Since the release of their breakthrough debut album ‘No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls’ back in 2002, Simple Plan have always been a band that have worn their hearts firmly on their sleeves. Writing anthems that defined a generation of angst-ridden, heartbroken kids, their story has long been one of vulnerability, resilience, and most importantly – connection.
Navigating the highs and lows of an ever-changing industry for the last 25 years, their legacy has been forged not in hype, but in heart, always placing the fans front and centre. That’s the message that sits at the core of the Canadian band’s new Prime Video documentary ‘The Kids In The Crowd’, peeling back the curtain on the last quarter of a century of their lives.
Told through decades of never-before-seen footage, reflections from those who were there, and input from scene legends like Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, Avril Lavigne, and The Offspring, the film captures the full arc of Simple Plan’s incredible story. From meeting in high school and playing scrappy jam sessions in their parent’s basements to selling out arenas around the world and sharing stages with their heroes, it’s a reminder of what can happen when you refuse to give up on your dreams. More than that though, it’s a love letter – to the fans, to the friendships that shaped them, and to everyone that’s found a home in their band over the years.
Proving that even as time marches on, the spark that started it all never really fades, the same spirit lives in the band’s latest single, ‘Nothing Changes’. An anthem of resilience, it confirms that their story has never been about sold-out shows, hit singles, awards, or fame, it’s about the people who’ve carried them, and the enduring belief that as long as the music means something to someone – nothing else matters.
To celebrate their latest venture, Rock Sound sat down with drummer Chuck Comeau to unpack ‘The Kids In The Crowd’, reflect on Simple Plan’s legacy, and explore what it means to be 25 years in and still just getting started.
Rock Sound: Congratulations on the release of ‘The Kids In The Crowd’, Chuck. What made now feel like the right time to tell Simple Plan’s story in documentary form?
Chuck Comeau: There were lots of reasons why this felt like the right moment to make a documentary. First of all, we’re celebrating 25 years as a band. That’s a huge milestone, and it felt like a good time to look back and take stock of what we’ve been able to accomplish, where we came from, and what we’ve achieved. As a band, we don’t really take time to celebrate our achievements. Since 2022, it feels like we’ve been on this cool ascension. The shows are getting bigger and bigger, and there are more people discovering us and coming back to us. It felt like the right moment to make sure that all these people know our history and where we came from.
RS: There’s a lot of intimate, never-before-seen archival footage in the film, spanning from the earliest days of the band to now. What was the process of gathering and curating all that material like?
Chuck: That was one of the coolest parts about making this documentary. From the first months of being in a band, we documented everything. We knew that we had to film everything that was happening around us, just in case one day it was important. We thought that if we actually achieved our dreams, that footage would be special. Watching it back, the biggest realisation for me was how much we’ve actually done. How many shows we’ve played, how many places we’ve been to, how non-stop this all has been, and just how much work has been put into this band. It’s been a whirlwind. To look back on hundreds of hours of footage was overwhelming, but the story of this band is the story of our lives.
At the very end of the process, we found one last box with a bunch of VHS tapes and DVDs. I had a feeling that there was something cool on them, but the production company told us that we had too much footage. They said that we couldn’t transfer it, but I knew we had to. We went rogue, and we got them transferred. What we found was footage of the first or second gig we ever played, when we were 14 years old. We were in the basement of our bass player’s house, playing a cover of Green Day’s ‘Basket Case’ at a house party. Pierre [Bouvier, vocalist] and I swapped places, so he was playing drums, and I was the lead singer for a few minutes. There was also a tape that had footage of us jamming out in the basement of Pierre’s parents’ house, just hanging out.
Being in our generation, we don’t have a lot of footage from our teenage days. Usually, you have a few pictures, but I’ve never seen video footage of myself at that age. Just seeing Pierre and I interacting back then was so surreal. To see how we’ve changed, but also how in lots of ways, nothing’s changed. You see the friendship in its purest form, before the professional shows, the albums, or the expectations. It was just us jamming, for fun, because we loved it so much. There’s something so pure and awesome about that.
RS: You brought in some friends and legendary voices from the scene to help tell the band’s story too. What did it mean to hear their input on your journey?
Chuck: That was one of my favourite parts of the documentary. There are all of these people who have been so important throughout our career, and to hear them share their perspective on the band was special. You don’t get to hear it that often. We included a bunch of people who were highly influential on our band, like Mark Hoppus from Blink-182, Dexter [Holland] and Noodles from The Offspring, and Fat Mike from NOFX.
The Offspring were one of the reasons we discovered punk rock, and they made us want to be in a band. I remember Pierre watching a skateboarding movie when we were kids, and there was a song called ‘Session’ by The Offspring on it. He played it for me, and it was like, ‘Oh my God, this is what we have to do’. It was a sound we had never really heard before. To have those guys sit down and share their perspective on our band was incredible. It was such a full circle moment. Now, we’re on tour with them, and we call them friends.
It was also crazy how much Mark remembered about the ‘I’d Do Anything’ story, which was a massive thing for Simple Plan. Blink were the biggest band in the world back then, and we were the smallest band in the world. We had nothing going on, and it was so generous of him to agree to sing on the song. When we heard ‘Enema Of The State’, it changed the course of our musical journey. It was so inspiring, and having Mark as such a big part of our story is a real gift. There were some things that he said in the documentary that were really insightful too. There’s one part where he goes, ‘Sometimes I just want to shake them and tell them to have fun… You guys are taking this too seriously!’ He’s right, and he captured the essence of one of the problems we have as a band. We’re always onto the next thing, and we’re so concerned about achieving things that we can forget to have fun. You don’t have to worry about everything, and it was interesting to hear him pick up on that.
RS: The documentary doesn’t just focus on the band’s milestones; it’s also about the community that you’ve built over the last quarter of a century. How important was it for you to tell the story not just of Simple Plan, but of the fans and the scene that have played a part in this?
Chuck: That was super important, because you really can’t tell the story of Simple Plan without telling the story of our fans. We’ve been able to build such a special, tight connection with our fanbase over the years, and it has become part of what sets us apart. We’ve put a lot of effort into nurturing our relationship with our fans, and we put them at the centre of everything that we do. When we made this movie, we wanted to show the impact that music can have on people, the power it can have, and that without the fan’s support… We wouldn’t be here today. We wouldn’t be able to make a movie like this without them, and we certainly wouldn’t still be around after 25 years. Our band was never really championed by the media or the critics; it was just a people’s band. That’s where it all came from, and our fans have allowed us to have this career and to live our dreams.
Their stories are so interesting, too. Some of them have gone through such difficult moments in their lives, and music has helped them to keep going. That’s one of the most wonderful discoveries I’ve made through being in a band. Not only is it fun to go to shows, and not only is it cool to be a fan of a band, but the impact of music can go so far beyond that. From hearing the stories of our fans, I’ve learned how essential music can be. It can be a lifeline, and it can truly help people. It sounds like a cliché, but when you hear it thousands of times from thousands of different people, you start to understand that impact.
That’s where the title of the movie comes from, and that’s how we started out. We were the kids in the crowd, going to punk rock shows in Montreal and seeing bands like NOFX, Lagwagon, Bad Religion, and Pennywise. We formed a band because we wanted to be a part of that, and somehow, we ended up on stage playing to all these other kids in the crowd. We’ve never forgotten what it was like to be those fans, though. That has informed how we treat the people that come to our shows, and how we conduct ourselves as a band. The fans have been integral to what Simple Plan is, and they’ve given us the chance to accomplish it all. Without them, there would be nothing.
RS: Let’s talk about ‘Nothing Changes’, which is such a powerful celebration of the last 25 years of Simple Plan. Lyrically, it captures that feeling of growing older and experiencing new things without ever losing that spark. When did the idea for the song first come about?
Chuck: It actually came from the whole process of making this movie. We knew we wanted to have a new song to release alongside it, because whilst we want to celebrate our past, we’re still very much active and creating new music. We can celebrate everything we’ve accomplished so far, but we can also look to the future and write the next chapter of Simple Plan.
As we were making the movie, it was inspiring to see where we started and all of the struggles that it took to get here. You don’t realise how much effort and how many years of your life you’ve put into this thing until you look back at it like that. We wanted to write a song that would capture that. The theme song of the movie, but also the theme song of our last 25 years as a band.
In so many ways, things have changed. It’s been 25 years, of course we’re not the same people. We have families now, we have children, and we’re not the same wide-eyed kids that we were when we started out. We’ve been around the world countless times, and we’ve played some of these songs countless times, but at the same time – nothing’s changed at all. We’re still doing what we love, we’re still playing shows, and we’re still trying to write the best Simple Plan songs that we can. We still have the same band members as we did at the very beginning, too. We all met in the same high school, and we’re still playing music together around the world. We wanted to capture that, and ‘Nothing Changes’ is about realising that we’re still chasing the same dream. We’re still trying to accomplish the same things that we were 25 years ago, and we might have done a lot, but we haven’t lost that spark. We haven’t lost the enthusiasm or passion for being in this band, and I still love being Chuck from Simple Plan. This is a huge part of who I am. Every day when I wake up, the first thing I think about is the band. When I go to sleep, the last thing I think about is this band.
RS: Did you ever imagine back in those basement days that Simple Plan would still be here, still making music, still selling out shows?
Chuck: I think it’s hard to think that far into the future when you’re 20 years old. You’re just focused on what’s happening at that moment. More than anything, we were just trying to find a way to get our music heard. If I’m being honest though, I think that it was in the back of our minds. The bands that we were trying to follow were ones that had longevity, and the dream was always to be a band for a long time. The shape of that dream was obviously different back then, but that was the hope. We knew that we wanted to do this for a long time, and that we wouldn’t just be a one hit wonder or a band who had one huge album then quit. We were always hoping to create a legacy that would allow us to still be around years later, and we’re so grateful that we did that.
RS: Looking back, what do you think has been the key to your longevity, not just creatively, but as people who’ve shared the same tour bus and stage for so long. How do you keep those internal bonds strong?
Chuck: I think one of the biggest things for our band is that we come from similar backgrounds. We all met in high school, and we were friends, first and foremost. We all have similar values and luckily have been raised in great families with great support systems. We all know where we come from, and we never forget that. When there’s a fight or a disagreement, we always go back to that shared history, to that shared friendship of over 30 years.
We were just friends that formed a band together, and the friendship always came first. That makes a huge difference. We’ve learnt how to communicate better over the years, and we talk about that in the documentary. When Pierre and I had our first band together before Simple Plan, we got into a big fight, and we broke up when we were 16 or 17 years old. That was a huge learning experience, and so much maturity came from that. If we didn’t have that experience, maybe we would have messed up when we joined Simple Plan. We knew better because of that, and we saw what can happen when you don’t protect what you’ve built. That was so valuable.
RS: Having had some time to reflect on the journey, to relive those memories and see how far you’ve come… What are you most proud of?
Chuck: A lot of things, but mainly the fact that we never gave up. We were resilient, we kept working hard, and we kept believing in ourselves, even though we were told ‘no’ a million times. I’m also proud that we’ve literally kept the band together for so long. We’ve been able to communicate and work through whatever issues we’ve had and still enjoy being in a band together after all these years. It’s still fun, we’re still passionate about it, and it’s not something that we take for granted. We don’t just go through the motions without appreciating what we have, the legacy we’ve built, and the impact that we’ve had on people. When somebody comes up to us and tells us that our music has helped them in difficult moments, that’s always massive to us. It’s not about the record sales or how many tickets you sell. Those might be big milestones, but what I’m most proud of is the individual impact that we’ve had on people. When people come up to you and say, ‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t hear that album’ or ‘I was able to talk to my dad for the first time in years because of ‘Perfect’’… That’s what it’s about.
RS: What’s important about ‘The Kids In The Crowd’ is that it doesn’t feel like this is where the story ends. Looking towards the future, what still excites you about being in Simple Plan?
Chuck: What’s really exciting is that in some ways, it feels like we’re just getting started. Every time we sit down, we’re still trying to create the best Simple Plan song that we can, and we’re always just three minutes away from doing that. We’re still so excited about just how far we can take this thing. Right now, there’s a big resurgence of the pop-punk scene, and it feels bigger than ever. There are tons of people that have always stuck by us, but there are also people that used to be big fans who are coming back to relive the music of their teenage years. They’re rediscovering the band, but at the same time, there are people who weren’t even born when our first album came out who are discovering us through social media or streaming platforms. On top of that, there are our fans who now have kids. Our music has been a part of their childhood, and they’re also fans now.
Twenty-five years into this band, we still get to make a first impression on people who’ve never seen us live. We get to play for them and show them what we can do. That keeps me stoked about being in this band, and we’re still driven by how far it can go. I didn’t think making a documentary was on the cards for us, but we’ve done it. Who knows what the next big project could be? Maybe it’s a book, maybe it’s a massive tour where we play venues that we’ve always dreamed about playing. I don’t know, and that’s beyond exciting.
RS: What message do you hope longtime fans – and maybe even new ones – take away from ‘The Kids In The Crowd’ when they sit down to watch?
Chuck: Of course, we wanted to make a movie about our story, and we wanted our hardcore fans to learn more about where we came from. At the same time though, we wanted to tell a story about friendship, resilience, family, and never giving up. Really, it’s about the power of music, and hopefully people that don’t even care about Simple Plan can enjoy it. I hope it inspires people to follow their hearts and follow their dreams, whatever they are. Whether it’s making music, being an artist, becoming a doctor, or being a YouTuber, I just want people to do what excites them and follow the things they’re passionate about. I hope that they watch this documentary and think, ‘I can do this. If I work really hard and I’m resilient, maybe my dreams can come true’. At the end of the day, it’s all about family, friendship, and finding a way to make it all work. It’s about protecting what’s precious in your life.
For the longtime fans, I also hope that they see how much we care about not only this band, but about them. I hope they see how important they’ve been in our story, and how much heart and soul we’ve put into writing songs for them and playing shows for them. Hopefully it gives them a new perspective on what it takes to be in a band and the sacrifices you have to make along the way. We’re willing to make those sacrifices to do this, and our passion and devotion towards Simple Plan has never changed. We feel the same as we did when we first started, and we’re so grateful for what they’ve given us. I hope that comes across in the movie.
Simple Plan’s documentary film ‘The Kids In The Crowd’ is out now via Prime Video.
Content shared from rocksound.tv.