Blink-182's 'Up All Night': Mark Hoppus Tells The Story

First Neighborhoods single 'harder and heavier than its original incarnation,' Hoppus writes in email to MTV News.
By James Montgomery

Blink-182's Mark Hoppus
Photo: C Flanigan/ FilmMagic

Sure, there's already been a reunion tour, but Thursday, Blink-182 officially returned with "Up All Night," their first proper single in nearly seven years.

And while the song recalls elements of Blink's past (not to mention all those side projects), it's by no means nostalgic. With its darkly undulating electronics, churning chords and Barker's mighty mashing, it also represents a new Blink for a new millennium.

And that's even more impressive when you consider that the song's actually been around for more than two years now, ever since Blink-182 first resumed jamming together in early 2009. During that time, it's undergone some rather drastic changes, but it's always remained core to what the band hoped to do on their new album, Neighborhoods. How do we know all this? Because Mark Hoppus told us, in an email Friday morning (July 15), just hours after "Up All Night" nearly broke the Internet.

" 'Up All Night' was the first song that we started writing when the band got back together," he wrote. "The foundation of the song remains largely the same as when we first began, but over the past two years, as we've been recording others songs, coming back to this one, working on something else, coming back to this song, it's gotten harder and heavier than its original incarnation.

"Initially the chorus had much more air. It was a lofty, synth-y chorus, but we wanted the first song that people heard to be much more of a rocker. We changed a bunch of the instrumentation, recorded heavier guitars and bass, and Tom [DeLonge] wrote the progression that the guitars take on in the chorus," he continued. "Then Travis [Barker] took it over and the drums really solidified the rock element of the track. The half-time intro of the last section was all him, and I think punctuates the song very well."

After all that work, you can imagine how thrilled the guys in Blink have been by the song's initial reception. But that's just the first part of their return. As Hoppus wrote, the next step is letting fans hear Neighborhoods itself. He's beyond excited for that, too.

"I'm so glad to finally have new music out, and cannot believe how well it has been received," he wrote. "[Our website] crashed out several times, my Google-plus account crashed out twice, and blink-182 was a top trending topic worldwide. Totally amazing. Now, I can't wait for the album itself to be released."

Share your review of "Up All Night" in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1667368/blink-182-up-all-night-mark-hoppus.jhtml

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