American rock band Blink-182 recently announced the departure of their frontman Tom Delonge due to ‘internal conflicts’ within the band and drummer Travis Barker has not held back when it comes to how he feels about his (ex)fellow band member and his intentions. (via NME)
In an interview with Youtuber Mr.Wavvy, Barker states how Tom Delonge wanted the group to sound more like U2 and Coldplay on their last album and he certainly didn’t hold back saying Delonge was “basically just tapped out of ideas” and was “being extremely difficult” before his departure of the band.
“Mark [Hoppus] and I never wanted to change,” he explained, saying that DeLonge wanted to switch-up Blink-182’s youthful sound. “The last couple of albums, Tom wanted to sound like U2, to record songs that basically sound like Coldplay.” The drummer made sure he conveyed his precise emotions towards the situation, defending the origins and unique sound of the band that brought them to their fame in the first place.
“For us, we were always like ‘Blink is Blink, man. We want to sound like f**king Blink-182,’” he continued. “That’s what side-projects are for. I love Blink for what it is. We love Blink and we love the sound of Blink.”
The band replaced Tom DeLonge with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba last year to continue the legacy of the pop-punk trio. Barker reffered to Skiba as “the only person that could fill in for DeLonge and that the new music they were in the process of recording for the new album “sounds different but still the same”. He describes their music as “eternal youth for a lot of fans” and is adamant for the band to stay true to their roots, he promises that the new material will still convey eternal youth and the true Blink 182 sound with a refreshing twist.
In an interview with NME last year, Barker admitted that things are obviously not the same but that it’s okay because the new music they have produced is just a development of the true Blink 182 sound: “Obviously, it’s Matt Skiba singing so there’s hints of Alkaline Trio, or at least Matt’s contributions to Alkaline Trio, mixed with my drumming and Mark’s voice and stuff. It’s really cool and I really love what we’ve done so far.”
So will the bands new material continue the Blink 182 pop-punk legacy or will 1/3rd of the original Blink 182 trio make all the difference to the sound they became well known for? Watch the full interview down below:
