Sindy: Then what genre do you classify yourself as? Are you still punk?
Travis: It's really hard. I don't know how much you've followed that whole movement or what's punk rock style, but punk rock has never been like a style of music, even when people thought it was in the '70s. It's more of an attitude. It's the way you live your life. There are hip-hop people who are punk rockers. There are car mechanics that are more punk rock than bands that are on the TV or radio could ever be. It's definitely like a lifestyle, you know?
Sindy: Yeah. Ok, so what do you think the future holds for Blink-182?
Travis: We're going to continue touring this year, we have a big tour in America, in Europe, Australia and Japan, in South America. And then we're going to work on a short film/documentary, kind of like hints of what everyone saw on our CD enhancement or CD ROM with our CD. And we're going to keep making videos and keep making good records until one of us isn't around anymore or whatever.
Sindy: How do you think your music has changed since you guys have had kids and been through so many life changes?
Travis: Having kids doesn't change your life.
Sindy: No?
Travis: It doesn't change your life as far as being a musician. It changes your life, yeah. I mean my life has drastically changed. I went from maybe not being so careful all the time and kind of living carelessly to like thinking about every little thing I do, every move I make. But it hasn't affected us as musicians or the way we write songs and it never will.
Sindy: Do you think your fan base will change at all or has it already changed since you started?
Travis: The people who come to our shows are our fans from, like, the very beginning who maybe were getting sick of Blink but they understand, like 'Whoa, they've really re-vamped and they're fresh.' I think you can tell when a band is happy to be a band and we're happy to be a band again - whereas a couple of years ago I think we were just tired and we just needed everyone to leave us alone. We almost got forced to - because of politics with our record label - make another record, like, literally a year after Take Off Your Pants and Jacket came out. And that would have been the death of our band.
Sindy: So how did you get out of that?
Travis: Well, in not so many nice words, we told them to get lost. And there's a new regime and we're on a new label with different people and presidents of labels who think artistically, instead of always businesslike. You can't talk to a band about business or money or time frames or deadlines. We don't want to hear about that. We want to be creative and when we're done, we'll hand you our record. We don't want you coming by the studio while we're making it, you just have to trust us.
Sindy: Any advice you would give to kids wanting to get into this?
Travis: I think the biggest advice I would give anyone is play music cuz you wanna have fun and you genuinely love your instrument. Don't do it because girls like it or because you think that you're going to make a lot of money or be a huge rock star. My goal when I played music was maybe I'll get in a band. This is when I was like 16, I was out on my own, I had to leave my house and my only goal was that I had somewhere to sleep and maybe one day I would have a TV with a remote. And that was my way of thinking. I never, ever, in a million years, ever counted on selling, like, a 100 records or making a thousand dollars. And I think that's what usually happens, to people who weren't expecting anything out of it, you know? I guess, just don't expect anything out of it, just do it because you love it.
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