Offspring who are aging well

By Randy Lewis

Dec. 11, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Punk godfather Iggy Pop has proven there’s punk life after 50 with still-explosive performances at 56, yet the question of how long a punk rocker can stay angry remains relevant to many of his musical offspring.

“I think we have a few good years left,” says Bryan “Dexter” Holland, lead singer and songwriter of the Offspring, the Orange County punk outfit that will reach its 20th anniversary next year.

“It’s always hard to imagine still doing this more than a few years out,” Holland, 37, says. “It’s just the number: Do I want to be 50 and still singing ‘Bad Habit,’ shouting [profanities]? But a lot of people have been stretching it -- Ozzy Osbourne, the Rolling Stones, Johnny Rotten, Bad Religion.... As long as it’s still fun and it doesn’t feel silly, I guess we’ll continue.”

If Holland and his cohorts -- guitarist Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman, bassist Greg Kriesel and new drummer Atom Willard, taking over for recently departed Ron Welty -- were concerned about feeling silly, alternative-rock radio’s quick acceptance of the first single from their new album, “Splinter,” is helping them relax.

“Hit That” is in the Top 5 on Radio & Records’ list of the most frequently played songs on alt-rock stations nationally. It brims with the Offspring’s signature melodic and lyrical hooks yet incorporates an atypical keyboard riff and rhythmic undercurrent of punk-meets-disco that adds a new wrinkle to the band’s musical legacy. The song’s message of the societal cost of splintering families reflects the band’s penchant for wrapping social commentary in commercially palatable forms.

The issue of the Offspring’s ability to connect with longtime fans and younger audiences was the basis for England’s Kerrang! rock magazine giving the band its “classic songwriter” award last year, for what it called “not only Offspring’s glorious past, but their ongoing relevance.”

Holland considers that “one of the highest compliments you can get. Some bands reach a point where their music doesn’t feel current anymore, and some bands still sound great, like Social Distortion or AC/DC. To be included in that kind of category is a huge compliment.”

It’s also one reason “Splinter” is poised to make a strong entry on the national sales chart next week.

“It should be very strong,” says Bob Bell, senior pop buyer for the Wherehouse Entertainment chain. “It’s doing very well at radio, and they have a knack for making very catchy, radio-friendly singles, and certainly the pop-punk genre is bigger now than ever.”

Whether the Offspring is bigger now than ever won’t be clear for several weeks or months. But with the record industry’s overall sales down significantly in recent years, it would seem a long shot for the band to match its career high sales figure of 6 million copies with its 1994 album “Smash,” according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its 1998 album “Americana” has sold almost 5 million copies in the U.S., and its other four albums combined have sold about another 3 million.

When talking about “Splinter,” however, Holland is focused less on numbers than words -- specifically song lyrics, which he says in the past have taken a back seat to music.

“I always used to think, ‘I’m in a band -- I’m not a writer, a poet or a politician. I make music, and I want the music to be entertaining,’ ” he says. “It was primarily about the music. But on some of our songs, like ‘Self Esteem’ and ‘Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),’ I noticed that the lyrics could take it up a notch and people could relate to it so much that maybe I should pay more attention to the lyrics. I kind of agonized over that for a couple of months while we were working on this, but I did spend more time on them, and I’m pretty happy with how they came out.”

Those lyrics range from the lighthearted expression of remorse over a night of indulgence in “The Worst Hangover Ever” -- another song with “KROQ playlist” written all over it -- to straightforward emotional vulnerability in “Never Gonna Find Me” to “Spare Me the Details,” a seriocomic tale of a guy whose buddy tells him in painful specificity about his girlfriend’s alcohol-fueled infidelity.

Again the topic comes back to staying in touch with your audience.

“I suppose if you’re in a band you’re probably in a state of semi-arrested adolescence as it is,” he says with a laugh. “You don’t have to be the most mature guy to be a singer in a band like mine,” adds the man who set aside his work on a PhD in microbiology at USC to pursue a career in punk rock.

“Songs about how I hate my teacher or problems-at-lunchtime kind of stuff wouldn’t make sense,” he says, “but a lot of our songs are about finding your identity, finding your way in life, not taking what people say at face value -- issues that are common with young people, but that I think we deal with throughout our lives.”

As the members of the Offspring moved through their lives, sustaining their bond with Welty became an issue. Welty signed on two years after Holland and Kriesel got shut out of a Social Distortion show at UC Irvine and quickly decided to form their own band.

“We started out as teenagers, and it was always important for us to stay together as the same four guys,” Holland says. “It was good for a long time, but it’s not easy. People grow up, people change and at a certain point it just didn’t work anymore -- it didn’t click. We all had a talk and decided to make a change, and everything’s been pretty amicable.”

Drummer-for-all-punk-seasons Josh Freese handled percussion duties for the new album, but his first responsibility as a member of A Perfect Circle, along with his demanding recording schedule, precluded him from consideration as Welty’s long-term replacement. The band auditioned about a dozen drummers and settled on Rocket From the Crypt’s Willard.

The Offspring’s first round of shows promoting “Splinter,” released Tuesday, consists mostly of holiday-themed, radio station-sponsored concerts around the country. That includes the annual KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, which the band plays Saturday on a bill with Linkin Park, Pennywise, Puddle of Mudd, AFI and several bands young enough to be their offspring.

“Noodles and I went to the Warped Tour in L.A. a few months ago because his daughter wanted to meet Simple Plan,” Holland says. “We went backstage, and one of the guys says, ‘If it wasn’t for your album “Smash,” I wouldn’t be in a band.’

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I think we’ve influenced anyone,” he says in a display of the humility that’s also one of the group’s trademarks. “I was definitely inspired by my heroes, like the Dead Kennedys and the Ramones, but I wouldn’t want to take credit for anyone else’s success.

“Having said all that,” Holland adds, “it’s nice to hear.”

The Offspring

Where: KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Los Angeles

When: Saturday only, 5 p.m.

Price: $64

Info: (818) 777-3931