Way the fuck back in 2008, while going through my first ‘real’ breakup, I went on a quasi-date with my friend Sarah. We’d known each other for a few years by this point and worked in music, around the same bands. One of those bands, a delightful pop-punk group called Army of Freshman (AoF) had a gig at Camden Underworld. We agreed to meet there and see how the evening went.
SPOILER: Sarah and I did not make out.
Back then, I still wasn’t a massive drinker. Sure, if a Jack & Coke landed in front of me, I’d probably have a go. Much to the dismay of my then university grade friends, I wasn’t one to get slaughtered or seek out opportunity to get twatted.
So anyway, I’m utterly twatted in Camden Underworld – dancing between talking to Sarah (who is absolutely regretting her decisions) and waiting for AoF to play ‘10,000 Years’. Suddenly – in the corner of my eye, nay the side of the stage, I spot Mark Hoppus from Blink-182. For all I know, Sarah may have been saying we should go somewhere else – she may have been asking me to put my shirt back on. No idea. Walking away from her, b-line in place to talk to Mark. How has nobody seen him yet? Who the fuck doesn’t spot Mark Hoppus?! Idiots.
DOUBLE SPOILER: It wasn’t Mark Hoppus.
As I approached, it became abundantly clear to me that Mark Hoppus had left – and in his place, left his B-Tech stunt double. Being the ‘say yes to life’ kind of person I am, we continue this story with the question this imposter has never heard before:
’Anyone ever said you look like Mark Hoppus?’
’Fucks sake’ – his band mates then say in unison, as if they have been here before.
Turns out, he absolutely loves Blink-182 and took great delight in showing me tattoos, autographs and photos of his music collection. By this point, Sarah has probably gone. Honestly – I completely forgot to check in. She’s a paramedic in Texas now. Glad it worked out for her.
What has this got to do with writing music?
Well – Mitch and I stayed in touch. We spoke almost daily about music, bands, movies and more. Often at 3am. At one point, i even sent him my entire pop-punk library of music. Filled out the brim of deep-cuts and bands he’d never heard of. We decided that I should visit him on the… *checks notes* Isle of Wight?! That can’t be right. That’d God’s waiting room. Who’d live there?
SPOILER #3 – ME… I LIVE THERE NOW
On a nice summer’s day, I upped and left Rye, East Sussex to visit Mitch. Almost immediately, we didn’t make music and went about eating most/all of Lidl’s snacks, watched all the teen movies and went to the beach – where we successfully got 0 babes.
What became entirely apparent, is that we were fucking amazing at writing 30 second pop-punk ringtones. Seriously, if you need a ringtone (who the fuck doesn’t just use vibrate?) – call me.
We assembled 4/5 demos and various degrees of finals for a few songs;
1. From Here It’s Goodbye
2. Dear Ami
3. You Used Me
4. Young & Reckless
5. Do You Wanna Dance
That – err… was it. I moved to the IOW. Got a job and we just never quite got it back. We both got girlfriends and the prospect of hanging out in a shed together was never priority numero uno.
Skipping some chapters, it’s 13 years later and Mitch is still Mitch, I’m still me and we’ve decided to try again. Both of us are in much healthier places and we’re hanging out more. Something in our 35+ year old minds caused us to look back at all of it. Mitch’s hard-drive crashed, he lost a lot of the music we’d made, the library I sent him of tracks and old live footage. Suddenly, we didn’t have it anymore.
So here we are. The entire lot of it has gone. Hundreds spent trying to recover. Nothing. Zip.
Through gigs, depression, anxiety and a lot – being able to lean on each other as friends has been so very rewarding. This week, we decided to do it again. We’re writing songs, tracking demos and just enjoying it again. So for those who stayed with me this far… me and the guy I drunkenly thought was mark Hoppus in 2008 have got the following;
My First Stereo – Shore Thing
4 songs of alt-pop-punk-surf-rock’n’roll. Like putting the Ramones, The Beach Boys and American Pie movies in a blender. Topping off with some other influences and serving over ice.
Being in a place where I feel like writing about anything doesn’t come with a shadow of criticism feels great.
So yeah – we’re writing / recording and even putting out physical copies.
