Background
Blink-182 spent much of 2002 on tour with Green Day on the Pop Disaster Tour, promoting their 2001 album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, which went four times multiplatinum. After some time off, guitarist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker regrouped and recorded an album for their side-project Box Car Racer. Although DeLonge told press at the time that the project was produced out of "pure boredom," Box Car Racer was created by DeLonge as an outlet for different creative expression and to experiment with ideas he felt were not "Blink-friendly." In a 2012 interview, DeLonge likened the creative state of Blink-182 to the art of painting, in which one has several different colors but, in the case of Blink-182's previous efforts, only employs one. Feeling "bummed out" in the studio during the recording of Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, he recorded Box Car Racer without bassist Mark Hoppus, which led to strained relations between the two and unresolved tensions. The post-hardcore sound of Box Car Racer inspired the change in tone and experimental nature the band approached Blink-182 with.
In addition to Box Car Racer, Travis Barker was asked to join rap rock group Transplants in 2002, and was featured on their first album, Transplants. By late 2002, the band had an idea of what they wanted to do with their forthcoming record. Hoppus described his desire for the album to experiment with different arrangements in a 2002 interview: "Before, we got one guitar sound that we changed a little bit through the record. This time we want to try a whole different setup for each song." Hoppus recalled that Barker entered the production process by urging the band to " as the next Blink-182 record — think of it as the first Blink-182 record." DeLonge anticipated the album to "sound like Blink, but with a whole different way of doing it." The members were also inspired after hearing Houston: We Have a Drinking Problem by Bad Astronaut and its expansion upon punk rock.
In addition to the side-projects, the music of the album was inspired by the September 11 attacks and the onset of the Iraq War. The mood was unsettling for DeLonge, whose brother is a Navy officer:
| “ | It was so weird because we'd all be glued to the TV, watching these bombs explode over another country. So I'd see all this and wonder where he was at, and then we'd have to go into the next room and sing or finish writing lyrics. I think it affected our moods throughout the day. | ” |
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