Machine Gun Kelly wants his new album to be about more than just music

Machine Gun Kelly finally revealed the first track off his highly-anticipated pop-punk album Tickets To My Downfall earlier today (May 1). Now, he’s talking a bit about why he’s thankful the Travis Barker-produced album took a bit longer than expected and what it means to him. 

The first song, “Bloody Valentine” shows that on our end, Tickets To My Downfall is well worth the wait. 

Read More: Hear the first song from Machine Gun Kelly’s pop-punk album

Originally, Machine Gun Kelly’s record was thought to be released in early 2020 after plenty of teasers in December and early on in 2020. Those included but were not limited to clips of ongoing collaborations such as that with Bert McCracken of the Used or YUNGBLUD and Mod Sun. Interviews were done where Barker and MGK talked about the record and how the name came about and discuss ongoing studio sessions. 

MGK extended the wait, but at least gave an update when dropped another teaser that Tickets To My Downfall would be coming this summer. 

Earlier this week, we finally got word on the name of the new song and when we could hear it.

That brings us to today. Machine Gun Kelly unleashed the first track “Bloody Valentine.” It definitely proves he’s not bluffing on the pop-punkness of the record or the hype he’s given it. 

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MGK recently sat down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music to discuss how things worked out in his favor with the timing of the record release. 

“Oh dude, look outside, man. I mean, it’s the sun’s out,” Machine Gun Kelly starts. “It’s like it was meant to be a summer album, dude. I think like … I’m glad I didn’t pull the trigger on it in February, right before all this happened, you know what I mean? So I think as our spirits start to lift back up, it’s nice that the music starts to reflect into it. So I don’t know, I feel like this was out of my hands. I feel like it all happened how it was supposed to. I got to make it with all of my really good friends. This whole album is just got that feel to it.” 

MGK confirmed it’s a summer album when asked if it was completed. 

“Yeah, it’s a wrap, wrap. I think they’re giving us a…I think it’s a summer album now.”

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Outside of just being a summertime pick me up album, Machine Gun Kelly wanted Tickets To My Downfall to mean a little bit more. 

MGK has blended genres throughout his career, but the world took note with the Barker and YUNGBLUD collab “I Think I’m OKAY” off his latest Hotel Diablo. From there, Kells started embracing the punkier side of music, pushing guitar and other live instruments to the forefront of his musical career. It culminated in his rock-fueled track “why are you here.”

Because of his influences and love of live instruments, MGK hopes Tickets To My Downfall encourages someone else to pick up and learn the guitar or experience a live instrument for the first time. Above all, he wants this record to stick with you forever. 

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“I mean, dude Zane, you’re so well versed in music that it probably just sounds weird to say it to you, but I hope that this project is for an audience broader than what’s already listening to music that has instruments in it, I hope that this album inspires some kids to go off and pick a guitar up,” MGK says. “Because it really is uncommon for a 15 year old to have been to a concert that anyone’s playing an instrument in, you know what I mean?”

“It is weird, but I’ve had plenty of people be like, ‘Dude, you’re the first… This is the first time I ever see someone play a guitar live. This is crazy. I want to do it.’ But ultimately, man, I hope that people just, I hope this is an album that lives with people for the rest of their lives, dude. I have those albums that I remember coming out in the summertime or in a fall time when I was back to school and it was like Period”

Getting blink-182‘s legendary drummer in Barker to block off any amount of time to produce a record is a big deal. Even if you’re friends. But with Kelly, Barker knew it was something extra special. 

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“I think that Travis, obviously this whole thing started out with one studio session, we’ve been great friends for a decade,” Kelly starts. “So this was just like, ‘Hey, let’s just do a random day of work.’ And it was so… The energy was so immense that came from, I did ‘Bloody Valentine’ was the first record. That was the first song.”

“And it was so powerful that Travis was like, ‘Fuck it, I’m blocking off two months of my life and we’re doing this album.’ So I know it has some of that feel and some of that album’s classic nostalgia in this because otherwise we wouldn’t have just stopped everything we were doing to do this.”

If you haven’t heard Machine Gun Kelly’s absolute ripper of a new track yet, you’re in for quite a treat. Check it out below. 

Tickets To My Downfall is dropping sometime this summer and features a massive amount of guests including blackbearGoody GraceMod Sun Trippie ReddYoung Thug, McCracken and most likely a whole lot more.

Stay tuned because Tickets To My Downfall is sure to be a heavy candidate for album of the year. 

See more: 10 pop-punk shows we wish we could have gone to

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