Mark Hoppus talks london life, rapper names and the struggle of Blink-182

With moving to London and the not-so recent reformation of Blink-182,  California’s Mark Hoppus is a man with many things on his decibel-infused plate. He found a spare five minutes to talk to Ed Cooper about The Descendants, struggling with Blink-182 and Chelsea’s start to the season.

How are you finding London life? Have you mastered the tube yet?

The tube? Oh yeah. Absolutely. The tube’s easy! I love it here, it’s absolutely great, it’s really different to anything that I’m used to. It’s completely foreign from living in Southern California. I don’t have to have a car; I have to have a jacket! Things are different.

A lot of bands list Blink-182 as their main source of inspiration. How does it feel to be a third of that?

It feels great! I mean, it’s a giant compliment when a band says we inspired them. I feel a little strange, because I feel we’re still trying to figure out what our sound is, we’re still being inspired by other artists. We’re still trying to figure it out ourselves.

Two of those bands are Bad Religion and The Descendants. Have you ever had a chance to thank them?

Absolutely.

You, Travis and Tom all have very different music tastes. You with your indie-rock, Travis with is hip-hop and Tom with his stadium rock. Has this ever had a negative effect? Especially with when it comes to writing.

Always. Well, not a bad effect. I mean, it’s always a struggle between the three of us, especially when it comes to getting our ideas together. Yet it’s that exact struggle that makes Blink-182 special, when we do the work. When the band broke up, we resented those differences. Now, we recognise this and appreciate those differences.

Did the departure of Scott – Blink’s first drummer – in 1998 and Travis’ introduction help kick start the band?

Well I think that when Travis joined the band, we really found our sound. It’s different from the sound Scott brought. I felt that Scott’s sound was appropriate for what we were writing previous to that. When Travis joined, we entered a whole new chapter.

Fair enough. How was it recording Neighbourhoods in separate studios? Was it a lot more difficult compared to previous records?

It was very different. It wasn’t more difficult, it just allowed for a lot more experimentation. It allowed for a lot more time being taken to figure out the parts. The difficulty – I guess – was keeping the immediacy of music, and keeping it as it should be – three guys in a room, playing music together.

Is this what we can expect for future albums?

Yes and no. It’ll be like the process we used on Neighbourhoods, where we were together for a lot of the time, but we worked separately on a lot of it too. Somehow that worked!

Can we expect a third Urethra Chronicles?

We’re doing a documentary – The Blinkumentary. It’s about the reformation of the band.

Obviously Blink-182 is one of the biggest bands on the planet. Is it hard to juggle family life and Blink-life?

No, it’s not hard. It’s a struggle. There’s a lot of me leaving my family, which sucks. But it’s the price of being in a band.

Can you ever listen to a Blink-182 song recreationally, rather than just analytically?

Now I can. Never when we’re recording can I listen to anything objectively in any way at all.  I couldn’t listen to Neighbourhoodsobjectively until about three weeks ago. I love it.

You like Yuck and The Naked and Famous. Have they influence you in any way? Or just your iPod?

All music influences me. I’ve listened to The Naked and Famous album a lot, I’m sure it’ll come through on my music somehow.

How was it recording with City (Comma) State?

It was fun! It was fun working with friends and I wish it went somewhere and did something, because it’s a really cool song.

What’s happening with +44?

We haven’t let it go; we’ve just let it sit. I love that band; I love the record that we wrote together. But with Blink-182 right now, there’s just no time. We’re not saying that it’s done, we’re just letting it sit.

The New York Times called Blink-182 the most influential pop-punk band of the ‘90s. All modesty aside, do you agree?

I think it was a huge compliment for them to say that. I would never say that myself, but seeing as they said it, I will continue to repeat their assertions until the day I die.

On a lighter note, you coined yourself the rapper name ‘Young Heezy’. What would Tom and Travis get?

Tom would get ‘The Wizard’, because he’s so way out. Then Travis is just Travis.

Can we expect more songs similar to ‘Happy Holidays You Bastard’?

Yeah, totally! We play that on tour almost every night.

Being a big Chelsea fan, what do you think of their start to their season?

I’m a brand new fan, I’m still learning all about it. But I feel like they have a lot of talent, a lot of great players, but they need to figure out a way to get them all to play together. It seems they’re all playing as individuals, rather than as a cohesive team.

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