It’s no secret that there were serious creative differences in Blink 182 preceding Tom DeLonge‘s departure from the band in 2015 and now drummer Travis Barker is explaining exactly what sound DeLonge allegedly wanted.
According to Barker, DeLonge was keen on the band leaving their pop-punk roots and heading into the world of arena rock.
“Mark [Hoppus] and I never wanted to change,” Barker said in an interview with YouTuber Mr. Wavvy Barker.
“Towards the last couple of albums, Tom was obsessed with U2 and wanted to sound like U2. He wanted to basically record songs that sounded like Coldplay.”
DeLonge brought that same kind of expansive, arena-rock sound to his side-project Angels & Airwaves and Barker reckons that that’s exactly where the different sounds should stay, in side-projects.
“For us, it was always like ‘Blink is Blink, man. We want to sound like fucking Blink 182.’ That’s why we’re in this band. That’s what side-projects are for,” he said.
“I love Blink for what it is. We love Blink and we love the sound of Blink.”
The band’s last album with DeLonge was 2011’s Neighbourhoods which was their first album in eight years but apparently creative differences permeated the process.
“Neighborhoods was rough because we all three didn’t agree on a sound. We had a member of the band who wanted to really change the sound of the band,” Barker said.
DeLonge was booted from the band last year and has since been replaced by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba. The new trio is working on the follow-up to Neighbourhoods which you can put your money on not sounding anything like U2 or Coldplay. That album is expected to be with us this year.
Check out Barker’s interview below.
Watch: Travis Barker Details New Blink-182 Album, Regrets on Neighbourhoods
