Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Blink-182's 'After Midnight' An 'Homage' To 'I Miss You'

Tom DeLonge jokes that his and Mark Hoppus' lyrics are about 'me and him kissing and making love to each other.'
By James Montgomery


Blink-182
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Blink-182's Neighborhoods album was rather famously recorded in fits and starts, so it's sort of odd to learn the story behind "After Midnight," the latest single from the disc, because, unlike pretty much everything else, this one was easy.

" 'After Midnight' was one of the last songs that we actually wrote for the album, and it originated from a beat that Travis [Barker] made up one day when he was working in the studio," Mark Hoppus told MTV News on the set of the "Midnight" video in California. "We went in, listened to the beat, [and] it grabbed us immediately. It was one of those moments on the album where everybody just had a bunch of ideas all at once, and it came together pretty quickly. I think like in two or three hours, we had the basics of the song all written out."

"Midnight" is like most older Blink songs in its speedy creation, and its similarities with the band's back catalog don't end there: Much like "I Miss You," a single from Blink's 2003 self-titled album, the lyrics were handled by both Hoppus and DeLonge.

"Tom and I divided the responsibility of writing the lyrics — Tom did the verses and I did the chorus — and we didn't necessarily know what the other was writing about, but it fit together pretty well," Hoppus explained.

And DeLonge took things one step further by including lyrical nods to "I Miss You" in his verses on "Midnight."

Of course, he explained, that was only mostly intentional. And it's not that he's running out of ideas, he said.

"Well, maybe a little bit, but not totally," DeLonge said. "I threw in a little homage to 'I Miss You,' because, specifically on this song, I remember Travis saying that we should have something in the category of 'I Miss You' [on this album], and that's when he showed us the beat. So when we wrote that, I remember that was in my mind."

Then again, DeLonge said he had ulterior motives for co-writing the song with Hoppus — ones that bordered (of course) on the sexual.

"What's cool about this song and 'I Miss You,' when Mark and I both write lyrics in different places, they come together and they're both about the same thing, usually me and him kissing and making love to each other," he laughed. "We end up writing super romantic songs. And I think it worked out really good on this one."

What do you think of "After Midnight"? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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