INTERVIEW: Bowling For Soup & ‘Phineas And Ferb’s Dan Povenmire
Words & photos by Lexi Schnell (@lexischnell)
With season five of Phineas and Ferb premiering this June— marking the show's return after nearly a decade-long hiatus since 2015—fans were thrilled to revisit their summer vacation nostalgia. At the Vans Warped Tour in Washington, D.C., an entire branded activation was dedicated to the beloved series. The line to enter stretched for over an hour all weekend long, and fans could be seen sporting their complimentary Perry the Platypus hats throughout the festival grounds.
The activation was cleverly tucked behind Agent P’s “Portal-Potty.” Inside, fans were transported into a top-secret spy lair and the Backyard Bash, where they could enjoy interactive games, exclusive giveaways, and fully immersive set pieces.
A highlight for many was the special appearance by Phineas and Ferb co-creator Dan Povenmire, who also voices the iconic Dr. Doofenshmirtz. We had the chance to speak with him directly and receive a personal tour of the activation.
Another exciting guest appearance came from pop-punk legends Bowling For Soup—the band behind the show’s unforgettable theme song. In the final room of the activation, Love Händel could be found rocking out on guitars branded for Bowling For Soup, a nod to the show's lore: the animated band’s lead singer is voiced by the real-life band’s frontman, Jaret Reddick. Not only did the group stop by for a quick chat, but they also performed the theme song live—with Povenmire joining in character as Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
To top it all off, a flurry of Love Händel t-shirts was launched into the crowd via t-shirt cannons, wrapping up the experience with the same high-energy spirit that made Phineas and Ferb such a fan favorite.
Check out our full interview with Dan Povenmire and Bowling For Soup below!
Phineas & Ferb Season 5 is now available to stream on Disney+
A Chat With Phineas And Ferb’s Co-Creator, Dan Povenmire
Hey! I'm Dan Povenmire. I'm the co-creator of Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law and a bunch of other things. But we're here for Phineas and Ferb, and I'm here because Bowling for Soup is doing our theme song.
Where did the original idea of Phineas and Ferb come from?
Well, I was working with Swampy Marsh, who's my partner on Phineas, and we really loved writing together. So we were trying to figure out, like, a show that we could do to pitch on our own.
And I was at dinner one night at a place that gave you butcher paper and a little can of crayons to draw while you're waiting for your food. And I drew this triangle, like, because I'd never seen a character whose head was triangle before. And I made a head out of it, and I was like, oh, I like this. And I drew him, like, three more times, and I tore that piece of butcher paper off, and I brought it home with me that night. That night, I drew Perry and Doofenshmirtz and Ferb, and I brought those four drawings in the next day to Swampy, and he was the same way.
He was like, ‘oh my gosh.’ This is the show that we're gonna sell someday. And, we built the whole show around those original four drawings.
How was the response been to the new season after the long hiatus?
People have loved it. The, you know, the good thing now is with social media so prevalent now, I get to see people loving the show almost in real time. Like, when we first did the show, you'd put it out there and you'd, you know, you might go and look and see if anybody's chatting about it in any of the chat rooms, or you'd see if anybody posted something on YouTube eventually. But it was very few and far between that you'd see anybody giving a real reaction. And now with TikTok and Instagram and YouTube shorts, people are posting stuff all the time, you know, like their favorite songs from the first 10 episodes of the new season or their favorite Buford lines or their few you know, or their favorite scenes they're putting up.
I love it so much because it gives us this sort of instant connection with the audience and see what's working.
I love seeing the emo Perry the Platypus around. Will he be making a cameo on the show?
The emo, Perry the Platypus?
Yes. With the hair, chains, and black outfit.
I don't know that I've seen this. I've probably seen it, but is it something that people are sending around?
Yes, there's one on a stick people are walking around the crowd with.
I have not seen this, so I'm so excited to go see it. I don't know. Maybe we'll work them in. Maybe we'll work them in if we like it.
A Chat With Bowling For Soup
How did you get involved with the Phineas and Ferb theme song?
JARET: Yeah. Absolutely. You know, it was a very organic thing. We had, we've been doing some stuff for, we had done the theme song for Jimmy Neutron, we had done a few other things with Disney and with some other movies. Got word that Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh were making a new cartoon called Phineas and Ferb and they wanted us to do the theme. And so, I flew to LA, spent the day with them watching episodes.
We had a great day and, hey. And the song came out called “Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day.” But so they had a thirties, they had the theme song intact but and they wanted us to perform it but they also wanted me to take it and make it into like a three and a half minute song that they could do a video for and use for promo. So that's where “Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day” came from and, on the same day, I got to audition for a part. I ended up with the role of Danny from Love Händle and, you know, we've been, I've written several songs. We performed a few songs since then and, you know, it's just been awesome to be a part of the whole ride.
Which character from Phineas and Ferb do you most identify with?
JARET: I feel like Danny was sort of written for me. Because he's just about my age and he's, you know, and he just he still does the whole rock star thing. So, yeah. I mean, that would be my character. Do you have one?
ROB: I'm gonna go with Perry the Platypus. Yeah.
JARET: Because you wear a hat.
ROB: Because yes. I wear a hat. I lay eggs, and I'm a mammal.
JARET: You got one?
GARY: Well, he stole mine, but it's for different reasons. I'm gonna go Perry, but it's because I don't talk a whole lot.
JARET: That's true. He doesn't. Perry. Gary.
ROB: Yeah. He can have that one. I'm gonna, I'll change my answer. I'll be Phineas because in my life, I feel like I'm the main character.
JARET: You could be Ferb too because he only says one thing an episode. That's more you.
GARY: That's more me.
JARET: You're Ferb. Yeah. Because he says one like, one thing, one good thing. That's his thing though. He thinks about what he's gonna say just like Ferb. One thing a day. He's called the Cobra. So you can you're back to Perry. You're back to Perry.
How does the 30th anniversary of Warped Tour feel in comparison to your first Warped?
JARET: Yeah. It feels a lot different being the thirtieth anniversary than our first Warped Tour. Our first Warped tour was 2003 and quite frankly, we weren't really a member of the “cool team” yet. We weren't really, we were on the radio. We weren't really seen as a punk band.
I don't really feel like we came in knowing how we were even gonna be really accepted. We were pleasantly surprised at just the family environment here and, you know, it's one of our favorite things in the world is these kinds of shows and especially the Warped Tour shows where we know all the bands. Even the younger bands are musicians that came up listening to all of our bands and stuff. And so, there's just a camaraderie here that you just don't get in a lot of other places and it's just a special environment for sure.
What is your favorite Warped Tour memory?
JARET: Goodness gracious. I mean, I think they were all, all of the Warped Tours we did were really fun. I will say that it was way better once we, you know, got on a nicer bus and that was fun.
GARY: Once we got on a nicer bus and once we kinda had made friends with everybody, it's not like an individual memory, but just like the late night, parking lot hangs where everyone sets up camping chairs and just hangs out. That's what it's all about.
JARET: I think the last cross country one is my favorite just because, you know, I mean, Rob had kinda just joined the band and, we were kind of all, he plugged in this sense of newness and this electric feeling to our band again. And we were all excited to be out and doing it. And, you know, that one we brought our own cooking stuff out so we cooked our own meals that tour and it was just we really, we enjoyed it. We knew it was the last one and we knew that we were gonna make it our favorite. I think we did a really good job doing that.
ROB: I yes. So that last Warped Tour is very special to me, the 2018 because that's when I was, like, really getting into the band, like, fully and all that. And that holds a special place to me and it's just you know, I got to do it the way we do it. And but I've done a lot of them before in previous bands. And, I will say a special memory is, like, 2003 or 2004, and it wasn't I didn't know it at the time. It was the last time I ever got to see No Use for a Name, and it was just an awesome show. And it's one of my favorite bands. And I was really glad I got to see them in the Warped Tour environment because they've been doing it since basically the beginning and they're awesome.
JARET: There you go.
Anything coming up that the fans should be on the lookout for?
JARET: For us? Man, we have a lot of stuff happening. We have a lot of music that is already recorded. We have a lot of music in the chamber to be recorded. So look out for that. We have a covers album almost completely done. We have new new original and then a new live record coming out as well.
Simple Plan, Bowling For Soup, 3OH!3 and Lølø will be out August and September. And then, if you're watching this and you're somewhere near or wanna take a trip to the UK, December 13th, we're headlining Wembley Arena with our friends Wheatus and Punk Rock Factory. So, it's a busy year, and we're stoked!
Check out Bowling for Soup’s tour dates HERE
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