The Offspring bassist discusses next album

In an interview with Daily Gazette, The Offspring bassman Greg K. discussed the band's next album due out next year.

"We want to get this album out a lot earlier. We've always kind of said that, that we want to get it out earlier, but as the process starts happening, it ends up taking longer than we think it's going to." The band are once again planning to work with veteran rock producer Bob Rock, whose past credits include Metallica, 311, Aerosmith and Bon Jovi. Rock, according to K., was much more hands-on with the band during the "Rise and Fall" sessions than past producers, working with the band on material from the demo stage up until the final recording (which may in part help explain the lengthy recording time). "During the songwriting process, he kind of helped bring things all together. Besides that, once we got in the studio, it was pretty similar [to past albums], just a matter of trying to get things right."

The songs on "Rise and Fall" follow the basic Offspring sound template, featuring heavy riffs, punk rock snarling and lyrics that mix introspection with a healthy dose of juvenile humor. But closer inspection reveals subtle updates to the band's template, with keyboards popping up into the mix and more acoustic guitars than on past recordings. "We tried to keep things the same, but we add different elements to every album. The acoustic guitars and the ska sound have been there since '94 with "What Happened to You?" [a track off 'Smash']. We've always played with different sounds; this one we went a little further with the keyboards. We always try to add different elements and develop things as we go."

The band consider "Rise and Fall" to be one of its best, but has encountered difficulty when performing new songs live. Although the singles go over well, deeper album tracks are often met with indifference. "They pretty much only know the ones on the radio because people don't buy the whole album anymore, which is a shame. So far, we do five or six of them, and they're all going off really good.... We've tried some of the other songs that haven't been radio songs, and nobody knows them. When they don't know them, that makes it a problem. We can play deep cuts off 'Americana' or 'Smash' because a lot of people have those albums, people are familiar with the songs."