California is the seventh studio album by American rock band Blink-182, released on July 1, 2016, through BMG as the band's only album on the label. It is the first of two albums by the band to feature both producer John Feldmann and Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba, with the latter replacing founding member Tom DeLonge during his absence from 2015 to 2022. After touring and releasing Neighborhoods (2011) and Dogs Eating Dogs (2012), it became difficult for the trio to record new material due to DeLonge's various commitments. After disagreements that led to DeLonge's departure, the remaining members of the group—vocalist/bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker–recruited Skiba in his place.

California was recorded at Foxy Studios between January and March 2016 with Feldmann. He was the group's first new lone producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. Prior to his involvement, the trio began writing together in September 2015 and completed dozens of songs. They decided to shelve them upon working with Feldmann to start fresh, and they proceeded to record another 28 songs; in all, the group recorded upwards of 50. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend 18 hours in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. The album's title comes from the band's home state of California, and its artwork was illustrated by the street artist D*Face.

The album debuted at number one in the US and several other countries, and was the group's first domestic chart-topper in 15 years, and first ever in the UK. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album; the band's first. Its first two singles, "Bored to Death" and "She's Out of Her Mind", charted well on Billboard Alternative Songs chart. California received mixed reviews from music critics, with some praising the band's return to their classic sound and others criticizing the length of the album as well as Feldmann's input and production. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour in North America and Europe. A deluxe edition of the album, containing eleven new songs, was released in May 2017.

Background

After reforming in early 2009, Blink-182 toured worldwide, and released its sixth studio album, Neighborhoods in 2011. The band members recorded the majority of the album on their own in different studios, an extension of their pre-break-up miscommunication. They parted ways with their record label, Interscope in 2012, later self-releasing an extended play, Dogs Eating Dogs, that holiday season. Plans for a seventh Blink-182 album were delayed numerous times, reportedly due to guitarist Tom DeLonge's involvement in his other group, Angels & Airwaves, as well as other projects. In the interim, the band mounted an anniversary tour for its self-titled fifth album, and headlined the Reading and Leeds festivals. By the time DeLonge spoke to Rock Sound in November 2014, there was still little work completed on the album: "We're just getting to that point of starting ... there's no timeline at the moment." By the time a record deal was finalized one month later, DeLonge backed out of recording and performing commitments by email—which led bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker to seek legal separation from him in what Hoppus described as a "friendly divorce".

Hoppus soon revealed that it was "a very, very difficult struggle" to corral DeLonge into working with the group, while Barker asserted that DeLonge's behavior was motivated by money. He also claimed that he quit the band more than once prior to the group's separation. DeLonge countered these accusations by arguing that he was being forced to drop his other projects, calling their actions "defensive and divisive." As he continued to pursue said projects—including a solo album composed of purported Blink-182 demos, To the Stars... Demos, Odds and Ends—he related to the press that he was "totally willing and interested in playing with those guys again." Meanwhile, Blink-182 performed two club shows and a slot at the Musink Tattoo Convention & Music Festival in March 2015 with Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba filling in for DeLonge. Barker and Hoppus met with Skiba over a lunch to discuss filling in for DeLonge and began rehearsals with the group. After the shows, Skiba returned to Alkaline Trio for a string of dates and also released Kuts, an album from his other band, The Sekrets. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba rejoined Blink-182 as an official member, and the trio began preparations for new music in August 2015. The trio initially began writing together for the first time at Barker's studio, Opra Music in North Hollywood, in September 2015. The group wrote and recorded demos for upwards of 30–40 songs.

Recording and production

California was produced by John Feldmann and recorded at his studio, Foxy Studios, in Woodland Hills, California between January and March 2016. Feldmann, initially the frontman of the band Goldfinger, became better known for his production work with artists such as 5 Seconds of Summer and All Time Low. Barker was the first to reach out to Feldmann about producing, as the two were good friends. He had known the members of Blink-182 for over two decades, as the group had previously performed shows with Goldfinger. He was the first new producer to work with Blink-182 since the death of the band's longtime producer, Jerry Finn, who last worked with the band in 2003. Feldmann "worshipped" Finn and his approach to producing. "I never thought there'd be anybody that could come even close to replacing Jerry, and John is really the closest that we've come to someone who could fill that capacity," said Hoppus.

The group initially invited Feldmann to hear its demos, and he suggested that the band regroup at his studio the next day to make a fresh start. The next day, the group wrote three songs, including the lead single "Bored to Death". As the band continued to write and record, the trio chose to shelve their earlier recordings and proceeded to write 28 songs in a period of 3–4 weeks. Half of these songs were chosen to be put on the finalized album, in addition to two joke songs. Barker fought for all 28 songs to be on the album, as he felt fans had waited long enough for more new music. The trio, as well as Feldmann, regularly stayed in the studio for up to 18 hours a day. The band members would arrive at the studio with no plan for what to work on for the day. They would then write several songs in only a few hours, aiming to complete them by the end of the night. Feldmann asked the members to consider what Blink-182, as a group, are all about, to inspire the songwriting. He would encourage the musicians to write with speed, which Hoppus admitted could be frustrating. "John was like, 'Okay: We've got the song structure. Write lyrics. Go in there and sing it. Go in there and sing it.' Sometimes, I was like, 'I'm not ready to sing!' (and Feldmann would reply) 'No. Go write something great right now!'" Barker was more supportive of this method based on his work with the Transplants, which had a similar speedy approach. "I always feel like your first instinct is your best," Barker remarked.

The California sessions also marked a decisive shift toward a collaborative songwriting model. In trying to recalibrate their sound for a new era, the musicians found itself operating within a creative process far removed from the one that shaped its early records. The larger industry had shifted toward a system built around co-writers, writing camps, and collaborative "blind dates" with strangers. For a band that had long treated songwriting as an entirely internal exchange between its members, the move toward outside collaborators was an uncharacteristic break from precedent. But with the band itself in transition, Hoppus wrote in his memoir that he tried to stay open to the unfamiliar: "I wasn’t sure how I felt about the new process. Who the hell knew blink-182 better than Travis and me? I just kept an open mind and went in ready to mix it up." Alongside Feldmann, the project involved contributions from figures such as Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls, and David Hodges, formerly of Evanescence—a network of aughts-era hitmakers.

For Hoppus and Barker, working within this broader creative circle required reassessing what elements constituted the band's core identity. The process led them to articulate the fundamentals of the Blink-182 aesthetic—concise melodies, an interplay of humor and earnestness, and wide-screen choruses. Feldmann felt it was a challenge to work with a new version of Blink-182 while both keeping its legacy and moving the group into a new territory. Feldmann's "agenda was to have an album that was palatable for a generation of ADD kids." The band members and Feldmann felt a breakthrough in direction with the song "Cynical", which they immediately chose as the opening song on the album. According to Hoppus, the band recorded a total of nearly 50 songs. By mid-February, the album was "70–80%" complete, according to Barker, and work was reportedly completed in early March 2016. By the end of March, the group were still narrowing down the songs that would be present on the album. The trio posted their progress via their respective social media accounts during the recording, in the form of Snapchat and Instagram clips. All parties seemed satisfied with the record. While recording, Barker told an interviewer that "It's honestly the best material we've written or put out in years. I haven't been excited about a Blink album like this in a long time." Feldmann commented, "I'm just so excited to have people hear it. I'd say it's one of the best records I've ever made in my life."

Composition

Hoppus considered the music on the album wide-ranging, commenting, "We tried to capture the energy and not worry so much about all the knobs." This includes songs he felt sounded like the group circa 1999, "super-fast late-Nineties-punk-rock-sounding songs," as well as more progressive songs "that are like nothing we have ever done before." Overall, he considered the record "really rich with sing-along melodies and sing-along choruses," which was what he preferred most when listening to bands. Feldmann considered the music not a "huge departure" from the band's usual sound, as hoped to make a "classic Blink record." To familiarize himself, he listened to all of the band's catalogue prior to recording. Lisa Worden, music director at Los Angeles radio station KROQ, compared its sound to the second Blink-182 album, Dude Ranch, and commented, "It sounds like Blink but it's not anything that we've heard before. For fans of the band, they're going to be super happy with it." Critics described the album categorically as alternative rock, pop-punk, and punk rock.