blink-182's Mark Hoppus says music genres are dead
Mark Hoppus and Matt Skiba spoke to Pete Donaldson
blink-182's Mark Hoppus
Author: Scott ColothanPublished 5th Nov 2019 Last updated 5th Nov 2019
blink-182 bassist and co-vocalist Mark Hoppus has told Absolute Radio he believes the notion of music genre is dead.
Following the ‘back-to-basics’ approach of their blockbuster 2016 album ‘California’, blink-182 diversified their musical palate on their recently released eighth album ‘Nine’ and, alongside their trademark pop-punk sounds, they delved into electronic and hip-hop realms.
Preceding the release of ‘Nine’, blink also headed out on an epic 41-date co-headline North American arena tour with New Orleans rap extraordinaire Lil Wayne.
Appearing on Pete Donaldson’s evening show on Absolute Radio alongside co-lead vocalist and guitarist Matt Skiba, Pete asked Mark whether he believes that, with the advent of the MP3, genre isn’t as divisive anymore.
“Yeah, genre is dead,” Mark Hoppus said. “(Lil) Wayne put on such a great show. He toured with a rock band, they were all shredding musicians, all awesome people.
“His crew were awesome. You never know when you book a tour if you will get along with another band or if everything will be really cool and it just felt like home.”
Commenting on the difficulties blink-182 had recording ‘Nine’, Mark said: “We started off and we wrote a handful of songs but we weren’t really planning on writing a record yet.
“It was just ‘Oh, we’re off a tour and we have some time, let’s get into the studio and start throwing some ideas around.’ We came up with a handful of really great songs and then I kinda feel like we fell into a rut and we had conversations as a band that none of us were feeling a lot of the songs and we wanted to do something more ambitious, more far reaching and more genre pushing and completely different.
“We were very blessed on (July 2016’s) ‘California’. We came back from a very difficult time in blink (Tom DeLonge exited in 2015) and kind of went back to the roots of what blink-182, planting our flag ‘ok this is what blink-182 is in 2016, we’ll trip everything and go back to basics’.
blink-182 on stage in 2019
“On that record we had Grammy nominations, it did great in the charts and we had number one singles, and it sold out tours and all kinds of stuff. We went to write this next record and we’re like ‘ok, let’s do the exact opposite of that. Let’s go and make strange music that still has the core of blink-182 but we’re going to pull from modern hip-hop, or we’re going to pull from EDM or Blast Beats, and we’re going to take all these weird influences and sub bases and stuff like this and make an avantgarde blink-182 record’.
“So, I think that’s what we set out to do - and we got to that point - but we had to take a lot of songs out behind the barn and put them down.”
Mark continued: “The great thing about being in blink is we can kind of do what we like and most of the time people give us the benefit of the doubt. And so we can have a song like ‘Generational Divide’, which is 50 seconds of straight punk rock, we can have a song like ‘No Heart to Speak Of’, which is kind of this weird post hardcore song, and then we can have songs like ‘Run Away’, which are more electronics based.”
Matt Skiba also revealed that recording with blink-182 is a much more liberating process than with his previous outfits.
“Most projects that I’ve been involved with there’s somebody that keeps their lyrics and ideas very near and dear and if you don’t like it they take it really personally. It’s common actually,” Matt said.
“It’s more uncommon if there’s a relationship like Mark and Travis (Barker) and I have – we’d never intentionally hurt each other’s feelings or whatever, we just want what’s best for the record. Mark and I are the first ones to say ‘this is an idea, it may be a good one or not. Who knows?’ I am blessed that I’m at a point of my life where I’ve got past that. I know Mark has too. You just want what’s going to work.”
Alongside talking about their own music, Mark and Matt also cherry-picked some of their favourite songs to be played on Pete’s show, including The Cars’ ‘Just What I Needed’, AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’ and Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’.
Reflecting upon their final choice, The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’, Mark said it was “incredible” the Fab Four achieved so much in a recording career of just seven years.
“All those iconic songs that changed rock and roll and music and popular culture forever is written by these four guys in a period of less than a decade,” Mark said. “It’s insane.”
blink-182 through the years:
1992
blink-182 were formed in 1992, when Tom DeLonge entered a Battle of the Bands competition at high school and met drummer Scott Raynor. After befriending a fellow musician named Kerry Key and his girlfriend Anne Hoppus, she then introduced her brother Mark - and the rest, as they say, is history.
blink-182's Mark Hoppus says music genres are dead
2 of 17
blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker
2022
The news every blink fan had been waiting to hear... Original member Tom DeLonge has reunited with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, with the trio announcing a 2023 UK arena tour. The band also released brand new music in the form of their track 'Edging' on 14th October 2022.
1992
blink-182 were formed in 1992, when Tom DeLonge entered a Battle of the Bands competition at high school and met drummer Scott Raynor. After befriending a fellow musician named Kerry Key and his girlfriend Anne Hoppus, she then introduced her brother Mark - and the rest, as they say, is history.
1993-1995
Between 1993 and 1995, the band began recording a lot of music. They released two demo tapes in 1993 - Flyswatter and Demo No.2 - and in 1994 recorded their debut album, 'Cheshire Cat', as well as performing their first big gig. The album was released in 1995 and embarked on their first national tour.
1996-1997
After a lot of touring, blink started work on a second album, and also signed to their first major label - MCA, who also looked after artists like Boston, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd and New Found Glory. The second album, 'Dude Ranch', was released in 1997 and was certified Platinum in the US, spawning singles 'Dammit' and 'Josie'.
1998
In 1998, Scott left the band, and Travis Barker - drummer for the band's tour-mates The Aquabats - stepped in, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes. He joined the band full time in July.
blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Travis Baker and Tom DeLonge back in the day
1999
The band released their third album, 'Enema of the State', in 1999 - the first with Travis installed as the drummer. It was their most successful album to date, being certified 5× Platinum in the US and Platinum in the UK. It included singles like 'What's My Age Again?' and 'All the Small Things'.
2000-2001
They spent 2000 touring heavily, which included their first big headline tour, and in 2001 released 'Take Off Your Pants and Jacket'. It had some of blink's most well-known songs like 'First Date', 'The Rock Show' and 'Stay Together for the Kids'. Travis and Tom also formed side-project Box Car Racer with guitarist David Kennedy.
2002-2005
blink went on a co-headlining tour in 2002 with Green Day, and Travis and Tom each spent time on separate side-projects. They returned to the studio in 2003 to make their self-titled fifth album, and co-headline a tour with No Doubt in 2004. Sadly, the trio disbanded in 2005 after Tom DeLonge quit, leaving fans all over the world devastated.
2005-2009: Side-projects
Travis and Mark formed new band +44, whilst Tom announced his own, Angels & Airwaves. +44 was made up of Travis and Mark, as well as guitarists Shane Gallagher from The Nervous Return and Craig Fairbaugh of Mercy Killers. They had successful singles like 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' and 'Cliffdiving'.
Angels & Airwaves
Tom formed Angels & Airwaves with Ryan Sinn, Atom Willard and David Kennedy in 2005, releasing successful singles 'The Adventure' and 'Everything's Magic'. Tom continued to work with the band even when blink reunited in 2009.
2009-2011
Tom, Travis and Mark reunited in 2009 following Travis' involvement in a near-fatal plane crash. He said at the Grammys, "We used to play music together, and we decided we're going to play music together again." They embarked on a Greatest Hits tour and put out sixth album 'Neighborhoods' two years later in 2011.
2012
After 'Neighborhoods' failed to perform as well as expected, the band admitted that it wasn't their "best effort", and split from their label Interscope. Mark told MTV News, "It's a very exciting time here. I feel like our band is in the best place it's been in a long time." They also released an EP entitled 'Dogs Eating Dogs' in December and reveal a seventh album is on the way.
2013
Sadly, the band don't make any progress on the seventh album, and Travis' fear of flying keeps him from being able to tour with the band in Australia, being replaced by Brooks Wackerman. Cracks began to show in the band once again after Travis had a Twitter argument about his no-show in Australia, and Tom and Mark even discussed kicking him out of the band.
2015-2016
Vocalist and guitarist Tom departed the group in 2015, and was replaced by Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba, and the band released seventh album 'California' in 2016. The album, which featured tracks such as 'Bored to Death' and 'She's Out of Her Mind', became their first Number 1 single since 2001 and even earned them a Grammy nomination.
2017-2018
The band spent most of the next two years touring, and also produced a deluxe version of 'California'. They played at various festivals and had a massive UK tour in 2017, and even had a residency at Las Vegas in 2018 entitled Kings of the Weekend.
2019
In 2019, Mark revealed that the band's eighth album was on the way, and was more 'aggressive' and 'darker' than their previous work.
2019
Mark also got to work forming a new group with Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low. Their first EP, 'Strange Love', was released on 29th March.
blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker
2022
The news every blink fan had been waiting to hear... Original member Tom DeLonge has reunited with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, with the trio announcing a 2023 UK arena tour. The band also released brand new music in the form of their track 'Edging' on 14th October 2022.
1992
blink-182 were formed in 1992, when Tom DeLonge entered a Battle of the Bands competition at high school and met drummer Scott Raynor. After befriending a fellow musician named Kerry Key and his girlfriend Anne Hoppus, she then introduced her brother Mark - and the rest, as they say, is history.
1993-1995
Between 1993 and 1995, the band began recording a lot of music. They released two demo tapes in 1993 - Flyswatter and Demo No.2 - and in 1994 recorded their debut album, 'Cheshire Cat', as well as performing their first big gig. The album was released in 1995 and embarked on their first national tour.
1996-1997
After a lot of touring, blink started work on a second album, and also signed to their first major label - MCA, who also looked after artists like Boston, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd and New Found Glory. The second album, 'Dude Ranch', was released in 1997 and was certified Platinum in the US, spawning singles 'Dammit' and 'Josie'.
1998
In 1998, Scott left the band, and Travis Barker - drummer for the band's tour-mates The Aquabats - stepped in, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes. He joined the band full time in July.
blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Travis Baker and Tom DeLonge back in the day
1999
The band released their third album, 'Enema of the State', in 1999 - the first with Travis installed as the drummer. It was their most successful album to date, being certified 5× Platinum in the US and Platinum in the UK. It included singles like 'What's My Age Again?' and 'All the Small Things'.
2000-2001
They spent 2000 touring heavily, which included their first big headline tour, and in 2001 released 'Take Off Your Pants and Jacket'. It had some of blink's most well-known songs like 'First Date', 'The Rock Show' and 'Stay Together for the Kids'. Travis and Tom also formed side-project Box Car Racer with guitarist David Kennedy.
2002-2005
blink went on a co-headlining tour in 2002 with Green Day, and Travis and Tom each spent time on separate side-projects. They returned to the studio in 2003 to make their self-titled fifth album, and co-headline a tour with No Doubt in 2004. Sadly, the trio disbanded in 2005 after Tom DeLonge quit, leaving fans all over the world devastated.
2005-2009: Side-projects
Travis and Mark formed new band +44, whilst Tom announced his own, Angels & Airwaves. +44 was made up of Travis and Mark, as well as guitarists Shane Gallagher from The Nervous Return and Craig Fairbaugh of Mercy Killers. They had successful singles like 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' and 'Cliffdiving'.
Angels & Airwaves
Tom formed Angels & Airwaves with Ryan Sinn, Atom Willard and David Kennedy in 2005, releasing successful singles 'The Adventure' and 'Everything's Magic'. Tom continued to work with the band even when blink reunited in 2009.
2009-2011
Tom, Travis and Mark reunited in 2009 following Travis' involvement in a near-fatal plane crash. He said at the Grammys, "We used to play music together, and we decided we're going to play music together again." They embarked on a Greatest Hits tour and put out sixth album 'Neighborhoods' two years later in 2011.
2012
After 'Neighborhoods' failed to perform as well as expected, the band admitted that it wasn't their "best effort", and split from their label Interscope. Mark told MTV News, "It's a very exciting time here. I feel like our band is in the best place it's been in a long time." They also released an EP entitled 'Dogs Eating Dogs' in December and reveal a seventh album is on the way.
2013
Sadly, the band don't make any progress on the seventh album, and Travis' fear of flying keeps him from being able to tour with the band in Australia, being replaced by Brooks Wackerman. Cracks began to show in the band once again after Travis had a Twitter argument about his no-show in Australia, and Tom and Mark even discussed kicking him out of the band.
2015-2016
Vocalist and guitarist Tom departed the group in 2015, and was replaced by Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba, and the band released seventh album 'California' in 2016. The album, which featured tracks such as 'Bored to Death' and 'She's Out of Her Mind', became their first Number 1 single since 2001 and even earned them a Grammy nomination.
2017-2018
The band spent most of the next two years touring, and also produced a deluxe version of 'California'. They played at various festivals and had a massive UK tour in 2017, and even had a residency at Las Vegas in 2018 entitled Kings of the Weekend.
2019
In 2019, Mark revealed that the band's eighth album was on the way, and was more 'aggressive' and 'darker' than their previous work.
2019
Mark also got to work forming a new group with Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low. Their first EP, 'Strange Love', was released on 29th March.
blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker
2022
The news every blink fan had been waiting to hear... Original member Tom DeLonge has reunited with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, with the trio announcing a 2023 UK arena tour. The band also released brand new music in the form of their track 'Edging' on 14th October 2022.
Matt added: “Classical music aside, but rock music it seems like it comes from the simplest, most seemingly unromantic places. It’s just simple. I think that’s what the heart of rock and roll is.
“Even The Beatles, as genius and as groundbreaking as they were, it was four guys with instruments. Pretty simple. They just made something completely wild and new and changed music forever with it.”
blink-182's new album 'Nine' is out now.
You can listen to Hartlepool’s prodigal son, Pete Donaldson, from Monday to Thursday at 10pm on Absolute Radio.
