David Desrosiers of Simple Plan Interview

The Facts

Name: David Phillipe Desrosiers

Birth Date: August 29, 1980

Birth Place: Sept-Isles, Ontario, Canada

His Big Break: Is one-fifth of pop/rock band Simple Plan

Did You Know: David plays the bass and sings back vocals in Simple Plan

Before He Was Famous: David was in an unsigned band called Reset with Pierre and Chuck

When you're not on the road or in the studio, do you all still hang out together?
David Desrosiers: Well, we've been touring non-stop since February, pretty much. We're usually only home for about two days and so in those two days, I usually just pay bills and don't even answer my house phone. My friends just check the website, see when I'm home, and my good friends call my cell phone. I don't want to be a prick, but sometimes I'm just busy or tired and don't even answer. But sometimes, if we're home for a week, then we'll call each other up and just check in with each other. It's just that when we're home like, I try to spend as much time as I can with my girlfriend, because obviously I'm very busy and she's also busy, because she goes to school and all. I'm always telling her about how she works too hard for school, but then she's always telling me the same thing, and it's true.

How soon was your first show after you joined the band?
Oh, you have no idea! It was like the following week after! It was crazy, because before Reset, I didn't play the bass. I mean, even in the band, I would have to borrow a bass from someone. But I was in Reset with Chuck and Pierre, but then Pierre had left the band, and Chuck was gone long before that but a few months after Pierre left, both of them came to check out one of our shows and saw me play. Then I saw them at a [Sugar Ray] concert and they told me about this new band and asked me if I would want to be a part of it, so I left Reset and had to learn all of their songs playing bass and singing in about a week.

We're happy with where we are, but we've got so much farther to go.

You seemed to have gotten a lot of recognition when you opened up for Sugar Ray.
I personally think it was a really good match, despite whatever everybody else might say, because Sugar Ray, they used to be a little bit more aggressive, like with their old record, but they got a lot more pop, which is good. We have the punk rock energy on stage, but we still have the pop side of the vocal harmonies, with the old influence of The Beach Boys and The Beatles. So I think those people were not going to hate us, because if they liked Sugar Ray, they were going to like us and vice-versa. So it was good and what was really cool, was that they were pretty much all ages, like even some of the shows I saw some 12-year olds, which is cool and some show there was 30-year olds, which is a good range, because the more people you can reach, the better because then there's nobody too old or too young to listen to you.

So, would you say your success is a result of the shows you did with Sugar Ray, or from your single, I'm Just A Kid?
It's hard to say, because with Sugar Ray, we only went to the east coast and it was kind of like a college tour and there are still a lot of places we have to play. I'm not saying it wasn't a good thing, because it was really good exposure, but as far as success, it's hard to say, because for us, we're just playing music. We don't really see it as a big success, partly because we don't have time to slow down and realize what's going on. Now that we just came back from Japan and Thailand and we go to Australia in two weeks, that's a little bit -- you go "Wow, we're going places." I still can't believe we played in Japan. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

What were the fans like there?
They are the coolest crowd. They're amazing. They're so -- can you believe that most of them can barely speak English, but they still manage to learn all your lyrics and they sing them, and then you go and see them after the show and you're like "Hey! Did you have a good time?" And they're like "Ehh. No English", but they still sang the whole song. It's wicked. And between songs, they don't make any noise. They're so interested in what you're going to say, and they're so respectful, but they still go crazy, which is really cool. The whole tour in Japan was sold out, which is unbelievable, because everyone was like "Oh, so who did you tour with?" And we're like "We toured on our own." Thailand was really crazy too, but they were a bit too intense sometimes. It's great to have fans at the airport, but on the other side, when you just travelled twenty hours, you don't look like there, you have to look ready to take a f-----g picture, which is alright if you're *NSYNC, I guess, but I'm not gonna shave in the morning to get on the plane. I'm just going to put on a hat. But then you get to the airport and they even have video cameras in your face. I think that is a little intruding, but that's just me. I think it's great, pictures are fine, but when they're two feet from your face and following you to the plane, it's like "I'm going to get my suitcase! There's nothing cool about that." People don't want to see David getting his suitcase, but it's cool, whatever floats their boat. And then the airport was pretty far away from the city, so we had to jump in a van and we didn't have security. We're in the van going to the hotel on the highway and I'm looking outside and thinking "Oh my god, I'm in Thailand", and I turn around and I go "Holy s--t!" There's a cab full of kids going crazy, taking pictures and following us. Then I look to the side and there's another cab of more kids taking pictures and that was really weird. I think it's great and we appreciate it, that they like us so much they show up to the airport.

What's your favorite song on the album?
I think I'd Do Anything, simply because it represents who we are and everything and that song is about two or three years old for us. We sent a demo once to Mark from Blink-182 and he told us that it was his favorite song of the month, and about how he listened to it before going on stage to get him pumped up, which was really cool for us.

Despite the fact that most of your songs are sad, would you say you're all happy with where you are?
Yeah, of course we're happy with where we are, but we've got so much farther to go. And we're tired! Like I said, we've been touring since February.

So what's the future looking like?
September 24th, we play at the Hard Rock here in Los Angeles, which I think is going to be really cool. Then the 25th, we're going out, having fun, and meeting up with some old friends, like Sugar Ray. We're really good friends with them. We've got this tour going on right now, that's mostly going to be in the West and Midwest. Then October 3rd, we head to Australia for a tour there and when we come back, we're going to be doing a tour with Good Charlotte in the Midwest area -- I know Philadelphia is one of the places. I don't know where I am half of the time! The tour dates are on our website.

Awesome! Good Charlotte is one of my favorite bands.
I can't believe you just said that! They're my favorite, too! I'm going to be telling all my friends to buy the album October 1st. The guys already gave us a copy a while back and it's wicked awesome, but I'm still going to buy another one. And there's this thing coming up that we're doing in Montreal, that's a private concert/interview thing, but you just sit there for an hour and a half or so and the fans ask questions and listen to you play, but while I'm there, I'm going to tell all of them to go buy the Good Charlotte album!