Travis Barker

It was just Mark and I continuing where we left off in a sense.

We’ll probably never escape that, but it’s not even something that I disown. I loved being in that band. It’s probably natural if 2/3 of that band is in +44 for there to be some similarities like Mark’s voice or something like that.

It means absolutely nothing. It was just a number that I really liked, like how Blink meant nothing. It was just Blink. It’s for anyone else to interpret. You can’t hear the band name and say “That’s like a death metal band or that’s a rock band.” We decide what it means.

Thank you. No one’s ever said that. Since I’ve started doing press on this record, everyone always says “It’s dark.”

Yeah. Totally. You wouldn’t expect anything aggressive or sickening because Mark Hoppus isn’t going to sing like that. That’s not what this band was meant for. We’re never going to get too ill or anything.

Oh yeah but it’s supposed to be. If everything was the same, it would suck.

No but everything is different. In The Transplants, we’re talking about people getting killed. There are people getting robbed. There are a million things happening in The Transplants. +44 is more like real life situations that we experienced or that we went through. All these songs mean something, but it means something in a different way. For The Transplants, Rob is really doing all that stuff that he’s talking about, just like Mark’s singing about what’s he has experienced.

I’m actually producing Skinhead Rob for his hip-hop record called Warfare. I’m just doing all the production on it. I’m also working with this other artist named Eddie RapLife who’s a rapper and a skateboarder from Rhode Island.

Probably next year on [Cypress Hill member] Mugg’s record label.

It’s amazing. It’s different. Producing in the rock world and producing in the hip-hop world is different. I’m a drummer so at the end of the day, that’s what I do. I play beats and I make beats and I’m moved by beats. It made sense.

No, I don’t rap. I play the drums.

I think we all know who should and shouldn’t be a rapper nowadays.

Mark can come to the studio with a whole song tracked with guitars, drums and everything. I come sometimes with ten different beats and I’d leave on tour with The Transplants and Mark would just write to those songs. In the beginning, I played a lot of keyboards. I did a lot of like chord progressions and stuff. Mark was programming drums. We were playing instruments that we hadn’t played before so it’s really wide open. I think that’s the only way to really get people’s ideas out and really collaborate.

It’s amazing. I’m not going to say I like or I enjoy it but I’m used to being dealt with fucked up situations and overcoming them. I guess that’s part of why I continue living and have a smile on my face because I like getting past shit like this.

No. The only thing that I can’t do is like a 32nd note. But I’m compensating by playing another part instead. I basically taught everything that my right hand did to my left hand. Then I taught everything that my left hand was doing to my left foot. I put a pedal down there and it triggers the sound of a snare drum. So every time I push the pedal down, you’ll hear the sound of a snare drum. That’s my left hand now.

I went and saw a nutritionist recently and I’m in the best condition I could be health-wise. I have eight percent body fat. He said there’s nothing wrong with me. It’s actually turning into more of a bone issue like brittle bones, maybe something on the lines of osteoporosis. I have tests and stuff next week.

Yeah. But I’m ready to fight it and move on. I don’t want to dwell on it. If that is what I have, I know that I just have to kick it in the butt and take care of it.

Well, I’m doing five weeks because I have to come back and get MRIs and x-rays. Then we’re coming back for a couple weeks just so I can get my tests done and then do some Christmas shows.

I think you have to earn it just like anything else. I’d feel like I was getting over on everyone if people just bought our records because we were in Blink. I want to earn everyone’s respect and I want people to actually really love the band and that’s why the band has to stand for something. It has to make great music and we have to be good to our fans. If we sold a million records, cool. But when Blink first started we weren’t expecting to be the biggest band in the world. You just let it be a symptom of making good music and touring.

I think that was Blink’s heyday. But that’s not the only kind of music I play now and that’s not the only type of music video I’m in now. I design shoes. I design clothes. That’s one-dimensional. Yeah, in 2003 or whatever when it was crazy and All The Small Things was out, of course you’re going to have people that go “I don’t like Blink anymore. I don’t like them because they’re all over the radio. I don’t like them because girls like them.” But you’re just jealous. Get over it. Man up. If you don’t like the song we made, write a better song.

No.

Yeah. It sounds like he’s trying to disown himself from who he was in Blink or something. That’s his personal issue. I would stand up for it in a minute. Was I a trashman? Yeah. Was I in the Aquabats? Yeah. Did we look like Devo? Absolutely. Did I play in Vandals tours? Yes. I played drums for The Vandals. Yeah, I ran naked in a Blink video. I don’t disown any of it. Man, those are some of the greatest times of my life because I was playing music. I think maybe he’s jaded or something or maybe he doesn’t know who he is or maybe he doesn’t like who he is.

We were playing a benefit concert and Tom, Mark and myself had different views on the next six months of our band. Like whether or not we were going to make a record, how we were going to make it and then Tom didn’t show up to the tsunami benefit. He had his manager call an hour before. So he left a bunch of people who paid to help the tsunami victims hanging and he didn’t even call. It was just like, “Whoa, man. There’s a way of doing things and that wasn’t the right way.” That’s all it is. I don’t hate, dude. I don’t wish him any bad. I just go, “Man. Sucks that you handled yourself like a little girl when it came to saying you don’t want to play music no more.’”

I never say never. I don’t think things went down well but I don’t hate and I don’t hold grudges. I’m down for whatever. I would never do a reunion with any of the bands I’ve been in unless everyone was like brothers again. You hear these stories how bands are on stage getting paid ridiculous amounts of money and they hate each other. I won’t even entertain something like that. I’d rather be poor.

Oh absolutely. I think people start behaving differently and whatever else and then when the cameras are gone and your husband doesn’t want to do the show no more, you’re looking for this extra attention or something. There are a lot of crazy things that can happen as a symptom of doing a reality show if you’re not staying grounded during the whole time.

Yeah, but at the end of the day, Shanna’s awesome. I love her. But she’s an actress.

That too at times, but they don’t even feel themselves turning it on or turning it off. Me, I don’t have shit to hide from anyone. I think within the last couple years everything that I am has been exposed or whatever. I’m comfortable with it because that’s who I am, but other people have smoke and mirrors in this big front. That only lasts so long.

No, not necessarily. I think you can fall madly in love with someone and move really quickly like we did. We fell in love. We had children. But I never had the conversation with her like “Hey. How do you plan on changing after we have children? Do you plan on reevaluating some of the things you do now or maybe the amount of days you work a year? Now that we have children, are we going to step up our roles and stuff?” I should’ve had that conversation and I didn’t. So I’m partly guilty for that or whatever, but at the end of the day, I just have a different way of raising children and a different way of prioritizing things in my life. My children come first and then my work and then everything else. With Shanna it was that Shanna comes first, then her work, then the children fall way down the line. That’s not something that I can wake up to and live around. I’m madly in love with her, but you can’t compromise something like that. Family and little humans are way more important.

Yeah. What do you do? She’s having a party because she’s getting divorced. It’s crazy. It’s classy. That’s all I can say. Classy. I’ll be real honest with you. I’ll be real bold and blunt. I think it would be okay and it would be acceptable if she wasn’t a mother of three. But as you are a mother of three, your children are old enough that their friends are going to be talking about you having a party because you’re getting divorced. You know what I mean? That’s kind of ill.

Nah. I live my life, man. There’s only certain things they’ll want to cover. They want to cover you making out with someone right when you get divorced or whatever. But I haven’t changed anything I do. I haven’t compromised a bit because I think if I do, then I’m going to turn into some weirdo and I’ll stop being me. Half of the things they’re not even interested in. They’re only interested in something they can flip and turn around and use to their advantage.

I’ll be absolutely honest. So you’re asking me if I made out with her at a club? Yes. I made out with her at a club. I’m sure you’ve gone to a bar and just been crazy or wild and having fun that night and you just shamelessly kiss somebody. But she happens to be photographed by a million people when things like that happen. So it was weird for me.

About a couple months ago it had been shared with me that Paris and Oscar [De La Hoya] had an issue a long time ago and I told Shanna, “Man. That sucks. I don’t know why you still get down with Paris or why you even talk to her.” Then she had told me the story right afterwards and just bashed Paris real ugly, saying awful things about her. I was like, “It’s crazy that you even can look at her in the face and be cool to her then.” Shanna was like, “Aww. Well I can just use her for networking and for press.” Then after this all went down, I had been separated for like three weeks and I was in Vegas for the grand opening of one of my buddy’s restaurants and we had a Famous Stars and Straps party that same night. We went out afterwards and Paris Hilton comes up to me and says hi to me and she’s super friendly. I’m sitting there going, “Gosh. Shanna told me she’s so hard to talk to and that she’s a cunt. She’s this and that.” I was like, “Paris is actually super nice.” So we ended up being friends and we ended up kissing in public.

Absolutely. I just want all the SuicideGirls to come to all of the shows that we play whether it’s The Transplants or [DJ] AM and I or anything. They are always welcome to have free passes to just hang out, listen to music and enjoy themselves.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck