Friday 28 October 2011
Wednesday 12 October 2011
Blink-182: 'The air was so thick around us you could cut it with a knife'
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has spoken about the acrimonous way in which the band split up in 2005.
The band, who released 'Neighborhoods', their first new album for eight years, last month, split in 2005 after guitarist Tom DeLonge quit and Barker has now revealed that they were at each others' throats for months before DeLonge announced his departure.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, the drummer blamed tour burnout, saying: "You're playing shows every day and you're doing tour after tour like we were 10 years ago, and there's no communication. Everyone's burnt. The air was so thick around us back in the day you could cut it with a knife. It was so bad right before we broke up."
The drummer also said that, after Mark Hoppus and DeLonge came to visit him in the days after his 2008 plane crash, they reconnected instantly, despite having not spoken for some time.
He added:
The band, who released 'Neighborhoods', their first new album for eight years, last month, split in 2005 after guitarist Tom DeLonge quit and Barker has now revealed that they were at each others' throats for months before DeLonge announced his departure.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, the drummer blamed tour burnout, saying: "You're playing shows every day and you're doing tour after tour like we were 10 years ago, and there's no communication. Everyone's burnt. The air was so thick around us back in the day you could cut it with a knife. It was so bad right before we broke up."The drummer also said that, after Mark Hoppus and DeLonge came to visit him in the days after his 2008 plane crash, they reconnected instantly, despite having not spoken for some time.
He added:
When we look back now, after my crash when Tom and Mark finally came to my house, about 30 seconds went by and Tom and Mark are telling dick jokes. It's like, 'Look, you dickheads didn't talk to each other for six years and now everything's completely fine.' You realise how petty some of the shit was we were all fighting over.
Asked if Hoppus and DeLonge had been able to rebuild their close friendship after the acrimony of the band's break up, Barker replied that though he'd never seen anyone as close as Hoppus and DeLonge once were, relations were still pretty good.
He said:
Well, those two were like husband and wife back in the day. I'd always tell them that I'd never seen two males that weren't homosexual so close. And no diss to homosexual people. I like heterosexual people, homosexual people, whatever. But I'd never seen two friends so close or anything like how Mark and Tom were. I always played the middle between them. And I still do. I'm really close to Mark and I'm really close to Tom. It's like a couple, but there's three of us.http://www.nme.com/news/blink-182/59753
Tuesday 4 October 2011
Blink-182's Travis Barker: 'I am considering hypnotherapy so I can fly again'
Blink-182's Travis Barker has revealed he is considering hypnotherapy to overcome his fear of flying following a plane crash in 2008, which claimed the lives of his two friends.
The drummer suffered severe burns after he stumbled out of a blazing jet which burst into flames after failing to take-off in South Carolina, and he spent months in recovery.
He still refuses to fly anywhere and admits his phobia has become a big problem in his professional life. "Unfortunately I can't do as much touring as I would like because I don't fly," he said. "It's an obstacle. I'm working on it though.
"I'm trying to get hypnotised, trying to talk to a doctor who retrains your brain. Maybe he'll help me fly again one day."
The sticksman also admitted that the accident made him more health conscious and it helped him overcome a painkiller addiction.
He told Rolling Stone: "I run every day now. I never ran before. In the hospital, I promised myself that if I ever walked again, that I would eat well and swim every day."
Barker went on: "I've been vegan since I got out of the hospital... and before the plane crash, I was battling a painkiller addiction. For years.
"I can proudly say I didn't even take any pain medication after I got out of the hospital. They told me I'd be on some of the medicine for the rest of my life, but I got off all of them. They made me a completely different person."
http://www.nme.com/news/blink-182/59558
The drummer suffered severe burns after he stumbled out of a blazing jet which burst into flames after failing to take-off in South Carolina, and he spent months in recovery.
He still refuses to fly anywhere and admits his phobia has become a big problem in his professional life. "Unfortunately I can't do as much touring as I would like because I don't fly," he said. "It's an obstacle. I'm working on it though.
"I'm trying to get hypnotised, trying to talk to a doctor who retrains your brain. Maybe he'll help me fly again one day."The sticksman also admitted that the accident made him more health conscious and it helped him overcome a painkiller addiction.
He told Rolling Stone: "I run every day now. I never ran before. In the hospital, I promised myself that if I ever walked again, that I would eat well and swim every day."
Barker went on: "I've been vegan since I got out of the hospital... and before the plane crash, I was battling a painkiller addiction. For years.
"I can proudly say I didn't even take any pain medication after I got out of the hospital. They told me I'd be on some of the medicine for the rest of my life, but I got off all of them. They made me a completely different person."
http://www.nme.com/news/blink-182/59558
Blink-182's Mark Hoppus: 'I'm surprised it took so long for 'Neighborhoods' to leak'
Blink-182's Mark Hoppus has said that he was surprised it took so long for the band's new album 'Neighborhoods' to leak out online.
The album, which is formally released today (September 26), appeared online in the early part of last week and Hoppus said that while the band hoped the leak wouldn't put people off buying the album, he was more relieved that people liked the album than annoyed it had leaked.
Speaking to NME, the bassist responded to a question about whether he was annoyed about the leaks by saying: "It wasn't that annoying. I expected it to leak, I'm surprised it took so long to leak. I'd have been a lot more upset if people had said they didn't like the record, but there's been so much positive stuff posted online about it, from people who've downloaded it and have now said they can't wait to buy it on CD. I was more relieved that people liked the album than the fact that it leaked."
The album is the band's first for eight years, and their first since they reconciled from an indefinite hiatus. Hoppus admitted that the trio were relieved it was finally coming out.
He said: "After eight years, it's great to finally stop talking about when the next Blink album's coming out and actually enjoy the music. We've worked so hard on this record over the last couple of years and gone through so much to get to this point that we're just so excited to have the album out."
The singer also spoke about his favourite track on the band's new album, revealing that the LP's second track 'Natives' was currently his favourite, but that it changed on a week by week basis.
He said:
The album, which is formally released today (September 26), appeared online in the early part of last week and Hoppus said that while the band hoped the leak wouldn't put people off buying the album, he was more relieved that people liked the album than annoyed it had leaked.
Speaking to NME, the bassist responded to a question about whether he was annoyed about the leaks by saying: "It wasn't that annoying. I expected it to leak, I'm surprised it took so long to leak. I'd have been a lot more upset if people had said they didn't like the record, but there's been so much positive stuff posted online about it, from people who've downloaded it and have now said they can't wait to buy it on CD. I was more relieved that people liked the album than the fact that it leaked." The album is the band's first for eight years, and their first since they reconciled from an indefinite hiatus. Hoppus admitted that the trio were relieved it was finally coming out.
He said: "After eight years, it's great to finally stop talking about when the next Blink album's coming out and actually enjoy the music. We've worked so hard on this record over the last couple of years and gone through so much to get to this point that we're just so excited to have the album out."
The singer also spoke about his favourite track on the band's new album, revealing that the LP's second track 'Natives' was currently his favourite, but that it changed on a week by week basis.
He said:
It changes week by week. Right now, it's 'Natives'. That was one of the last songs we wrote and it was based around a beat that Travis came up with. He was in the studio one day working on an entirely different project and he came up with this beat and got the engineer to record about 30 seconds of it and loop it. Tom and I then went into the studio and pieced the song together. It all went really fast, within two or three hours of hearing the beat we'd written the skeleton of the song and I'd already written the chorus. It was a magical moment in the studio and when I heard that song it makes me happy.
'Neighborhoods' is released today. Blink-182 tour the UK next summer.
To read a new interview with Mark Hoppus, visit NME.com/blogs.
Blink-182, 'Neighborhoods' - First Listen
http://www.nme.com/news/blink-182/59422
Blink-182 stream new album 'Neighborhoods' online in full
Blink-182 are streaming their new album 'Neighborhoods' online in full.
The album was formally released yesterday (September 26), but can be heard in full by heading to Neighborhoods.blink182.com
The band's co-frontman Mark Hoppus has also spoken about the recording of the album and has said that the band have made sure there are no "lame songs" on the record.
The LP has been released in two separate editions, one with a standard 10 tracks and a deluxe edition with 13 tracks on it. But Hoppus has said that he believes the 13-track edition is the record as "it should be heard" and that no song has been added just for the sake of it.
Speaking to NME, the bassist responded to a question about the difference between the two editions by saying: "Even the bonus tracks on this album to me feel like they're part of the record. The deluxe edition is the record as it should be heard. I don't feel like we had ten songs that were good and three songs that we threw on as some kind of lame B-side bonus thing. That's why we re-sequenced the record using those additional songs, because to us they're very much part of the record."
Asked why the band hadn't just released a 13-track album, the bassist responded by saying that it was "standard practice" for bands to offer up two editions of their new album.
He said:
The album was formally released yesterday (September 26), but can be heard in full by heading to Neighborhoods.blink182.com
The band's co-frontman Mark Hoppus has also spoken about the recording of the album and has said that the band have made sure there are no "lame songs" on the record.
The LP has been released in two separate editions, one with a standard 10 tracks and a deluxe edition with 13 tracks on it. But Hoppus has said that he believes the 13-track edition is the record as "it should be heard" and that no song has been added just for the sake of it. Speaking to NME, the bassist responded to a question about the difference between the two editions by saying: "Even the bonus tracks on this album to me feel like they're part of the record. The deluxe edition is the record as it should be heard. I don't feel like we had ten songs that were good and three songs that we threw on as some kind of lame B-side bonus thing. That's why we re-sequenced the record using those additional songs, because to us they're very much part of the record."
Asked why the band hadn't just released a 13-track album, the bassist responded by saying that it was "standard practice" for bands to offer up two editions of their new album.
He said:
I think it's pretty much standard practice now to have a standard and deluxe edition. I think some people are only mildly interested in a band and might only want the standard edition and some are more hardcore fans and will want the B-sides. But, I don't think any of these are B-sides.
Hoppus also spoke about the making of the album, revealing that there were five songs that didn't make the cut for the LP.
Asked how many tracks had been considered for 'Neighborhoods', Hoppus replied: "We probably had 20 songs total, there are about 5 songs that we started working on that didn't make the cut for one reason or another."
'Neighborhoods' was realeased yesterday (September 26). Blink-182 tour the UK next summer.
To read a new interview with Mark Hoppus, visit NME.com/blogs.
Blink-182, 'Neighborhoods' - First Listen
http://www.nme.com/news/blink-182/59446
Sunday 2 October 2011
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