September 26, 2011 7:47

Blink-182's Mark Hoppus: 'I'm surprised it took so long for 'Neighborhoods' to leak'

Co-frontman also reveals his favourite song on the band's new LP

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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:

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.

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