th Simple Plan record could at least begin in 2024. Read his full response below:
“Yes, we’re definitely thinking about some new material. And I know I have to get to it. And I have a little bit of time right now to do that. However the touring is going so well, it’s kind of hard to find the balance, because we’re such perfectionists, we don’t crank out a record in three weeks – and some bands do it and that’s to be debated whether it’s a good idea or not. But we take a long time to make a record – like writing a great song for me usually takes (because I write it here in this room), I put it together as a demo, so it takes a while. Writing a song for me takes a few days, so to write twelve song […] takes a long time. But we definitely, we’re not gonna stop making music. It’s just a matter of when can we find some time, cause we have these two months off coming up and then next year’s already lined up to be so intense in a wonderful way. But can the fans expect new music? Absolutely. […] I’m sure [the new Simple Plan album] will be created next year. Now whether it will be released next year, that I don’t know. But I know that Sebastien and Jeff have been telling me like: ‘So… new songs… it’s probably a good time!’ And I’m like: ‘I know, I know, I know…’”
Pierre Bouvier
However it looks like Simple Plan might be in the process of releasing some stuff from their archives. As we know from previous interviews, there are some left-over songs from the process of creating the previous album and besides that there are also some new versions of already released songs that might get to see the light of the day – namely a new piano version of ‘Anxiety’ (the 5th song on Simple Plan’s latest labum ‘Harder Than It Looks’, which deals with the issue of mental health struggles that the lead singer has himself dealt with in the past). Pierre seems to be currently in the process of convincing the rest of his band members to release this version, which he stated to be very much in love with:
“And we actually have, we’ve got some stuff in the archives. There’s a couple of versions of some songs. There’s some unreleased stuff that we have, that I wanna put out. Notably, I have this awesome version I’ve been trying to push on the band. I’ve got this piano and vocal kind of ballad-y version of Anxiety that I’m in love with. And I’m like: ‘Guys! Can we just put this out?’
Pierre Bouvier
Remind yourselves of the studio version of ‘Anxiety’ that appears on Simple Plan’s latest release ‘Harder Than It Looks’:
