From their rise to fame at the start of the new millennium thanks to MTV, to the modern resurgence of pop punk, SIMPLE PLAN have been an integral part of pop culture since their formation in Montreal in 1999. The band has sold over 10 million albums worldwide, won multiple Juno Awards, performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics and, most recently, launched the ubiquitous Tik Tok #ImJustAKid challenge. This has generated over 3.4 million videos, including those of Will Smith, Ed Sheeran, Usher and Venus and Serena Williams.

But, more than anything, Simple Plan has never lost touch with what really matters: its audience. "We feel so fortunate to be a band whose fans love both old and new material," says drummer Chuck Comeau. "We're really proud of our past, but we're even more excited about the future. We really always feel like we're three minutes away from the best or greatest song of our career." 

This ambition is fully expressed on HARDER THAN IT LOOKS, the band's sixth studio album. The first self-published opus from Comeau, singer Pierre Bouvier and guitarists Sébastien Lefebvre and Jeff Stinco, it respects the evolution of Simple Plan's career while breaking new ground with songs like "The Antidote", "Ruin My Life" (feat. Deryck Whibley), "Congratulations", "Wake Me Up (When This Nightmare's Over)" and "Iconic". There's no doubt they'll be fan favorites for years to come.

"It's incredibly complex to endure as a band for over 20 years, to keep going, stay relevant and manage all the challenges that come along," explains Bouvier. "It's anything but a 'simple plan'-it's really a lot harder than it looks. Over the course of our career, it's taken us a while to mature enough to understand that our sound is an asset, not a liability. For this album, we said to ourselves: 'Let's embrace who we are and not be afraid to do what we do best.' Making a good Simple Plan record is just as difficult as creating something off the beaten track."

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