Biography
The American rock band Blink-182 was formed in Poway (California) in 1992 by guitarist Tom DeLonge, drummer Scott Raynor and bassist Mark Hoppus. The latter's sister introduced Mark and DeLonge, who soon hit it off.
DeLonge and Hoppus began playing in DeLonge's garage, improvising songs they created as they went along. Together with Raynor, they began composing new songs and rehearsing at Raynor's house.
It was DeLonge who came up with the idea of naming the band Blink. Meanwhile, the relationship between Hoppus and his girlfriend had become strained, given the enthusiasm that the young man and his bandmates felt for the new group. Faced with the dilemma of choosing between the band and love, Hoppus decided to abandon his friends, although, for the good of the group, he finally changed his decision shortly after, after leaving his girlfriend to return to Blink.
Together again, the trio recorded a home demo at Raynor's house in May 1993 (a track titled "Carousel"), and began moving to play shows at local San Diego clubs. Riding the puk rock wave, they soon began to get noticed, entering the city's music circuit.
While they were making a name for themselves on stage, the manager of the record store where Hoppus worked gave them the money to record a new demo with more material resources, this time in a proper studio, Doubletime.
"Buddha" was the title chosen for this recording, which was released in 1994, a collection of fifteen songs with an approximate duration of 35 minutes that was sold in stores in the city and during the band's performances, and that collaborated to give luster to the group.
That same year Raynor's family moved to Reno (Nevada) and he temporarily left the band, until he decided to return to San Diego in mid-1995, where he lived for a while with Hoppus.
Cargo Records, an independent label in San Diego, offered them a contract to record an album, their first as such. The label put producer Otis Barthoulameu, who was also performing with a local punk band called Fluf, at their disposal. In addition, they had the collaboration of Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was precisely the president of the music label.
In this way, Blink made its first official recording, the album titled "Cheshire Cat", released on February 17, 1995 and which had a reduced budget, which forced to reduce the recording days to three.
The album bore the Blink signature, although the band had to rename themselves because there was already a band registered under that name and they had threatened legal action if they continued to use that name. Therefore, they had to rename themselves Blink-182 (the 182 was chosen at random).
Thus, Blink-182's debut album was a great success for the band in the city's punk scene, although their irreverent performances began to make them known in wider circles. The band released two singles, "M + M's" and "Wasting Time", with which they were promoted on local radio stations.
Thanks to "Cheshire Cat" the band began performing outside of California, on a tour called the "GoodTimes Tour" which included several bands, among others Pennywise, Pivit, Unwritten Law, 7 Seconds and Sprung Monkey, as well as Blink-182.
After this release, the band hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who counted as a resume having collaborated with bands like NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring.
At the end of 1995 Blink-182 began their first national tour, promoting the video for "GoodTimes", which had been directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele. They toured in a van they had purchased for the occasion and named it the Millennium Falcon. The tour was extended to Australia, where they were invited to go thanks to the money of the band Pennywise, who paid their tickets due to the lack of resources of the young band.
In the spring of 1996, the band signed a contract with the MCA label (later integrated into Universal Music Group). The punk community was offended by Blink-182's move to a major label, but the label promised them creative freedom.
With their new label, Blink-182 once again set about the task of putting together a new album, "Dude Ranch", which was recorded at the end of 1996 at Encinitas Studios in California. With the production of Mark Trombino, the album was released on June 17, 1997.
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