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California Deluxe Album


Ghent

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I think blink always intended to have a producer. In the past, they always wrote the songs themselves and brought them to the producer. Only the smiley face album was the one where they spent months together in the studio writing the album. I remember them saying they wrote a lot of songs around August-December 2015. Around December/January was when Feldman was brought into the situation. They played him the songs and he felt they weren't blink songs, and instead wanted blink to start from scratch.

That's where Jerry Finn would've handled it differently. He would've taken those songs Mark & Skiba wrote and try to suggest ideas to make those very same songs better. Feldman instead made them start from scratch. That's what all the interviews say. Blink knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted a comeback album. They wanted to go with the more commercial sound. But they couldn't do that without Feldman. I'm sure I remember an interview a few years ago, where Mark said he finds it hard to write happy songs.

The album we would've gotten would've been some depressing, dark, deep theme with the +44/Alkaline Trio sound. You can already hear that in some of the California songs. 6/8, Hey I'm Sorry (especially the verses), Last Train Home, Long Lost Feeling etc. They weren't sure whether to release an album like that. My guess is they wanted a producer's opinion. Of course we got Feldman giving his input. If it was someone like Finn, he would've told blink to use them songs.

It ain't all just Feldman. Blink obviously agreed with Feldman. They obviously wanted to go the more commercial route IMO. Just they didn't really know how to after everything that has happened in the past 15 years. It's also obvious that Mark had writers block. Definitely no coincidence that he started writing less & less. That said, even when he struggles with that, he can write some fucking amazing songs like Heart's All Gone, Fighting the Gravity & Kaleidoscope.

Remember, this is the same dude who wrote "In Transit" which isn't the best song but it is very +44 sounding. That indie rock sound is his sound. But Mark seems to be the kind of dude who has no confidence in his songs whatsoever. So when they brought in a producer, it happened to be a producer with that commercial background. Makes sense why blink all of a sudden started sounding like All Time Low meets Panic meets Fall Out Boy meets other modern pop punk bands. California really isn't a genuine album IMO. Doesn't really have to be genuine though. Look at Wishing Well. We all thought that was Tom DeLonge being honest & right now he's trying to reach for shooting stars again but it still sounds like an AVA-ish track, which is Tom's identity now.

Feldman could be a great thing for blink, especially if he helps Mark gain more confidence in his own songs. But at some point, he's gonna have to step back a little bit IMO. I still can't stand his methods, like first thought = best thought, gang vocals, constant woahs & nanas and shit. California is the safe comeback album (deluxe included). The next album IMO will be one to listen out for with or without Feldman.

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10 hours ago, thongrider said:

Why?

because the people in the band have the power to say yes or no to the producer. he's hired by the band. so if feldy shares songwriting credit on something, like say he wrote the chorus, and you don't like it—the blame rests with the band who said "yes" to that chorus.

or, you like the chorus. in which case, there's no blame to be cast.

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@Ghost agree with most of that, other than this part:

"And that's it, they accepted the deal, they accepted him rejecting all the previous work and all, and went "all-in" into his way of work"

I just personally don't see John Feldmann saying "This all fucking sucks. Start from scratch with me and throw that shit out. I know what's best for this band" and then all 3 of them nodding in agreement. I think they had their doubts about the songs, got an outside opinion, and decided to work with him on a few "safe" radio friendly songs as they clearly felt they didn't have a big "hit". He's so energetic and created such a great creative environment that they kept busting out ideas and ultimately felt that stuff was better than what they had came up with before IMO.

@Blink 18Feldmann I'm simply using that point to show how silly it is for people to rip Feldmann's influence/writing techniques, but liking or even loving some of the songs... meaning clearly his approach isn't entirely dog shit. (Unless of course you hate every single song from this era.) 

@Nosferatu agree with most of that, other than this part which is very similar to my issue with Ghost's post above:

"They played him the songs and he felt they weren't blink songs, and instead wanted blink to start from scratch." 

Again, I don't see John as the big bad wolf who upon first meeting these dudes said "Hey everything you wrote sucks, we're starting this album from scratch at my house." I think it just naturally happened, they enjoyed what he brought out of them, and ultimately felt the new stuff was much better than the stuff they wrote before. (Or at the very least, much more appropriate for this release.)

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47 minutes ago, ryan1125 said:

@Ghost agree with most of that, other than this part:

"And that's it, they accepted the deal, they accepted him rejecting all the previous work and all, and went "all-in" into his way of work"

I just personally don't see John Feldmann saying "This all fucking sucks. Start from scratch with me and throw that shit out. I know what's best for this band" and then all 3 of them nodding in agreement. I think they had their doubts about the songs, got an outside opinion, and decided to work with him on a few "safe" radio friendly songs as they clearly felt they didn't have a big "hit". He's so energetic and created such a great creative environment that they kept busting out ideas and ultimately felt that stuff was better than what they had came up with before IMO.

Well, probably is as you suggest, but, anyway, that's where my opinion about what a producer should do comes in: I've never met a producer who said "scrap those 30 ideas". Neither 10. I really think he should've tryed to work with the band and those songs for a nice period of time -which is what didn't happened, due, probably to the timing but, mostly, to the way the people at Foxy studios work: just a factory which producess music in tons, almost non stop... they don't have time to craft or mold something with patience, is what it seems looking at Feldmann's interviews and Mark's ones regarding the working process-.

Anyway, I don't know what Feldmann told them. I don't know how insecure they felt about those songs or how bad they were, of course, but I think it's totally insane to scrap them out, all of them, and just start over. I think that's bullshit. I want to think he gave a chance and tryed to juice anything out off of those ideas. But even so, I can't believe that in that pack of ideas -remember, written by Skiba, Hoppus and Barker, not bay anyone else-, there was only one worth of ibeing worked on. Just sounds unreal to me knwoing who wrote that music.

Or all the "we had 30 songs written" is all bullshit, or those songs didn't fit into the "big comeback" type of sound they were later aiming for.

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3 minutes ago, Ghent said:

You guys need to let the Feldmann stuff go. It's old news. He will be working with them in the future so either get used to it or peace out.

No fucking kidding ... It isn't even fun to troll people anymore with this shit. 

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5 minutes ago, Ghent said:

I don't even take the bait anymore. If you're still talking about John Feldmann every day at this point you have problems.

Yeah, you don't take the bait, sure. But you are still throwing your passive offensive bullshit from time to time. Classic.

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7 minutes ago, Ghost said:

Yeah, you don't take the bait, sure. But you are still throwing your passive offensive bullshit from time to time. Classic.

Fuck off Ghost. How's that for "passive offensive"?

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17 minutes ago, Ghent said:

Fuck off Ghost. How's that for "passive offensive"?

You know it is, or passive aggresive, as you preffer. You've been doing this lately. Coming here, just throw that kind of offensive things without naming anyone in concrete, but, you know, just in general. "If you, blah, you're this". Maybe you're not  writing praising California anymore, but instead of it, you're launching that kind of globes probes from time to time.

I'm not offended by them, I just found really funny the way you show yourself like you're done with this, and at the same time you're saying that to those who are still debating about it just 'have problems'. But hey, no problem.

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i haven't listened to it since the day it came out. i just didn't like it. i like 6/8 somewhat, but the rest are so... soulless. this is the first time i haven't been into a blink album, if this one counts. i desperately hope the next release is a change of pace.

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