Alkaline Trio's Matt Skika says that he recorded "eight or nine" songs with Blink-182, which may never see the light of day now that Tom DeLonge has re-joined, and recorded a brand new album with, the San Diego band.
Speaking with Vulture about the unreleased songs recorded with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, Skiba admits "I don’t know if they’ll come out" adding "I think they’re really good."
"There’s almost a whole album’s worth of stuff," he reveals. "It was supposed to be an EP, and it just kept going, and going. And now we have, I don’t know if they’re just going to get scrapped, but there’s eight or nine brand-new songs that are done. We basically finished those, and then Mark was diagnosed, if I’m getting the timeline correct."
"I hadn’t even thought about those recordings. But I have them. They’re good songs. I’ll keep them a secret. I’ll keep them safe forever. But we’ll see. I don’t know, maybe they’re something that we could open up and look at differently, or it’s something that’ll come out later, I have no idea."
Lest anyone thinks Skiba is smarting over the shelving of this material, he insists that he couldn't be happier to see Blink's classic line-up reunited.
"I really am genuinely glad, as a fan of the band, that they’re a family again," he tells Vulture. "It seems like people are really psyched about it, and I’m one of those people too. I’m honored to have been asked to fill in for Tom or to join the band or however you want to phrase it. I’m proud of the work that I did with them. We had a great time... There’s no bad blood, there’s no drama, there’s no nothing. It’s just the next chapter in the band’s life."
Skiba was speaking ahead of this weekend's When We Were Young festival, at which Alkaline Trio will join headliners My Chemical Romance and Paramore and a 'Who's Who' of pop-punk and emo artists.
When We Were Young 2023 has already been announced, with Skiba's former band, Blink-182, among the star attractions, alongside Green Day, The Offspring, Good Charlotte, Sum 41 and more.
