MANSFIELD — The Offspring have sold over 40 million records worldwide, have 20 million monthly Spotify listeners and produced 10 studio albums, including the six-time platinum record, “Smash.”
Minutes before they rocked the Inkcarceration main stage as one of the headliners, I sat down with frontman Dexter Holland and lead guitarist Noodles in their trailer.
We chatted about the sell out police, what their purpose as a band is, the musician grind, longevity, politics and even talked some science (see review at bottom of page).
Adam Doc Fox (ADF): You’re playing at this historic prison, Shawshank Redemption, etc., what’s it like performing here? Do you have any familiarity with the movie? With the setting?
Noodles: I didn’t know that that’s what we were doing until we rolled in and we go, well, that looks like Shawshank Redemption.
Dexter Holland (Dexter): Ha ha ha. Chuckle. Chuckle, right? Yeah, no, it actually is! I thought it was eerie actually pulling in to see this building.
Noodles: But I love that movie. That’s one of those movies that whenever you stumble across it, you know you’re not doing anything else for the next couple hours.
Dexter: It’s incredible, right?
Noodles: Saturday or Sunday afternoon, flipping through the TV, Shawshank’s on, you’re done.
ADF: Let’s talk about longevity –10 plus studio albums, “SUPERCHARGED” is coming out. I listened to the single, “Make it All Right.” Longevity is tough in the punk world, in any world, right? What is your self check? When you write a song or you’re producing something new, what’s your self check to make sure that it doesn’t suck? That you haven’t sold out, that you have, like the punk soul still in you?
Dexter and Noodles: (laughs)
Noodles: We wanna sell out, now.
Dexter: Yeah, we’ve been trying.
Noodles: Honestly, we don’t worry about that so much anymore, like our punk rock “credibility” or anything. We know who we are. People know who we are. And if we’re not punk enough for some people, I get it. Mike Mora, our good friend, he’s like a real punker — but we’re probably not; I know he doesn’t listen to our records. And that’s fine. But there’s plenty of people that know where we came from and who we are.
Dexter: I think you’re right, that we know who we are. I think it’s also important just to remember, you gotta keep it real, gotta go and do the work, you know? Really pay attention to the songs and the results. The songs have to be good more than anything else.
Noodles: We have to like what we’re putting out.
ADF: Is there anything in the editing room or post production that you always do, like get a glass of wine or there’s something when you listen to the final finished track that you do?
Dexter: Bottle of Jäger
Noodles: We do have days where we’ll meet up at the studio, listening, and have some drinks and stuff, but it’s not really a tradition or anything, you know? There’s also where we’ve just been working all week and it’s the end of the week and we’ll start drinking.
Dexter: Actually on this record, we kind of got the band guys together and we just kind of hung out and had drinks and listened to the record and stuff. Kind of like, cheers to us, that sort of thing.
ADF: In rock-and-roll and punk, there’s a lot of progression. In the United States, you know, everything’s kind of crazy right now. From a band perspective, what do you all think in terms of unity, betterment? Does The Offspring have something that you’re focused on or something on the tip of your minds right now in terms of unity or progression?
Noodles: We don’t focus on making music for political purposes. Dexter will write lyrics that question what’s going on in the world, but certainly doesn’t try to tell people what to think. I just heard a great Frank Zappa quote, [paraphrasing] “Music doesn’t change the way people think. If it did, everybody would love each other,” something like that.
I always thought you can inspire people to act on what they already believe. You can inspire people to get out, and if they believe really strongly, you know, in pro LGBTQ+ rights, you might get them to take a stronger stance at it. But they already believed that. You’re not gonna take somebody who hates gays and make ’em support LGBTQ+ all of a sudden. You’re not gonna change anybody’s mind politically. But you can inspire people to go out and do what they already think is a good idea, anyways. You, you might light some fire under some butts, but that’s not what our purpose is. Our purpose is just to write good songs, that hopefully people will identify with. We do touch on topics that we see happening in the world around us, but we just want to do good songs, good music.
ADF: Dexter, there’s a whole new generation that’s listening to you. My buddy Leiter said his daughter Casey was coming to Ink just to see you. Young kids are listening to you. What do you hope to inspire within them? Casey says hi by the way. But what do you hope a new generation will find in your music?
Dexter: We do see a new generation. When we play shows, that’s the really amazing thing to us, as we see kids in front that are 14 years old and they weren’t here five years ago. So there’s new people coming, which is great, and we’d see their parents a little further back and stuff.
I always felt like there were different kinds of punk rock. It was all considered this punk thing when you’re talking about it in terms of inspiring people, right? Like the Sex Pistols were very nihilistic and let’s just destroy everything. Sure. And then you had the Dead Kennedys who were very political and everything in-between, you know? But for us, I think it’s always been about questioning what’s going on and thinking for yourself and following your own heart and your own passion, no matter what other people think. So that’s kind of a common theme in our music, on this record, songs like, “Light It Up,” kind of follow that. Trust your gut and be yourself.
ADF: I’m gonna plug the new album for sure, but I have to ask a “Smash” question. I’m sorry, but listen, you have a six-time platinum album; it’s y’all’s fault. When someone brings that record up, what’s the first thing that pops into your minds? Is it the success? Is it the longevity? Is it, “Oh, I was at a hockey game and hearing, ‘You gotta keep ’em separated,’ during a fight?” What’s the one thing when you think about the impact of that record? What comes to mind?
Noodles: First the songs, that’s what I think about when I think about the record. The songs that we still play every night. You know, “Bad Habits,” “Self-Esteem,” “Come Out and Play.”
We’ve gotta play songs off it every night. And those songs sound as fresh today as they did 30 years ago, I think. Then I think about how life changing that time was.
Dexter: Exactly. When everything changed.
Noodles: My whole life. I did not have to be a janitor anymore.
Dexter: It was wild. It was a wild ride, I guess. But that’s kind of the moment where everything really changed in a lot of weird ways. People recognizing you, for example, or, you know, walking down the street in Australia and them saying, “Hey, your album’s No. 1 in Australia!” And it’s like, I’ve never even been here before.
Noodles: (I) remember being in St. Louis and they were gonna certify it gold, and it sold so much that they certified it Platinum! And we were just drinking beer on a roof.
(laughs)
We snuck up on the roof of this hotel in St. Louis and we could see the arch from it, and we’re just drinking beer up there, talking on the phone to somebody [and got the news].
Dexter: It’s that weird thing where it’s so hard to be in a band and get anywhere, and then when moments like that happen, it’s so easy. You’re like, we didn’t even do anything. I just opened a beer. So it’s kind of a mindf*** a little bit sometimes.
(NOTE: In prepping for the interview, I learned Dexter recently got his PHD. So I texted Ashland High School class of ’96 alum Tom Mast, who is the Neuroscience Program Administrator and Biology professor at Eastern Michigan University, for question help.)
ADF: There are a lot of smart, intelligent punk and metal fans. So, Dr. Dexter Holland, I learned you recently got your PhD in molecular biology, so: CRISPR is a set of enzymes and DNA sequences that perform gene editing. University biologists are now using this to selectively add and delete genes. What are your hopes and fears for this technology?
Dexter: [boisterous laugh] Wow! Big question! CRISPR is one of the most exciting innovations that’s happened in molecular biology in a long time. So it’s really, really cool. And like any other powerful tool, it can be used for good or evil, right?
I think that kind of, really “altering stuff,” is still a little ways away. It’s not AI yet, and it’s generally being used to modify genes. I don’t think it’s necessarily adding and subtracting genes. I could be wrong on that, but I guess I would go back to what I just said about anything that can be good, can be subverted into something bad, but I think it holds a lot of promise.
Noodles: You can use it to identify genes that cause cancer or lend to people developing cancer and you can maybe change that. Or, you can make a master race of blonde hair, blue-eyed people.
ADF: Dexter, you’re a pilot, right? And you fly the band, is this correct? Have there been in any “Almost Famous” close calls? [Looking at Noodles and whispering] You can tell me if he’s a bad pilot.
Noodles: He’s a great pilot, to be honest. He’s very conscientious. We also have a pilot out with us, Pilot Mike, now. We’ve had a number of Mikes, but this is the best Mike. He’s really good. He’s also an instructor and, and a legitimate pilot. Sometimes Dexter likes to sit in the back with us and drink, and so Mike will take over in those moments [joking].
Dexter: We take a pilot when we’re on tour. I don’t want to have that full responsibility.
Noodles: There was only one, well, two times, when it was really scary in the plane — we were taking off and there were thunderstorms in the area as we were taking off. We were in Munich, had just landed commercially and met up with the jet there, our jet, and we were taking off and we had to go right between like two thunderheads and we hit some hail, some really good bumping, the table came flying out, it was like 10 minutes of sheer terror, and then calm blue skies. And it then was an absolute great flight.
Then there was one time I had a panic attack and I, I just didn’t get on the plane.
Dexter: But besides those two times…
Noodles: Honestly, yeah, it’s fun; it’s comfortable.
ADF: Thanks! We’re so excited for you to rock Mansfield and all of Ohio! I saw license plates from Oregon to New York; it’s crazy the people that are traveling for this fest. Thanks for the time and I’ll be out there watching y’all and I’m excited!
Noodles: Alright, right on.
Dexter: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Noodles: Thanks, man.
Review: The Offspring
The Offspring opened with fire and blasted, “Come Out and Play,” as all the Inkmates sang along.
The entire yard was packed, a sea of skin and sweat, as the band covered the Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop” and played some more recent tunes.
At the end of, “Bad Habits,” the song was cut short and Dexter talked to the crowd about Mansfield and the fest, then asked everyone to join in the profanity-laced final lyrics to the song.
More of “Smash” as “Gotta Get Away” was played and echoed off the souls of the past dead inmates.
I was somewhat distracted by a large shirtless man with a grizzly-level-amount of back hair closing his eyes, gravity pulling his head down, followed by the neck-snap back to reality–then he smiled and put his hand horns in the air.
The “Americana” record got some love as well, as Dexter sang that he won’t pay, and asked, “Why won’t you get a job?”
The show was temporarily paused to address an injury in the crowd, and to pass the time Noodles led a series of explicit “repeat after me” sayings.
There was no silence between lyrics of, “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” as all the festival goers sang, “Whoooaa-ohhh,” in monster ballad fashion.
I would like to give a special shoutout to the person doing sign language; she was so quick and passionate and I’m glad fests try to really incorporate everyone.