The Offspring: New Single, New Album Plans & Noodles

From his home in Huntington Beach, Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman, lead guitarist of Orange County native punk-rockers The Offspring, called into our Pearl Street studio last week for a chat with KX FM 104.7 Midday Show host Jason Feddy about their upcoming album, tour & more.

The Offspring, formed in an Orange County garage in 1983, have managed to retain relevance over two decades of activity and as their new single proves, they’ve still got it. At the end of January, the band teased the release of a new track on their Facebook page, inserting their logo and song title into classic movie posters like Jaws, E.T. Star Wars. 

The rousing single, “Coming For You“, is The Offspring’s first original offering since the 2012 LP Days Go By and, after six albums on Columbia Records, their first release on independent label Time Bomb. Noodles and the guys are expected to release their 10th studio album sometime this year, after spending much of 2014 on tour to promote the 20th anniversary of their massively successful third album, Smash. E.T. the offspring coming for you KX FM 104.7 FM

Jason asked what the band’s up to these days–are they working on the new album? “Well, kinda piecemeal, yeah. We’ve got a couple of songs that are done and a couple others that we’re working on. Eventually we plan on compiling a whole record, but we’re kinda thinking, ‘Let’s do things a little differently’. When we have a song done, instead of making the fans wait a year or two to hear it, let’s put it out…so that’s why we put out ‘Coming For You'”. If that’s any indication, we’ll be hearing more from The Offspring very soon. And will they be touring the new material this year? “Yeah! We’re starting to figure out what kind of routing we want to do this summer. We’re working on doing some touring in North America and possibly Europe as well.  A lot of little things are popping up here and there, like festivals both in this country and abroad…”

One of the more interesting tidbits from his Wikipedia page is the fact that he was an elementary school janitor before the band broke big, and Jason took the opportunity to ask about this time in the guitarist’s life. On his janitorial duties, Noodles says, “Do I miss the work? No, absolutely not…a lot of my work was just sweeping up, cleaning up, and then whenever a kid threw up I had to go clean that up. But I miss some of the people, the people were great. Some of the kids and some of the teachers were really cool”.

For the full audio from Jason’s interview, listen to the podcast below and check out kxfmradio.org/podcasts for other exclusive interviews, live in-studio performances & more!