Happy-go-lucky rockers Blink 182 are not your average SoCal slackers: not only do they proffer up a palatable pastiche of pure pop-punk with albums like their new one, Enema Of The State, they recently flashed across the silver screen in the outrageous teen sex comedy American Pie. Meanwhile, the avid skateboarders are also entrepreneurs, launching Loserkids.com, a Web-based mailorder clearinghouse that serves up skate-, surf-, and snowboard gear to like-minded fans. Just where do they find the time? The group's Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker recently visited the LAUNCH studio to answer that question, at which point we quickly learned that DeLonge is obsessed with three things: his penis, his penis, and his penis. Wait, "Aliens Exist" "What's My Age Again?" "Dumpweed" did we mention his penis? That said, please note that much of the following conversation was steeped in jest and laced with playful sarcasm. Catch a rocking jam of Blink's "What's My Age Again?" (lensed by our own LAUNCH camera crew) and view video excerpts of the following Q&A with executive editor Dave DiMartino in Issue No. 30 of LAUNCH on CD-ROM. LAUNCH: First off, why don't you tell me how you became involved in the movie American Pie. MARK: We became involved in American Pie pretty early in the project. When we first started talking to the people who were making it, they initially wanted Tom and I to act in it. But we wound up writing a song for the movie called "Mutt." It's a song about sex and a friend of ours who hooks up with a lot of girls. It seemed appropriate for the movie. And we are actually in the movie--we're a band practicing in the basement of a house and then we watch a girl masturbate on the Internet. And there's a monkey in the scene. It's really cool. TOM: Actually, we are featured as incredibly sexy guys in the movie. The film company went out and did this huge "sexy guy" search across the world and they found me. And I said, "Well, I have this band, if you want to use them." And they said, "If that's the only way we can get you..." And I said, "Yeah..." LAUNCH: Talk to me about Enema Of The State. MARK: My mom hates the title, she told me the other day, "Your grandma keeps asking what the title of the new record is, but I won't tell her." It's the next step for Blink 182. It's a little more mature, but it's the same happy singalong, pop-punk-influenced music. TRAVIS: It was written and recorded in about two weeks, but we were super-happy with all the songs. It was definitely different from the last one. LAUNCH: How is the new record better than the last two albums? TOM: Our new record is better than the last two for a number of reasons. One, I think the production is really good. Anybody that is going to hear the record is going to think, "The songs totally suck, but the production is so amazing, I'm going to buy the record." Our songwriting has matured. We haven't matured, but our songwriting has matured. I've learned a couple more scales on the guitar. I do finger exercises...like this. [he demonstrates...and, let's just say, it's sexual] Hey ladies! Seriously, we have matured as a band, and the songwriting and production is a lot better and we were able to spend more time improving the things that people didn't like about the other records. Basically, I sing more. Mark sings less. Less drums. Less bass. More of my vocals and my guitar work. Pretty much, it's just a solo album with me on guitar. That's why it's so much better than anything else we've done...and I did it all in the nude. MARK: This record is better than Dude Ranch in a lot of ways. The production is better. We spent a lot of money and time trying to get the right sounds, so sonically it's more interesting to listen to. I think Enema of The State is more mature than Dude Ranch was. So it's just the next step. It's all in the same vein...it's all happy, singalong love songs. We'll, not all happy. One is kind of evil. We just keep getting better as musicians and better as songwriters. TRAVIS: It's not as repetitive. With the last record, I was filling in and I had to learn the songs in a couple hours and six of the songs sounded exactly alike. This one, there are a lot more songs on there, well-written songs. LAUNCH: I understand the album has some interesting cover art. TOM: We hired a beautiful actress of the adult film industry. We got her dressed up in a beautiful little nurse outfit and it's as though she's about to administer enemas to us. We all are dressed in our underwear in a hospital room setting. I don't know if you've ever had an enema, but it definitely brought my family closer together and I hope it brings my band closer together. MARK: A porn star named Janine is on the cover. She was super-cute, friendly, and nice. We got to be in pictures with her. We got to ask her about her job, her likes and dislikes. She was totally cool and down-to-earth. TRAVIS: She was super-horny. And we were in our underwear. It was good. That's the one thing I can really say about it. LAUNCH: You guys are obviously involved in the whole surf/ skate scene. Tell me about your involvement, and do you favor one sport over the other? MARK: All three of us grew up in Southern California and were heavily influenced by the skate and surf community. But we all grew up pretty much inland, so we were more into skateboarding. None of us really surf that much; surfing is really hard. You have to spend a lot of time in the water and there's no other sport in the world that actually has monsters that want to eat you while you're doing it. So we all grew up skating, went snowboarding when we can. We've been real involved with that community--surf and skate videos. We've played skate parks and surf contests. We did the Snow Core tour. We're sponsored by Hurley, and Tom and I are opening an online board shop called Loserkids.com to sell surf, skate, snowboard products. We've been on the Warped tour, we're into BMX, Rollerblading, all extreme sports. TOM: When we first started, we were skateboarder kids. I grew up skateboarding. I totally sucked, I always fell. We all snowboard, as well. I'm friends with a bunch of pro surfers. I've always been tied into that lifestyle. We're sponsored by Billabong and also by Hurley. Like Mark said, we're starting website called Loserkids.com. It will be launched with our album. It's something we always felt that was a big part of our life, growing up. Its not like we're trying to be the "Southern California board sport guys," but we grew up in it and it's definitely a lifestyle. TRAVIS: Well, most of the shows we play are the Warped tour, but in our free time, pretty much everyone skateboards. I skateboard a lot, probably five days a week. LAUNCH: How long did it take to come up with the name Blink 182? How did you come up with the "182" part? MARK: I think it was two years. We had to change the name two years after the band was formed. We originally were called Blink. This sh-tty techno band from Ireland called and said, "We're called Blink and you have to change your name." So we added the 182 for no reason. It means nothing. Tom always makes up stories about what it means, but I'll rat him out right now. It means nothing. LAUNCH: About five years ago, Billboard reported that San Diego was going to be the next Seattle. That was a while ago. Tell me about the San Diego scene and how it evolved in the past few years. MARK: The recent history of San Diego music came from the nouveau grunge movement--bands like Rocket From The Crypt, Fluf, Uncle Joe's Big Old Driver blew up San Diego into the limelight for a little while. A lot of those bands got signed. The new thing is the punk-pop-ska scene. The city has always had a really rich local scene. The kids there totally support local music. We go to a lot of cities where people will only come out for nationally touring acts, but in San Diego a lot of high school bands are drawing 300 kids a night. It's really good to have that kind of support when you're trying to come out. It really helped us out, for sure. TOM: Right after Seattle, all the eyes went to San Diego. There were bands that played in bars--21-and-over shows--and the bands that played the all-ages shows. We were an all-ages band. The kids were crazier and the bands had more fun. The older bands that played bars got all the attention, they were good, but it's not the same thing. They must have signed about four bands in a month. They didn't do so well, and all the eyes turned away. Then the punk-rock bands became popular again--bands like Buck-O-Nine, Unwritten Law, and us--and the attention came back to San Diego. Right now, I don't think San Diego is looked upon as a major music city. There are so many other cities that have good bands. LAUNCH: What kind of direct feedback do you get from your fans? MARK: We get all kinds of stuff. Our fan response runs the full gamut. We get emails all the time from our fans that say, "Oh, I was going to kill myself. I was having a hard time in school. My girlfriend left me. But I listened to your music and you guys have a really good sense of humor about life and it taught me not to take things so seriously and it got me through this hard time." That's the best compliment of all. But then we get letters from other kids saying, "You guys sold out. I saw you on MTV. I hate you now--I hope you die a horrible death!" So we get everything in between. LAUNCH: You say that you have an occasional fan that says you "sold out." A lot of artists have a problem with associating themselves with certain products. Do you guys have the same problem in the scene that you're in? MARK: A lot of the punk-rock scene is usually against people associating themselves with products. We don't really associate ourselves with products that we don't believe in. Obviously, Billabong and Hurley are friends of ours and have supported us since the beginning, we think they are really cool companies, we like what they do with their riders and we like what they do with the music industry. I think that companies are starting to realize that you can sponsor a skater, but even the best skater in the world only skates in front of 500 kids at an event. But if you support musicians, some of who play in front of 500 to 3,000 kids a night, depending on how big the band is. And with videos on MTV, there's a lot of opportunity for marketing with a band. It's pretty much up to the band to stick with companies that they really believe in or that really support them. TOM: We never had a problem wearing companies we endorse. We proudly display logos. Like Hurley. We love the company and the people that run it. As much as we benefit them, they help us out, too. Bands have such a strong demo and such a direct tie to the kids, and there's no company with pro riders or team riders that can reach as many kids as a band can reach. I don't think we started this trend, but more and more companies are seeing how it does work. As long as you pay us a lot of money, we'll wear anything. I'll wear naked guys all over my shirt, as long as I'm being paid by the Naked Dude Association. It doesn't matter, as long as I get my money. TRAVIS: Most of the stuff that we wear are our friends companies. If I wear a skateboard shirt, it's because I like to skateboard. We'd never wear something we didn't like. LAUNCH: Here's a random question for you manly dudes. Do you ever get in fights? TRAVIS: It was on Snow Core, we were in Canada on tour with the hip-hop band called the Alkaholiks. There were some big, muscular security guards that were rude and racist, they were being cruel to the Alkaholiks. We got in a fight there. It was like six security guys on one guy. I think they won because they were really big. But we did well. MARK: I've never been in a fistfight. Well, once, when I was 16, we were at Denny's and my friend threw a piece of ice at me, I ducked, and it hit this lady sitting behind me. The lady was with some drunk guy. The guy came over to yell at me, and he hauled off started hitting me. A bunch of people came over and tried to hold the guy off and they pushed him through the front door of the restaurant. The guy tried to punch out the door, but there was a cop outside and they arrested him. I was just some suburban white kid totally crying, "I want to press charges, I want that guy to spend time in jail." And the cops were just laughing at me. That's the closest I ever came to being in a fight, which is pretty amazing because I have a problem with saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. TOM: Last time I got in a fight, I was in seventh grade. It's the only fight I've ever been in. I hit the guy, and the guy hit the ground, man. Then I took off his pants and rubbed him down, man. No! I like girls. I've always liked girls. I think vaginas are much more attractive than penises. I think penises are God's cruel joke, I don't even like them--and I have one. LAUNCH: You guys come up with some really clever song titles. Which song title is your favorite? TOM: I think it's "Dick Lips." The song has nothing to do with Mark, either. You might think that it does, but it doesn't. Actually, he thought of the name. I got kicked out of high school for drinking and I wrote the song about that. And we needed a name for the song and Mark said, "How about 'Dick Lips'?" And I said, "That's insane, let's keep that." Actually we should have named the album that. That's probably my favorite. Either that, or a song called "Sh-t, Piss, F--k C-nt, C--ksucker, Motherf--ker, Tits, Fart, Turd, & Tw-t." MARK: I go with "Dick Lips." It's a great title for a song. It doesn't mean anything. It's just an insult we were flinging around the studio and it stuck. TRAVIS: Yeah, I agree. "Dick Lips." I like that one. LAUNCH: If I were to look out in the crowd, how could I spot a Blink 182 fan as opposed to a non-Blink 182 fan? TOM: To distinguish a Blink fan from a non-Blink fan, there a couple things you can look for. If a person has brains, they probably don't listen to our music. If a person has any pride or any kind of family values, chances are they probably don't listen to us. The kids that listen to us are just out there having a good time. But you just can't tell anymore. Before we were on the radio, it was just skateboarders or punk-rock guys with Mohawks that would listen to us. But now, we have cheerleaders and football players and Marines. We don't really believe in just having one special group that listens to our music. A lot of other bands are like, "Oh, those kids aren't punk, so we don't want them listening to our band." We're trying to expose people to the punk lifestyle and the music that we listen to, and whether they be a Marine or a football player or a cheerleader or a homosexual or a hermaphrodite, you can be any of those things and it doesn't matter. As long as we helped you discover that the world is a beautiful place. MARK: Blink fan: If you look in a crowd and there's one person just getting the sh-t beat out of them, it's probably the Blink fan. TRAVIS: It would probably be a little poppy-punk kid with pink hair. Not the tough guy with spikes, just the normal kid who has a skateboard shirt on. LAUNCH: What would you do if you weren't a musician? Ever consider, say...medical school? MARK: No, I wouldn't do very well in medical school. When we got to the genital lecture, all I would do is just sit there and giggle. I would probably get expelled from medical school. No, I love what I do. I love being in a band. It's a dream come true. I'm very fortunate to be here and I wouldn't give it up for anything. TRAVIS: Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to play drums professionally. It was pushed on me by my mom. I wanted to be a professional skater, but I kept hurting myself and it got to the point where I couldn't function anymore. This is definitely what I want to do and hopefully it will continue. LAUNCH: Has being in the band dramatically improved your sex life? TOM: My sex life has always been a letdown to the other person--it's not my fault, but once again, I have to go back to my penis. It's not the same shape as everyone else's. Usually they zig-zag. My looks kind of like a figure-eight. Being in the band may have improved my sex life, but I have a girlfriend, and I think I repulse her more often than not. I think my girlfriend is just now figuring out that I fart. And that's a bad thing. Once you fart around a girl, you're done. I'm going to tell you a secret: To this day, I really don't fart around my girlfriend, but like I'll be laying in bed and I'll totally have to fart and I'll let one rip and hope she didn't hear. It's been two years and I usually don't excessively and casually fart around her. I think we need therapy. MARK: I won't lie to you...being in a band has definitely gotten me with a lot more women. I'm not a sexual whore, I don't have sex with girls that I'm not in love with, but I've been known to partake of the occasional hookup and what-have-you. LAUNCH: Speaking of sexual prowess, who is the most manly member of your band? TOM: It's so obvious that I have the most masculine attributes. If femininity were a sport, the other two guys would have a gold medal. All I hear is, "When can I wear a dress? Can I paint my house pink?" That kind of stuff. By far, I'm the only one that resembles something like a Conan-type character. You can call me Conan. LAUNCH: Name one of your favorite artists that people may not have heard about and you think deserves attention. TOM: There's a band called Jimmy Eat World that we always talk about. We kind of made a pact to make this band big. A lot of people don't know about them. They're really dynamic and really good. MARK: Yeah, they're just starting to get more notoriety now. They're a great band from Arizona. They are such a great band live. They gave us an advance of their album, Static Prevails. It's totally different than anything I've heard before. It's very dynamic, it starts off slow and melodic and goes into this heavy and hard-hitting music. They've since released a record called Clarity. Those are my first and second most favorite records ever. TRAVIS: This band called Far. They're just a really good band. They're emo-ish, indie-rock-ish. Very cool. TOM: Bands on a larger scale that people know about, like NOFX, Pennywise, and Lagwagon, those bands are staples of punk-rock that we've always be in to and listened to. The Descendents--that's why I started playing guitar. I'm sure I offended them with my guitar work. I got drunk one time and followed them around on the Warped tour and told them how great I thought they were. I looked like an assh-le. I have to apologize to them. LAUNCH: What bands do you think are overrated? MARK: I don't really think that anybody's overrated. There are things I don't like about certain bands, but that's just my opinion. Anyone can be a dick on any given day. I try not to judge people or talk sh-t about anyone except the other guys in my band. TRAVIS: I like everything. Marilyn Manson kind of kills me sometimes, but I still like him because he's a freak. I don't like Hootie or Kid Rock, and Korn kind of kills me sometimes. I like everything though. I like gangsta rap because it's funny. I'm not into anything though if it doesn't have a good message. TOM: I think it's so incredible that there are all these boy bands out there, like the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees. They're all so bad! It hurts me, I've cried, I've pooped my pants. I don't know why people like these bands so much! They don't write any of their own music and they actually sit in conference rooms and figure out how to answer interview questions so they can be prepared. And they choreograph everything, including the sex they have with each other after the shows! Oh well. All power to them because they are making more money than I am and they're selling way more records. Obviously people like it. It's just not for me. LAUNCH: Is there something that you listen to that the other guys in the band give you grief about? TOM: Every once in a while after a crazy punk-rock night, of kids slamming and me jumping off the stage and getting hit in the face with a microphone and being all sweaty, I'll go back on the bus, dim the lights and put on Enya. You know, "Sail away, sail away, sail away." You know what I listen to a lot, though? We really got into the Beastie Boys and a lot of hip-hop. I never used to listen to hip-hop, I always listened to fast punk. After a year-and-a-half of touring and listening to punk-rock, you want to listen to something a little more groovy. I don't think that listening to the Beastie Boys is embarrassing because I think they are a really great band. But Enya, yeah, that's embarrassing. MARK: I like that Jewel song--you know the video Jewel where is walking through some house on fire? I get all choked up whenever I hear that song. I bought the CD and brought it in to play, and they totally laughed at me. I totally back that song. I think it's a good song. TRAVIS: I love hip-hop music like no other. I listen to hip-hop 65% of the time. They're kind of into it, but more like the Beastie Boys. But I'm truly into it. LAUNCH: I went on the Internet and there seems to be an incredible number of websites devoted to you guys. Do you spend much time on the Internet? How computer-literate are you? MARK: We have a chat room on our website and I used to go on there every night while we were on tour. Now I go on about an hour or two per week. I usually just go in there and talk to kids and answer any questions they have. Usually, for the first half-hour I have to prove that I'm actually a guy in the band. If I were a kid on the Internet, I would never believe that this was a kid in the band. There's an email address where you can mail me directly. I try to keep in contact with the people who support us. I think that's really important. TOM: The only reason in the world that I bought a computer was to look up UFO sites. I'm a huge UFO fanatic. I love aliens. I love the Internet. I think the Internet is a huge neurological brain center all over the world that ties in all the information that we read, everything we learn, everything that we buy and sell. It's all on this giant fiberoptic system tied into the Pentagon and they are monitoring everything we do and we're all gonna die. The only reason I bought a computer was to look up UFO sites and learn how to get probed. Anally. Wait, are you laughing at me?