The Offspring – Come Out and Play
Album: Smash
Writer: Dexter Holland
Producer: Thom Wilson
Released: 1994
Genre: Punk rock
Length: 3:17
Although not a hit by Grammy winning standards, “Come Out and Play” is full of interesting production elements you can use when you’re producing punk rock.
Chords and song structure
It’s straightforward with a twist here. It’s a simple verse/prechorus/chorus type deal with this punk song. There’s no bridge like you would define from popular song structure but the recurring phrygian guitar line(the hook) connects the song together.
intro-hook-verse-prechorus-chorus-hook-verse-prechorus-chorus-hook-prechorus-chorus
Arrangements
The instrumentation on “Come out and play” is extremely simple. It is punk after all. Two guitars, drums, bass and vocals. A simple power punk quartet.
So there’s nothing really incredibly interesting to talk about in the arrangement. The intro starts off with a fairly groovy beat that kind of contradicts the rest of the song. The guitar plays a power chord in harmonics before launching into the full-blown punk rock riff. After the first measure one of the guitars switches over to a doubled power chord an octave higher before changing into a phrygian lead line that recurs throughout the song.
The guitars switch from being palm-muted in the verses to full-drive strums in the choruses, a simple punk rock dynamic trick to make the choruses larger while still keeping the whole song distorted and loud. Besides the vocal double in the pre-chorus and parts of the chorus the only other instrument is the vocal hook.
Hooks
“Come Out and Play” has two distinct hooks throughout the song: the “keep ‘em separated” vocal line and the phrygian lead line. They both serve a great arrangement/songwriting purpose.
The “You gotta keep ‘em separated” vocal line is actually a great way to connect the two different parts together in the intro and serves as an interesting hook throughout the song.
The phrygian/harmonic minor/Egyptian sounding lead riff is a cool way to make the song stand out and be different than just a straight power chord mashup.
The Guitar Sound
The guitar sound on Smash is an absolute dream for a punk rock enthusiast. It’s thick and crunchy while still being super edgy. Both Dexter and Noodles, the guitarists in The Offspring use Ibanez guitars with Dimarzio humbuckers: Super Distortions and Tone Zones respectively.
On this record I’m pretty sure they used Mesa Boogie Mark IV amplifiers and the distortion is simply the heavily distorted channel of that amp. An amp simulator emulating that type of amp or a stomp box with valve-like distortion can get you close to that sound. As Noodles said in a Guitar Center interview, “We almost always rely solely on our amps for any given sound, but we’ll occasionally add some chorus or delay to highlight a certain part or passage of a song. Usually this is done during a clean breakdown that is arpeggiated or strummed.”
For the exact amp setting I recommend cutting the mids, leaving the bass in the middle and boosting the highs. During mixing I would think the mixing engineer would do some extra EQ work but with such a sparse arrangement there really is no need to do any magical EQ’ing to make the guitars fit in the mix. There’s a definitely a very scooped mid sound to the guitars with not a lot of bass, making those power chords cut through. The guitars have a slight reverb on them but not too much to muddy up the fast power chord changes.
The Vocals
The vocals are very dry with just a slight small room sound on it. The vocals are doubled in certain parts to add dynamics and contrast to the vocals. By muting them in certain parts and bringing them back in others you add emphasis to where you want the listener to perk up and pay attention. This is also real double tracking, not the automatic, lifeless doubletracking that sounds robotic and monotone. This is aggressive and really well done as Dexter sings almost perfectly along with the original vocal to create a great sounding double.
The verse vocals are dry but the pre-chorus is mostly doubled with the exception of the final line leading up to the “bash it up, bash it up” buildup into the chorus.
Musical Panning
The vocal interplay in the chorus is really interesting, almost playing into the “schoolyard gang” theme of the song.
We talked about the call and response in our intro to music production and it’s sort of like that with a twist. The “hey!” calls are doubled and panned left and right, the response “man you disrespecting me” and the “take him out” line is panned to the center while the “you gotta keep ‘em separated” is panned to the left. This panning almost sets a stage for the chorus as an argument, with people yelling all around(hey’s panned wide), the opponents arguing in the center(lead vocal) and the teachers or authority scrambling to “keep them separated” on the left.
Image of the panning is needed!
Key Take Aways
Creative panning – Next time think about creative panning on the lead vocals to follow the story of the lyrics.
Not Need for EQ – If the arrangement doesn’t have that many instruments you don’t need to worry about EQ during mixing. Just make sure you get a great sound in the recording stage and you should be almost 90% of your way there. The more instruments in an arrangement, the more they keep fighting for territory in the EQ spectrum. If you’ve only got two great sounding guitars then just pan them left and right and be done with it.
Hooks – Add weird or unconventional hooks to make your song more interesting. A weird lead line, a recurring vocal or even a strange cymbal hit(think Foster the People) can take an arrangement from dull to cool. But don’t overuse it. If you find something really cool, don’t play it every four measures. Only play it on the first measure after every chorus for instance. Hook(no pun intended) the listener in an make them wait for the payoff.
Resource and References
http://multitrackmaster.com/offspring-come-out-and-play-keep-em-separated-vocal-only-and-instr/
https://gc.guitarcenter.com/interview/noodles/
