An Interview with Sébastien Lefebvre of Simple Plan
November 2009
www.simpleplan.com

by Mark Millard

It may surprise some when hearing Sébastien Lefebvre’s side project. Guitarist and background vocalist in a little band known as Simple Plan, Lefebvre has brought something completely dissimilar and unexpected to the table with his debut EP: You Are Here / Vous Êtes Ici. Gone are the heavy pop punk power chords and catchy riffs he is best know for, introduced are captivating folk acoustic songs, best described as a soothing blend of peaceful guitars, comforting keys and calm yet reassuring vocal melodies.

During Simple Plan’s downtime (where they are currently writing their fourth full-length LP), Lefebvre has been spending some time working on his side-project. Last Friday at CBC in Toronto, Fazer’s Mark Millard had a chance to sit down and chat with Lefebvre about the do it yourself style of his side project, the online community, Simple Plan and of course, a little bit of hockey.

Mark: So right away hearing the first track on the EP, “Décoller”, I think to myself: is this really Seb from Simple Plan? It sounds totally different. What I got from it is that you’re almost trying to do something totally different than people who know Simple Plan might expect. What were your goals with this project?

Seb: Yeah I guess it would have been sort of weird to have a side project that’s exactly like your main project, you know? I very much enjoy writing and recording in my home studio, you know that’s how I spend my days off, just working in the studio. I love it. These are the songs that sometimes it’s gonna sound like a big rock song, and sometimes it’s not. Those are some of the songs that I thought were still really cool even though it had nothing to do with the band. So I just decided to record everything nicely, a little acoustic vibe, minor arrangements and there you go: the EP.

Mark: Now obviously it’s a fairly do-it-yourself kind of project, right?

Seb: Definitely.

Mark: And you’re on an independent label, the Twitter, MySpace stuff that you run on your own; was it important for you to have creative freedom on something like this?

Seb: Of course, especially given the nature of it. It’s not something that I wanna go tour and like promote around the world and stuff like that, you know? I’ve got a Simple Plan for that and we have a lot of fun doing that together. This was really just I love writing, I wanted to release something and have just a couple of shows for the fans here and there, but that’s it.

Mark: Smaller scale shows?

Seb: Yeah definitely, it’s a small-scale project definitely.

Mark: So what does that mean to you, being back home and playing these smaller shows when with Simple Plan, it’s obviously sold out shows all around the world? Did you miss the smaller shows; is it something you’re happy to be back into?

Seb: Yeah, the smaller shows feel a little bit more like a party, you know? I mean there’s nothing like the energy from a crowd when you’re playing in front of thousands of people. That’s something I’m always going to enjoy, something for some reason I’m always going to need, it’s almost like a drug. But these little shows it’s just like have a drink with friends, get on stage, play a couple of songs and it’s just gonna be sort of fun, you know? Pure fun, so it’s not at all gonna feel like work.

Mark: What’s it like being up there on your own all of a sudden?

Seb: It’s weird, that’s why I have a friend with me he’s doing percussions and he’s just like sitting next to me, shaking the shaker, hitting the tambourine, just to make sure I’m not on stage alone, you know? But I’m still hiding behind the guitar, so at least I’ve got that.

Mark: Totally. So it’s not Seb from the ‘vlogs’ or anything like that?

Seb: (Laughter) No, no, I got somebody to play that role.

Mark: Does Pat help out with the project at all?

Seb: No actually, Pat’s got a full time job at Musique-Plus now, but he will come and film a couple of the shows.

Mark: You started writing a long time ago for this project, how has the music changed since Simple Plan’s just kept growing? Has your own music changed?

Seb: Oh yeah definitely. For a while I was really into writing like heavy beat songs, so there’s still a lot of those still on my hard drives at home, and I wrote some like really effective vocal type music, like darker stuff so I still have some of that. But for me it seems that the one style of music that I always enjoy listening to, that I’m always gonna enjoy playing is just like a guy and a guitar kinda thing you know, like Johnny Cash or Jack Johnson and those kinds of artists are just people that really admire, that I look up to and really like what they do so that’s why I sorta chose that direction when it was time to make my EP.

Mark: And on the flip side, what can you bring to Simple Plan now just being on your own for this side project?

Seb: Hmm… Very interesting. I guess we’ll find out as soon as we hit the studio, you know? Right now everybody’s sort of at home writing some songs, writing, getting ready for the next record. So as soon as we all get together and try to figure out what’s what, I guess I’ll have a lot more ideas.

Mark: So what’s Simple Plan been up to? Obviously preparing for the next record and…

Seb: Yeah, that’s pretty much it, ever since we’ve been off tour; we sorta stopped the proper tour about a year ago. We had some shows over the summer but we had already started writing in the spring and in the summer so we’ve been writing for about six months now and it’s looking great so we should be hitting studio early next year for possibly a summer release.

Mark: Can you tell us anything about the music, how it’s sounding or anything like that?

Seb: Yeah! It’s very fun actually. There’s a lot of energy, it definitely still sounds like Simple Plan but it’s still a growth from the last record so I think that’s something you can’t escape, you know? Every record you do and being musicians, you just wanna evolve as a band so it’s definitely not a 180 at all. But I think with the third record and all the doors that were opened, we could do anything, you know? And that’s what we’re doing with this record and so it’s a lot of fun.

Mark: How has the writing process changed record to record? Do you find it changes a lot, or do you find you’re going in there and it’s always the same kind of feel?

Seb: It’s actually pretty much the same kind of feel, you know? Everybody goes their own way, tries to write songs. Pierre and Chuck come up with most of the songs when they write, they like to write together, and I like to write alone. We send each other demos and stuff like that so it’s like ‘oh I like this, I’ll put it in this song’ or ‘maybe we should do this in that song’ then we all get together in the studio, try to figure out everything and bam we start recording.

Mark: And speaking of Chuck, he did the video for you.

Seb: Yes he did, yes.

Mark: What did he bring to the table?

Seb: He actually pretty much did all the Simple Plan videos, he’s always at least been like the major shadow director on all of them, coming up with the treatment every time. Just, looking over the director. So, I wanted to give him a shot at being the actual director on this one. And he was really happy about it, and he thought of a cool concept like everybody’s making out and it was like ‘oh wow, visually that could be pretty intense’ (laughter) So we actually shot it in Toronto over twelve hours in the a day and it came out really cool, I was really happy.

Mark: Do the other guys help you out with the project as well, or do you strictly do it on your own?

Seb: No, no, I really did it on my own and that was kind of my nerd side, I just wanted to tryout everything, and just sit in my studio alone and do it all. But for the video, I’ve never been a big fan of making a video, so that’s why I called on Chuck and I’m like ‘hey, help me make this good’ and everything came out great.

Mark: That’s really cool. Now obviously you guys have some down time right now in Montreal, what’s it like being back home?

Seb: It’s good, I get to see all my friends, my family on a regular basis so that’s always fun. But also looking forward to traveling again, you know? We haven’t been on the road for a long time, haven’t visited different countries in almost a year now so uh…

Mark: Will be good to get back out there.

Seb: Yeah.

Mark: You guys did the “Hockey Night in Canada” song for TSN. Are you a big hockey fan yourself?

Seb: Yeah definitely!

Mark: Les Canadiens?

Seb: Oui, les Canadiens of course. And Chuck is just a hockey fan in general, like he’ll watch any game, any team he just loves to watch hockey. And this was just sort of an honour, I mean that songs been around since like, the sixties I think?

Mark: Yeah, a long time, and ironically we’re in CBC right now where it all started.

Seb: Yeah, see there you go. And so we didn’t change it that much, we just pretty much played it but it turned out to sound like Simple Plan obviously because we are who we are so, it was a lot of fun.

Mark: Yeah, it’s really cool. I find it’s a lot more riff based which is pretty neat.

Seb: Yeah, definitely.

Mark: What do you think about les Canadiens so far?

Seb: Well it’s a brand new team, right? So they have to settle in before we can expect great things from them. But we’ve got some good scorers in there and decent goalies as well, so everything just has to come together and then hopefully we’ll have a decent season.

Mark: Exactly. I was actually at the game against Detroit last weekend.

Seb: Oh nice!

Mark: And speaking of Montreal, one song on your EP “La Nouvelle Vie” you have the French verses.

Seb: Yes, of course.

Mark: Is that ever something you want to do? Maybe just try a French album, or just incorporate more francophone in the music?

Seb: I think incorporate is gonna be good. With the band, we’re not opposed to it at all but we’ve never gotten around to doing a French song and for some reason, big rock like that, we don’t think it would sound that good to sing in French, you know? Some people do it very well, but we don’t think we would do it very well for our band.

Mark: What about personally?

Seb: Well, that’s what I’m saying. With the folk vibe and everything, I thought the French was gonna be a good idea. So I tried it out and it worked out cool, and I’ve written another French song since, like totally French and it’s sounding pretty good. So that’s something I’m definitely going to keep doing.

Mark: Awesome. And what’s the reception been like back home? Is that where you play the majority of your shows?

Seb: Well, I’m gonna play a couple shows next week, but it’s been good. You know, obviously the first people that hear about this project are gonna be Simple Plan fans. I’ve had a lot of support from them, and from doing a lot of different interviews on TV and on the radio and stuff. I find that there are a lot of older people that have taken a liking to this EP, and so it can’t hurt. It’s been very good.

Mark: Do you have a plan to make a full-length eventually?

Seb: I don’t think so. I think with an EP it seems like it goes faster to write and to record, so I’ll be able to release them more often, I feel. And it’s easier to write on tour if you only have like six or seven songs in mind. But I think anyways, now days with the singles and the downloads and everything, people hear one; two, maybe three songs per record anyways. So why waste nine, when I can just waste… three. It’s not really a waste, but just long enough to give it a vibe, but not to long so you sort of just lose the songs.

Mark: Now speaking of downloads, the online community. You have all your songs up on the online videos, or the ‘vlogs’, and like I said earlier, you run your Twitter, have the “Man of the Hour” radio show, the MySpace, everything. How important has the online community been for you personally?

Seb: I think it’s extremely important. It definitely is the best way to stay in touch with your fans nowadays. That’s something we’ve always made a point of with the band and something I’m always going to keep doing on my own, just try to meet the fans and stay close to them, you know after the shows, before the shows, that’s something we’ve always done. And it seems that when you’re on Twitter, when you’re on MySpace, you read the comments and reply back every once and a while. It feels that when the kids finally meet you, they actually can just like talk to you instead of having an awkward moment of like ‘oh it’s him’ and all that, you know? It’s just like ‘oh hey Seb how are you doing? How was whatever you did yesterday, I saw that online.’ So you can actually have a conversation.

Mark: Yeah, obviously it’s a very important tool these days. With Twitter expanding and everything, it’s cool you can put it all together these days.

Seb: Twitter is so funny, very entertaining.

Mark: So plans for 2010, personally and with the band as well.

Seb: Well they’re gonna be mostly Simple Plan plans for 2010; it’s definitely get in the studio, record this record and have it out. Then start promoting and touring the world, and playing shows everywhere so that’s what next year is gonna look like definitely.

Mark: Do you know where you’re recording, or have a producer lined up?

Seb: No not yet, we’re just about to have that conversation actually. We feel we have enough songs now, or in the next couple weeks we will. So that’s when we can go ‘okay who can do this record the best’ and then we’ll start talking about producers and things like that.

Mark: That’s really cool. Awesome, well that’s all I’ve got Seb.

Seb: Right on!

Mark: Thank you and good to see you guys are doing well.

Seb: Awesome, thank you.