Mark Hoppus Reveals More Blink-182 Goodies

I've really loved the last two Blink albums, bit it would be cool to see the band try a different producer out. Feldman is great but I constantly think vocals on a lot of his albums sound really weird at times.

 

Pretty cool that we'll be getting an additional seven songs, especially if the hype about them "getting back to their roots" is cool.

Hopefully they cut "Quarantine" from the tracklist. That song is cool for what it is, but it feels like it's meant to be a sort of novelty throwaway track. Don't get me wrong, it does it's job well. It's fast, it feels urgent and sincere, it's catchy... But I don't see myself listening to it beyond this summer.

As a stand-alone single, it's cool. But it would probably weigh down a full EP. Especially if it were anywhere early in the track listing.

Too, I always find it a bit strange when somebody at Mark Hoppus' level says they'd love to work with another person who would be relatively easy to get ahold of and work with. Like, if you really want to work with them just make it happen? I know it's not that easy, but you gotta figure they could make that happen if they really wanted to.

Regardless: There is nothing I would want more from this band than a "back to basics" Blink album produced by Bill Stevenson. They've experimented plenty (to varied degrees of success) and I'm into it, but I'd love that.

 

I don't understand why (I'm guessing it's stuff behind the scenes) Blink seem to have such trouble committing to firm release dates.

Bill Stevenson would be a very good fit for them IMO. There was a period of time when I and a few others would be worried he'd just make them sound like Rise Against, but I think he's shown he has a distinct sound without compromising the distinct identities of the bands he produces now.

That said, I feel the band are comfortable with Feldmann so I would expect him to still be the producer - or certainly involved in demos - in the short-term.

 

To be honest, I don't think Rise Against from the last decade is a very good example of what Bill Stevenson's "signature sound" is. That was already developed by the time he started producing their major label albums... I doubt he was sitting there in the studio going, "Okay, guys! Let's write another song that sounds like alt-rock radio in Ohio!" If anything he probably just offered suggestions to tweak the songs/make them catchier and makes sure the guitars were super punched up. He really specializes in making sure the listener hears the sounds of every instrument, and in particular making sure the guitars sound nice and punchy.

Like you said, though, I think stepping away from Feldmann would be good for Blink. Especially if they want to do some "back to roots" stuff where they won't rely so much on additional instruments, synths, etc. But I think they use Feldy more as a "fourth member" than an actual producer at this point. You can hear his songwriting all over a bunch of the songs on the last two albums.

 

California was good...Nine was garbage. My .02

 

Nine is leaps and bounds ahead of California.

 

backwards

 

I believe Mark clarified that "Quarantine" will be on the EP