Blink Drummer Plans New Band
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker is planning a side project to tide him over during his primary band’s downtime.
“After we do Europe next year, we have some time off,” he says, “so I’d like to have a little band that I can tour with when Blink’s off the road.”
Barker is considering enlisting two friends from his hometown in Fontana, California. “They’re tattoo artists that I grew up playing with,” he says without naming names.
He is clearer, however, on the direction of this band. “Very Minutemen and Fugazi-ish, with a touch of the Refused,” he says. “I’m really into the Minutemen and Firehose. I loved bands like that who are a little bit experimental. The Minutemen played funk and they played fusion and they played punk and country, so [this band] would be a fun experimental project. I don’t want to be in a side project to be popular. I just want to play music and have fun, so it probably won’t be the most radio-friendly or commercial-friendly music.”
Barker, who appears on drums in the new video for P. Diddy’s “Bad Boy for Life,” has also been asked to play on Xzibit’s new album. The two first met when Blink toured with the Alkaholiks, but was later recommended to the rapper by a friend. “I have a friend who works in the studio where he was recording his album and he was like, ‘Man, I want somebody to do drums on here,’ and my buddy was telling him, ‘My boy Travis, he’s super into hip-hop.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I remember him from a long time ago. Just tell him to come down.'”
Barker plans to work on the record when he returns to Los Angeles this December.