Blink-182: Warped Again

By Jess Redmon

Blink-182 have returned with their follow up to "Dude Ranch" in the form ofthe smart and surprising "Enema Of The State." I recently sat down withsinger/bass player Mark Hoppus at this year's Warped Tour.

JNBC: So, you guys are hitting it big on Total Request Live now? What'sthe vibe?

Mark: Life's good, it's normal. We're on the Warped Tour and people calland say you're #5 on Total Request Live or your single is #3 in the nation orwhatever. To hear it, it's super cool, but it's like we're on tour right now anddoing the Warped Tour, so it's pretty much the same as its always been. Ithasn't affected our lives much, maybe if we were at home it would sink in alittle more. I'm so stroke, I couldn't be happier to be honest with you.

JNBC: What made you guys decide to jump on the Warped Tour?

Mark: We've done the Warped Tour a couple times before and it's a lot offun and it puts you in front of a bunch of people who might not usually beexposed to your band. The bands are the good and we're glad to be a partof it.

JNBC: Everyone's asking about "What's My Age Again?" What's the storythere?

Mark: It's about being in your twenties and acting like you're an idiot andstill in high school, which is what we are, so it's basically about us.

JNBC: Is Warped Tour basically a summercamp for you guys?

Mark: The Warped Tour is a great place to have fun for the Summer.

JNBC: Any movie plans with Janine (porn star seen on the cover of "EnemaOf The State" and in the video for "What's My Age Again?") ?

Mark: No, she only does girls actually. She only has sex with other girlsand she's really good at it, so I'm going to leave her at her own devices.Even if she did guys, I'd probably be the biggest let down she ever had andI'd just embarrass myself, so I'm going to try not to do that.

JNBC: How did you guys hook up?

Mark: We called Vivid and asked if we could use one of their girls for thecover of the record and we picked Janine and she said yeah and we paidher a bunch of money and came out and did the video and the record cover.

JNBC: Who came up with the concept of the video?

Mark: The director Marcos actually came up with the idea of us runningnaked and we said yeah, sure. So we did it over 3 days in Los Angeles.

JNBC: How do you think "Enema Of The State" differs from some of yourother stuff?

Mark: I think it's a little better written, I think it's better recorded, I thinkthe lyrics are better. It all comes from the same place and it's all in the samevein, but I think it's the next step for us.

JNBC: Were there a lot of things that affected you guys between records?

Mark: We just had more time and more money to spend in the studio thistime and we spent 3 months in the studio, opposed to a month on the lastone. We made a real effort to try everything we wanted to. Every idea wehad we gave a chance. That's the real thing about recording is just tryingdifferent things and seeing what works and we had the time to do that thistime.

JNBC: Favorite songs on the record?

Mark: "What's My Age Again?" I like a lot. I don't know, it's like pickingbetween your kids. They're all different and they all have their strong andweak points. I'd be hard pressed to say which is my favorite.

JNBC: What kind of stuff are you guys listening to now?

Mark: Right now actually the new Limp Bizkit, we always listen to a bandcalled Jimmy Eat World. Travis just bought a bunch of new hip-hop CDswe've been listening to. Actually we don't listen to music all that much on thebus, especially after Warped Tour. You watch 30 bands play a day and thelast thing you want to do is put on music. We'll watch music and stuff, beenwatching Friday a lot. I hear there's going to be another Friday called NextFriday

JNBC: What's an average day like on the Warped Tour?

Mark: Wake up, try and find the bathroom, try and find something to eat,figure out what time you play, start watching bands and hanging out, play,hang out until you leave. Have a barbecue.

JNBC: Is it nice to touch a different audience now with exposure on MTVand radio with "What's My Age Again?" and before with "Dammitt."

Mark: Yeah, the younger is getting younger. The audience is widening. Ouroriginal fans are getting older and the newcoming fans are getting younger.It's kind of cool. Hopefully what will happen is that people will hear the onesong, go buy the record, get into the whole record and get stoked on theband as a whole.

JNBC: What are your plans after Warped Tour?

Mark: I think we're going to go to Europe for a while. I think we're actuallygoing to take a month after Warped Tour, go to Europe and do another USTour.

JNBC: So are things turning out how you wanted to for this record?

Mark: Oh way better than we thought. There were a lot of people asking ifwe felt a lot of pressure to top the success of "Dude Ranch" and we reallymade a conscience effort to not try and compete against ourselves and bumourselves out, to just make the best record we could. We're really stokedabout how things are going for this album.

JNBC: Anything you want to tell the fans out there?

Mark: Always make sure you call before you dig. You don't want to hit anypowerlines. Also check out our web site loserkids.com

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