Mark Hoppus -Fender interview

Mark Hoppus
New band. New album. New Fender Signature Bass (well, sort of). Without even blinking …

Mark Hoppus is back in business, big time. He’s got a newly smokin’ band, a newly released album and a newly revamped Fender signature model bass guitar. So he’s busier than ever these days. Let us review …

Hoppus, of course, raucously rose to fame as the bass-playing third of insanely popular potty-mouthed punk/pop heroes blink-182. After selling about a bazillion CDs, blink blinked—the fellas announced in February 2005 that they were going on one of those music-biz “indefinite hiatus” things, which actually turned out to be—surprise—the end of the band’s ball game. Hey, it happens.

Not to worry. Before you could, uh, you know, blink, Hoppus and monster b-182 drummer Travis Barker set about forming another band, an even more ferocious ensemble that goes by the name of +44 (which, if you’re wondering, is the international telephone code for the United Kingdom). Two guitarists this time out, by the way—one called Shane Gallagher and one called Craig Fairbaugh. The new band played its first gig on Sept. 7, 2006, at Hollywood’s Roxy Theatre; debut disc When Your Heart Stops Beating was released in the United States on Nov. 14 to smashing success and in three different colors (blue, pink and green).

As 2006 winds down, +44 is laying waste to late-night television and embarking on a tour schedule that’s about as grueling as you’d expect, and the band is off across the pond in mid-January for a string of European dates. Nonetheless, Hoppus very kindly took the time in late November to huddle up with Fender News and give us the skinny on said new band, new album, new outlook, and new take on the popular Fender Mark Hoppus Jazz Bass® guitar …


FN: Congrats on the new album. How happy are you with it?
MH: I love our record. I’m really proud of it. We spent a year and a half writing and recording it, and we put everything we had into it. We put our hearts and souls into the record. It means the world to me, and I’m really proud of it.


FN: Which tracks do you most look forward to playing live?
MH: I always love playing “Baby Come On”—I love the energy of the single. They’re all fun to play for different reasons. Some songs are so fun to play because they’re so energetic and you get to rock out up onstage. And some songs are a little slower, and you get to enjoy the dynamics of that a little.


FN: Having two guitarists must be great.
MH: I love having two guitarists onstage because you can do so many things that we were limited with live in blink-182.


The green album: When Your Heart Stops Beating.
Image courtesy Interscope Records




FN: As a songwriter, do you write on bass or guitar?
MH: Actually, we all write songs together. On this record we wrote from a bunch of different places. Some songs started off on keyboards. Some songs started off on bass. Some songs started off on guitar. Some were just drum loops that we wrote to that Travis had programmed. Every song has a different point of origin.


FN: Pretty diverse.
MH: Yeah, definitely. Having four songwriters in the band—Shane would come to rehearsal with a song, and his foundation for the song would be different than anything I would come up with. So (the song) already starts from a different point. Or writing to something that Travis had programmed on a keyboard or a drum machine, or something he came up with on his drums, forces us to start writing from a different instrument than we normally would.


FN: Do you write all the lyrics and melodies?
MH: Yes I do.


FN: Do you play bass and guitar onstage?
MH: No, just bass.


FN: How is your signature bass is being modified?
MH: When we were recording the +44 record, I was using my Fender bass that I always use, which is a green Mark Hoppus signature model that I call “lettuce,” because it’s green. I was talking to our producer, Jerry Finn, about the next evolution of that.

We had done the late ’60s colors—Surf Green, Daphne Blue, Olympic White and Black. I’ve been collecting vintage Fender instruments for the past few years, and all the instruments have been the see-through blonde color. I have a ’58 Esquire® and a 1960 Jazzmaster®, which are all over the +44 record. I also got a ’92 Tele® Junior. The P-90 pickups were amazing for heavy distorted guitars. Either way, Jerry and I were talking about the basses, and I wanted to release my bass in colors that were more like the late ’50s and early ’60s models that I was collecting. So we did see-through blonde and a Two-color Sunburst.


FN: Interesting pickup configuration. Have you experimented with them like this before, or is this something new?
MH: We changed the position of the split Precision Bass® Seymour Duncan® Quarter Pound™ pickup that’s in the signature model, which lies beneath the G and D strings, because they’re always a little thinner-sounding than the A and E strings. By the physics of it, always having smaller strings there is going to make them sound a little thinner, so we switched the pickup that rests beneath those strings to be closer to the neck rather than closer to the bridge. So, consequently, they’re picking up more of the motion of the string, and they get a richer, fuller sound. Playing up on those strings doesn’t sound so thin. Usually, going up to the D, I’d play high on the A string, and now I don’t have to do that; I can go straight to the G and D strings.


FN: How does it sound?
MH: I love it! It sounds so good. I’ve always loved my signature model because of the easy playability mixed with the great low-end and bite of those pickups. It’s the best of all worlds for me. And then for it to go one step further is like a dream come true. I have two new signature model basses that are my main basses on this tour. I have one in each color, and they’re honestly the most beautiful basses I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously, the people who work in the Fender Custom Shop are amazing instrument builders. I can’t say enough good stuff about them.


FN: Your updated signature basses are coming out in 2007 ...
MH: I can’t wait! I get asked a lot about them out on the road. We’ll be doing signings, or when people meet us backstage, and everyone’s excited for the new stuff to come out. They can’t wait for it to become available.

FN: You’ve always played Fender basses, but lately you’ve been playing Fender Bass VI guitars. What led you to them?
MH: When we were recording the last blink-182 record, I was doing a lot of research into the Beach Boys and old Fender instruments. The bass sound that they used on a lot of the Beach Boys’ recordings came from a Fender Bass VI. I also read that the Cure also used a Fender Bass VI on a lot of their recordings. A lot of their stuff that I thought was a guitar was actually a Bass VI, which gave it that eerie, creepy sound.

I love mine. I think it’s a ’63 Fender Bass VI. The only thing is that the pickups were single coil, and I wanted a humbucking pickup with a little more drive so we could use it on tour. So, Alex (the Fender Custom Shop’s Alex Perez) made one that has a humbucking pickup in the bridge position.


FN: We thought you discovered the Bass VI from the Cure …
MH: I love them! And now that I know that sound, when I go back and listen to my Cure records, I’m like, “That’s how they got that.” I always wondered what effects Robert Smith used on his guitars and basses, and I know he uses a lot of effects. But then, a lot of them sounded really spooky, deep and dark, and I didn’t know where that came from. It’s that Fender Bass VI, and now it makes total sense to me!


FN: On your website you call the Jazzmaster® your favorite guitar. What do you dig about ’em?
MH: It’s kind of a nice bridge between a Strat® and a Tele®. I like the combination of the sounds. The Tele obviously is great for bitey, jangly things; and the Strat is a more laid-back guitar, I think. The Jazzmaster feels like it fits right in the middle. The Jazzmaster is what I wrote all the songs on that start off on guitar for the +44 record. I bought that guitar when I was producing the Motion City Soundtrack record, and immediately it got used all over that record. When I go to pick up and play guitar, I go to the Jazzmaster.


FN: Any surprises in your CD collection?
MH: My CD collection? I don’t know. What might surprise other people doesn’t seem surprising to me. I love all kinds of stuff. Whenever we’re recording, I always go back to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds CD over and over again, just because when I’m writing vocals, listening to Brian Wilson’s vocal arrangements and harmonies is really inspiring. I always go back and listen to that.


FN: Is that a recent taste, or did you listen to them in blink-182?
MH: I’ve always listened to the Beach Boys. Ever since we started recording Enema of the State, I would talk with Jerry Finn—I always end up talking to him about music, recording and everything—we started talking about the Beach Boys. I always liked the Beach Boys. You know—“Help Me Rhonda,” “Surfing U.S.A.”—they’re catchy. What I like about the Descendents, I like about the Beach Boys. Jerry said, “No, no—you need to listen to Pet Sounds and see where they took it.” The recording of Pet Sounds sort of opened up this whole world. So now every time we record, I go back and listen to that and read books about it.


FN: The +44, the songs sound tighter, more focused and more mature, as if you’ve taken what you did in blink-182 to the next step.
MH: Thank you. I couldn’t ask for anything more. That’s exactly what we hoped for.


FN: What do you like best about the new band?
MH: The best part? It’s all good! Everything’s great about being in this band. It’s very collaborative. It’s very fun. Everyone’s excited to tour and play music. I think the best part and the ultimate that you could ever hope for is playing music with people you love. And I’m doing that in +44.



Visit Mark Hoppus and +44 online at www.plusfortyfour.com and www.himynameismark.com.