Is writing beats something that has always come naturally to you?

“I will always bounce my ideas off everybody. I might have three different ideas for a song, especially with California. Some songs were based around a drum part, sometimes they would have a guitar idea and I would say, ‘Let me go in and freestyle and you guys tell me which you love the most.’

"I would freestyle all the way, in all of the different ways that I could approach the verse, chorus or bridge. John [Feldman, California producer] would come to me and say, ‘Go really f***ed up or weird.’

"He would call it hip hop, but it’s not hip hop! It’s just not playing straight two-four or being experimental and playing a marching pattern or playing something with a weird offbeat or a mis-placed snare.”

You mentioned hip hop and marching just then, how much of an impact have those influences had on your work with Blink?

“They have both had a big influence. When it comes to fill ideas or even sticking patterns, just being able to lead with my left is important or being able to incorporate flams and stuff like that; all of that stuff I feel like has really helped me sound a little more like myself.

"That includes hip hop and every genre of music that I have played, from my stuff with Steve Aoki or my studio sessions with people like Lil Wayne or Playboi Carti, all of that shapes you as a drummer. I will learn something from every musical session that I do, I’m always learning.”

Through side projects and sessions you have played an array of styles. Are you able to bring all of those elements back to Blink?

“Yeah. Sometimes you can approach a song and I can play what everyone else would play or I tend to be more like, ‘Okay, how can I make this part more original?’ For example, the beginning of ‘No Future’.

"At first John just wanted a strong two and four on that song. I did it like that with just two and four and I thought it was kind of boring so I said, ‘What about this?’ I made that first part up on the fly and John was like, ‘What the f*** is that?! What is that?!’

"That is what makes Blink sound like Blink and not like other bands in our genre of music. I feel like having the freedom to have drum parts that are different and that are experimental is definitely fun and definitely makes it more exciting for me.”

Los Angeles is a drum part that caught our attention on California - how did that one come about?

“That one was this half-time reggae bass drop beat that I was messing with. I had this idea and luckily a great thing about Feldman doing the album is that he is very good with four on the floor and allowing reggae-feeling stuff because he comes from this ska background with his band [Goldfinger]. That was awesome.

"That beat was just experimenting; once I had heard the guitar part I had the idea to do that part at the beginning. The second verse goes to this four on the floor half-time kind of reggae, ska feeling thing.”

Teenage Satellite also has that reggae feel in places

“I love Teenage Satellite, that is one that I wish we were playing live. That one is a pretty straightforward beat. That was one where I said, ‘Okay, I can do this, this or this on the bridge.’ It has a reggae vibe half-time bridge.”

Given that you have worked on so many different projects, is it difficult to stay fresh with your beats? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

“I never have a loss of ideas in the studio. I think I probably have to give credit to being able to do so many different styles and doing so many different sessions at home. John Feldman moved less than a mile from me so every day he would call me up and be like, ‘Hey, I’m working on this Christmas album for this violinist, come over.’

"Or I will be like, ‘John, can I come use your studio? I’m recording the new Logic album, he just told me an hour ago and I’ve got to get it done before I leave for tour tomorrow.’

"I never know what is coming. I love having stuff thrown at me. For Logic, it was making an album that was Daft Punk meets James Brown and he wanted me to play drums on it. He asked when I was available and I said that I had to leave for tour the next day. He said, ‘Great, can we meet up in the next hour?’ We did and we knocked it out in like an hour.

"I feel that always juggling all of these projects keeps me fresh, keeps me on my toes and it keeps me versatile.”

Do you thrive on that pressure? We seem to recall that you landed the Blink gig at very short notice back in 1998…

“I think things are more fun like that. I’d rather that than having eight weeks to learn something. I like that pressure.”

Matt Skiba on Travis “My first instrument was the drums. I am not a drummer like Travis is a drummer though by a long stretch. I was a decent drummer, I wasn’t great. "Travis though is like he is from another planet. The guy is so talented. Because I started on drums I write with time signatures in mind so rhythm is huge to me and to play with Travis is a dream. It is so cool. "We met years ago and I would watch Blink play and just watch Travis. I would think that if I ever played with that dude I wouldn’t be able to watch him because I would get too distracted. "Like I would be thinking, ‘What the hell did you just do?!’ It has been a real blessing to play with Travis. He’s a great dude, a great father, a great friend and an incredible drummer.”

Coming onto your solo work, does that require a completely different creative mindset in comparison with Blink?

“It is mainly in terms of drum sounds. I try for the sake of Blink and Transplants and other rock stuff that I do, I try to make my solo project severely different to everything else that I do. It’s not something that I get to do a lot so when it comes to making a solo album there is a lot more to it than just playing drums. It is about producing and making the tracks first.

"That, I think, is the most challenging part for me. I feel like I have to make these tracks knowing that I’m going to play drums on the majority of them. That means that I know that they need to be high energy. Most of them have guitar and generally hip hop doesn’t have guitar.

"Hip hop generally doesn’t have live drums, although I think that is coming around right now. There’s an interesting movement about to happen with hip hop [and live drums].

"But the most challenging part of my solo work is me wearing my producer hat and figuring out what I want the track and the drums to sound like. That is especially difficult when I am in this world because Blink has been so busy.

"A lot of people go, ‘Oh, Travis Barker has a solo album, I hope he’s doing drum solos everywhere.’ Well, unfortunately not every song requires a drum solo. Even with Blink it's weird if I'm going crazy in every song. There comes a time with musicianship that you have to do what the song is asking for.

"It’s not always about, ‘Is Travis going crazy on this song?’ That is bad musicianship sometimes. So for my solo work, it is about finding that balance where I still find it fun and it is fun for fans who love the drums and love hip hop with live drums and a live musical element but so that it doesn’t hurt the song writing or make it sound out of place.”

Did you find that stepping into the production and solo project world taught you lessons in what works beat-wise that you were able to take back to Blink?

“For sure. It helps me with Blink records or when we’re placing 808s on Blink songs, all of that stuff. Even using electronic drum sounds, it all comes into play when we’re recording an album.”