In between co-writing Blink-182 hits “All the Small Things,” “I Miss You,” “Adam’s Song,” “What’s My Age Again?” and more throughout the band’s eight albums over their 30-plus years together, bassist Mark Hoppus has also composed music for film. In between his Blink-182 duties, he has also written and produced for artists, including Avril Lavigne, All Time Low, New Found Glory, Goldfinger, and The Matches, among others.
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By the late 1990s, Hoppus was also hitting the screen. Along with Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker, Hoppus starred in the 1999 comedy American Pie as a garage band. In 2002, Hoppus also starred on an episode of the TV series Haunted, the 2011 documentary The Other F Word, which chronicled the lives of aging punk rockers, and as a panelist on the British music game show Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2012.
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In 2021, Hoppus revealed that he was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment. By September of 2021, he revealed that he was cancer-free.
Taking a closer look at Hoppus’ work outside of Blink-182, here are just three other songs he wrote throughout the years.
1. “In Transit,” Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Written by Mark Hoppus and Pete Wentz
The music to Tim Burton’s 2010 fantasy film Alice in Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, and Helena Bonham Carter, featured songs inspired by quotes from Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The soundtrack, Almost Alice: Music Inspired by the Motion Picture, features songs by The Cure’s Robert Smith, Franz Ferdinand, They Might Be Giants, Tokio Hotel, Shinedown, Grace Potter, and more.
Hoppus and Fall Out Boy‘s Pete Wentz also co-wrote and sang on the dreamier ballad “In Transit.”
The world is filled with
The minds of people who try to discuss
A light will shine through
When no one can save you
And you feel
The eyes of people who try to decide
You’ll find yourself lost
Inside of the chaos
The truth is never far away
You always gIve yourself a way (I can’t even smile)
Through open eye, it’s slide of him
Won’t you reveal to me?
Reveal to me
2. “The Lighthouse,” The Used (2020)
Written by Mark Hoppus
Returning to work with producer John Feldmann for the first time since their 2014 album, Imaginary Enemy, The Used called on a few friends for their eighth album, Heartwork. Hoppus contributed “The Lighthouse,” while his Blink-182 bandmate Travis Barker also co-wrote a song called “Obvious Blase'” on the album. Heartwork also features Beartooth frontman on “The Lottery.”
I give myself to the shipwrecked
I give myself to the no way home
You tore myself into pieces
And nobody noticed at all
Two broken ribs from the pressure
I’m out of breath from the CPR
You rolled me out on a stretcher
And nobody noticed at all
3. “All I Wanted,” Avril Lavigne (2022)
Written by Mark Hoppus, Avril Lavigne, John Feldman, Derek “Mod Sun” Smith
Travis Barker had already collaborated with Avril Lavigne, playing drums on her 2007 album The Best Damn Thing, he reunited with her 15 years later to work on her seventh release, Love Sux. Barker co-produced and co-wrote several tracks, while Hoppus also co-wrote and appeared on one song with Lavigne, “All I Wanted.” Lavigne and Hoppus worked on the song remotely over Zoom during the pandemic.
“‘Dude Ranch’ [Blink-182’s 1997 album] and ‘Enema Of The State’ [1999], those were the records I was listening to in high school, and as a teenager and I feel like they were really impactful on me as I was coming into my own musical identity,” Lavigne told Hoppus on his Apple Music Hits show, After School Radio in 2022.
“I mean, I was so excited and I was really impressed with how efficient you are in the studio,” Lavigne added. “You write, you record yourself, you can engineer, you sing, you’re playing. … so having you on the album is a huge honor for me.”
I was always crushing on the wrong boys
I was always yelling when I should’ve been sittin’ down
Memories of cigarettes and Polaroids
Kiss you in the kitchen of a house that burned down
I remember waiting on the sunrise
And I’ll be ready, waiting ’til you come back around
Come back around, come back around
All I wanted was you
Let’s do whatever it takes
Me and you, we can’t lose
I’ll take you away from here
From the city that never loved you
From the town I always hated
Me and you, we can’t lose
Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Coachella
