When I'm Gone

Simple Plan wrote all their own songs on their first two albums, but by 2007 the pop-punk sound they cultivated had fallen out of favor, so they brought in some outside writers to contribute in an effort to keep it fresh. "When I'm Gone," the lead single from their first album, was written by the Simple Plan songwriting duo of lead singer Pierre Bouvier and drummer Chuck Comeau, along with the Canadian producer Arnold Lanni and with Nate "Danja" Hills, who also produced the track. Hills, the man responsible for Britney Spears' "Gimme More ," also worked on album tracks "The End" and "Generation." Frontman Pierre Bouvier told MTV news how working with Timbaland's protégé encouraged them to develop new ideas in their own songwriting: "We're a band that's sold something like 7 million records, had two records that did really well, so we had to find a way to change without changing, to kind of reinvent ourselves. All the bands that stand the test of time always have that record where it sounds different than anything previous, so we wanted to make things that sounded a bit more fresh. And so we did things like work with guys like Danja. He'd come up with some stuff, very synthy, very beat-oriented, and we'd write on that, and we made these really cool songs. And from there, we felt more confident to try something different, so we wrote the rest of the record."

The video features a cameo by the celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who'd just dropped by to visit the band.

Pierre Bouvier told They Will Rock You: "I think for me the song represents what we went through as a band when we first started, it's about getting out there and seizing the moment and doing what you want to do; to be passionate about it and to not worry about what everyone else is going to think. As far as what the fans take away from it, I think it's the kind of song where if you listen to it you could probably take your own message from it, it's general in a way. It's about beating the odds and doing something with yourself."