Blink 182 eyeing up success with new album

Blink 182’s seventh studio record, California, shot to the top of the chart in the UK and USA – as well as achieving a similar position in Canada and Europe.

It is the first album by the band to feature vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba, who replaced former member Tom DeLonge. And it will be aired when the band line-up at Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena tonight for a headline show.

It had became difficult for the trio to record new material, due to Tom’s various projects, and after disagreements, the remaining members of the group – vocalist/bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker – separated from Tom and recruited Matt, best known as the frontman of rock band Alkaline Trio.

Mark and Tom have fallen out twice, the first time in 2004 after a UK tour.

“[It was] right before Tom left the first time. Every single show we were having these awful arguments backstage. We were playing giant venues, the band was successful, but we were just miserable, yelling at each other before we would go on.

“It was awful – awful for everybody – and it was such a dichotomy, because backstage was so tense and angry, and adversarial, but you would walk out and there were 12,000 people wanting to see our band play. I couldn’t wrap my head around how the band could be so successful and so dysfunctional at the same time.”

The two haven’t communicated much since Tom left in 2015, with one meeting and a couple of text messages.

Mark adds: “He’s doing his thing, we’re doing our thing in Blink, and it’s going well. I think the time for hard feelings has gone.”

He’s unsure if Tom could return. “I dunno.” He added, “That’s a hard conversation. . .I dunno.

“It was weird for a number of months [when Tom and Travis started Box Car Racer in 2001], and I talked to Tom about it, and we hashed it out back then. It’s never been an issue since before the untitled record. Everything was fine after that. This time, Tom kind of quit the same way he did the first time [in 2005].”

Tom, has, however, denied that he quit the band. Mark adds: “I don’t know why he says that. I mean, if he still wanted to be in Blink, he would have shown up to record [California], or he would have called us up and said, ‘My God, I don’t want out of the band at all’. But he didn’t. I’ve spoken to Tom one time since 2014 and it was cordial enough. But even then, when we were talking, I said, ‘If you didn’t want to quit Blink, you would have showed up or you would have called us’.”

The band had started in the early 1990s as Blink and they swept all before them on the pop-punk, skate-punk and alt-rock scene. Mark says the band had no idea how their career would pan out.

“There was a club in San Diego called Soma, where we used to go see punk-rock bands play all the time. There was an upstairs which probably held about 1,000 people, and there was a downstairs that probably held 150 people.

“If you could get 50 people to say that they were there to see your band in the basement, you would get to open a show for the upstairs venue. So that was our goal, to make it to the upstairs. That was cool because it meant that people who weren’t our immediate friends were paying to come see the show.”

Their present record was a collective effort, with all three sharing songwriting duties.

Matt adds: “It was a collective effort for sure. Mark and I sang pretty much every harmony, every lead, everything to the point where it was like, “Did you write that, or did I write that?” It was just a matter of mixing it. We were all hands on deck.”

Matt is looking forward to singing vocals on the present tour, taking the role of Tom.

Spirit

“Yeah. I’ve always been a really big Blink fan, and I still want it to have that spirit, but bring my own voice to it. I’m not going to try to imitate [Tom], but there are certain pronunciations and certain things that have to still have that spirit. I try to be respectful of that for the band and for the fans, but also bring my own flavour to it.

“Blink took Alkaline Trio on tour years ago, and our fanbase, like, tripled in size. All of the Blink fans were like, ‘Oh, this is a cool band’. There were always Blink shirts in our crowd. It’s been a really cool, amazing trip, and I’ve been really good friends with these guys for a really long time. It’s kind of like slipping into a really warm bath, if you will, to quote Hannibal Lecter.”

Mark says having people working together made all the difference on their new record. He says California is the sound of a band having a good time.

“We would get together for Neighbourhoods and hash out some ideas, and everyone would say, ‘Okay, I’m gonna go to San Diego for a couple weeks and I’ll work on it and get back to you guys’. There was a separation. There’s a magic that happens when everyone’s in the same room at the same time, with the immediacy of like, ‘What about this word for that?’, or ‘That’s cool, but what about this?’

“Everybody was pushing each other, and it was just a much better result.”