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I Think People Take Blink-128 More Seriously Now Than They Did Before. And It's Largely Our Fault Because We Called Our Records Enema Of The State And Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. We Were Always Kind Of The Underdogs, Especially Critically. People Wrote Us Off As This Joke Band. But The People Who Listened To Blink Knew That We Were Silly And Whatever, But We Wrote Songs About Divorce And Suicide And Depression. Those Kids That Were Listening To Blink Are Now The Ones That Control All These Outlets That Used To Just Write Us Off.

-Mark Hoppus

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I Think People Take

Mark Hoppus

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I Think People Take Blink-128 More Seriously Now Than They Did Before. And It's Largely Our Fault Because We Called Our Records Enema Of The State And Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. We Were Always Kind Of The Underdogs, Especially Critically. People Wrote Us Off As This Joke Band. But The People Who Listened To Blink Knew That We Were Silly And Whatever, But We Wrote Songs About Divorce And Suicide And Depression. Those Kids That Were Listening To Blink Are Now The Ones That Control All These Outlets That Used To Just Write Us Off.

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Writing Music And Lyrics That Mean Something Personal To Me. It's An Exciting, Intense, Cathartic, This-is-who-i-am Experience.

We Never Really Set Out To Talk About California On The Album ['california'], It Was Something That We Noticed That Was Happening About Three-quarters Of The Way Through The Recording Process. We Were Looking At Which Songs We Thought Would Make The Record And We Realised That There Was This Theme Coming Through. I Think It's Just A Product Of Being In California For As Long As I Have.

Now Everything Is Available At The Push Of A Button, And That Thrill Of The Search Is Gone. With Vinyl Albums And Special Edition Releases, I Feel Like That's Coming Back.

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I Feel Like Being In A Band, You Get License To Be A Kid Forever.

Music Is In Every Country And Every Culture Around The World. It's Universal.

We Just Kind Of Did Our Own Thing And Got Made Fun Of By The Popular Kids. It Was Kind Of Like A Badge Of Honor To Be An Outcast.

It's Hard To Cover For Someone Who's Disrespectful And Ungrateful...to Say, 'i Didn't Quit The Band' Is Just Not True. It's Disingenuous.

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Thank God I Never Got In A Fight. All Of The Jock Dudes Hated Me, But All Of Their Girlfriends Thought I Was Nice So They Wouldn't Touch Me. It Was Infuriating To Them.

Yeah, I Actually Do Know Where I Am.

Take It From Me Because I Learned The Hard Way: Circumcisions Are Best Left To Professionals.

I've Learned Some Of The Greatest Life Lessons From Growing Up In The Skate And Punk Rock Communities.

Never Let Anyone Tell You How To Live Your Life.

True Happiness For Me Is Playing A Concert In Blink-182, And Then Hanging Out With My Friends And My Wife And Son, And Going Out For Mexican Food.

I Think Age Is Just A Stupid Number.

I Kinda Like The Duality Of California And The Dark Side, The Underbelly Of California.

All The Really Pretty Girls Get Pregnant.

It's A Real Challenge To Complete A Story Arc And End Up With A Cool Punchline In 120 Characters.

Ideas Are Really What Interest Me In Producing A Band, If I Can Bring Something Productive To The Project.

It Really Expresses A Man In Pain.

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The Thing You Realize As You Get Older Is That Parents Don't Know What The Hell They're Doing And Neither Will You When You Get To Be A Parent

Screw Them. Yeah. But Not Literally. I'm Not Advocating Promiscuity.

What I Love About Blink-128 Is That We Write Catchy Melodies With Dark Lyrics.

The Beatles Never Get Old.

I Think People Take Blink-128 More Seriously Now Than They Did Before. And It's Largely Our Fault Because We Called Our Records Enema Of The State And Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. We Were Always Kind Of The Underdogs, Especially Critically. People Wrote Us Off As This Joke Band. But The People Who Listened To Blink Knew That We Were Silly And Whatever, But We Wrote Songs About Divorce And Suicide And Depression. Those Kids That Were Listening To Blink Are Now The Ones That Control All These Outlets That Used To Just Write Us Off.

Then When We Did The Untitled Record, We Just Didn't Feel Like Putting Joke Stuff On It, So We Didn't. It Wasn't Really A Deliberation Or A Real Introspective Thing Like, "are We Going To Joke On This One, Are We Not Going To Joke On This One?" We Just Didn't Feel Like It On The Untitled One, So We Didn't.

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I Like That About Human Nature, That People Are Always Striving To Do Better, And Find Something New.

I Liked Seventeen-year-old Me, I Was Happy When I Was Seventeen. I Was This Troubled Goth Kid That Wore Eyeliner And Make-up To School And Listened To Punk-rock Music And I Loved My Friends And I Started To Make Music - I Like Seventeen-year-old Me.

There Was A Great Push And Pull Of What Blink-128 Should Sound Like All The Time. Travis Barker Comes From A Different Background Than I Do, And Tom Delonge Comes From A Different Background Than Either Of Us In Terms Of What We Write And What We Think A Song Should Be. Tom Pushes Me Out Of A Box That I Put Myself In.

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Thats Not A Place Where I'm Considered Good-looking.

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