Hoobastank Might Make New Music After Going Viral on TikTok
Hoobastank's 2004 hit song "The Reason" has gone viral on TikTok as part of a new challenge where users reveal embarrassing moments about themselves and things they have done. The resurgence in popularity even has singer Doug Robb contemplating new music.
The trend on the popular social media app is derived from the opening line of the title track to Hoobastank's second album, "I'm not a perfect person." Users then share less than ideal moments that have transpired in their own lives, under the guise that they, too, are not perfect.
The hashtag #NotAPerfectPerson has over 500 million views on TikTok, stemming from more than 70,000 videos that have embraced the challenge thus far.
In an exclusive interview, TMZ spoke with Robb, who warmly reflected on the unexpected moment that has his song serving as the soundtrack to so many personal failures and shortcomings.
When pressed about the possibility of creating new music for a brand new fanbase, Robb said, "I don’t know. We’ve never really sat down at any point and go, 'We have to make music for this demographic,’ not to say that it hasn’t crossed our minds ever, but usually at the end of the day we go, ‘Let’s just write music and see where the chips fall.'"
"That being said, there’s a lot of new fans but there’s also a heavy nostalgic component in a lot of this," he continued. "A lot of people that have been commenting and liking some of the videos are people who grew up listening to the band."
Uncertain about whether new music will surface (the band last released Push Pull in 2018), the Hoobastank frontman admitted the viral trend could serve as a creative catalyst. "It’ll be a difficult balance to strike [whether] we satisfy older fans or try to satisfy newer fans. We’ll see. It does inspire me a little to go, 'We should start exploring some new music ideas and stuff,'" he explained.
"It’s a balance, again," Robb reiterated. "Do you just milk this thing to death? Or do you try to tastefully ride this wave — this thing that just happened that obviously we didn’t have anything to do with except for the song itself? So, how do you ride this wave without being the guy that rides it all the way to the shore and is still trying to ride it? I definitely don’t want to be that."
The band even got in on the fun and shared a #NotAPerfectPerson TikTok video, lamenting the fact that they named their band Hoobastank. Watch below, along with some other user-generated clips.