A decade ago this year, Blink-182’s seventh studio album California marked the creative and commercial rehabilitation of the pop-punk trio after a lengthy period of turbulence.
Although famed for their beloved 1999 mega-hit Enema of the State (and its slew of nostalgia-inducing hits, including All The Small Things and What’s My Age Again?) and 2001’s gloriously unhinged Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (The one with First Date and The Rock Show) the remainder of the 2000s found alternative tastes shift from their brand of summery pop-punk towards the more make-up-daubed, emo-tinged fare.
However, 2003’s darker self-titled fifth offering is often regarded as the band’s best work, featuring the more gothically-informed I Miss You and Feeling This.
The hailed record was the final one to be made with their trusted and beloved producer Jerry Finn, who tragically died of a brain haemorrhage in 2008.
It took a while for the band – Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge to reconvene and self-produce 2011’s Neighbourhoods, but by that point, Blink struggled to be heard in the early 2010s musical landscape. Despite some strong moments, it failed to achieve its expected commercial objectives.
However, with 2016’s chart-topping California – produced by Goldfinger guitarist John Feldmann and replacing an exhausted Tom DeLonge with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba – a restructured Blink hit their stride.
Skiba would remain in the band for California’s follow-up, Nine in 2019, before DeLonge returned to the fold for good with 2023’s One More Time…
Back in 2016, following the release of California, we spoke to its producer, John Feldmann in a lengthy interview. We were keen to know how the then-freshly reconfigured band had managed to create such a vibrant record.
“One of [Blink’s] long-standing members left the band and there was a bunch of question marks for them as far as what their career looked like,” Feldmann remembered. “They tried doing stuff on their own and it was coming out a bit like patchwork.”
We asked John how he rode the line of capturing this newly bolstered band – but not having it sound too much like an Alkaline Trio record;
“That’s the biggest challenge I had: not making it sound like an Alkaline Trio record and not making it sound like a Blink covers record,” John said.
“Basically, trying to make Matt be who he is, capture his essence as the guy who grew up in Chicago and had a different upbringing to anyone else in the band, but not trying to force him into the role of Tom.”
In terms of the record’s driving sound, Feldmann put it all down to the instruments – and how the band play them;
“To me, the essential Blink sounds are the band’s instruments. Travis has a total custom kit that’s been built from scratch using some vintage parts and some modern parts that him and his tech Daniel built from the ground up. Besides being the best drummer that’s ever lived, his passion for the instrument is key to his sound.
“All of Mark’s basses are custom-built Fenders made to his specifications. Jerry Finn actually suggested re-routing Mark’s pickups to flip them because of the way Mark plays – he has this really interesting downstroke. I haven’t seen anyone play that way; that sound where you almost hear the roundness of the strings, you hear that grinding sound of the pick hitting the strings, it’s because the bass has been re-wired that way. Skiba used custom Jazzmasters and Jaguars.”
In terms of his favourite then-new songs on the record, John pointed to Built This Pool; “Mark already had that song written, but knowing they were willing to embrace the humour that all Blink fans love so much – and that kinda went missing for a little while – I knew that we were going to be able to make the record that Blink fans wanted.”
He also particularly loved the band’s LA tribute, the aptly titled Los Angeles.
“Los Angeles was a really important song for me. There’s so much synergy that’s happened between [me and Blink]. I was born in San Diego and lived there almost half my life. Mark spent most of his time in San Diego. When he sings that chorus it gives me goosebumps.
“For all intents and purposes, Blink are a San Diego-based band, and now we’re all living in Los Angeles. It’s the heaviest song on the album and it was great to be able to capture this heartfelt song about the city we love and embrace as home.
“It also showcases Skiba’s voice, that rasp and grit when he sings high. When he sings that chorus it gives me goosebumps. That was the first song we mixed and when I heard the mix I was in my car. I took a picture of goosebumps on my arm and sent it to Mark and was like, ‘Dude, we’ve made it man.’”
