“It was an interesting viewpoint that I hadn’t really seen discussed before… this is a scourge that’s really caused by by big pharma.” “Today, people are prescribed medication, and they’re not told how addictive they are, so it’s almost like you’re accidentally addicted in a way,” says Holland.

On “The Opioid Diaries,” Holland dissects addiction and its shift from a substance abuse derived recreationally or when people tend of fall on hard times.

It’s almost like this record had to find its time, and find the things to write about that I felt strongly about.” “It just didn’t feel right to release a record. The core of the album was recorded within the past two years, and when the pandemic hit, the band, Holland, guitarist Noodles, drummer Pete Parada, and bassist Todd Morse, began working out more of the elements round each song. “Then sometimes a song is terrible, and you throw it away, then pull it back out and dust it off and try to make it better, and there’s a little bit of all of that there. “I write all the time, and record stuff, and sometimes it’s great,” he says. Now a professor, a doctorate in molecular biology, and co-author of the PLoS One published paper identifying genetic sequencing of HIV, Holland says he found more of the album’s gems in discarded songs. “It’s more like they’re saying ‘fuck it,’ and its really scary.” “I feel like we’re in a unique period in history where instead of our world leaders saying ‘we’re doing our best,’” says Holland. The title track, originally written in 2019 and recorded in 2020, recounts all the ongoing socio-political obstacles. How can we put out a record and not talk about that stuff, so there were lots of things to write about all of a sudden.” “Political and social upheaval and the pandemic on top of that-this was just a shit show. “The last couple of years have been a doozy,” says Holland. Let the Bad Times Roll reflects the current times, revealing things generally left unspoken, through The Offspring’s sage punk. Recorded throughout the last several years at the band’s studio in Huntington Beach and various other locations, Let the Bad Times Roll is the band’s third collaborations with legendary producer Bob Rock, who also worked on previous release Days Go By in 2012 and Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace in 2008, Let the Bad Time Roll doesn’t shy away from the world’s state of mind, and affairs. Making a return in 2021 couldn’t be a more fitting time to recount the still-pertinent events of the past several years. We certainly didn’t mean for it to take nine years to put out.” Backtracking on all the varied catalysts-songs that required years to unravel and reflections of a world in disarray-Dexter Holland is deconstructing the pieces of Let the Bad Times Roll (Concord Records), The Offspring’s first album in nearly a decade.

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