Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus has been talking about his favourite bass players.
Hoppus was being interviewed by the Guardian in their 10 Chaotic Questions section, one of which asked him who his top three bass players were.
In actual fact, he named four: “Peter Hook from New Order. Simon Gallup from the Cure. And the two bass players from Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, who are the best, because they had two bass players.”
(Older readers may dimly remember Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, who were briefly successful in the early 1990s. Aside from having long crimped hair and a penchant for wearing shorts, their main claim to fame was indeed having two bassists in their lineup. It’s never really been established how that worked – did they both play the same notes at the same time or job-share the basslines?)
Anyway, Hoppus didn’t seem to know, simply adding: “Bass players are just cool. Bass players are the glue – we’re the one that brings it all together. We’re the bridge between the rhythm of the drums and the melody of the guitar and the vocal.”
The interview reveals some more interesting things about Hoppus. Apparently, he sold his Banksy because owning it was too stressful, saying: “We worried it would get damaged. People would come over, lean in way too close with a glass of red wine and say: ‘Is that really a Banksy?’
"The more money it was worth, the more precious we got with it. Eventually, it was so much stress, we sold it and gave some of the money to charity. My charity is haematology oncology research.
"My wife volunteers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It was right after the fires in LA, so we wanted to donate to the Firefighters Association. I also wanted to take some of the money and invest in new up-and-coming artists.
We also find out he kept chickens – named after Blink 182 songs, wouldn’t you know – and bees, when he lived down in Somerset. “A guy from the British Beekeeping Association, who worked at the local church, would come over and help me open up my hives and harvest the honey. It was crazy how much honey we got – up to 150 jars a season. It was the best honey I’ve ever tasted.”
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