Simple Plan Suggest Mash-Up With T.I.

MONTREAL — If you felt like breaking down due to the interminable wait for a Simple Plan record, Feb. 12 will signal the end to a three-year gap separating the Montreal pop quintet's second album, Still Not Getting Any... and their new eponymous third record.

"For the first two records, we had these catchy, kind of borderline stupid record titles, and that was something that defined us," says frontman Pierre Bouvier, whose group performed a not-so secret sold-out warm-up show at Montreal's La Tulipe on Jan. 11. "By changing that and doing a self-titled record, we're saying that we're doing something a little bit different. This is not what you're going to expect."

The most obvious difference comes from the other side of the studio glass, as much of the album was produced by Timbaland protege Floyd "Danjahandz" Hills, whose recent collaboration partners include Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. To anyone who has heard the group's first single — the punchy, Mutt Lange-inspired arena rock track "When I'm Gone" — the curious beats at the beginning and throughout accurately exemplify Hills' contributions to their revitalized sound.

"It was kind of weird for him and for us the first time we met because we didn't know what was going to happen," says Bouvier, who recalls how Danja was as inexperienced working with rock musicians as Simple Plan were collaborating with a hip-hop producer.

"He was really open," says drummer Chuck Comeau. "He said he wanted to be a producer who does everything, not just hip-hop. Even something as simple as a guitar chord excited him, and it made us feel inspired again. It felt like we were writing for the first time."

The group were actually prepared to enter the studio much earlier, at the behest of their anxious record label, but the band decided to take more time to write after not being "blown away" by their material.

Although not every song on Simple Plan represents a dramatic departure from their traditional pop-punk formula, "Generation" may be the one experiment that draws the most attention. It features the same sample featured on T.I.‘s 2007 single, "Hurt," although Simple Plan have transformed the trumpet and drum beat into a song suitable for a scoring celebration at a hockey game. Bouvier says using the same Hills-created beat as the Atlanta rapper was inadvertent.

"When we were in Miami the first time and Danja played us that beat, we wanted to use it, but he didn't know if T.I. was using it on his album. After the third time we went back, he hadn't heard back from T.I. so we started writing some stuff on it. But later he called and said he was using it. By then we liked what we had written, and T.I. didn't care."

"I love what he did with it," says Comeau of T.I.'s "Hurt." "Maybe one day we'll do a mash-up."