Simple Creatures (Mark Hoppus, Alex Gaskarth) drop first music video

February 21, 2019

Less than a month ago, blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth set the internet ablaze with news of a new project, Simple Creatures, and a new song, “Drugs.”

If you’ve already played “Drugs” to the point your neighbors know the words at this point, then fear not. Simple Creatures are offering up their next new single, “Strange Love.”

More on Simple Creatures

The announcement of Simple Creatures’ existence followed All Time Low revealing they’re taking “a bit of a break” in 2019. Hoppus also spilled the beans of a new unnamed project at at iHeartRadio‘s ALTer EGO days before the reveal.

At the event, Hoppus chatted with Woody and Hannah Rad where the latter questioned him on the rumored new project.

“I do, yes. I’m not at liberty to talk about it tonight, but you will find out about it very soon, yes. I’m not supposed to say something yet, but yes, very soon.”

Following the reveal, the duo chatted about how it all came together with ALT 98.7.

Hoppus explained that, about a year and a half ago after blink finished the first set of California tour dates, he “fell into this really awful depression.” His way to getting better was to go into the studio and work making music.

“I had this idea that I would make a record with all of my friends, all these people that along the way you see at a show, you tour together,” he explains. “So, I got in the studio with Alex, he was the first one that I called. And we wrote a song that I loved, and then he came back the next day an we wrote another song, and we wrote another song.”

“He was really great in the studio and has been a friend forever, and we always talked about making music together,” Hoppus continues. “I never called anybody else, and we ended up making this batch of songs that we loved.”

Thus, Simple Creatures was born. They also chatted about their influences with Kerrang!, citing that they’re both “deeply sad people on the inside.”

“We’re both deeply sad people on the inside,” Gaskarth offers. “That dark pop, goth, emo thing.”

“Those worlds collide for us. Outside of that, I think the punk rock thing we both came up on [was there too], where everything had a little bit of edge and grit,” he continues. “The sensibility that you can have these weird, out-there, pseudo pop songs and lace them with real emotion and darkness.”

The musicians cite the Cure as an most important influences, with Hoppus focusing on how frontman Robert Smith approaches songwriting.

“There were many, many times during the recording process that we referenced The Cure sounds, or the way that Robert Smith writes,” Hoppus says. “He’s obviously a huge inspiration for me.”

“I think Alex and me come from a catchy punk rock background,” he continues. “For me, I grew up with Descendents and Bad Religion. For Alex it was blink and probably Green Day. I think we both have the same foundational core of catchy, energetic songs.”

Plus, they’re definitely taking Simple Creatures on the road. Even though there aren’t set plans, Hoppus tells ALT 98.7 he hopes to be performing live around summer or fall.

“We definitely want to take it everywhere live,” he shares. “We don’t want to do the normal ‘go play a small club’ thing, so I think we’ll try and do warehouse parties or events… Or if someone called up and said ‘Hey, we have a, whatever, fashion week party next week in Paris, would you go play it?’ we would go and play it…”

Check out their first single, “Drugs,” below.