[American Idiot]

artist: plus 44 date: 11/10/2006

During his days in blink-182, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus reigned as king of pop-punk world by blending melody, energy, and a heavy dose of humor into his songs. When blink parted ways because of personal conflict, Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker found a new creative source in +44, a band that startethed off as an entirely electronica-oriented project. While the two musicians composed most of their CD When Your Heart Stops Beating on a keyboard or MPC, the finished product coming out on Nov. 14 reveals a return to straightforward rock sound aided by guitarists Shane Gallagher and Craig Fairbaugh.

Hoppus and Barker have publicly acknowledged how problems with blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge ultimately caused the demise of the multi-platinum band. While Hoppus has not been in contact with DeLonge for 2 years, he is not looking to the past. Although there was a brief setback in the upcoming tour when Barker endured a stress fracture in his arm, +44 is looking to set out on the road again this month. Hoppus recently talked with Ultimate Guitar writer Amy Kelly about how his latest band allowed him the chance to open up both lyrically and musically.

UG: During the final days of blink-182, were you already hoping to change your musical direction?

Mark: It wasn’t really like a musical creative differences kind of thing. It was more Tom’s thing. I don’t think any of us felt like we were restricted musically from anything that we wanted to do in blink-182.

Can you pinpoint a particular reason why you parted ways?

Tom wanted to have control over everything and he should be in a band where he can call all the shots. That wasn’t the way that blink worked. We definitely would always look out for one another and give each other the space that we needed and the things that we needed, but toward the end of blink it became really one-sided. So I think Tom needed to do something where he was in complete control.

How did you and Travis first begin to get interested in possibly doing a more electonic-based type of music?

We never really even talked about where we thought it was going to go. We just got in the studio and started demoing ideas for songs. We didn’t even really think twice about what it was going to sound like or how we were going to approach it. We just went in and started putting ideas down and kind of said, “Let’s see where this takes us.” It went that way and then grew organically. Some songs started off electronic and ended up being very rock-driven, and some songs started off where we thought it was going to be a rock song and it ended up kind of quiet and minimal-sounding. I don’t really know what we’re trying to achieve with each song that we start writing. We kind of just keep writing and recording until one day we’re at the point where we go, “Wow! That song is done.” And that’s what the song ends up being.

Were most of the songs on the new album composed electronically at the start?

At the beginning everything was electronic, just by necessity. We were recording in Travis’ basement and in my dining room. So it was either Travis’ programming drums on his keyboards or on an MPC or playing his electronic drums. When we recorded the melodies, we were using a guitar plugged into a computer or a keyboard or something like that. So everything at the beginning was completely electronic because we were just demoing. But what ended up starting off as demos electronically, we kind of embraced those sounds and that aesthetic of those song structures. We ended up using a lot of electronic stuff on the record.

I saw you recently posted the electronic version of “When Your Heart Stops Beating” on MySpace. Your fans will probably appreciate hearing how a lot of the songs started out electronically.

I like electronic stuff. There’s so much stuff you can do now with technology that’s available to musicians that it seems a shame to just do everything on electric guitar. Obviously that’s what we base the majority of our music around, things played on electric guitar. But there’s so much else out there that you can use. We want to get inspired by all different kinds of instruments.

"I don't really know what we're trying to achieve with each song that we start writing."

There is often a stigma attached in the rock world when bands go the electronic route. Did you encounter that reaction from anyone?

Oh, definitely. The thing was when we first started off, like we had been demoing for a few weeks and we were doing some interviews. People were always asking, “So what’s +44 sound like? Where are you guys’ heads at right now?” We were being honest and we said, “Well, right now it’s very electronic.” The people at the label freaked when they heard us say that it was electronic! People tend to write off electronic bands. I mean, we weren’t trying to make a electronic band by any means, but everything at that point, we were demoing using strictly synthetic instruments and nothing real organic. So that was the truth. But everyone was like, “You can’t say you’re an electronic band!”

I definitely think that for some reason in error people tend to write off electronic-based musicians as somehow less real than people who play electric guitar. You get into programming and you get into keyboard playing and you get into things like that, it’s almost more difficult because there are so many different things you can do and so many different options. On electric guitar, you can either play clean or distorted, and there’s always different effects you can put on the guitar. There’s a little palette of instruments you can use electric guitar-wise, but at the same time when you start getting into keyboards and programming drums and things like that, it’s tenfold.

How long have you dabbled in keyboards, sampling and programming drums?

We kind of got into a little bit on the last blink record and we really embraced it on the +44 record.

Was it just the convenience of location that made you decide to do the original demos in your dining room?

Yeah, in the beginning we started off in Travis’ basement and in my dining room. About 6 months into the process, Travis and I actually bought a studio in North Hollywood and we moved all of our recording equipment in there. Then we could actually put in the electronic guitars and the live drums and everything else. At that point, the record changed to a lot more of a rock orientation. We moved into a lot more of the rock direction.

Did the acoustics of the studio inspire the change in sound?

Actually we were able to make loud noise in the studio, being able to play Travis’ live drums and being able to plug in a guitar and turn it up all the way. Also, it was just the time that it allowed us really because there wasn’t a clock ticking every minute that we were in the studio. There wasn’t a sense that, “This is going to cost us money. If we try out this idea for a song and it ends up taking 2 or 3 days, it’s going to cost us a bunch of money. What if we don’t end up using it?” There was none of that. If we had an idea or a thought, we were going to pursue it to its end. So it really allowed us an opportunity to explore what we wanted to do musically.

What are some of the differences between the studio you own and other studios that you’ve recorded at in the past?

This one’s ours. Being able to not worry about how much time we had in the studio. Also, it’s all of our stuff there. Everything is set up. There’s not a sense of anything not being ours. When you rent a studio and you stay there for like 6 weeks, it’s still somebody else’s soundboard or somebody else’s compressors or microphones. It’s like when you’re staying at a friend’s house. No matter how much a friend invites you to stay at their house for a while and is kind and everything else, it’s still their house. You never feel like it’s your home. The studio is definitely our home.

How did you first meet Carol (Heller, who originally sang lead vocals for +44)?

When we very first started working with Carol was when we recorded a song that ended up on the record called “Make You Smile.” We had an idea for a song and we had been writing it. Travis said, “What if we had a female voice on there?” So he knew Carol from growing up together and we called her. She came down and sang on it – she has such an amazing voice. The song really went to a completely different level with her on there and we really liked that a lot.

She was in the studio with us and we kept writing songs for a couple more months. When we actually moved into the studio and the rock guitars started coming back into the picture, I was taking over a lot more of the vocals. It just kind of organically started swinging that way. We left her voice on that song and the stuff she contributed, too. And she wanted to start a family with her husband at the same time, so we kind of just went separate ways.