Smash Mouth Bassist Discusses 90’s Hits, ‘Suspended Adolescence’
Steve Harwell and Paul De Lisle of Smash Mouth perform for U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) and Joint Task Force Guantanamo troopers. (Wikipedia Commons)
The pop band Smash Mouth hit its stride in the late 1990’s, with songs like ‘Then the Morning Comes’, and their biggest hit, ‘All Star’. This summer, they’re touring with other groups from that time, including Toad the Wet Sprocket. Saturday's performance at the Champaign Music Festival was cancelled due to inclement weather.
There’s been a few changes in band personnel, but bassist Paul De Lisle has been with Smash Mouth since the start.
They’re turning out new albums, but still like performing the early favorites. He calls it ‘suspended adolescence.'
Smash Mouth is spending its summer touring with 'Toad' as well as Tonic.
"For me personally, It's really a kick," said De Lisle, who was wearing his Tonic shirt as he spoke by phone Thursday, ahead of the group's trip to Champaign. "I truly love these bands. I'm a fan. Toad the Wet Sprocket, they had success in the early 90's, they had success in the late 90's. Before our band hit, I played in cover bands. I used to cover Toad the Wet Sprocket songs. Now I'm on tour with them. It's a dream come true."
Before hitting it big as pop artists, Smash Mouth had a ska punk kind of sound.
"That was completely natural," De Lisle said. "Greg (former Smashmouth guitarist Greg Camp) and I, we just wrote songs, whether they were ska punk, or pop punk, or groove songs. We had kind of a wide palate. But we didn't want to be pigeonholed into any one particualr genre. Astro Lounge (the band's 1999 release) is a little bit different from Fush Yu Mang."
De Lisle said the set for Champaign Music Festival 'is very up tempo.'
"It's all dancing, all the time," he said.
De Lisle has written a new book on the band's history, 'Walkin' On the Sun: The Official Smash Mouth Biography.'
After a lengthy rain delay, the performances by Smash Mouth and Toad the Wet Sprocket at the Champaign Music Festival was cancelled due to the threat of lighting, although the bands hosted a meet and greet after the performance was called off at about 10:30 p.m.
(pictured: fans wait through a rain delay at the Champaign Music Festival Saturday night downtown.)