Orange County's own “ Offspring” spawned out of Huntington Beach in 1984 and is credited for putting punk back on the map during the 90's along with Pennywise, Green Day and Bad Religion. The band has sold over 40 million records worldwide and this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Album "Smash" which was the biggest selling indie release of all time and was pretty much the turning point for the band’s success. This summer the Offspring kicks off a 44-stop "Summer Nationals" tour which kicks off in Germany and touches back in the US on July 11th at the Pacific Amphitheater, where they will be playing Smash in its entirety. Ghetto Juice’s Kurt Steinmetz recently caught up with lead guitarist Noodles during a surf between tours to find out what's going on with him and the Offspring.
Interview and photo by Kurt Steinmetz
Ghetto Juice: How did the Offspring come about?
Noodles: In ‘84 Dexter and Greg went to a Social D show in Irvine and got shut down by the cops and weren't allowed to get in. So they went home and said "we should start our own band" and they decided to ask for musical instruments from their parents for Christmas that year. That was the genesis of it. I don't think they got the instruments for Christmas, they ended up saving for them. And then I had been playing with our old drummer at the time, James and just ended up joining the Offspring.
GJ: This year marks the 20th anniversary of your 3rd studio album Smash which sold over 20 million copies. Is it safe to say that Smash put the Offspring on the map?
Noodles: Absolutely. Nobody knew who we were before that. When we were recording Smash, Ignition had sold 50,000 copies and the first record probably a thousand so we were hoping to do more than 50,000 with Smash. What was cool about that is it changed our lives. What we did for a hobby and fun became what we did for a living at that point and we all got to quit our day jobs and do this full time. We also decided to stay with Epitaph and do it independent and spend a lot of our own money and use a lot of our own resources for promotion, which was kinda unheard of at the time, especially for a record this big. A lot of bands once they start getting big, they switch to a major label and use the label’s resources. It's also the number one most selling independent record of all time and given what the internet has done to music sales, it will probably stay that way!
GJ: Describe going from a local band with an underground following to a platinum selling band after Smash.
Noodles: Yeah, wow! Because the first ten years, we didn't really have a fan base. I don't think we ever drew more than 50 people and then Smash came out and changed it all. All of sudden we were drawing hundreds and then thousands. What was cool about the punk rock scene at the time during the early 90s after Nirvana was we started getting more and more of the surfers, skaters and snowboarders. Epitath was really smart in lending a lot of our songs to those sort of videos and not just us but Pennywise, Bad Religion, Rancid and NOFX. I think that music just kinda worked with those sorts of videos. It was cool to see all the extreme sports guys, it wasn't just punkers with mohawks, it was boarders!
GJ: What’s your favorite song on Smash?
Noodles: I like all of them, but Bad Habits is always fun to play. Self Esteem, Come Out and Play. There's two songs that we've only played once or never, "Something to Believe In" and "Not the One". This is the first time we've ever played them and the whole record back to back, song into song, and we might do it backwards next time!
GJ: How does it feel when you take a break from the tour and are back home with the family and get some time to surf?
Noodles: Yeah, it's great! But if we’re not recording immediately when we get back, I start to get itchy to get back out on tour because I really do love playing guitar, playing for crowds and playing with the guys. But it's great to be home and have nothing to do even though there's always something to do like light bulbs that need to be changed, the pile of papers that I need to go through since I've been gone. But I love living in Southern California. I can take my kid up to Big Bear to snowboard, just paddling out for a surf or just walking around!
GJ: Do you ever get a song stuck in your head while surfing?
Noodles: Always! Sometimes it's something I don't recognize and I don't know if I'm making something up. A lot of times it will be something I heard on the radio, one of our songs or some old punk rock song, always!
GJ: If you were in a cover/tribute band, what would it be?
Noodles: I'd love to do a Rolling Stones cover band. I actually talked about doing that with my buddy Todd who does backing vocals and plays guitar some guitar with us. But we'd wanna go deep! Do all the open G tuning that Keith does and really nail it! It's never been done, think about it! Even the guys that we hear doing Rolling Stones covers never quite get it right because they don't do the tuning.
GJ: Has a tour venue ever lined up with a great surf destination?
Noodles: Yes! We got to go to Jeffrey's Bay when we played South Africa for the first time
GJ: Is it true that in the beginning the main reason that you were in the band was because you were the only one old enough to buy alcohol?
Noodles: (Laughs) That may be part of the reason. I'd also had been playing guitar longer than anyone. I think that was definitely an asset! (more laughs)
GJ: You guys did a cover of legendary British punk band the Damned's "Smash it up" as well as had their album "Grave disorder" on Dexter's "Nitro record label. What kind of influence have they had on you guys?
Noodles: For sure! Machine Gun Ettiquete was such a great album! I love the Black album a lot, too, (that was) kind of unique for a punk band, it was a step forward for their musicianship and yet still had attitude and grit! Yeah, we love the Damned!
GJ: Who are some of your musical influences?
Noodles: Definitely one of the biggest influences for us was TSOL. We all loved TSOL and the Adolescents! Social D, Dead Kennedys and Ramones, to a lesser degree … the Sex Pistols—that band certainly got us into punk rock to start.
GJ: If there was one song that made you go, "Yeah, that's it! I wanna be in a band!" what song would it be?
Noodles: That's such a hard one … there's so many great songs. I can think of a song that I wish I had wrote, Holiday in Cambodia by the Dead Kennedy's. It's just got a lot goin’ on and kinda gets stuck in my head. I don't know why but that's a song I always wished I wrote.
GJ: Who was the most underrated punk band of the 90's?
Noodles: The Descendants had a couple of records that came out on Epitath that came out around the late 90's which I loved. I would go on interviews on the radio and try and get the stations to play them—-their stuff was so catchy and gritty. Some of the best stuff around!
GJ: If you could jam with any legendary rock star, who would it be?
Noodles: Probably Hendrix but I wouldn't be able to keep up, I’d just want to watch him play. Maybe go on the bass and do some blues lines on the bass, that would be it! It'd be rad!
GJ: Buttons was a big Jimi Hendrix fan and we were super stoked on your generous contribution of your personal guitar for our charity event for him!
Noodles: When I heard Buttons wasn't doing well and you guys were doing this event, I wanted to do whatever I could do to help. He was so explosive as a surfer, he was doing things that no one was doing, he really was leading the charge. All these guys that are doing these crazy airs and turns like Dane Reynolds, he was the guy back then that was leading all this. People in contests didn't even know how to judge it because it was that crazy, but the kids (us) at the time, watching that went, "That's what I wanna do! I wanna be able to surf like that!" He was one of the few guys that was really pushing the boundaries of surfing and what you could do on a wave! Thank you for giving me a venue to do something!
GJ: So if you were to incorporate style and music together, what legendary surfer would come to mind?
Noodles: Tom Curren's real mellow, or somebody like Archy would just be in your face, almost like a Van Halen eruption solo. My favorite surfer growing up was Mark Richards. His style was so cool with his swooping cutbacks. Maybe Jimi Hendricks and Mark Richards together!
GJ: What boards are you riding right now?
Noodles: Riding mostly a longboard. I’ve got a Bing single fin, kind of a nose rider. I also have a 7'0” Al Merrick round pin but if it's small I'll take out my twin-fin fish.
GJ: Final thoughts? Don't start a band?
Noodles: Oh, I disagree completely Ha ha! For 10 years, we did this for fun, we'd play shows on weekends and summer vacation and we never thought we were gonna make any money at it, we just thought this will be fun, maybe we'll meet some girls, that never happened either! ha ha! I say, just do it!
Posted by: Ghetto Juice at: 05 Jul 2014 16:01
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