Blink-182 [ARCHIVED] Band • Page 1383

I tried explaining this on the AVA FB Group when they were up in arms by songwriters but they all got mad at me and told me I was “making up a conspiracy.”

 

Facts are conspiracy! Just like the REAL Tom DeLonge would think.

 

We all know conspiracies are dumb.

 

I dunno man, working with one producer (Jerry Finn) is a lot different than having multiple different song writers credited on every track on the newer stuff. I'm sure there were other people in the studio with Jerry back then but I would assume they were engineers. I don't think you can reasonably make the argument it's the same thing. Jerry was considered by the band to be the "4th member" of blink and I don't think they feel that way about any of these new co-writers except maybe Feldmann.

I'm not knocking them using co-writers I just think its a false equivalency to say it's the same thing they did before with Jerry.

Also, Travis def. talks about in his book I believe how he didn't have songwriting credit on Enema initially. My guess is they fixed that mistake somewhere down the line. He made sure he got credit on TOYPAJ. That being said, Travis joined the band when Mark & Tom were already flirting with mainstream success and probably wanted to be sure Travis was in it for the long haul after what happened with Scott. I can see both sides of that situation.

 

Lol brave trying to explain anything to anybody on FB. I won't even touch blink fan groups on there haha

 

Yeah Travis' talks about it in his book. He was viewed as a touring drummer for Enema and TMTATS albums. When production on TOYPAJ started Travis basically told them he would sit out the sessions unless he was credited and Tom and Mark quickly said no problem to it.

 

I have no idea why I decided a few months back to actually engage. I remained in the group to fuel my hatred but never comment, which I suppose is also the primary reason why I'm in my town's FB group and read comments on FB posts. But yeah, FB is the worst of the worst I think.

 

blink fans are also furious about the songwriter situation, too.

 

LINK:
Enema of the State :: NEW Limited edition signed and authenticated album cover art prints

 

Casual £480

 

I just checked and Wikipedia states that Travis wasn't credited and I think the citation comes from Travis book I think.

So either Wiki is wrong or they gave him the rights share after.

Either way glad it's not the case. It would be very unfair for the dude.

 

I think Jerry Finn being credited as a writer is different from having different people working on the record.

I'm not saying the current setup is bad but it's not the same.

For example, the Heaven demo wouldn't happen before. That demo was someone outside of the band jamming with Travis and then they picked that and worked on the song.

Before that the band jammed and wrote the songs (or the rough version of the songs) and then in the studio Finn would give his input or whatever. It's different. Sure, Finn could be considered a co-writer but it's a different situation compared to their current setup.

This is not a knock against the band but I acting like it's the same as being in the studio with Finn or how their process worked is not really accurate.

Also, regarding Enema, if they wanted to "protect" themselves from giving a writing share to Travis maybe don't involve him in writing then. Even if he had bailed after that record the dude helped write the songs so they should've given him a percentage from the start.

 

Whispers: it wasn’t just Jerry in the studio with the band.

 

The band obviously goes about the recording process much different in 2019 than they did in say 1999, Mark said so himself. However most of this post is pure speculation on your part because none of us know for sure what Jerry Finn or anyone else contributed to the band during those or any recording sessions. We don't know how hands on people were or even are today.

There are known instants where Finn gave them song ideas (Easy Target, All Of This for example) or lines for songs (What Went Wrong) yet wasn't given writing credits where fast forward to 2016 Patrick Stamp was given a writing credit for Sober because he came up with the four leaf clover line (although to be fair we don't know what else he contributed to that song if anything at all). What's the difference with Finn suggesting to Tom to use "Kicking out fiercly at the world around me" and Stump's "I'm a dandelion, you're a four leaf clover"?

Another good example of how different things were back then is that Scott Raynor helped write Mutt and even recorded an earlier version of the song for a soundtrack back in 1998 but wasn't given any credit for the song on Enema.

 

Patrick Stamp

 

We don't need to whisper.

 

Hey I had it right the 2nd time.

 

Not sure if that's a confused gif or what haha.

 

Tom Delonge Opens Up About Divorce, Fatherhood, and, Oh Yeah, Aliens

 

I'm a massive fan of both producers, but I think there’s a lil partisanship polluting the conversation about the working methods with Jerry and John Feldmann.


Feldmann literally composes chords and melodies for his clients, with themes and vibe concepts outlined that the artist contributes the topline to. Literally CO-writing the songs. He’s a great songwriter and that’s why people like working with him. There’s a podcast interview w John from the California era where he plays a voice memo of one of his ideas they didn’t use. I’ll try and find it today.

With Blink and Feldmann, we have the catalogues of Blink, Goldfinger and AK3 to reference and to my ears you can kinda pick out the contributions of the various parties based on dorky music things like melodic and harmonic habits, intervalic habits, habits of vocal meter etc.


To my knowledge, that’s not how Jerry worked. The closest anecdotes to a “co-write” I’m aware of is the "What Went Wrong" line and that “Easy Target” and “All of This” are based on his childhood experience. But he didn’t write the lyrics, did he? I want to say there’s a clip of them discussing this in the studio but I can’t remember.

When I listen to the Jerry discog (aka ever single day of my life) the things I hear that scream "Jerry" are

- his heavenly tones

- his drum treatment, specifically his kick and snare sounds, and his ambience habits.

- his compressor habits; slower attack times than a lot of other rock mixers, pulling the groove into that deep pocket, as opposed to the flat 2-d sound of fast attack/fast release. Dude also really made LA3A’s his own. The way he got his comps to grab transients is so very Jerry; you can hear it on the Blink/Sum41/FenixTX shit, Morrissey, Rancid, Pennywise, Fastball, PUSA, Liars Academy, The Living End...I mean all the way back to the Ill Repute record he mixed it's THAT compressor impact. To me this is the most defining "Jerry" thing.

- his fondness for production tricks (all the reverse swells on Enema, the tape flange on Fenix TX’s “A Song For Everyone”), all the ear candy on Good Mourning and Crimson with the bells and gongs and such. That shit gets cheesy easy, but he always made it work fer me.

- his knack for inventive arrangements and preference for simplicity.


I can imagine what most of the Enema songs would have sounded like if they were on Dude Ranch; I’m not hearing anything in the songwriting that’s terribly different, except that it’s tightened up and streamlined.

If somebody were to ask what a song written by John Feldmann sounds like I could describe it, but I don’t know what a Jerry Finn written song sounds like.

 

like Roger Joseph Manning Jr who definitely contributed

 

It would be real cool if somebody reached out to Mark or Roger Manning or Mike Fasano or Joe McGrath or Sean O'Dwyer or whoever to solicit some clarity on Jerry's involvement with songwriting.

 

Also, Ken Andrews contributed on a few songs on Untitled. (found this, pretty cool: Failure's Ken Andrews on the Absurdity of Hair Metal)
Sick Jacken wrote The Fallen Interlude with Travis too.
I mean, of course there are differences between their work with Jerry and now, but it's not like they never did something of that nature before.