"This isn't Mötley Crüe, 'The Dirt'," Simple Plan drummer Chuck Comeau says about the Canadian band's new documentary 'The Kids In The Crowd'.
The documentary – currently streaming on Prime Video offers an unprecedented look into the band's 25-year journey; from basement shows in Montreal, to becoming one of the biggest pop-punk bands of their generation.It's a smile-inducing, heart-warming film about family, friendship, resilience and a young band who had the opportunity to live their dreams. The best thing about the documentary is the amount of archival footage filmed by the band.
Simple Plan were ahead of their time when it came to documenting their journey. They were inspired by Blink-182, who created small snippets they would put on their website.
Simple Plan took this to the next level, with their childhood best friend Patrick Langlois accompanying them everywhere, filming the band 24/7.
"We had no idea that one day, we'd be making a documentary 25 years later and that this footage would be instrumental, and it would be literally the coolest thing about the movie," Chuck explains from the living room of his parent's Montreal house – while in town for an off day on tour – sitting above the basement where Simple Plan first practiced.
"Whenever we talk about anything in the documentary, you see it because we filmed it. The first practice, the first gig, when we get signed, like the moments making our first record, the first rehearsal of 'Perfect'.
"I find that, for us, social media wasn't weird when it arrived. We had already been doing it for 15 years before, we always had a camera in our faces. The idea for us was like, we didn't want to be Axl Rose or this kind of mysterious frontman that you don't know anything about. We wanted to be the exact opposite. We wanted to be the most accessible band."
The documentary is a culmination of every moment of Simple Plan being recorded over 25 years. Chuck says it was a magical process to be transformed back into these moments.
Sorting through DV tapes, VHS tapes, DVDs, hard drives and phone footage was a massive undertaking. With the help of production company Sphere Media, they were able to narrow it down to the iconic moments in the documentary.
"What was really special is towards the end [of the production], I went down to the basement. I found this old box that we kind of forgot about that wasn't given to the production company. It was towards the end of the process and there were like five or six tapes in it, DV tapes and VHS.
"It turns out [the box contained vision of] the first show we ever played, like literally, as musicians, when we were 14 years old, Pierre [Bouvier, vocalist] and I, in our friend's basement, with our high school friends there; like it was a party, it wasn't even a show."
The documentary team followed Simple Plan for almost the entire 2024 calendar year. This included a headline tour of Australia, which is heavily featured in 'The Kids In The Crowd' along with interviews with fans.
"You see shots from when we played Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, back in the day in 2005. There's a lot of Australian moments throughout the entire documentary but the 2024 stuff comes from Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney.
"They film in those three cities and the fans [being interviewed] I think that's in Brisbane at [The] Fortitude Music Hall and some shot from Hordern Pavilion."
In 2020, Simple Plan's anthem 'I'm Just A Kid' saw a resurgence in popularity after trending on TikTok, which the band describes in the documentary as having a number one single again.
In the modern era of bands trying to make it, anyone can become an overnight success, but 25 years ago it was a completely different journey that is harder to replicate today.
"For us, there was a template, there was a road map of how you became an important band, right? You try to get signed to a major label or a label, [then] go on tour; you could work and make one fan at a time on the road.
"Eventually the idea was 'okay, you get the song on the radio. You get on MTV, TRL.' It blows up, there's a model culture. Everybody's listening to the same channel. Everybody's listening to the same stations. Everybody knows the same bands and there was a lot of gatekeeping like you said, but once you were able to get through those gates, what you were able to accomplish was quite amazing.
"Nowadays, it is completely different. In some ways you could think the barriers have been destroyed and it's a lot easier. It's more accessible. Anybody can do it, but at the same time, if anybody can do it, then you're competing against millions of people and it's really hard to get people's attention."
Simple Plan were not only ahead of the curve when filming themselves 24/7. They were one of the first bands in the scene to embrace TikTok, while others were still hesitant.
The documentary highlights Chuck's drive to connect with their audience using the platform of the moment and it's something he'd recommend to upcoming artists. "It's not the same road map that we took, it's more like 'okay, get out there, put yourself out there.' Don't be precious, right?
"Put a million pieces of content out there. Hopefully one will stick, which is a weird way of looking at things because that feels like everything is disposable and it doesn't really matter.
"It's like you're throwing stuff at the wall and you hope that one will stick. I think the one fundamental thing that hasn't changed is to focus on being authentic, being honest, being real, being genuine, finding who you are, finding that identity, finding what kind of artist you want to be and staying true to that."
'Simple Plan: The Kids In The Crowd' is available to stream on Prime Video.
