December 7, 2025 • 40 mins
Join Buzz Knight on Takin’ A Walk, the music history podcast for an unforgettable conversation with Noodles, the legendary guitarist from american music, punk rock icons The Offspring.
In this replay episode, dive deep into the music history that shaped one of punk rock’s most successful bands, from their early days in the Southern California punk scene to selling over 40 million albums worldwide.
Noodles takes us behind the scenes of creating groundbreaking albums in rock music history like “Smash,” which became the best-selling independent album of all time, and shares the stories behind punk rock anthems that defined a generation including “Self Esteem,” “Come Out and Play,” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright.” Discover how The Offspring helped bring punk rock into the mainstream during the 1990s explosion, influencing countless bands and fans along the way.
In this intimate conversation, Noodles reflects on the band’s incredible journey, their creative process, what it takes to stay relevant across decades in the ever-evolving punk rock landscape, and the moments that tested their resilience. From playing small clubs to headlining festivals around the globe, this is a must-listen episode for anyone passionate about punk rock history, guitar-driven music, and the authentic stories behind the songs that became the soundtrack to our lives.
Whether you’re a longtime fan of The Offspring or discovering their impact on modern rock music, this episode of Takin’ A Walk courtesy of Buzz Knight Music delivers compelling inside music stories into the heart and soul of punk rock culture.
Support the show: https://takinawalk.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Support the show: https://takinawalk.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
When we started this, we never thought we were going
to be traveling the world ever, you know, we you know,
we knew we wanted to get in a van and
just try to go places and you know, play for
different people in different parts of the country. But we
never thought it would become what it became. For ten years,
it was driving in a van and well, first it
was Dexter's pickup truck. I'm going across Gutry in his
(00:23):
pickup truck.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to another episode of the Taking a Walk podcast
with your host, Buzz Night. Buzz speaks with musicians about
their music, their passion, and their latest work. Today, Buzz
is joined by Kevin Wasserman, better known as Noodles, the
guitarist of the iconic punk rock band The Offspring. Noodles
has been a driving force behind The Offspring's energetic sound
(00:46):
for over three decades, helping shape the landscape of punk
rock and alternative music. From their breakout success with Smash
in nineteen ninety four to their continued relevance in the
music scene with new music super Charged, Noodles has been
there every step of the way. Here's Buzznight with Noodles
on Taking.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
A Walk, Noodles, it's so great to have you on
the Take Out a Walk podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Thanks Buzzy, it's good to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So what was the first time you remember noodling on
a guitar?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Gosh, really, when I was probably twelve or so, I
actually took lessons from the sweet old lady in the
neighborhood who wanted to teach me Flies in the Buttermilk Shoe,
Fly Shoe, and I just couldn't have been more bored
with that, so I kind of put it away for
a while. There was always guitars laying around both Mike,
(01:43):
we had a cousin who came and lived with us,
and he was a lefty, but we restrung his guitar
right handed anyways. And then my dad had a classical
guitar always laying around, and so I just always kind
of pick it up. But it wasn't until I was
really about eighteen when I really started learning how to
play guitar properly.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Would you ever consider a punk version of Flies in
the Buttermilk Shoe.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Fight you, Oh God, let's talk. Let's talk to me first.
In the gimmy gimmeys see what they see? How they
could put that together.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So what were the other influences at that time? It
was like Hendrix I'm sure was a big deal growing up,
and a lot like really.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You want to know, what really got me to want
to play guitar was the theme song to mash Suicide
Is Painless. I just thought it was so beautiful. In fact,
I in fifth grade I learned how to play the
flute because of that song. I wanted, you know, the
flute and the guitar thing. And then the flute seemed
a little, i don't know, a little too uh, I
(02:44):
don't know, I don't know what's the right word for it.
A little too wimpy, I guess. So then in sixth
grade I switched to the trumpet. And my dad was
a big trumpet player. He loved the trumpet, and so
I think I was trying to, you know, emulate my
dad a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You were trying to find your way a little bit,
right exactly. Yeah, Yeah, And we're still trying to find
our way absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, you never you're never too old to try to, yeah,
to try new things and try to learn new things.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
So the band's been around for nearly forty years. What
is the secret to this amazing longevity of the band.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I mean, you gotta love doing it. I love playing music,
you know, from the very obsessive, compulsive part of you know,
being in the studio trying to come up with new
music that it sounds good something you like, you know,
from nothing to just rehearsals and you know, going over
the same stuff over and over again, and then getting
(03:46):
out and you know, finally playing you know, songs for
an audience and connecting with them. I mean, it's just
it's it's what I love to do, absolutely love it.
And all the guys in the band right now feel
the same way. It's it's we're having a lot of
fun doing what we do.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Congratulations on super Charge. We'll talk about that in a
little bit. That's really astounding and really great music as well.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
First concert experience that you ever can remember.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Oh gosh, yeah, early days. I remember going and seeing
just punk bands in backyards really, you know, and bands
that would play in my high school quad and I
just thought, man, these guys are just doing it. They
figured out how to play instruments and get together with
(04:37):
people and play music. I just always thought, even like
some of the crappiest bands. I always thought there's something
really special about getting together with you know, three or
four other people and making music together and just vibing
with each other. I've always I've always dug that first
big concert might have been Rush and thirty eight special
(05:00):
at the Forum here.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
In LA And I mean it was a positive experience, obviously, Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, I dug it. You know it was, Uh, it was.
I always preferred smaller venues, you know, and and clubs,
going to see Gosh, the Dickies at Ichabod's in Fullerton,
you know, stuff like that. I guess the Ramones at
the Pladium were that was kind of kind of a big,
big show, you know, compared to some of the some
of the smaller clubs.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
So your guitar playing is so core to the band.
Has it evolved in certain ways over time?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Do you think? Uh? I suppose. I I like to
think I've gotten better and more consistent in my playing.
I'm less sloppy over time, but I still have sloppy days,
you know. And uh, you know, I kind of I
kind of joke about I'm I'm the guy who comes
in and puts the tattered edge on everything in the studio.
(05:58):
I think there's some truth to that, but I'm there's
also some energy to my playing that just adds something
rather than takes away from from a recording.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I'm glad you talk about imperfection because I think it
is part of the beauty of the sound. Really, I
think and do you feel at times today, especially with
technology and everything, that there's sometimes too much perfection?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, I think that was what got me into punk rock.
You know, there was a lot of really just overproduced,
big arena rock bands where everything was you know, had
to be perfect, and punk rock was kind of the
antithesis of that. You could, if you had three chords
and you know, something to scream about, you can you
can make songs and make music.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Now, were you somebody with your guitar where you would
you know, fool around and reverse engineers certain things maybe
that you wanted to get out of a guitar. Would
you sort of you know, tech around with things.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
A little bit, you know, experiment with different you know,
different types of effect boxes and stuff. You know, when
I was first learning, you know, everything was analog. You
didn't have all the digital tools that you have today,
you know, So yeah, I mean you know, gosh, what
was the like the memory man? Uh, you know, effects
boxes were so weird, you know, and you can get
(07:22):
some really weird sounds out of those and the different
delays and stuff where there was a lot of fun
messing around with that stuff and trying to figure it out.
And then also yeah, like you know, trying to make
a citar by putting you know, a piece of like
metal coat hanger over the edge so that it it
buzzes right next to the bridge, you know, trying to
make a gitar sound like that, you know, different things
(07:44):
like that, try to make it sound like bells by
how you how you pick it differently, you know, I know,
and listening to you know, other people talking about how
they made music. I know, the Stones talked about you know,
Street Fighting Man was an acoustic guitar that they taped
onto a little I think a little tape recorder and
then played it back into the microphone and it just distorted.
(08:04):
And that's how they got that sound for Street Fighting Man.
You know, So you kind of you listen to what
other people are doing and then experiment, you know, with
your own your own equipment.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And I see you got some guitars behind you there.
What are some of your your favorites. I'm sure they're
all favorites, but are there some particular ones that you
can highlight?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah? Right here, Well, there's my signature model, the kind
of Start or Sunburst Talman. That's my latest signature model,
and I love the Talments. They just they play great.
They have kind of like a sixties vintage feel to them.
They're lightweight, which is great if you're jumping up and
down on stage for an hour and a half. It's
(08:45):
nice to have something that's not too heavy. I never
could handle the especially jumping up and down handling of
Les Paul is a little heavy. But I love them.
In the studio, I love you know, a lot of guitars,
I guess I don't know if you can see the
class but one that's my dad's classical guitar. I have
a Sunburse Telly and that's a reissue of the very
(09:09):
one of the very first guitars I ever bought was
a Telly and I used to play that in the
early days and eventually realized that the feedback from that
that bridge pickup was just a little too much. It
was it wasn't I mean, it was like screaming microphonic feedback,
you know, and it would be a little bit, a
little bit too much. So then I got a humbucker
and and made it a little bit less noise. I
(09:31):
think my first humbucking guitar was a Gibson Sonics like
a and then I had a I couldn't afford a
full on less Paul, so I got an epiphone less
Paul and and made that work and sounded great. And
that was probably around the ignition era I started using
that stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You mentioned your pop, who I know you've you've lost
fairly recently. I know he meant the world to you.
Can you talk about your dad and the great infl
he had on you.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, so it's still a little a little raw, but yeah, sure.
You know, my dad always encouraged me to to to
play music, well you know, just not as loudly sometimes,
you know, and as and he hated he hated punk rock.
Like I remember him yelling at me, there's no such
thing as a holiday in Cambodia, and I'm like, you know, Dad,
(10:24):
you might be getting it, you might be getting it now,
and uh, but he always encouraged me to play, you know,
and and was always proud of just by meagerest accomplishments.
He didn't I didn't need to sell a million records,
you know, for you know, to earn his appreciation, and
and uh, you know, he just he was always there,
(10:47):
so yeah, that you know it was. And he was
always playing music from Simon and Garfunkel with the harmonies
and and uh across me stills A Nash Creden's clear
Water for the Swampy Rocks. I loved Credence. And then
you know classical stuff Christopher Parkning, you know on guitar,
(11:09):
a classical guitar. Eighteen twelve overture would always play like
in the morning that I think he would do that
when I was a teenager and in my twenties and
I'd be sleeping it, sleeping in he would blare eighteen
twelve overture to try to get me out. But fortunately
I really liked that music a lot.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
And I imagine he had a sense of humor well
that you might have obtained from him.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
But also listen to Steve Martin records and Cheech and
Shawn records. You know, I still have all those I
still have all those records. Yeah, very fond memories and.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
As life comes full circle, you've recently become a grandfather.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Congratulations, thank you, thank you. Yeah, I'm just so excited,
so excited, and people to call me grandpa like it
it's an insult, but oh, hell no, it's a badge
of honor. I love it.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Boy or girl, A little girl, Emily, congratulations. I bet
it's full of so much energy that well yet.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
But yeah, she's very inquisitive. She's strong, you know, you know,
but I know, like you know, as soon as she
starts walking, she's gonna run, I'm sure. But she's her eyes.
She's very inquisitive, very you know, she focuses on things,
and yeah, I can't wait to I can't wait to
see her again.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
And I wonder what the conversation is going to be
like when you explain to her what you do for
a living.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, I'm sure she'll grow up just kind of being
used to it. You know, isn't everybody's grandpa do something similar,
you know, when it's your grandpa. I know, with my kids,
what I was doing wasn't cool, you know, really, I
think they appreciate it more now than they did, you know,
coming out, it was just kind of what you know
(13:00):
what dad did. I know my daughter, the one who
just had the baby, she didn't really think much of
my band until weird Al covered pretty Fly for a well,
Pretty Fly for a Rabbi. My daughter saw that. It
was like, Dad, weird Al covered one of your songs.
You're you're like in a real band, thank you? Yeah,
that is funny. Yeah. And my son, you know, had
(13:23):
kind of a you know, I think he appreciated what
I do a little bit more because he was a
big fan of He got into punk rock with a
through a friend of his. Really, then he started to realize,
I know these guys, like I know the guys in
Tis so well, I know Dave Dictor from m DC,
you know some of the some of the bands he
loved the most. So it was kind of it was
(13:43):
kind of cool. So what for you?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Were the or are still the the quintessential punk albums
of all time?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Well, the first two records that I ever heard. It
got me into punk rock. Where the Dickies white vinyl EP.
I think it was a promotional thing, and then never
mind the bullets the sex pistols, and I was like,
and they're both different. The Dicky's definitely had a sense
of humor, but also that raw energy and power, you know,
(14:13):
and in your face, you know, punk rock music. And
then you know, the Sex Pistols had a sort of
a dry, witty sense of humor and just tons of
just guts and viscera, you know, and they're playing and
I just love that. And that was the first time
I heard that. I was like, what is this? You know,
Like I said, I grew up with my dad's music
(14:34):
a little bit more polished and pretty. You know, I
still still love that stuff, but this was just all
leaving on the floor, you know, bloodied and battered and bruised,
and and I love that about about punk rock music.
Some of the some of the records of Ramon's first
record stayed on my turntable for a month. Tsol's Dance
(14:54):
with Me. So the TSL is a local Huntington Beach band,
Huntington Long Beach band, and h if if it wasn't
for TSOL, I don't think there would be any offspring.
That was the band that tied us together the most.
We all we all love that band.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So described the first encounter with with Dexter.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, you know what, I always kind of known who
he was. We grew up in the same neighborhood. I
was actually in boy Scouts with his older brother. We
were in the same uh uh it was true pack
and was the it was the unit called I can't
remember that. Yeah, we were in the same little group,
you know, within the bigger troop and uh and so
(15:33):
I just kind of always knew of the Hollands. Our
mothers did uh children's theater together when we were really young.
So I just kind of always knew him, and then
I met him. I was playing drums with our original drummer,
James Lilia, who's now a oncological surgeon up in the
in the Santa Santa Cruz area, and Uh I was
(15:56):
playing in a band with James and and uh Dexter
satting with that band. It was called Clowns of Death.
We stole the name from that was oingele Boingo's undercover
band name. They would do shows built as the Clowns
of Death, Like when they would have a big show
like US Festival or cal Jam or whatever it was,
they would be on that stage and they would play
as Clowns of Death, you know, just in a small
(16:16):
club as a warm up gig. So we sold a name.
I was playing with James and the Dexter sat in
and I was like, oh cool, you know this I
always knew him was like the you know, straight a
stude and you know, brilliant guy. It didn't knowing what
I know about punk rock, it didn't surprise me he
got into punk rock. But you know, so we kind
of connected over that, and then he stole James from
(16:38):
my band and then eventually asked me to join what
was then Manni Subsidal and then would eventually become the
Offspring shortly after.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Would you ever have imagined that he'd be flying you
guys back and forth to gigs and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
No way, yeah, no way. I'm not surprised. You know
that he got his pilot's license and stuff. You know,
I mean, he's an overachiever. He really, He's got to
be doing something at all times. I'm kind of the opposite.
I like doing nothing and just getting lost and whatever
I'm doing, he puts his he he sees something, he
(17:16):
sees a goal, and he aims for it and he
gets it done. He does not like leaving things unfinished.
That's why he went back and got his PhD recently.
You know, he couldn't leave that unfinished. I really do
admire that about him. He's one of the smartest people
I know. But when we started this, we never thought
we were going to be traveling the world ever. You know,
we we you know, we knew we wanted to get
(17:37):
in a van and just try to go places and
you know, play for different people in different parts of
the country, but we never thought it would become what
it became. For ten years, it was driving in a
van and well first it was his Dexter's pickup truck,
going across country in his pickup truck, you know. And
then after ten years come out and play came out
(17:58):
as our third record, Smash, and then it things just
went from there.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Well you were saying, how you know, he's always got
to be overachieving and stuff like that, and and that's
how he balances his life. But you find balance in
interesting places. From the joy of fishing.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I love fishing, I always always have. Yeah, it's very
you know, it kind of takes me out of the
out of the world. I'm focusing on something's really pretty simple,
you know, if you know what you're doing, it's it's
really pretty simple. It's takes a lot of patience, but
that I don't know, that's that kind of focus for
somebody with ADHD. It's surprising that I have the patience
to do that the way I do. But I do
(18:38):
love it. Yeah, Plus, it puts you in beautiful parts
of the world. Being out on a on a you know,
a boat in the middle of the ocean, or you know,
being on a lake, or hiking along a stream in
the in the mountains. I love. I love getting out
into the you know, into the wilderness and forests or
desert or you know, open ocean. I love all that.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Well, the other wonderful juxtaposition and about you is your
bird watching.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I started doing that. Yeah, you know, I moved down
to h we moved down well here where we live
is is you know, by the beach, and I could
see the ocean, and I see these birds out there.
I'm going, what is that? What is that? You know?
I've seen all these different different birds and and I
started just kind of trying to figure out what they were,
looking at them, all the shore birds. There's some wetlands
(19:24):
nearby where all go hiking, and and you know, some
really interesting birds. I decided, let's let's try to figure
out what those are. I'm a complete amateur. I'm not
very good at it at all, but I'm starting to
recognize some of my local birds, and I have a
bird app for when I travel. You know, we were
just in Iceland recently and I'm trying to figure out
what kind of birds where. They're just out on a
(19:46):
vacation with my with my wife and son.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Did you see anything odd there?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Bird was not really, you know, mostly just different kinds
of seagulls. Really, it's all yeah, you know, yeah, what.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
A beautiful country.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Huh, thank god, it really is. It's really unique. You know,
it's such a new geographical country. There's not a whole
lot like, there's not a whole lot of mammals. I
think the Arctic fox is really the only the only
native mammal there. You know. It's mostly all about sheep,
which were introduced, you know, sheep, and then they have
their own breed of horses also introduced, but they've become
(20:22):
their own breed of horse. People love the Icelandic horses
for some reason.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
One minute you think you're on Mars and the next
minute you're in a completely different terrain that looks like
it's almost out out west in New Mexico or something, right,
because some of it's in some.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Of the volcanic hills kind of remind you if the
green Ones remind you of Hawaii even, you know, because
it's very volcanic like Hawaii, so geographically it's it looks
like that, only much much colder.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
You know you've mentioned and you love how you see fans,
you know, bringing their kids to shows and how the
band has you know, passed on to other generations. Just
talk about the feeling you get when you look out
and you see that in the audience.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, it's super cool. You know, we and we do.
You know, we run into a lot of fans at
meeting greets or you know whatever. Sometimes I'll run into
them just at the local supermarket and it'll be both
the parents and the kids who are fans. Now, I know,
when Smash first came out, most fans would go, dude,
my mom hates you. I remember fans telling me that
(21:36):
I probably for songs like Bad Habit more than anything,
you know, and now you see, you know, the parents
and kids both vibing out to our music. And I
think it's just a great feeling. It's it's super cool.
And I know how that is because, like I said earlier,
when when my son got into punk rock, he and
I were able to share that and could go to shows.
(21:56):
Now he's you know, he's twenty two, and he's all
into still go to some shows together, but he's more
into his own own thing and and uh. But but
that time we had and you know, able to bond
over that was super special. And so so I get
that and I love being able to be part of
that for other people.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
You recalled the worst gig that you ever played, and
why was it the worst gig?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, we were, we were. Uh. Fortunately we had two
gigs that night and we were able to redeem ourselves.
The first one was we got uh, we got paid
pretty for us back then, pretty good money to play
this co op in Berkeley where a friend of ours
was going to school and he lived in this co
op and we played the dinner the dinner hour. I guess,
(22:43):
so all these you know, young college students are coming through,
clanking their plates and silverware and and getting food and
then sitting down and we're in the corner of this
cafeteria at this co op, trying to shred and play
and you know, all this loud punk rock stuff and
we still were weren't even as loud as the clinking
plates and silverware, and people are just sitting there looking
(23:05):
at us, eating their food. It was the most uncomfortable,
weirdest show we ever played. And unfortunately, right after that
we got to go play. I think it was Gilman Street.
It might have been a backyard party, I'm not sure.
It's around the same time. I think it was Gilman
Street and had a great show. Gilman Street was always fun.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Playing at Woodstock, though, was fairly nasty, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, yeah, it was. I mean it was really an
inhospitable grounds to having any kind of concert, just no
and mother nature took a real dump on us with
the heat. You know, it was unusually warm and unusually hot.
Eight dollars bottles of water and we could just feel that.
We played on the first day and you could kind
of feel the tension building even then. You know, we
(23:50):
knew that this could go and get really ugly really quickly.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
What was that gag? The trash gag? That you guys
would do.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Oh god, yeah, we we did that. I think the
first first time we did it was at a local
amphitheater we played it might have been the Weenie Roast
or somebody was like one of the first times we
played there, and Dexter says, you know, it's getting pretty
messy out there. Why don't you guys take all that
trash around you and throw it up here and we'll
take care of it for you. You know. It's like right
(24:19):
before the encore. So they started, you know, throwing this,
and I thought, this is really funny. And then I
realized both my parents are out in the audience. Dexter's
moms out in the audience. My daughter, who I think
was six years old at the time, was out in
the audience. But nobody got hurt. It was funny. It
was a funny gag, and we got away with it,
and I think we did it, I don't know, three
(24:40):
or four more times. But then in Chicago it got
real ugly and people started picking up full on trash
cans and throwing them at each other, and somebody got
hurt by hitting somebody threw a trash can on him,
and so we had to stop doing that that gag.
I think we might have upset the Chili Peppers too
one night, because we did it right before they were
on after us, and their crew wasn't wasn't too happy.
(25:01):
So we went and we apologized. You know, we certainly
didn't mean to cause them any any trouble. We're fans
of the Peppers. Oops right, yeah, yeah, are bad. They
were they were what they were gracious about it.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
You know, what do you think the state of the
punk scene is now?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You know, there's still look, gosh, I think it's stronger
than it ever has been. I mean last year we
played though when we were young festival, I know, they
just had it again and we're slated to play it
again next year. So that's that's more like nineties and
early two thousands, you know punk bands and emo bands
and all the you know the Warp Tour kind of
(25:41):
you know era punk bands. But if you go to clubs,
there's still young punk bands that sound like bands we
were playing with thirty five forty years ago, and it's
it's really varied. My son plays in a band and
they're called the Grin, and I go see their shows
and I see a lot of bands that they're playing
with that sound like bands we played with thirty forty
(26:02):
years ago. It's kind of cool. You know, they'll add
you know, new elements and different elements. You hear a
lot more kind of hip hop and I guess chechno
you know, infused you know, elements to the to the
punk music. But it's still it's still happening. I think
it's I think it's rad.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Are you familiar with the recent kurffluffle that occurred with
Green Day where they were talking about Las Vegas in
a disparaging way? Did you did you pick up on
this story at all?
Speaker 2 (26:32):
No, I'm not familiar with it.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I think what the the essence of it was. You know,
they were out in you know, San Francisco Bay area
and they were talking about the departure of certain sports
teams ultimately you know, moving to Vegas, and they weren't
too they weren't too thrilled with it, nonetheless, and they
you know, said some things about Las Vegas. Right, and
(26:57):
then all of a sudden you have a couple of
radio stations thinking it would be a cool stunt to
ban Green Day, you know, because of their comments. Right,
I heard about this, and I'm thinking, wait, isn't that
the essence of punk?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah? Right, I know, yeah, totally. Yeah, I'm trying to
cancel Green Day. That might work for a minute, but
I don't think that's gonna I don't think that's gonna
last too long. It's not gonna work.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Right, So let's talk about super Charged. Talk about, first
of all, the creative process, how this all came together,
how you know, much fun it was putting it together,
and maybe highlight a couple of your favorite tracks off
of it.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Okay, yeah, yeah, we you know, we well, gosh, we
just came out of the pandemic and uh, you know
the pandemic. We learned a lot during the pandemic. We
we learned that we really miss playing live shows when
it's taken away from us. We missed it so much
that we went in the studio and actually rehearsed. We
(28:02):
went back and looked at every song that we played,
and even songs that we don't play that often, and
tried to make sure we were all playing them together
in time, because over thirty years, you'll develop bad habits
and you won't even realize, you know, where you're just
kind of coming in a little bit late on this
one part where you're strumming is like, you know, me
and Dexter won't be strumming the exact same thing, and
(28:25):
it gets a little sloppy there. And so we went
over all of that mostly with me, Todd and Jonah
in the studio. Pete wasn't wasn't really well the time
he lived out of town and it was before Brandon joined,
So it'd be me, Todd and Jonah in there just
making sure everything's locked in, especially the guitar parts. You know,
(28:46):
there's certain things where you want it sloppy. Not sloppy,
but it can be a little bit looser. That adds
to the energy. But if you know, there's a lot
of times too where if you're not together on a
really heavy, you know, rhythmic part art, it takes away
from the energy. It really does kind of it kind
of muddle muddies it all up. So we just kind
(29:07):
of spent a lot of time going over all that
and had a really fun time doing it. We'd go
into the studio and work on a few songs, working
on our backing vocals too, making sure somebody's covering each harmony.
It was a lot of fun. Gosh, I went way
back into this, didn't I so good? No, it's good. Yeah,
(29:28):
And we you know, we released Let the Bad Times Role.
Was pretty much done at that point and uh, and
we didn't get to tour on it until things started
opening up. And then we went back out you know,
on tour. We had Josh Freeze on drums at that
point and uh, and just started kicking ass. I mean,
it just really felt really good. We we had really
(29:50):
done our homework and got everything tightened up. Josh added
a lot and uh, and then you know, we wanted
to keep this going that we when we did Let
the Bad Times Role, it was nine years in between records,
and we didn't want that time to go buy. But
also right before that, like the last year of making
that record, last year and a half two years was
(30:11):
really a creative time for us. Most of the songs
on Let the Bad Times Role happened within that two
year period, you know, And so then we just kind
of felt that once we finished touring, well, even while
we were touring on Let the Bad Times Role, we
started going in the studio. The way we do it
now is we'll go into the studio for like two
weeks at a time and Bob will fly out. He
(30:34):
usually he lives in Hawaii. He also spends a lot
of time in Vancouver, so either he would fly out here,
we'd fly to Hawaii or Vancouver and meet up for
a week to two weeks and we just work on,
you know, various songs and you try to get a
song close to being done in that time. You know,
a lot of times if things are tough and it's
going slow, you'll shelve it and then go on to
(30:54):
something else, you know, and see how that works, and
then you know kind of bounce around. But within like
two years of working or you know, whatever it took,
we were we knew we were done. And then the
record said, well, if you finish it by April of
this year, we could have it out. And we're like,
we can do that. And so I think we had
to come up with like the last two songs. Really
(31:14):
everything else was pretty much done and it just really
kind of kind of came together and fell into pieces.
Working with Bob's great Bob Rock our producers is just phenomenal.
He's like he's like an older brother. He's like a friend,
a mentor. You know, we just have a really great relationship.
We love his ideas, his his you know, feelings and
(31:36):
beliefs about music and what makes good music, you know,
really resonate with us. And I mean we have a
good time.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I think this is amazing and so cool. That make
it all?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Hit number one both on the Alt Airplay and the
Active Rock Airplay charts. That's that's freaking cool as hell.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I think that's the first for us. I don't think
we've ever had an number one on both those charts
at the same time. So yeah, that is that is
really cool. I mean, it's a different world now than
than it was, you know, than it has been in
the past, but still I'll take it.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Well, but I have to say, as somebody who throughout
my career, uh you know, helped manage some some mainstream
rock stations, I mean you guys were kind of saviors
for that format as well. I mean I have to
thank you for that, because with the stations that I
was part of, like w r I F and Detroit
(32:33):
or w MMR and Philadelphia. You know, you guys were
like a lifeblood for us.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Well, well, thank you. I don't know if I can
you know, take on that, but but you know, thank you.
You know, we've always well, i mean grew up listening
to radio. It's it means a lot to us. We
still visit. We just hung out with Pierre at MMR
a couple of months, a month and a half ago,
you know, the the MMR vecue. Yeah, yeah, so you know,
(33:03):
thank you for that. That's very kind, kind words and
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
And then congratulations on the Spotify Billions club as well.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
My god, that's so thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, you know, it's kind of hard to wrap your
head around, Matt, you know, a billion a billion listens.
You know, I think only we only need to hit
like seven billion more people and we've hit the whole world,
right something like that. Yeah, I think kids aren't all right?
Is hot on its heels. I think at the end
of the year that one should hit a billion.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
And I want to talk about these amazing events that
occurred where you guys were playing and were joined by
some some special some special guests.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
So let's first talk about the Ed Sheer and experience.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
What was that like? Yeah? Amazing. You know, he is
just such a natural you know at it or seems
to be such a natural ad. I know he puts
a lot of work into what he does, but he's
just phenomenal. I really like some of his singer songwriter stuff,
songs like the Boat or the Castle on the Hill.
(34:11):
You know, I really do like some of that stuff.
When I saw that we were playing with him, I
sent off an email and said, let's reach out. Let's
see if he wants to sit in with us, you know,
million in one shot. Thinking. You know, I knew that
he was a fan early on that the first record
he ever bought was Conspiracy of One his aunt gave him.
He told us the story when we met. His aunt
(34:33):
gave him ten pounds for Christmas or his birthday or something,
and he went out and bought Conspiracy of One. It
was his first record. And he used to to pretend
to sing and play million Miles Away in front of
the mirror. And so he came out and did that
song with us and hit it out of the park.
He sent me a demo of him singing, just playing
acoustic guitar and singing. He tuned it down another half
(34:54):
a step and I went, oh, this is going to
be amazing, And he came out. It was phenomenal. It
was just so much funny. It's the nicest guy in
the world too. He really is very down to earth
guy for somebody as successful as he is.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
And then there was the collaboration with with young Blood.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Yeah, what was that like? We just had to get
out of his way. That guy's got so much energy.
He really is dexter joked about. You know, it's the
best hype man you could have. He came out just
getting the crowd going from the get go. He's got
a great voice, great personality, great energy. I mean, you know,
it was really hard to keep up with him. He's
(35:35):
such a ball of fire and also just a really
really nice guy. Had a lot of fun hanging with
him as well.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
And then there's the Brian May experience. Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Well, that was the one that just, you know, blew
my mind the most because we've known I mean, I've
known Brian May for as long as I've known music existed,
you know, a big Queen fan. You know, even when
I got into punk rock and and kind of stopped
listening to a lot of the more bigger rock bands,
(36:06):
Queen was still kind of cool because there was something
edgy and punk rock about about Queen. You know, I
don't know, maybe it's just Freddie's style, uh, you know,
Brian's guitar, the drums, and I don't know what it is,
but there was something kind of kind of punk about
some of what they did as well. So yeah, that
was just mind blowing. We uh, we wanted to do.
(36:29):
Dexter knew about this festival that Brian does with a
friend of his, Garrick Israelian, called star MOUs and it's
it's uh, physicists and musicians, you know, and and astronomers,
you know, like stars and music, astronomy and music, and
and we wanted to do it. We just asked. So
we kind of begged to let us play. You know,
(36:50):
they don't have a big music budget. We only go
out and play one concert. You know, it's not very big.
So we begged, and they let us do it. And
then we we it Brian up to play with us.
He or he does. He wanted to come out and
do Gone U Gone Away with us with the the
Slovakian National Symphony. And then and then Dexter said, Brian,
(37:15):
will you do Stone called Crazy with us? And he agreed,
you know, he says he doesn't get to play that
much with with the current you know, uh, carnation of
the incarnation of the band. So so it was just phenomenal.
I mean our minds were literally blown hanging out with
this legend, absolute legend, and and playing with him, you know,
(37:37):
sharing music, sharing, you know, licks back and forth. Just incredible.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
What awesome, awesome experience. Is there anybody on a on
a dream list that you haven't played with that maybe
the next time we you know, who knows.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Gosh, any in the Rolling Stones would be a blast.
There's so many, so many heroes out there, it's hard
to focus on just one or two.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yeah, that would be a good one, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Well, in closing, what would be in a tremendous surprise
to your fans that is on your playlist of music
that maybe they wouldn't expect that you'd be listening to.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Oh gosh, yeah, I'm trying to you know, there's some
pop stuff that I that I do listen to that
I guess maybe people wouldn't think. I love it here
And you know, I've been listening to you more and
more since since we met and stuff too. I love
Billie Eilish especially like she did a EP of acoustic songs.
Those songs just make me weak. They're so good. I
(38:43):
like Billy Eilish a lot. She's great. There's a band
out of San Diego called Steam Power Giraffe and they
started they would just kind of busk at like a
local theme park down there a park and they're great,
very theatrical, like them a lot stuff like that. I guess, Well, I.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Have to tell you this is one of these moments
where I have to just say how grateful I am
for what I'm doing, because I had the opportunity to
speak with you today to hear about your work, your life,
and your your passion for it all and your honesty.
And I'm so grateful Noodles that you took the time
to be on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Well, well, thank you, it's been you know, it's been
my pleasure. You You really kind of got in good,
deep into some things and I appreciate that this was
a good conversation.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Thank you for being on, and thank you for all
the music you continue to give us.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Well, thank you for your time, buzz I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
When we started this, we never thought we were going
to be traveling the world ever, you know, we you know,
we knew we wanted to get in a van and
just try to go places and you know, play for
different people in different parts of the country. But we
never thought it would become what it became. For ten years,
it was driving in a van and well, first it
was Dexter's pickup truck. I'm going across Gutry in his
(00:23):
pickup truck.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to another episode of the Taking a Walk podcast
with your host, Buzz Night. Buzz speaks with musicians about
their music, their passion, and their latest work. Today, Buzz
is joined by Kevin Wasserman, better known as Noodles, the
guitarist of the iconic punk rock band The Offspring. Noodles
has been a driving force behind The Offspring's energetic sound
(00:46):
for over three decades, helping shape the landscape of punk
rock and alternative music. From their breakout success with Smash
in nineteen ninety four to their continued relevance in the
music scene with new music super Charged, Noodles has been
there every step of the way. Here's Buzznight with Noodles
on Taking.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
A Walk, Noodles, it's so great to have you on
the Take Out a Walk podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Thanks Buzzy, it's good to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So what was the first time you remember noodling on
a guitar?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Gosh, really, when I was probably twelve or so, I
actually took lessons from the sweet old lady in the
neighborhood who wanted to teach me Flies in the Buttermilk Shoe,
Fly Shoe, and I just couldn't have been more bored
with that, so I kind of put it away for
a while. There was always guitars laying around both Mike,
(01:43):
we had a cousin who came and lived with us,
and he was a lefty, but we restrung his guitar
right handed anyways. And then my dad had a classical
guitar always laying around, and so I just always kind
of pick it up. But it wasn't until I was
really about eighteen when I really started learning how to
play guitar properly.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Would you ever consider a punk version of Flies in
the Buttermilk Shoe.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Fight you, Oh God, let's talk. Let's talk to me first.
In the gimmy gimmeys see what they see? How they
could put that together.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
So what were the other influences at that time? It
was like Hendrix I'm sure was a big deal growing up,
and a lot like really.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You want to know, what really got me to want
to play guitar was the theme song to mash Suicide
Is Painless. I just thought it was so beautiful. In fact,
I in fifth grade I learned how to play the
flute because of that song. I wanted, you know, the
flute and the guitar thing. And then the flute seemed
a little, i don't know, a little too uh, I
(02:44):
don't know, I don't know what's the right word for it.
A little too wimpy, I guess. So then in sixth
grade I switched to the trumpet. And my dad was
a big trumpet player. He loved the trumpet, and so
I think I was trying to, you know, emulate my
dad a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You were trying to find your way a little bit,
right exactly. Yeah, Yeah, And we're still trying to find
our way absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, you never you're never too old to try to, yeah,
to try new things and try to learn new things.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
So the band's been around for nearly forty years. What
is the secret to this amazing longevity of the band.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I mean, you gotta love doing it. I love playing music,
you know, from the very obsessive, compulsive part of you know,
being in the studio trying to come up with new
music that it sounds good something you like, you know,
from nothing to just rehearsals and you know, going over
the same stuff over and over again, and then getting
(03:46):
out and you know, finally playing you know, songs for
an audience and connecting with them. I mean, it's just
it's it's what I love to do, absolutely love it.
And all the guys in the band right now feel
the same way. It's it's we're having a lot of
fun doing what we do.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Congratulations on super Charge. We'll talk about that in a
little bit. That's really astounding and really great music as well.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
First concert experience that you ever can remember.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Oh gosh, yeah, early days. I remember going and seeing
just punk bands in backyards really, you know, and bands
that would play in my high school quad and I
just thought, man, these guys are just doing it. They
figured out how to play instruments and get together with
(04:37):
people and play music. I just always thought, even like
some of the crappiest bands. I always thought there's something
really special about getting together with you know, three or
four other people and making music together and just vibing
with each other. I've always I've always dug that first
big concert might have been Rush and thirty eight special
(05:00):
at the Forum here.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
In LA And I mean it was a positive experience, obviously, Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, I dug it. You know it was, Uh, it was.
I always preferred smaller venues, you know, and and clubs,
going to see Gosh, the Dickies at Ichabod's in Fullerton,
you know, stuff like that. I guess the Ramones at
the Pladium were that was kind of kind of a big,
big show, you know, compared to some of the some
of the smaller clubs.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
So your guitar playing is so core to the band.
Has it evolved in certain ways over time?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Do you think? Uh? I suppose. I I like to
think I've gotten better and more consistent in my playing.
I'm less sloppy over time, but I still have sloppy days,
you know. And uh, you know, I kind of I
kind of joke about I'm I'm the guy who comes
in and puts the tattered edge on everything in the studio.
(05:58):
I think there's some truth to that, but I'm there's
also some energy to my playing that just adds something
rather than takes away from from a recording.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I'm glad you talk about imperfection because I think it
is part of the beauty of the sound. Really, I
think and do you feel at times today, especially with
technology and everything, that there's sometimes too much perfection?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, I think that was what got me into punk rock.
You know, there was a lot of really just overproduced,
big arena rock bands where everything was you know, had
to be perfect, and punk rock was kind of the
antithesis of that. You could, if you had three chords
and you know, something to scream about, you can you
can make songs and make music.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Now, were you somebody with your guitar where you would
you know, fool around and reverse engineers certain things maybe
that you wanted to get out of a guitar. Would
you sort of you know, tech around with things.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
A little bit, you know, experiment with different you know,
different types of effect boxes and stuff. You know, when
I was first learning, you know, everything was analog. You
didn't have all the digital tools that you have today,
you know, So yeah, I mean you know, gosh, what
was the like the memory man? Uh, you know, effects
boxes were so weird, you know, and you can get
(07:22):
some really weird sounds out of those and the different
delays and stuff where there was a lot of fun
messing around with that stuff and trying to figure it out.
And then also yeah, like you know, trying to make
a citar by putting you know, a piece of like
metal coat hanger over the edge so that it it
buzzes right next to the bridge, you know, trying to
make a gitar sound like that, you know, different things
(07:44):
like that, try to make it sound like bells by
how you how you pick it differently, you know, I know,
and listening to you know, other people talking about how
they made music. I know, the Stones talked about you know,
Street Fighting Man was an acoustic guitar that they taped
onto a little I think a little tape recorder and
then played it back into the microphone and it just distorted.
(08:04):
And that's how they got that sound for Street Fighting Man.
You know, So you kind of you listen to what
other people are doing and then experiment, you know, with
your own your own equipment.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And I see you got some guitars behind you there.
What are some of your your favorites. I'm sure they're
all favorites, but are there some particular ones that you
can highlight?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah? Right here, Well, there's my signature model, the kind
of Start or Sunburst Talman. That's my latest signature model,
and I love the Talments. They just they play great.
They have kind of like a sixties vintage feel to them.
They're lightweight, which is great if you're jumping up and
down on stage for an hour and a half. It's
(08:45):
nice to have something that's not too heavy. I never
could handle the especially jumping up and down handling of
Les Paul is a little heavy. But I love them.
In the studio, I love you know, a lot of guitars,
I guess I don't know if you can see the
class but one that's my dad's classical guitar. I have
a Sunburse Telly and that's a reissue of the very
(09:09):
one of the very first guitars I ever bought was
a Telly and I used to play that in the
early days and eventually realized that the feedback from that
that bridge pickup was just a little too much. It
was it wasn't I mean, it was like screaming microphonic feedback,
you know, and it would be a little bit, a
little bit too much. So then I got a humbucker
and and made it a little bit less noise. I
(09:31):
think my first humbucking guitar was a Gibson Sonics like
a and then I had a I couldn't afford a
full on less Paul, so I got an epiphone less
Paul and and made that work and sounded great. And
that was probably around the ignition era I started using
that stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You mentioned your pop, who I know you've you've lost
fairly recently. I know he meant the world to you.
Can you talk about your dad and the great infl
he had on you.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, so it's still a little a little raw, but yeah, sure.
You know, my dad always encouraged me to to to
play music, well you know, just not as loudly sometimes,
you know, and as and he hated he hated punk rock.
Like I remember him yelling at me, there's no such
thing as a holiday in Cambodia, and I'm like, you know, Dad,
(10:24):
you might be getting it, you might be getting it now,
and uh, but he always encouraged me to play, you know,
and and was always proud of just by meagerest accomplishments.
He didn't I didn't need to sell a million records,
you know, for you know, to earn his appreciation, and
and uh, you know, he just he was always there,
(10:47):
so yeah, that you know it was. And he was
always playing music from Simon and Garfunkel with the harmonies
and and uh across me stills A Nash Creden's clear
Water for the Swampy Rocks. I loved Credence. And then
you know classical stuff Christopher Parkning, you know on guitar,
(11:09):
a classical guitar. Eighteen twelve overture would always play like
in the morning that I think he would do that
when I was a teenager and in my twenties and
I'd be sleeping it, sleeping in he would blare eighteen
twelve overture to try to get me out. But fortunately
I really liked that music a lot.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
And I imagine he had a sense of humor well
that you might have obtained from him.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
But also listen to Steve Martin records and Cheech and
Shawn records. You know, I still have all those I
still have all those records. Yeah, very fond memories and.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
As life comes full circle, you've recently become a grandfather.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Congratulations, thank you, thank you. Yeah, I'm just so excited,
so excited, and people to call me grandpa like it
it's an insult, but oh, hell no, it's a badge
of honor. I love it.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Boy or girl, A little girl, Emily, congratulations. I bet
it's full of so much energy that well yet.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
But yeah, she's very inquisitive. She's strong, you know, you know,
but I know, like you know, as soon as she
starts walking, she's gonna run, I'm sure. But she's her eyes.
She's very inquisitive, very you know, she focuses on things,
and yeah, I can't wait to I can't wait to
see her again.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
And I wonder what the conversation is going to be
like when you explain to her what you do for
a living.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, I'm sure she'll grow up just kind of being
used to it. You know, isn't everybody's grandpa do something similar,
you know, when it's your grandpa. I know, with my kids,
what I was doing wasn't cool, you know, really, I
think they appreciate it more now than they did, you know,
coming out, it was just kind of what you know
(13:00):
what dad did. I know my daughter, the one who
just had the baby, she didn't really think much of
my band until weird Al covered pretty Fly for a well,
Pretty Fly for a Rabbi. My daughter saw that. It
was like, Dad, weird Al covered one of your songs.
You're you're like in a real band, thank you? Yeah,
that is funny. Yeah. And my son, you know, had
(13:23):
kind of a you know, I think he appreciated what
I do a little bit more because he was a
big fan of He got into punk rock with a
through a friend of his. Really, then he started to realize,
I know these guys, like I know the guys in
Tis so well, I know Dave Dictor from m DC,
you know some of the some of the bands he
loved the most. So it was kind of it was
(13:43):
kind of cool. So what for you?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Were the or are still the the quintessential punk albums
of all time?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Well, the first two records that I ever heard. It
got me into punk rock. Where the Dickies white vinyl EP.
I think it was a promotional thing, and then never
mind the bullets the sex pistols, and I was like,
and they're both different. The Dicky's definitely had a sense
of humor, but also that raw energy and power, you know,
(14:13):
and in your face, you know, punk rock music. And
then you know, the Sex Pistols had a sort of
a dry, witty sense of humor and just tons of
just guts and viscera, you know, and they're playing and
I just love that. And that was the first time
I heard that. I was like, what is this? You know,
Like I said, I grew up with my dad's music
(14:34):
a little bit more polished and pretty. You know, I
still still love that stuff, but this was just all
leaving on the floor, you know, bloodied and battered and bruised,
and and I love that about about punk rock music.
Some of the some of the records of Ramon's first
record stayed on my turntable for a month. Tsol's Dance
(14:54):
with Me. So the TSL is a local Huntington Beach band,
Huntington Long Beach band, and h if if it wasn't
for TSOL, I don't think there would be any offspring.
That was the band that tied us together the most.
We all we all love that band.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So described the first encounter with with Dexter.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, you know what, I always kind of known who
he was. We grew up in the same neighborhood. I
was actually in boy Scouts with his older brother. We
were in the same uh uh it was true pack
and was the it was the unit called I can't
remember that. Yeah, we were in the same little group,
you know, within the bigger troop and uh and so
(15:33):
I just kind of always knew of the Hollands. Our
mothers did uh children's theater together when we were really young.
So I just kind of always knew him, and then
I met him. I was playing drums with our original drummer,
James Lilia, who's now a oncological surgeon up in the
in the Santa Santa Cruz area, and Uh I was
(15:56):
playing in a band with James and and uh Dexter
satting with that band. It was called Clowns of Death.
We stole the name from that was oingele Boingo's undercover
band name. They would do shows built as the Clowns
of Death, Like when they would have a big show
like US Festival or cal Jam or whatever it was,
they would be on that stage and they would play
as Clowns of Death, you know, just in a small
(16:16):
club as a warm up gig. So we sold a name.
I was playing with James and the Dexter sat in
and I was like, oh cool, you know this I
always knew him was like the you know, straight a
stude and you know, brilliant guy. It didn't knowing what
I know about punk rock, it didn't surprise me he
got into punk rock. But you know, so we kind
of connected over that, and then he stole James from
(16:38):
my band and then eventually asked me to join what
was then Manni Subsidal and then would eventually become the
Offspring shortly after.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Would you ever have imagined that he'd be flying you
guys back and forth to gigs and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
No way, yeah, no way. I'm not surprised. You know
that he got his pilot's license and stuff. You know,
I mean, he's an overachiever. He really, He's got to
be doing something at all times. I'm kind of the opposite.
I like doing nothing and just getting lost and whatever
I'm doing, he puts his he he sees something, he
(17:16):
sees a goal, and he aims for it and he
gets it done. He does not like leaving things unfinished.
That's why he went back and got his PhD recently.
You know, he couldn't leave that unfinished. I really do
admire that about him. He's one of the smartest people
I know. But when we started this, we never thought
we were going to be traveling the world ever. You know,
we we you know, we knew we wanted to get
(17:37):
in a van and just try to go places and
you know, play for different people in different parts of
the country, but we never thought it would become what
it became. For ten years, it was driving in a
van and well first it was his Dexter's pickup truck,
going across country in his pickup truck, you know. And
then after ten years come out and play came out
(17:58):
as our third record, Smash, and then it things just
went from there.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Well you were saying, how you know, he's always got
to be overachieving and stuff like that, and and that's
how he balances his life. But you find balance in
interesting places. From the joy of fishing.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I love fishing, I always always have. Yeah, it's very
you know, it kind of takes me out of the
out of the world. I'm focusing on something's really pretty simple,
you know, if you know what you're doing, it's it's
really pretty simple. It's takes a lot of patience, but
that I don't know, that's that kind of focus for
somebody with ADHD. It's surprising that I have the patience
to do that the way I do. But I do
(18:38):
love it. Yeah, Plus, it puts you in beautiful parts
of the world. Being out on a on a you know,
a boat in the middle of the ocean, or you know,
being on a lake, or hiking along a stream in
the in the mountains. I love. I love getting out
into the you know, into the wilderness and forests or
desert or you know, open ocean. I love all that.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Well, the other wonderful juxtaposition and about you is your
bird watching.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I started doing that. Yeah, you know, I moved down
to h we moved down well here where we live
is is you know, by the beach, and I could
see the ocean, and I see these birds out there.
I'm going, what is that? What is that? You know?
I've seen all these different different birds and and I
started just kind of trying to figure out what they were,
looking at them, all the shore birds. There's some wetlands
(19:24):
nearby where all go hiking, and and you know, some
really interesting birds. I decided, let's let's try to figure
out what those are. I'm a complete amateur. I'm not
very good at it at all, but I'm starting to
recognize some of my local birds, and I have a
bird app for when I travel. You know, we were
just in Iceland recently and I'm trying to figure out
what kind of birds where. They're just out on a
(19:46):
vacation with my with my wife and son.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Did you see anything odd there?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Bird was not really, you know, mostly just different kinds
of seagulls. Really, it's all yeah, you know, yeah, what.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
A beautiful country.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Huh, thank god, it really is. It's really unique. You know,
it's such a new geographical country. There's not a whole
lot like, there's not a whole lot of mammals. I
think the Arctic fox is really the only the only
native mammal there. You know. It's mostly all about sheep,
which were introduced, you know, sheep, and then they have
their own breed of horses also introduced, but they've become
(20:22):
their own breed of horse. People love the Icelandic horses
for some reason.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
One minute you think you're on Mars and the next
minute you're in a completely different terrain that looks like
it's almost out out west in New Mexico or something, right,
because some of it's in some.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Of the volcanic hills kind of remind you if the
green Ones remind you of Hawaii even, you know, because
it's very volcanic like Hawaii, so geographically it's it looks
like that, only much much colder.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
You know you've mentioned and you love how you see fans,
you know, bringing their kids to shows and how the
band has you know, passed on to other generations. Just
talk about the feeling you get when you look out
and you see that in the audience.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, it's super cool. You know, we and we do.
You know, we run into a lot of fans at
meeting greets or you know whatever. Sometimes I'll run into
them just at the local supermarket and it'll be both
the parents and the kids who are fans. Now, I know,
when Smash first came out, most fans would go, dude,
my mom hates you. I remember fans telling me that
(21:36):
I probably for songs like Bad Habit more than anything,
you know, and now you see, you know, the parents
and kids both vibing out to our music. And I
think it's just a great feeling. It's it's super cool.
And I know how that is because, like I said earlier,
when when my son got into punk rock, he and
I were able to share that and could go to shows.
(21:56):
Now he's you know, he's twenty two, and he's all
into still go to some shows together, but he's more
into his own own thing and and uh. But but
that time we had and you know, able to bond
over that was super special. And so so I get
that and I love being able to be part of
that for other people.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
You recalled the worst gig that you ever played, and
why was it the worst gig?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, we were, we were. Uh. Fortunately we had two
gigs that night and we were able to redeem ourselves.
The first one was we got uh, we got paid
pretty for us back then, pretty good money to play
this co op in Berkeley where a friend of ours
was going to school and he lived in this co
op and we played the dinner the dinner hour. I guess,
(22:43):
so all these you know, young college students are coming through,
clanking their plates and silverware and and getting food and
then sitting down and we're in the corner of this
cafeteria at this co op, trying to shred and play
and you know, all this loud punk rock stuff and
we still were weren't even as loud as the clinking
plates and silverware, and people are just sitting there looking
(23:05):
at us, eating their food. It was the most uncomfortable,
weirdest show we ever played. And unfortunately, right after that
we got to go play. I think it was Gilman Street.
It might have been a backyard party, I'm not sure.
It's around the same time. I think it was Gilman
Street and had a great show. Gilman Street was always fun.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Playing at Woodstock, though, was fairly nasty, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, yeah, it was. I mean it was really an
inhospitable grounds to having any kind of concert, just no
and mother nature took a real dump on us with
the heat. You know, it was unusually warm and unusually hot.
Eight dollars bottles of water and we could just feel that.
We played on the first day and you could kind
of feel the tension building even then. You know, we
(23:50):
knew that this could go and get really ugly really quickly.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
What was that gag? The trash gag? That you guys
would do.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Oh god, yeah, we we did that. I think the
first first time we did it was at a local
amphitheater we played it might have been the Weenie Roast
or somebody was like one of the first times we
played there, and Dexter says, you know, it's getting pretty
messy out there. Why don't you guys take all that
trash around you and throw it up here and we'll
take care of it for you. You know. It's like right
(24:19):
before the encore. So they started, you know, throwing this,
and I thought, this is really funny. And then I
realized both my parents are out in the audience. Dexter's
moms out in the audience. My daughter, who I think
was six years old at the time, was out in
the audience. But nobody got hurt. It was funny. It
was a funny gag, and we got away with it,
and I think we did it, I don't know, three
(24:40):
or four more times. But then in Chicago it got
real ugly and people started picking up full on trash
cans and throwing them at each other, and somebody got
hurt by hitting somebody threw a trash can on him,
and so we had to stop doing that that gag.
I think we might have upset the Chili Peppers too
one night, because we did it right before they were
on after us, and their crew wasn't wasn't too happy.
(25:01):
So we went and we apologized. You know, we certainly
didn't mean to cause them any any trouble. We're fans
of the Peppers. Oops right, yeah, yeah, are bad. They
were they were what they were gracious about it.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
You know, what do you think the state of the
punk scene is now?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You know, there's still look, gosh, I think it's stronger
than it ever has been. I mean last year we
played though when we were young festival, I know, they
just had it again and we're slated to play it
again next year. So that's that's more like nineties and
early two thousands, you know punk bands and emo bands
and all the you know the Warp Tour kind of
(25:41):
you know era punk bands. But if you go to clubs,
there's still young punk bands that sound like bands we
were playing with thirty five forty years ago, and it's
it's really varied. My son plays in a band and
they're called the Grin, and I go see their shows
and I see a lot of bands that they're playing
with that sound like bands we played with thirty forty
(26:02):
years ago. It's kind of cool. You know, they'll add
you know, new elements and different elements. You hear a
lot more kind of hip hop and I guess chechno
you know, infused you know, elements to the to the
punk music. But it's still it's still happening. I think
it's I think it's rad.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Are you familiar with the recent kurffluffle that occurred with
Green Day where they were talking about Las Vegas in
a disparaging way? Did you did you pick up on
this story at all?
Speaker 2 (26:32):
No, I'm not familiar with it.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I think what the the essence of it was. You know,
they were out in you know, San Francisco Bay area
and they were talking about the departure of certain sports
teams ultimately you know, moving to Vegas, and they weren't
too they weren't too thrilled with it, nonetheless, and they
you know, said some things about Las Vegas. Right, and
(26:57):
then all of a sudden you have a couple of
radio stations thinking it would be a cool stunt to
ban Green Day, you know, because of their comments. Right,
I heard about this, and I'm thinking, wait, isn't that
the essence of punk?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah? Right, I know, yeah, totally. Yeah, I'm trying to
cancel Green Day. That might work for a minute, but
I don't think that's gonna I don't think that's gonna
last too long. It's not gonna work.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Right, So let's talk about super Charged. Talk about, first
of all, the creative process, how this all came together,
how you know, much fun it was putting it together,
and maybe highlight a couple of your favorite tracks off
of it.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Okay, yeah, yeah, we you know, we well, gosh, we
just came out of the pandemic and uh, you know
the pandemic. We learned a lot during the pandemic. We
we learned that we really miss playing live shows when
it's taken away from us. We missed it so much
that we went in the studio and actually rehearsed. We
(28:02):
went back and looked at every song that we played,
and even songs that we don't play that often, and
tried to make sure we were all playing them together
in time, because over thirty years, you'll develop bad habits
and you won't even realize, you know, where you're just
kind of coming in a little bit late on this
one part where you're strumming is like, you know, me
and Dexter won't be strumming the exact same thing, and
(28:25):
it gets a little sloppy there. And so we went
over all of that mostly with me, Todd and Jonah
in the studio. Pete wasn't wasn't really well the time
he lived out of town and it was before Brandon joined,
So it'd be me, Todd and Jonah in there just
making sure everything's locked in, especially the guitar parts. You know,
(28:46):
there's certain things where you want it sloppy. Not sloppy,
but it can be a little bit looser. That adds
to the energy. But if you know, there's a lot
of times too where if you're not together on a
really heavy, you know, rhythmic part art, it takes away
from the energy. It really does kind of it kind
of muddle muddies it all up. So we just kind
(29:07):
of spent a lot of time going over all that
and had a really fun time doing it. We'd go
into the studio and work on a few songs, working
on our backing vocals too, making sure somebody's covering each harmony.
It was a lot of fun. Gosh, I went way
back into this, didn't I so good? No, it's good. Yeah,
(29:28):
And we you know, we released Let the Bad Times Role.
Was pretty much done at that point and uh, and
we didn't get to tour on it until things started
opening up. And then we went back out you know,
on tour. We had Josh Freeze on drums at that
point and uh, and just started kicking ass. I mean,
it just really felt really good. We we had really
(29:50):
done our homework and got everything tightened up. Josh added
a lot and uh, and then you know, we wanted
to keep this going that we when we did Let
the Bad Times Role, it was nine years in between records,
and we didn't want that time to go buy. But
also right before that, like the last year of making
that record, last year and a half two years was
(30:11):
really a creative time for us. Most of the songs
on Let the Bad Times Role happened within that two
year period, you know, And so then we just kind
of felt that once we finished touring, well, even while
we were touring on Let the Bad Times Role, we
started going in the studio. The way we do it
now is we'll go into the studio for like two
weeks at a time and Bob will fly out. He
(30:34):
usually he lives in Hawaii. He also spends a lot
of time in Vancouver, so either he would fly out here,
we'd fly to Hawaii or Vancouver and meet up for
a week to two weeks and we just work on,
you know, various songs and you try to get a
song close to being done in that time. You know,
a lot of times if things are tough and it's
going slow, you'll shelve it and then go on to
(30:54):
something else, you know, and see how that works, and
then you know kind of bounce around. But within like
two years of working or you know, whatever it took,
we were we knew we were done. And then the
record said, well, if you finish it by April of
this year, we could have it out. And we're like,
we can do that. And so I think we had
to come up with like the last two songs. Really
(31:14):
everything else was pretty much done and it just really
kind of kind of came together and fell into pieces.
Working with Bob's great Bob Rock our producers is just phenomenal.
He's like he's like an older brother. He's like a friend,
a mentor. You know, we just have a really great relationship.
We love his ideas, his his you know, feelings and
(31:36):
beliefs about music and what makes good music, you know,
really resonate with us. And I mean we have a
good time.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I think this is amazing and so cool. That make
it all?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Hit number one both on the Alt Airplay and the
Active Rock Airplay charts. That's that's freaking cool as hell.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I think that's the first for us. I don't think
we've ever had an number one on both those charts
at the same time. So yeah, that is that is
really cool. I mean, it's a different world now than
than it was, you know, than it has been in
the past, but still I'll take it.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Well, but I have to say, as somebody who throughout
my career, uh you know, helped manage some some mainstream
rock stations, I mean you guys were kind of saviors
for that format as well. I mean I have to
thank you for that, because with the stations that I
was part of, like w r I F and Detroit
(32:33):
or w MMR and Philadelphia. You know, you guys were
like a lifeblood for us.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Well, well, thank you. I don't know if I can
you know, take on that, but but you know, thank you.
You know, we've always well, i mean grew up listening
to radio. It's it means a lot to us. We
still visit. We just hung out with Pierre at MMR
a couple of months, a month and a half ago,
you know, the the MMR vecue. Yeah, yeah, so you know,
(33:03):
thank you for that. That's very kind, kind words and
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
And then congratulations on the Spotify Billions club as well.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
My god, that's so thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, you know, it's kind of hard to wrap your
head around, Matt, you know, a billion a billion listens.
You know, I think only we only need to hit
like seven billion more people and we've hit the whole world,
right something like that. Yeah, I think kids aren't all right?
Is hot on its heels. I think at the end
of the year that one should hit a billion.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
And I want to talk about these amazing events that
occurred where you guys were playing and were joined by
some some special some special guests.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
So let's first talk about the Ed Sheer and experience.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
What was that like? Yeah? Amazing. You know, he is
just such a natural you know at it or seems
to be such a natural ad. I know he puts
a lot of work into what he does, but he's
just phenomenal. I really like some of his singer songwriter stuff,
songs like the Boat or the Castle on the Hill.
(34:11):
You know, I really do like some of that stuff.
When I saw that we were playing with him, I
sent off an email and said, let's reach out. Let's
see if he wants to sit in with us, you know,
million in one shot. Thinking. You know, I knew that
he was a fan early on that the first record
he ever bought was Conspiracy of One his aunt gave him.
He told us the story when we met. His aunt
(34:33):
gave him ten pounds for Christmas or his birthday or something,
and he went out and bought Conspiracy of One. It
was his first record. And he used to to pretend
to sing and play million Miles Away in front of
the mirror. And so he came out and did that
song with us and hit it out of the park.
He sent me a demo of him singing, just playing
acoustic guitar and singing. He tuned it down another half
(34:54):
a step and I went, oh, this is going to
be amazing, And he came out. It was phenomenal. It
was just so much funny. It's the nicest guy in
the world too. He really is very down to earth
guy for somebody as successful as he is.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
And then there was the collaboration with with young Blood.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Yeah, what was that like? We just had to get
out of his way. That guy's got so much energy.
He really is dexter joked about. You know, it's the
best hype man you could have. He came out just
getting the crowd going from the get go. He's got
a great voice, great personality, great energy. I mean, you know,
it was really hard to keep up with him. He's
(35:35):
such a ball of fire and also just a really
really nice guy. Had a lot of fun hanging with
him as well.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
And then there's the Brian May experience. Tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Well, that was the one that just, you know, blew
my mind the most because we've known I mean, I've
known Brian May for as long as I've known music existed,
you know, a big Queen fan. You know, even when
I got into punk rock and and kind of stopped
listening to a lot of the more bigger rock bands,
(36:06):
Queen was still kind of cool because there was something
edgy and punk rock about about Queen. You know, I
don't know, maybe it's just Freddie's style, uh, you know,
Brian's guitar, the drums, and I don't know what it is,
but there was something kind of kind of punk about
some of what they did as well. So yeah, that
was just mind blowing. We uh, we wanted to do.
(36:29):
Dexter knew about this festival that Brian does with a
friend of his, Garrick Israelian, called star MOUs and it's
it's uh, physicists and musicians, you know, and and astronomers,
you know, like stars and music, astronomy and music, and
and we wanted to do it. We just asked. So
we kind of begged to let us play. You know,
(36:50):
they don't have a big music budget. We only go
out and play one concert. You know, it's not very big.
So we begged, and they let us do it. And
then we we it Brian up to play with us.
He or he does. He wanted to come out and
do Gone U Gone Away with us with the the
Slovakian National Symphony. And then and then Dexter said, Brian,
(37:15):
will you do Stone called Crazy with us? And he agreed,
you know, he says he doesn't get to play that
much with with the current you know, uh, carnation of
the incarnation of the band. So so it was just phenomenal.
I mean our minds were literally blown hanging out with
this legend, absolute legend, and and playing with him, you know,
(37:37):
sharing music, sharing, you know, licks back and forth. Just incredible.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
What awesome, awesome experience. Is there anybody on a on
a dream list that you haven't played with that maybe
the next time we you know, who knows.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Gosh, any in the Rolling Stones would be a blast.
There's so many, so many heroes out there, it's hard
to focus on just one or two.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yeah, that would be a good one, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Well, in closing, what would be in a tremendous surprise
to your fans that is on your playlist of music
that maybe they wouldn't expect that you'd be listening to.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Oh gosh, yeah, I'm trying to you know, there's some
pop stuff that I that I do listen to that
I guess maybe people wouldn't think. I love it here
And you know, I've been listening to you more and
more since since we met and stuff too. I love
Billie Eilish especially like she did a EP of acoustic songs.
Those songs just make me weak. They're so good. I
(38:43):
like Billy Eilish a lot. She's great. There's a band
out of San Diego called Steam Power Giraffe and they
started they would just kind of busk at like a
local theme park down there a park and they're great,
very theatrical, like them a lot stuff like that. I guess, Well, I.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Have to tell you this is one of these moments
where I have to just say how grateful I am
for what I'm doing, because I had the opportunity to
speak with you today to hear about your work, your life,
and your your passion for it all and your honesty.
And I'm so grateful Noodles that you took the time
to be on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Well, well, thank you, it's been you know, it's been
my pleasure. You You really kind of got in good,
deep into some things and I appreciate that this was
a good conversation.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Thank you for being on, and thank you for all
the music you continue to give us.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Well, thank you for your time, buzz I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com