THE KIDS WILL BE ALL RIGHT

PIERRE BOUVIER, LINCHPIN OF POP-PUNK APOGEE-DWELLERS SIMPLE PLAN, REFLECTS ON AN ALMOST-30-YEAR LEGACY.

- INDRAN PARAMASIVAM

MAKE NO MISTAKE. ‘Perfect’ still hits me the same as when I first heard it in 2002. There's something to be said about a song that turns the ignition on a swelling expanse of feeling you can never surpass in age or taste. That is the unassailable magic the best pop-punk bands have carried with them since they gathered to write their very first albums. Simple Plan is one of those bands. No matter how much hip-hop, metal, or hardcore I listen to, I have never, in good faith, been able to forget what its music has done for me, and how it has always been on my side.

As I sit with frontman Pierre Bouvier, a recipient of Canada’s Meritorious Service Cross decoration, on the digital tabletop of Zoom, I marvel at how lucky I am to discuss the legacy of one the unwitting shapers of my trajectory, mirrored vividly and colourfully in the band’s new career retrospective documentary The Kids In The Crowd, out now on Prime Video.

Pierre, what was it like being a kid in the crowd to having kids at your crowd?

The name comes from us always feeling like we're part of the people that are there to watch us. We can relate to them; we never feel like we've really stepped up on another level, you know what I mean? I'm just a regular dude walking around going to see shows and enjoying life.

It has been 26 years since the band’s inception. You left another band Reset to join Simple Plan. Does it ever blow your mind how different things would have been if you had stuck with Reset?