BLINK 182 are considering a new electronic direction for their latest studio album, set for release this summer.
The pop/punk trio from San Diego will spend the next five months in the studio writing and recording tracks for the as yet-untitled album and will be working again with Jerry Finn, producer on 2001’s ‘Take Off Your Pants And Jacket’.
In an interview with MTV News, Mark Hoppus hinted that the band might stray from straight-up frat-punk and start using electronic loops and keyboards: “I think that the next record will surprise a lot of people, including me,” he said. “We want to do something really dynamic… we want to try different effects in the studio, try different instruments, try different sounds, different arrangements on songs. Before, we got one guitar sound that we changed a little bit through the record. This time we want to try a whole different set-up for each song.”
The band’s new direction has been heavily influenced by the latest album by Bad Astronaut – the punk supergroup including members of Lagwagon, Nerf Herder and Sugarcult.
All three members of Blink 182 have indulged in side-projects since the release of their last album, leading some fans to think that the band had run their course. Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker formed Box Car Racer, and recorded an album for MCA last year, and spent several months touring with Utah punk/metal outfit The Used. Hoppus, meanwhile, appeared in the television series of ‘Haunted’, playing a reclusive mountain man.
Speaking to www.billboard.com, DeLonge dismissed any rumours of a split: “People are always coming to assumptions that there is some weird thing going on with Blink but there is nothing [more] than we just wanted to play some different music in our spare time. That’s it.”
The band have rented a house in San Diego for the recording of the album and fans can watch the sessions live via webcams on www.blink182.com.