Back in March 2015, Matt Skiba stepped in to Blink-182, filling in for two shows in the wake of Tom DeLonge’s departure from the band.

What began as a temporary arrangement quickly became a full-time fixture. The chemistry between Skiba and his new bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker was so apparent that the trio jumped into the studio under the watchful eye of producer John Feldman and had a new studio album on the shelves by the summer of 2016.

The album, entitled California, marked a reassuring return to form for Blink after the disappointing, pieced-together Neighbourhoods. The band had clearly regained its mojo, so much so that they have just dropped a deluxe edition of California.

That’s no great surprise in itself - a ton of bands tack on a new track, the odd remix and maybe, if you’re lucky, a smattering of demos and repackage it as a must-have deluxe version. The difference here is that the all-singing, all-dancing version of California has a whopping 11 new tracks, plus an acoustic, live re-working of Bored To Death.

It appears that this is a band jam-packed full of material. And so when we sat down with Skiba ahead of the band’s recent show in Birmingham, we wanted to find out just what else Blink has up its sleeve. But we started with Skiba’s secret past…

You started out as a drummer; how much of an impact does that background have on you as a guitarist and songwriter?

“I think that the more that you play and the more instruments you play and the better you get at them then you will be better off for it as a guitarist.

My mom made me take piano lessons, and that is why I am sitting here talking to you right now

“The key is the piano, no pun intended. My mom made me take piano lessons, and that is why I am sitting here talking to you right now. As a kid, I took piano lessons and I didn’t like it. It wasn’t cool. I was into Duran Duran and rock music. I didn’t have any interest in piano. I did it for three years and because of piano I learned percussion, I learned scales, I learned how to sing. Piano gives you all of the basics of those things.

“Being a drummer definitely influences how I play guitar. And then piano influences drumming and vice versa.”

Do you still write on piano?

“I write on a MicroKorg. I have a project called the Sekrets and I wrote both of those records on a MicroKorg. The first record sounds a lot like Alkaline Trio. The second record, it doesn’t sound like Bowie but that was an influence and I went for something a little more angular and spaced out. The MicroKorg informs the Sekrets songs.

“People ask me how I know which songs are right for which band. For Trio, I just write whatever I want. With Blink, it was really fun as being a fan of Blink, and coming in as ‘the new guy’, I can think as a fan and also as a member of the band. I don’t want to speak for Mark or Travis, but I think we made a great record together so something is working.”

It seems that your transition into Blink has been pretty effortless…

“The thing that sold me on it was Travis and Mark’s certainty that I was the right fit. When they asked me, I thought that if those guys thought I could do it then I would do it. I didn’t know what the fans were going to say.

“But it was an easy transition in the same way that when Trio makes a new record, at some point you want to keep the fans in mind but you also want to make something that means something to you. This new situation, it seems, thinking back, that a lot has transpired, and a lot has - my life has changed completely, but at the same time it is familiar.

“I’m not doing something I haven’t ever done before; it's just on a different scale and with different guys. I’m really lucky that lightning struck twice in my life. When all is said and done, it was a pretty easy transition. Yes, there were moments of total terror and panic, but that’s life. That’s just wanting to do a great job.”