Blink 182 Stay Together For Their Fans

Howdy there homeslices, hope you're having a great weekend! We sure are!

As we said before, Blink 182 are on the cover of June's Alternative Press Magazine. Well, good news is we got all of the scans for you to enjoy! 

The cover story can be found on page 110, and features a photograph of the guys interacting during a photo shoot. The caption at the bottom of the page also let's everyone know not to call it a "reunion."

On another page, bassist Mark Hoppus speaks about how he got into music. It all began when a friend loaned him a tape of the Cure's "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me." The first song he heard from that cassette was the tune, "Just Like Heaven."  

He was a dedicated fan just after hearing that song, "I got way into the Cure from that moment. Their music became the soundtrack to my life, and I worked my way backward, buying all their previous albums, rare imports, posters, books, 12-inch singles (does anyone remember these?) and everything else I could get my hands on."

Hoppus also admits he started to dress like singer, Robert Smith. He is shown on the scan sporting messy hair, eyeliner, white face powder and sloppy lipstick. Yes, he'd even go dressed this flamboyantly to his high school classes. Aside from mimicking his idols, they're what inspired him to take up the bass guitar. Sitting alone in his room, he'd play along to the songs blasting from his stereo. 

Now in present time, the Blink trio even featured Smith on a song called, "All Of This" for their 2003 untitled album. "I never thought for a second it would actually happen. We called some people, and to our surprise, he wanted to be a part of it," Mark says, "It ended up being one of the best songs on the album. Months later, we were asked to perform a cover of 'A Letter To Elise' for MTV Icon: The Cure in 2004. They were super cool, just like you hope your heroes will be when you see them in real life."

Off the subject of Mark, this scan here features a photo of Tom Delonge, Blink's guitarist. The caption states that these guys may be the modern punk version of the Beatles. After four years, Blink is back to reclaim their throne. All they need to really work on is their friendship!

Now on page 112, the real story begins! AP sits down with the band in their North Hollywood studio co-owned by Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker. 

Discussing the return of the band, Hoppus says, "we honestly think of it as a continuation, not a reunion. Cause 'reunion' just has such a weird vibe to it, and that's not how we feel about what we're doing, you know? It is a continuation. We definitely had a band meltdown and took some time to figure things out and come back together in a positive way."

In February 2005, after 13 years of being together as a band, they decided to dismantle. Due to constant fighting, distrust and endless touring and promotion, it took a toll on the Southern Californians.

A few months later, Delonge started his band, Angels and Airwaves, and Hoppus hooked up with Barker to form, Plus 44. You may be surprised to know that there wasn't any tension between the two new bands. Or was there? "it was interesting to us to find out how bummed out Travis and Mark were about Tom splitting off," Shawn Harris from the Matches tells the magazine. His band opened for Plus 44 a year after recording three songs with Mark in 2006.

Harris also adds, "they were really hurt at the time, and I think a lot of that went into the Plus 44 album. There might've been a tablespoon of vengeance in Plus 44."

Plus 44 released their first hit, "No, It Isn't" on Delonge's birthday which is December 13. Blink's guitarist shot back some choice words for Hoppus, "I wouldn't want to be Mark and Travis when this record comes out." He claims he wasn't quoted correctly and "hyped up on pills" at the time when AVA began their official piece of press.

Hoppus explains that his best friend tearing away from Blink didn't feel right to him, "Tom cutting everything off and quitting the band through our manger was just really, really hard to swallow, personally, just because we'd been friends fo so long. That really didn't sit right with me for a long time."

What does he think of Angels and Airwaves? Pretty similar to how he took the break-up, "I think, in all honesty, that the Angels and Airwaves stuff lacked something. As creative and ambitious as Tom is, I feel like, as a fan of both our songwriting styles, Angels and Airwaves lacked what Travis and I bring to the table. And I feel like, in a lot ways, Plus 44 lacked what Tom would bring to the table."

Mark did in fact listen to what Tom cooked up with AVA, Travis has yet to hear a single note, "I've heard the singles, but I wasn't listening to that type of music, so it wasn't really run past me." 

This bass player was also thinking about calling Tom out of the blue and jamming on a song, "I was talking to my label: They wanted me to do a solo record. I was getting ready to do that and getting songs and everything together. I wanted to call up Tom and invite him to play guitar on one of the tracks, and just say, 'Dude, let's do like Beverly Hills, 90210 and squash it. I'm going to do this record. I want you to come and play guitar on it."

He never got around to calling Delonge. On September 19, 2008 Barker was in a tragic plane crash killing four out of six passengers. The only survivors were Barker and Adam Goldstein, better known as "DJ AM." Both musicians had second and third-degree burns. Barker had been hospitalized for about a month at a burn center in Georgia.

The cause of the crash is still unknown, but there are theories that state there was a blowout in one of the tires. Barker can't comment on the events because of a pending lawsuit against the jet's owners. He got through this adversity with "positive thinking" and doesn't dwell on it, "I was never sitting around going, 'Yo, I want Blink 182 to get back together.' You have to be friends in order to be  a band together, and at that point we weren't friends. I was so content with everything I was doing during the hiatus."

During the interview, Barker points at the outdoor patio where Hoppus brought up Blink reuniting again, "I was just kind of cruising at that point. I was still really, really, really recovering, and it was just cool to talk to my friends again." He also replied to being asked if he'd have any problems with Mark and Tom uniting without him, "if it was a decision they wanted to do, I would totally do that. If they felt like touring and I didn't feel like touring, or they wanted someone else, of course."

He also goes on to say, "we'll see how it is. If the reunion is the funnest thing in the world, then I'll continue doing it." What if it's not fun? "I never do anything that's not fun."

Mark expressed his excitement for the tour, "we're doing something for our upcoming tour that no band have ever been able to do before. When you buy a ticket, $20 will get you a seat. Twenty Dollars. No ticketing charge, no parking charge, no service fees, nothing. Like, a $20 bill will get you into the Blink show."

He also tells AP about meeting with set designers, "we met with the production designer the other day who did Kanye Wests's tour, Daft Punk's tour and has worked with Nine Inch Nails. We really want to walk out on stage and blow people's minds."

Hoppus quickly shoots down the idea of not doing an album due to the lack of energy from being on the road, "I don' think so-I mean, I don't feel like that now, but talk to me in six months. I really feel like during the tour, we're going to be doing soundchecks and playing instruments backstage and shooting ideas off of one another and we're going to come out of the tour on the other side, ready to get back to the studio and record the next album."

He makes it a point that the album will be out, but there isn't an approximate date or time, "I don't feel like there is a time schedule on a new album. If it takes us a year to write the next record, it will take a year to write the next record. I don't feel pressure to have it out by any certain time. We just want it to be great, no matter what it is or how long it takes us."

With bands like Fall Out Boy and All-American Rejects inching closer to the punk rock royalty throne, how does Blink stay afloat considering their last disc went platinum, but didn't sell as much as 1999's Enema Of The State?

"I definitely want to push where the last album went and go further with that. That is kind of why we decided to do the tour first then record the record, because I feel like people want to go out and see the Blink that they remember. They want to hear 'The Rock Show.' They want to hear 'Stay Together For The Kids.' They want to hear songs that they know."

He continues, "Relevancy, I think is in our own minds, if we record this album and people like it, then that's a success. If it sells 100,000 copies, that's fine. If a young band come up and blow us away, they've earned it. We've got to stay on our toes, and we've got to get the chops out for this tour. We've got to get out there and show everybody what we're all about. It's on us."

The next day, the SoCal punk trio meet up for their photo shoot with AP Mag. Tom takes time out of the shoot to explain a joke about "stimulus package", he's been working pretty hard at it too. Mark jumps in and decides to give his band mate a hard time, "Dude, what happened to your car? It's covered in dents!" He later admits he's just kidding and walks away. 

While the guys may seem to be complete goofs, they still have their responsibilities to be serious about. Tom is still serious about working with Angels and Airwaves, they're actually working on their third album, as well as a AVA movie to be released digitally on Christmas Day totally free, "we're going to try and really chance the way the industry works."

He makes it a point that Blink is what's really on his mind, "at any given moment, whatever I am doing is the top priority of that minute. Right now, getting ready for the tour with Blink is the top priority. I have to make sure it's the best it can be. I want to be able to experience art at that level again. It's a lot of fun to communicate on that large of a stage. We were a great band. I think the three of us together sort of have that spark."

In our last and final scan, it states that the album to coming out in 2010 is still a mystery to the guys. Filling the shoes of the late Jerry Finn, who produced the majority of Blink's records, is going to be a tough one, "what he brought to music is something that can't even be described, and it's awful to not hae him here. I still feel like he's here with us now, because the way we approach recording and everything is the way that he taught us. I wish that he were here to be a part of this."

The guys may have done their fair share of producing albums, but they insist on never showing off their skills on this new album, "we've had talks about that. Do we want to get a producer? If we got a producer, who would it be? Do we want to produce this ourselves? We're still fairly early on in the process, so I think we just need our space to not only find ourselves musically, but to get back into that headspace as a band where we actually communicate with one another and really get to that point where we can say, 'that absolutely sucks.'

I mean, we never say that, but, you know, everyone's still a litle bit polite right now, and we need to get past that politeness and get to the point where we can be like, 'hey, I really don't like that' ; get to that point where you're arguing about something but it doesn't feel like the band are going to fall apart."

So far, Blink 182 have a new song in the works, "The Night The Moon Was Gone". Mark himself calls it, "The Day THe Sun Said Suck It." Both Delonge and Hoppus have writing credit on it, and both offer vocals as well. The sound can be described as post-hardcore, and according to Tom, sounds like it was left off the last album, "lt sounds like it was the lost track of the untitled record. Lyrically, it's all about how everybody has the same wants, fears and desires. No matter who you are, no matter what vantage point. At the end of the day, everyone just wants to get by."

Blink 182 will embark on a three-month tour starting in July, and ending in October. It will feature opening acts like: Weezer, Fall Out Boy, Chester French, Panic at the Disco, All-American Rejects and more.

Will their friendship ever heal and go back to normal? Delonge jokes, "we all agree on one thing, and that's the Descendants." It's possible the band may never really be best friends ever again, but as far as career and success, they see eye to eye.

"I don't think any of us wanted to tip-toe back into Blink. We wanna take the biggest shot that we possibly can. We don't have any endgame. We do this because we love it, and because it's fun for us," Hoppus says.

Delonge ends the article with this quote, "there's only three of us, and that's all it takes. When we get together, all we need are these three instruments. A power trio is a hard thing to be, but when you're good at it, you can be unstoppable."

We fully agree!

There's another article on MTV.com about Blink's openers being super excited to support the guy's gigs. Check it out!

Have an awesome weekend Nimrods!