You didn’t think blink-182 would roll out their new album without an “Adam’s Song”/”Stay Together for the Kids”-style power ballad, did you? Well good, because the album is two days away and they’ve just released one called “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got,” which is also the album’s sixth single. It’s got those classic clean blink guitar arpeggios and somber Mark vocals in the verses, and an explosive Tom & Mark-sung chorus. I also think it might be one of my favorite songs I’ve heard from this album so far. Check it out below.
They also finally revealed the album cover, which they had been keeping under wraps until now, and you can see that below too. The full Zane Lowe interview out today too, and here’s an excerpt of Tom talking about when his role was filled by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba:
I think Matt is epic. I’ve always loved Matt as a songwriter. Alkaline Trio is a f***ing great band and he’s a really rad guy, so I was never bummed on it. I really wanted these guys to be happy and be successful. I had a lot of things for myself that I was trying to conquer. A lot of personal stuff going on that I had to get through that was difficult. I had a lot of stuff with the government I was doing that I found myself in these weird oceans that I didn’t know really how to navigate, that I was doing my best. I had other works of art that I wanted to do with film and so on, so I felt really busy. I definitely didn’t want to hold these guys back in any kind of way. I just want to be happy because I still loved them. And like Mark said, I wasn’t sure if we were going to play together again or not. I remember telling my wife now, I told her, “I don’t think I’m ever going to play music again. I’ll keep making records and put them out, whatever.” I literally said, “I don’t think I’m ever going to tour again,” until Mark told me he was sick. And then I was like, that was the only thing I wanted to do. And it’s funny how when those things happen… So sometimes you need these big spiritual moments in your life that really chop you down to ground zero and you rebuild, lose the ego, lose all the weird stuff and go, “Who’s the human I want to be? Who’s the best version of myself that I can be?” And find the joy and kindness to others, and kindness to yourself. And when we got back together I was like, “F**k yeah, I want to do this. I do. I do. Nothing seems as important and can we find our way again?”
Mark spoke about not thinking blink’s classic lineup would ever get back together:
I didn’t know that Blink would ever get back together or that I would ever share a stage with Tom. And I told management, I told Travis, I told everybody, I’m like, “I’m not setting foot on stage again with that dude. Not a chance.” That’s the truth. But I’ve always thought Tom was one of the best songwriters in the world and one of my favorite songwriters, but there was a lot of bad blood and there was a lot of stuff in the press and feelings and all this stuff. And then honestly, I got sick… But Tom was always like, “We’re going to get you through this.” And healing through the band, once I was clear of the cancer diagnosis and got the all clear, I was still a f***ing hollow, just shell. S****y, weak brain eaten with the chemotherapy and pain and everything else. And then getting back in the studio to make this record was like learning how to play bass again, learning how to… The chemotherapy wrecked my vocal cords. I had to go to work with a vocal coach. I had to rebuild my throat. I had all this stuff had to rebuild to get to the point where we could go and walk on stage at Coachella and have one of the biggest shows of our career and have this album, which touch wood is one of the best albums we’ve ever written. The thing is, it’s all through the healing of this band and this music and this record and us coming back together. And we sat down the very beginning and we said, “The only way that we’re going to do Blink 182 again is if it’s f***ing fun. If we can do it our own way and not have people over our shoulders telling us, ‘You need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this.’ And so really, our mission statement with this whole thing was, imagine if Blink were the f***ing Beastie Boys. That’s our call to arms. Would the fucking Beastie Boys do it? Would the Ramones do it? Would g***ing any of the bands that we… Would Fugazi do this s**t? If we’re not down with it, and if we don’t want to do it, then f**k everybody, we’re going to do it our way. And now, touch wood, it feels like the best time in the band in forever. We own it. It’s our creative vision. It’s us three.
Travis also added, “I would talk to Mark and I’d be like, ‘I really feel like Blink is me, you and Tom. And as soon as we accept that and we just don’t settle for anything less than that, I just think that’s the future.’ I love Matt…He’s a great friend. He was so talented, but I was like, ‘That is truly Blink and we shouldn’t exercise Blink or be out there playing unless it’s us three.’” Watch the full hour-and-15-minute interview below.
One More Time… comes out this Friday (10/20) via Columbia.
