Some bands ride motorcycles backstage. Others shoot hoops. But Canadian pop-punkers Simple Plan [ tickets ] take it to a different kind of court.

"We love ping-pong. It's a hobby for us," drummer Chuck Comeau says before pausing. "It's more like a lifestyle."

Simple Plan purchased the table for its spring tour with Good Charlotte [ tickets ], whom Comeau said was no competition for his group.

"We kicked Good Charlotte's ass. We totally destroyed them. It was kind of sad for them."

Simple Plan--which also includes vocalist Pierre Bouvier, bassist David Desrosiers, and guitarists Sebastien Lefebvre and Jeff Stinco --toured with Good Charlotte in support of its sophomore effort "Still Not Getting Any ...,"

liveDaily: Your album, "Still Not Getting Any ...," was released last October. Have you written any new songs for your next album?

Chuck Comeau: No. We've been playing ping-pong a lot. [Laughs] Actually, the record was out Oct. 26, so it's still kind of fresh and brand new. We've still got tons of places to go and tons of shows to do all over the world. It's hard for us to write any kind of music while we're on the road. We're so busy. It keeps you really busy.

Tell me about your songwriting process.

There's never a typical way that we write songs. All the songs start out with me and Jeff working together, coming up with ideas for music and lyrics. When it's pretty solid, we bring it to the band to arrange it.

What was it like to work with producer Bob Rock (Metallica) on your album?

Really awesome. It turned out to be great. We wanted this record to sound more rock, to sound more intense, more the way we sound live. He definitely was able to capture that. It's really powerful. That's exactly, exactly what we wanted for that reason. It was awesome to work with him. He's a really cool guy. He knows how to make you feel good in the studio. He also just gives you a good vibe. He's a really good person. He has tons of stories. The thing about listening to all these stories is it makes you learn and makes you realize what downfalls you have to avoid.

What was the most important thing you learned from him?

I can't really pinpoint one single thing. He's just been around so many great records, so many big bands. [He told us] what it takes to make it and stay with that. He said, "The most important thing is you guys don't break up and are still friends." He said to get a routine and always stay hungry and always have new goals. He gave us a lot of examples from the Metallica sessions. They have everything in the world that they want. They're, like, the biggest band, yet they still have the fire in them. They have no reason to make more records, yet something in them makes better music. You have to make sure that you never lose that.

Tell me about the song "Untitled." Did you specifically write it about the tragedy of drunken driving?

It wasn't exactly written about that. It's a song about tragedy. It talks about a bunch of different tragic turns in people's lives. Bad things happen to really good people. They have the whole future in front of them and, for some reason, they kind of fall into depression, suicide, drug abuse [and they think] how the hell did that happen? How is that possible? They had good parents. It's a sad reflection on that. A drinking and driving [accident] actually is kind of the same thing. They make one mistake and it's too late. It's kind of hard to fix it after. The song is kind of, like ... we wanted to make a difference. The song is really different for us. The video is even stronger and more powerful and emotional than the actual song was. It was like making a little movie. It took the song to the next level. [The idea] came from friends in high school who were driving drunk from a party and the driver got into the accident and killed his best friend. We're just trying to make people think about their actions. We definitely go out and have fun, but when you have people's lives in your hands ...

I interviewed another Canadian musician recently who said that his country's bands have to make it in the United States before Canadians will even look at them. Would you say that's true?

In a way, yeah. It's a whole hometown syndrome. You hear about bands who sell out shows everywhere around the world. But people maybe don't appreciate it as much. I think now, at least for us, I don't know why, but it's turning around. We've seen bands who are really amazing all over the world, yet, especially in Montreal and Quebec, it took, like, three to four years to acknowledge that we existed. When you're a band that's popular, in a way, people tend to not think it's cool. We're playing a big show in our hometown. We're doing a whole day of press, everybody wants to talk to us. Finally, it's kind of, like, cool. We just want our parents to read in the paper that we're doing well.