Grammy-nominated Bowling For Soup formed in 199, and now, 20 years later, the group is still active on the music scene, playing its current “Finally Legal!!” tour. The Daily Reveille sat down with lead singer Jaret Reddick to discuss its current projects and upcoming Sept. 6 show with Cody Canada & the Departed at Lava Cantina in Perkins Rowe.
The Daily Reveille: What have you been working on most recently?
Jaret Reddick: We recorded a couple of shows live about a year ago in England, so I’m finishing up a DVD and CD of an acoustic performance that we did and also a full band show. So we’ll hopefully have a couple of new DVDs out next year.
TDR: What’s your favorite part about coming to Baton Rouge?
JR: We’ve just always had a really good time, and I can’t say that we’ve really gotten to spend a lot of time in Baton Rouge, but we definitely love the people and the culture. I’m really looking forward to this show because we’ll get in the day of the first home game–and being a sports fan–I just love that vibe. I’m excited to be there and get to be a part of that.
TDR: You have a greatest hits album out now called “Songs People Actually Liked.” What was the motivation behind compiling that album and re-recording the songs?
JR: We left everything pretty much intact and kept the integrity of the songs the same. Some of those songs were originally written and recorded 20 years ago, so many things have changed technology wise and obviously our playing and singing is quite a bit better than it was. It was a really fun thing to go back and sort of hear those songs the way that they would sound now, and it made it a really nice, listenable album rather than it being a mixture of really old-sounding songs. It was fun to put them all together as a collection, and it came out really good.
TDR: You included one brand new song. Do you think you’ll write more songs, or make a completely new album in the future?
JR: It’s “20 Years (That’s A Lot of Beers),” and that song is sort of an updated version, but not really, of a song called “Friends O’ Mine” that I wrote for the band a few years back. That one is a fan favorite and a band favorite, and I wrote it about our experiences up until that point. So this one was kind of an added piece to that, just summing up the whole 20 years of us being together and still at it.
TDR: Do you think you’ll write more songs or even make a new album in the future?
JR: Yeah, I think probably next year. We’re pretty busy as far as touring and other commitments for the next several months, but as we get into the summer of next year, it’ll be time to start thinking about new music again.
TDR: How does it feel to know your music has impacted generations of kids, teens and adults throughout the years?
JR: I think that’s one of the coolest things about our band. Even before “Phineas and Ferb,” we felt like we were kind of the band that tied generations together. I’ve had parents come up to me after shows and say, “Thank you. I had absolutely nothing in common with my children until your band.” I think we’re kind of that band, whether it was kids or parents that discovered us, they can both appreciate it.
TDR: How has the nature of the band changed over the years?
JR: I think we’ve sort of evolved into what we are now. I think the new album shows our evolution into who we still are today. I think the first 10 years was really us finding our groove, and as we got into the album “Drunk Enough to Dance” with “Girl All The Bad Guys Want” and “Punk Rock 101” and songs like that, I think that’s when we found our niche. Since then we’ve just kind of been expanding on that and just getting better and better.
TDR: What has been your favorite song to play live?
JR: Probably “Girl All The Bad Guys Want.” That’s kind of our first really big hit, and it’s that one song that even if you don’t know if you know our band, when you hear us play that song, it’s like, “Oh it’s those guys!”
TDR: Most bands break up after a few years. How have you been able to stay together?
JR: Really, it’s about knowing your role in the band and knowing that the band is a sum of its parts, and without each of us, it wouldn’t be possible to even do what we do. Everybody is equally important, even if some of us get more attention than the others. I think that’s super important to just understand that and knowing when to push each other’s buttons and when to give each other a hug. That’s how we operate, and it seems to still be working. We’re still best friends.
TDR: What’s the best touring memory you have?
JR: I think my favorite story still is when we went to England for the first time back in 2000. We were just kind of rolling around and just being in London in the first place was like, “Holy crap I can’t believe we’re here.” You know, you take it all in thinking you’re never going to be here again and we walked into a Virgin Records megastore and we had our own endcap. It was this huge display of our album, and it was in the top 20 sellers in the place. We had no idea that was even a thing. I just remember our faces at the time and just sitting there. Us looking at that was like everybody else looking at Westminister Abbey. I think we stared at it for 15 minutes.
TDR: What’s a little known fact about the band?
JR: Probably what our musical tastes are. We pretty much listen to a lot of old country, rather than things within our own genre or even remotely influential as to what we do as a band. [They] are very much not in the vain of Bowling For Soup.