Aaron Rubin talks about working on OMT

[Ghost]

8 hours ago, Knapppers said:

I want people to know that Jan isn't exaggerating this. It's actually this cringe. 

The topic of Edging maybe not being on the album cause it was out a year before the album came up. Aaron said the album was never supposed to be out this late. Said they thought December- January it would probably be done. Also mentioned that Edging was heard by label people before much work had been put into it, and that it was almost a throw away song. Said that Turpentine, MTYK, and Dance With Me were the first batch of songs they wrote that made the record. Said the first two songs they wrote together didn't make the album. 

Really good info. Thanks for transcribing this. Is really useful for those who don't have enough time. I think the process was way different than we thought. I'm surprised Turpentine was one of the first songs they wrote.

So it really looks, according to what Aaron says, that they did a huge effort on this record. Also, the coproduction thing looks much less worrying once explained how it works nowadays. It looks like if show up in the studio can ask for co-production credits, haha.

6 hours ago, M!ke said:

I can't remember what, but Tom said something recently that seemed to indicate that the song did at least start in the 2002 BCR proper days. Frankly I kinda think it is that old Dance With Me song that just evolved over the years. Cuz I swear I can kinda hear part of that old riff in Terrified.

I remember some instagram/twitter posts from back 2018/2019 talking about some BCR shit going along with Travis. I even recall Travis answering to that in a positive way. There were hints from Trav which suggested they were talking and, somehow, collaborating in that idea (there was a little bit of fuzz around BCR coming back and whatnot). And also Tom sort of saying that idea was rooted circa 200whatever. 

[Aaron Rubin No.1 Fan]

Ngl Terrified being released as a standalone BCR single track out of nowhere would have been pretty cool.

 Glad it’s on the album though.

 Interested to hear what turpentine sounded like that Mark wanted to stay but got changed to. Sounds like the verse guitars, which I love 

[M!ke]

5 hours ago, Ghost said:

 

I remember some instagram/twitter posts from back 2018/2019 talking about some BCR shit going along with Travis. I even recall Travis answering to that in a positive way. There were hints from Trav which suggested they were talking and, somehow, collaborating in that idea (there was a little bit of fuzz around BCR coming back and whatnot). And also Tom sort of saying that idea was rooted circa 200whatever. 

I get that, but Tom said something recently that really cemented in my head that it did indeed start as a song idea from those OG BCR days. If I have some free time today I'll try and look into it and try and find the quote, problem is I'm not even sure which interview it was, ugh.

[Russel Coight]

Tom writing it in 2018 makes it feel like less of a boxcar song and more just like a Tom song. Still great. Just don’t think it carries the weight of Mark being cool with it that it did if it was from back around the original record.

[Man]

I haven’t listened to the podcast but based on the comments here and my observation, the old band dynamics was:

 

-Tom being all over the place and wanting to change the sound

-Mark being stubborn and wanting blink to be the same old sound. 
 

-Travis is blessed man, he’s blessed. 
 

I’m not doom and glooming, it’s clear whatever their past issues were, they got over it. That’s what this whole record and new era is about. 

[Kay]

39 minutes ago, Russel Coight said:

Tom writing it in 2018 makes it feel like less of a boxcar song and more just like a Tom song. Still great. Just don’t think it carries the weight of Mark being cool with it that it did if it was from back around the original record.

To be fair the verses sound more later Tom and the chorus and intro / in betweeny bits sound more old BCR, it's all in him anyway though. 

[Knapppers]

Some more bits to add

The parts of Turpentine (intro verse chorus) apparently all felt the same to Aaron when they first got it from Mark. Aaron changed some chords to make them sound more distinct and the first thing Mark said when he heard it was why did you change the chords. When Tom explained that Aaron felt it would work better like this, it was one of the first moments where Aaron felt some trust with this process and that Mark was seemingly ok with it. 

Hurt- Aaron didn't even know it was on the record. It was basically an idea that Tom had that he sent to Travis, Travis then put drums on it and it was mostly done. When Aaron heard it he was surprised it was on there (also had a different working title so he had no idea what Hurt was, think it was damaging eyes or something)

He wasn't a van of the bridge at first on terrified. 

Travis sent down Childhood and Tom had no idea what to add to it to make it sound like Blink. Aaron actually suggested a few riffs/melodies. 

Sounds like Aaron really is Tom's partner in all facets of music making, weather it be engineering, song writing or producing. He said since the first time he worked with Tom, Tom asked him what he thought of the part he was working on, and Aaron was surprised, thinking he was just there to be an engineer. Now it's gotten to the point where Tom trusts him and they work really well together. 

As Jan mentioned, Aaron felt NH and DED felt too much of a mashup of AvA meets +44, and as a longtime fan of Blink, he wanted to make sure this album felt like Blink. So if Tom started writing something with a big long AvA esque intro, Aaron would kinda of be like no, that doesn't belong here. 

[Man]

6 minutes ago, Knapppers said:

Some more bits to add

The parts of Turpentine (intro verse chorus) apparently all felt the same to Aaron when they first got it from Mark. Aaron changed some chords to make them sound more distinct and the first thing Mark said when he heard it was why did you change the chords. When Tom explained that Aaron felt it would work better like this, it was one of the first moments where Aaron felt some trust with this process and that Mark was seemingly ok with it. 

Hurt- Aaron didn't even know it was on the record. It was basically an idea that Tom had that he sent to Travis, Travis then put drums on it and it was mostly done. When Aaron heard it he was surprised it was on there (also had a different working title so he had no idea what Hurt was, think it was damaging eyes or something)

He wasn't a van of the bridge at first on terrified. 

Travis sent down Childhood and Tom had no idea what to add to it to make it sound like Blink. Aaron actually suggested a few riffs/melodies. 

Sounds like Aaron really is Tom's partner in all facets of music making, weather it be engineering, song writing or producing. He said since the first time he worked with Tom, Tom asked him what he thought of the part he was working on, and Aaron was surprised, thinking he was just there to be an engineer. Now it's gotten to the point where Tom trusts him and they work really well together. 

As Jan mentioned, Aaron felt NH and DED felt too much of a mashup of AvA meets +44, and as a longtime fan of Blink, he wanted to make sure this album felt like Blink. So if Tom started writing something with a big long AvA esque intro, Aaron would kinda of be like no, that doesn't belong here. 

What’s this ‘sent’ and ‘received’ stuff? Sounds like separate studios, neighborhoods style recording?

[Aaron Rubin No.1 Fan]

I really want to hear that OG Turpentine now even though the final version is perfect.

[Knapppers]

2 minutes ago, Man said:

What’s this ‘sent’ and ‘received’ stuff? Sounds like separate studios, neighborhoods style recording?

Basically ya. They kinda addressed that. Talked how about how it was looked down upon during neighbourhoods but now it's the norm for a lot of bands. 

He did talk about how they got in the same room a lot. But basically Mark and Travis are in LA and Toms in San Diego so they worked on stuff independently and sent them back and fourth. 

[MassKirbycide]

Yeah, I remember Tom mentioning months ago that they would visit each others’ studios frequently (like at least once a week), so it’s not like Neighborhoods where they went months doing things remotely and then got together at the end to work in person for a bit. 

[Kay]

I think recording it seperately is fine and building up on existing frameworks but I wish the actual bare bones writing was done in person, makes a lot of difference for the vibe and creativity to actually 'live' in the sound all together instead of just sending stuff back and forth.

[Knapppers]

Forgot to add in the bit about Tom going back to Fender and getting a Starcaster. Sounds like it was all Aaron's doing. 

Said when Tom played the Starcaster, it was the first time he has ever actually seen Tom super excited and pumped about a piece of gear. Says he's not a gear head at all and Tom buys stuff just cause it looks cool half the time. Like he'd have no idea what a pedal does but it'll look cool so he'll buy it lol. 

In the pandemic or just before it, Aaron was in talks with Fender to re release Tom's Strat. They were pumped on it and didn't even care that Tom didn't use Fender anymore, they still wanted to do it. It ended up happening, and then Aaron mentioned to them that he's pretty sure he could get  Tom to go back to Fender if they got him a Starcaster. Fender said we don't even make that guitar anymore and just tracking down the tooling to make it would be super difficult. Aaron basically told the custom shop to just make him 4, with the Starcaster body and Toms Strat neck, and then anything else they think it needed to be reliable and playable. For pickup, Tom wanted the Dirty Fingers again, but none of them realized it was actually a Gibson product, so that was a no go. It came down to a JB or a Duncan Custom (sh5 I believe he said). They settled on the custom. Says Tom wants a high output pickup to cover up his sloppy playing but still wants there to be enough clarity to hear the notes. Said if it was good enough for Eddie Van Halen, it would be good enough for him lol. And then when Tom played it he absolutely fell in love with it. 

[Ghost]

2 hours ago, Man said:

I haven’t listened to the podcast but based on the comments here and my observation, the old band dynamics was:

 

-Tom being all over the place and wanting to change the sound

-Mark being stubborn and wanting blink to be the same old sound. 
 

-Travis is blessed man, he’s blessed. 
 

I’m not doom and glooming, it’s clear whatever their past issues were, they got over it. That’s what this whole record and new era is about. 

Hahahaha, lol ath the blessed part. So true, but you gotta love him.

Anyway, I think what you say it's pretty clear, IMO. When they first disbanded, Tom came up with AvA which was a noticeable departure from blink's sound, specially compared to what Mark came up, +44, which to me was closest to what blink was doing in Untitled. Travis just got the ide with MArk as Tom just disconnected from everything.

 

2 hours ago, Kay said:

To be fair the verses sound more later Tom and the chorus and intro / in betweeny bits sound more old BCR, it's all in him anyway though. 

Good point. To me still sounds really similar to Snake Charmer and Start The Machine. In my ears Terrified is closest to those songs than to any BCR tune.

[Juggalo Moe]

2 hours ago, Knapppers said:

Some more bits to add

The parts of Turpentine (intro verse chorus) apparently all felt the same to Aaron when they first got it from Mark. Aaron changed some chords to make them sound more distinct and the first thing Mark said when he heard it was why did you change the chords. When Tom explained that Aaron felt it would work better like this, it was one of the first moments where Aaron felt some trust with this process and that Mark was seemingly ok with it. 

Hurt- Aaron didn't even know it was on the record. It was basically an idea that Tom had that he sent to Travis, Travis then put drums on it and it was mostly done. When Aaron heard it he was surprised it was on there (also had a different working title so he had no idea what Hurt was, think it was damaging eyes or something)

He wasn't a van of the bridge at first on terrified. 

Travis sent down Childhood and Tom had no idea what to add to it to make it sound like Blink. Aaron actually suggested a few riffs/melodies. 

Sounds like Aaron really is Tom's partner in all facets of music making, weather it be engineering, song writing or producing. He said since the first time he worked with Tom, Tom asked him what he thought of the part he was working on, and Aaron was surprised, thinking he was just there to be an engineer. Now it's gotten to the point where Tom trusts him and they work really well together. 

As Jan mentioned, Aaron felt NH and DED felt too much of a mashup of AvA meets +44, and as a longtime fan of Blink, he wanted to make sure this album felt like Blink. So if Tom started writing something with a big long AvA esque intro, Aaron would kinda of be like no, that doesn't belong here. 

This further proves my point. Guaranteed you’re hearing a lot of guitar work done by Aaron and Ilan on this record 

[Chewy030]

11 minutes ago, Juggalo Moe said:

This further proves my point. Guaranteed you’re hearing a lot of guitar work done by Aaron and Ilan on this record 

Yeah you should pry stop listening to them then and go find another band. Nice knowing ya. 

[Juggalo Moe]

1 minute ago, Chewy030 said:

Yeah you should pry stop listening to them then and go find another band. Nice knowing ya. 

Sorry you can’t admit the obvious truth lol

[Chewy030]

Just now, Juggalo Moe said:

Sorry you can’t admit the obvious truth lol

Sorry you think the guys don't play anymore. Must be a miserable way to think about music. But whatever enjoy yourself, plenty other bands out there to go enjoy. BTW i  thought you said you were leaving this place? Guess you can't help yourself to try and kill other peoples enjoyment. Pretty sad really. 

[Juggalo Moe]

3 minutes ago, Chewy030 said:

Sorry you think the guys don't play anymore. Must be a miserable way to think about music. But whatever enjoy yourself, plenty other bands out there to go enjoy. BTW i  thought you said you were leaving this place? Guess you can't help yourself to try and kill other peoples enjoyment. Pretty sad really. 

I mean the fact that they’re sitting there literally telling you Aaron re wrote the song and chords should kill your enjoyment but I’m sorry for relaying what was already said?

[Chewy030]

1 minute ago, Juggalo Moe said:

I mean the fact that they’re sitting there literally telling you Aaron re wrote the song and chords should kill your enjoyment but I’m sorry for relaying what was already said?

So because he changed some things means Tom didn't actually PLAY the guitar on it which is what you're yelling about? You legit act like They never play anymore live or studio. Like why continue to follow then? Fucking move on dude.