In an interview recently published by The 13th Floor, a music server from New Zealand, Pierre Bouvier revealed the band’s plans regarding their upcoming 6th studio record and most importantly – on the direction their would like to take with this album.
Pierre revealed that him and Chuck might in fact start writing in a manner of weeks. According to him, the song-writing sessions should then continue at least till the end of 2018, which confirms our projection that the album will be out 2019 the earliest:
But it isn’t just the timing of the album that interests the fans – it’s mainly its content. Over the past ten years, starting with their self-titled release in 2008, Simple Plan have been known to experiment with different music styles on each of their records. And over time, the band’s musical experiments have been met with diverse reactions from their fans. Some applauded the band for not trying to make the same music over and over again and therefore making themselves stand out in the sea of pop-punk artists. Some however were saddened by the band’s slight departure from their pop-punk roots and the sound of their first two records.
In the interview, Pierre made it clear that he would like for Simple Plan to keep pursuing the pop-punk style and head that direction with their next record:
We like it. I still love that kind of music. Our fans love it. Don’t push it too far, because people don’t want to hear a little country in Simple Plan; they want to hear Simple Plan. For some years, it bugged me to have that mentality, but now I’ve come to embrace it, and I think it gives me a direction of where to go, because I know what people like from us, I know what I like, and I know what we’re good; and it gives us a focus. If we’re to rehash a new sound of Simple Plan, that’s really hard, because where do you take it? My voice sounds a certain way, and it doesn’t really go well in certain styles. Where would we take it? So, I’ve come to terms with it, and I really enjoy it, and I think it’s fun to say, “Hey, you know what? We’re going to keep going in the pop-punk direction.”
It doesn’t matter if radio thinks it’s a dying genre, or if there are people who thinks it sounds like ‘this or this or that’. If you write a good song, and it’s pop-punk, people will like it; because pop-punk doesn’t really mean a whole lot: it just means that it’s got that pop catchiness to it, but it’s got that punk energy and speed, and stuff that makes you want to jump up and down or drive a car real fast; and that’s something that will never get old. So, I love having that direction, and just being able to say, “let’s focus on writing some good songs,” and we produce them the way Simple Plan should and would; and that’s our target.”
You can listen to the whole interview with Pierre for The 13th Floor below:
As you can see, Simple Plan are still in the very early stages of working on a new record and with some of the band members still being on holiday, the stage could be described as a time where the band is trying to figure out which way to go, looking for inspiration and perhaps also figuring out who the producer of the record could be, who could help them reach their dream direction. The actual stage of song-writing is still yet to come. 
