When blink-182's Mark Hoppus and All Time Low's Alex Gaskarth revealed they'd formed Simple Creatures back in January, many assumed, given how big their respective bands are, that this would simply be a side project. But make no mistake, the duo's new trash-pop band is no temporary gig. Simple Creatures is here to stay.
The story goes that when Hoppus finished blink-182's touring cycle of 2016 Grammy nominated-album California, the 47-year-old bassist fell into a bit of funk. Knowing that making music was his favourite thing to do, he set out to record with artists he worked with over the years. However, after calling Gaskarth first and hitting the studio together, Hoppus didn't bother making any more calls.
"When I started writing songs with Alex I didn't exactly know what I was going for," he shares. "I knew I wanted it to be different, I knew I wanted it to be ratty and edgy, but still with a good sense of melody and hook.
"When Alex and I got into the studio, I remember texting Alex after a couple of days and saying to him, and our [producer Zakk Cervini] as well, 'This is is exactly the kind of music that I want to be making for this project.' It stuck. I thought it was cool and different and very different from blink and very different from All Time Low. After a couple of days in the studio with Alex, it didn't even occur to me to write with anybody else and I thought it was its own special entity."
Upon hearing the first single from the Strange Love EP, Drug, it's clear that Simple Creatures is not trying to be a rehashed version of blink or All Time Low. In fact, it's just the opposite. Gaskarth says this was a completely intentional move by the songwriters.
"That became, sort of, the central driving force of all of the music we were writing for this project," he says. "After realising what we didn't want to do, we landed on what we did want to do and it was really going as left of centre as we could possibly go... without making country music! It started feeling right, you know? It was at that point that we started writing songs like Strange Love and Drug and Ether and the whole picture became clear."
When blink-182 went on hiatus in 2005, Hoppus later admitted that having always being known as 'Mark from blink-182', it took some time for him to adjust to life outside of the San Diego-founded group, before the group eventually reformed in 2009 (founding member Tom Delonge split from the band again in 2015). However with Simple Creatures, Hoppus says he is now comfortable that, despite blink-182's ongoing success, he can continue to create music independently.
"I will always be Mark from blink-182 and I will always love that. When blink broke up the first time, it felt like that was taken away from me and obviously it is not taken away from me now and I get to add to it. I get to be Mark from blink-182 and write the music that I love and tour with blink and hang out with my friends and continue that legacy and build on that legacy. But at the same time do something different with Alex in a completely different arena and have a lot of fun doing that as well. It's kind of a blessing."
Despite their commitment to Simple Creatures, both Hoppus and Gaskarth make no secret that blink-182 and All Time Low will continue to be their main priorities. For blink-182, Hoppus confirms they hope to release the follow-up album to California in June or July, with another tour to follow.
"That's what we're working towards right now. We have written about 50 songs up to this point and we continue writing," Hoppus says. "We're starting to get into mixing. We plan on having the album out by the summer in the States. We're writing a really great blink album and I can't wait for people to hear it."
"We want this band to be successful, stand on its own two feet and do great things"
Hoppus also confirms speculation that while California was compared to past albums like Enema Of The State and Take Off Your Pants & Jacket, the forthcoming record is more in line with blink's game-changing 2003 untitled record. "Yes, definitely. We are trying to lash out and do a bunch of different things on this record that we've done before and I'm really excited about it. I really like the songs we've put together..."
Meanwhile, All Time Low have begun working on new music after taking "a little break" following 2017's Last Young Renegade, with plans to drop a new album in 2020. "We had a long record cycle with [latest album] Last Young Renegade and we kind of felt like we circled the world twice on that music and it just felt like, maybe, the right time to take a little break from being on the road with All Time Low," he said.
"We just felt like maybe we'd pummelled people over the head with it too much! It was the right moment to take a step back and reevaluate what the next iteration of All Time Low would be and so we've started digging into demos and new music is taking shape. I just spent a few weeks in Nashville at [drummer Rian Dawson's] studio, starting to form ideas. It's nice, we have an amazing head start on the whole thing and there's already pictures forming which is a nice way to approach it."
It would be fair to suggest that with blink-182 and All Time Low set to undergo a hectic schedule that Simple Creatures would at least need to be temporarily put on the back burner, but that is a suggestion Hoppus and Gaskarth won't entertain.
"...We are going to perform live as much as we can, tour as much as we can, write music as much as we can, in between our other bands," Hoppus explains. "We don't want this to be a 'once in a while' thing or a 'here and there' thing, we want this band to be successful, stand on its own two feet and do great things."
Gaskarth concurs, calling Simple Creatures a "fully functioning band".
"This wasn't something that we felt like we wanted to have on the back burner or like, 'Hey, we'll get to it when we feel like it,'" he continues. "We felt like if we were going to start a new project from scratch, we had to be giving this our all. In this day and age of music, I feel like it's something that's much more doable.
"I think that you can exist in different lanes and have different bands simultaneously. It's been a funny thing to explain to people because people go, 'How are you going to juggle these things?' and it's like, when blink's on tour, blink's on tour. When All Time Low's on tour, All Time Low's on tour. When we're not, just like the inception of this band, Simple Creatures will be lurking in the shadows ready to go. What I love about this project is we designed it to be mobile and fluid and put songs out when we feel like the songs are ready and not be beholden to doing a 14-song album with a two-year touring cycle after it, the way we do things in our day job."
With a second EP already on the way, debut shows starting this week and even a first LP in the pipeline, this is only just the beginning. And don't worry Australian fans, Simple Creatures are already talking about heading to Australia "as soon as possible".
"We really wanna get over there and bring this to Australia," Hoppus says. "We are bringing a really cool live show and a lot of cool production so to be able to bring that to one of my favourite continents in the world would be really cool and we're working on that presently."
Strange Love is out now.
Simple Creatures recently appeared on The Music Podcast, listen to the full interview below.
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