Travis Barker is quickly becoming one of the more influential musicians on the Rock scene today. Travis began studying drums and taking lessons at the age of four. He studied with a jazz teacher and was exposed to many different styles of music. While in High School, Travis played in the jazz ensemble and marching band. He subsequently gained much experience performing at regional competitions and festivals. His senior year, Travis passed up drum corps tryouts for touring with a rock band. He gained more experience as a rock drummer in a few early bands such as Feeble, The Suicide Machines, and The Aquabats.

In 1998, Travis replaced Blink 182's first drummer and came to the band’s rescue at one show by learning over twenty songs in just a few hours and performing with them later that evening. Travis quickly became a much respected and popular member of the band and solidified his position as the timekeeper with his professional attitude, rhythmic skills and talent.

Blink-182 won a Teen Choice Award, a Blockbuster Music Award, and appeared on the MTV Awards 2000 where they performed "All The Small Things" and won Best Group Video. In Europe, they received an MTV Europe Award for Best New Act. They have performed on Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show (twice), appeared in the hit movie American Pie and opened the Billboard Music Awards. The band has also graced the covers of Rolling Stone, Alternative Press (twice) and Teen People. At this point, Blink-182 is a worldwide phenomenon, with their recordings reaping multi-platinum status and their concert tours selling out everywhere. The band's popularity has only increased since their formation in '93. In 1994 they released their first full-length album, Cheshire Cat, on Grilled Cheese (a division of Cargo Music). In 1996, they signed a joint-venture record deal with Cargo Music and MCA Records, with their first MCA release Dude Ranch (1997) setting the stage for their current success. By the end of 1998, they had emerged as one of the most popular pop-punk bands of the year.

Worldwide sales of Enema of the State are now over seven million copies, not to mention the fact that the album has been on Billboard's Top 200 for over a year. The album's three singles, "What's My Age Again," "All The Small Things" and "Adam's Song" have dominated MTV, alternative, rock and Top-40 radio. Travis will be on tour in support of Blink’s latest release and follow-up to "Enema of The State", "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket".

Box Car Racer, Barker's collaboration with Blink bandmate Tom DeLonge, David Kennedy and Anthony Celestino, filmed their second video recently with director Alexander Kostas (Filter, Andrew W.K.).


April 7, 2005
Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker of Blink 182 have started a new group named Plus 44, which features vocals from Carol Heller of Get The Girl.

The band are aiming to have a record released this year, with Hoppus telling MTV: "It's very exciting, like a breath of fresh air. It's all very electronic right now. We have a girl singing… she and I are trading off vocals.”

Barker also commented: "If Blink was the daytime, Plus 44 is the night time. It's such a departure from Blink, but it's amazing. I play all the drums, but they're electronic drums, plus I play piano and keyboard on it. And I've been making beats for it... I am just going to keep working on stuff. Everything's A-plus."

Blink 182 announced that they were to go on indefinite hiatus in February, citing a desire to spend more time with their families, however rumours surfaced that the trio had in fact fallen out.

Blink-182 was made up of three members: Thomas (Tom) Matthew Delonge on guitar, Markus (Mark) Allan Hoppus playing bass, and Travis Landon Barker on drums. The band is greatly regarded worldwide for their catchy punk-pop melodies as well as their satirical toilet humour. blink-182 are unusual amongst punk bands (even pop-punk bands) for playing uptempo songs in a major key, with prominent major-chord harmonies that are usually digitally mixed to provide a much 'cleaner' sound than most other punk/rock recordings, which generally employ downtuned guitars, distortion and a ragged analogue mix to achieve the opposite effect. The lyrical content of their songs is humourous and often uplifting.. These aspects of their music are so apparent, and so particular to the band that often a blink-182 song can be recognised by the opening guitar chord.

In 1992, when Mark moved to San Diego, California he was introduced to Tom whilst looking to start a band. Apparently both 'fell in love at first sight' as they shared many things in common. In order to make the band complete, they decided that they needed to look for a drummer. Tom discovered a kid named Scott Raynor at his school who just happened to play drums. Although Scott was a religious Metallica fan, he agreed to join the band. After considering a number of names (such as Duck Tape) the band agreed to call themselves just 'blink'. This would later have the numbers 182 added onto the end to avoid legal conflicts with a pre-existing Irish band named 'blink' (see below).

Towards the end of 1993 blink released an EP known as Flyswatter. This demo was recorded using a boom box in Scott's bedroom, thus explaining the poor sound quality. Before the end of the year, the band released yet another demo cassette known as Buddha. Around 1000 copies of this were produced by Cargo Filter Records. In early 1994, blink released their first full-length debut album, Cheshire Cat, released on Grilled Cheese Records. The album contained many new versions of songs that appeared on the Buddha demo.

Shortly after the release of Cheshire Cat, blink were threatened with legal action by a techno band in Ireland of the same name. In order to avoid a lengthy lawsuit, blink added the numbers 182 to the end of their name. Although there are rumours as to why these numbers were chosen, all band members have made it clear that they are totally random and do not represent 'Mark's ideal weight', as one fan claimed.

During the pop punk boom of the 1990s, blink-182 were signed onto record giants MCA. After moving to Encinitas, California, the band recorded the album Dude Ranch with producer Mark Trombino. The album was a hit as two singles ('Josie' and 'Dammit') rose to the top of US airplay charts. Unfortunately, in 1998, a slight setback occurred amongst within the band. Scott, who had a serious drinking problem at the time, was reportedly asked to leave the band and go to rehab, although there are also reports that he decided to leave to go to college and earn a degree. Scott disappeared midway through a US tour, leaving the band in need of a replacement drummer. Travis Barker, who was playing with support band The Aquabats, decided to play for them that night. After quickly picking up the songs, the other members decided to ask Barker to join as a permenant member, and Scott left the band.

1999 saw the release of the highly-anticipated album Enema Of The State. The CD was successful, propelling the band to pop fame, and gaining a large amount of airtime on MTV and TRL. This was largely due to the commercial success of the songs 'What's My Age Again', 'Adam's Song', and 'All The Small Things'. The sound on 'Enema Of The State' was rooted in the same genre as earlier pop-punk bands such as NOFX, Green Day, and The Offspring, but it was more accessible to the mainstream, with a pop-feel. Many original fans felt that the band had strayed from their punk rock roots.

2001 saw blink continue their commer