Här är en intervju gjord med Mark av Ultimate Guitar:

Blink-182 bassist and singer Mark Hoppus is going to be on television. He is hosting a show called A Different Spin With Mark Hoppus, a talk-based program that will feature interviews, live performances, lively panel discussions, and even man on the street segments. Co-hosted by comedian Amy Schumer, A Different Spin first airs on Fusetelevision on September 16th and towards that end, Hoppus is talking about the project and readying himself for the first episode.

Hoppus has always been a colorful character and has a true devotion to bringing new and worthy bands to the attention of audiences. As host of the show, he gets to combine both elements.

UG: Back in 2005, you had a podcast called Hi My Name is Mark and another one called Hopp on Pop. Is your new gig as the host of A Different Spin on Fuse TV an outgrowth of those?

Mark Hoppus: Yeah, definitely. Promoting new bands and music is something that I’ve always been hugely passionate about. Everything from back in the day with Blink – 182, we would always take our favorite new bands out on tour. And like you said, the podcast and the Hopp on Pop and then at the end of last year, Fuse started calling about this show that they were putting together. That sounded like it was exactly a dream come true as far as that kind of thing. You know? And started talking with the network and their ideas for what the show would be. And I don’t know, it just sounded like a really fun time and a really great idea and something that wasn’t happening on television right now. And something that I thought that we could make really special and put a great show on. So that’s what we’ve been working on for the past few months and it starts this week.

Do you have any idea what attracts musicians to television and film? Is it that they’re just interested in a different kind of media?

I don’t know why that is. In fact me and Tom [DeLonge] from Blink have talked about this before. We were always wondering, “How come people in bands want to be in movies and TV? And everybody that’s done movies and TV want to be in a band?” I don’t know. I think that it’s just something that I would really love to do. I’ve gotten a lot of chances and calls to do like acting parts but I’m by no means an actor. In fact I tried once and I really sucked at it. But it’s just something that feels really natural and organic to me because the people that work at Fuse and work especially on this show are so passionate about music. They’re so excited about putting something new and different together that there’s a really great energy here and being part of that is really exciting. I feel the pressure on myself to kind of hold the show down but there’s so many great people behind-the-scenes that I feel really confident that it’s gonna be something great.

You had made a little teaser video for the show and by the looks of it, nothing is sacred. You’re not going to just lob softball questions at the artists who come on the show but you’re going to try and dig a little deeper?

No, not at all. That’s another great thing is that we completely get to be ourselves. We try and be respectful of people but if there’s something that we don’t like – if there’s a song we don’t like or a video we don’t like or whatever – we’re gonna say it. We don’t have to sugarcoat everything. Amy’s [Schumer; co-host] really sharp-witted, really foul-mouthed and has definite opinions both for things that she loves and against things that she hates. And we’re gonna have panelists on and they’re gonna speak their mind and it’s not, “Ehh, everything’s awesome all the time. We love every artist that’s ever walked the earth.” We’re gonna promote the things that we love and we’re gonna talk about how much we enjoy them and if there’s stuff that we’re not into, we’re gonna let you know that as well.

Can you talk at all about the first show?

The first guest is John Mayer who I’m really stoked to have on the show and the first musical guest is Neon Trees and they perform two songs. We have a panel discussion and umm, I forget who the first panelists are right now; sorry about that. We have a panelists discussion; we have a field piece that someone went out and filmed some man on the street stuff. And a bunch of hot opinions about music.

Your mission is to find these somewhat more obscure bands and bring them to the attention of a wider audience?

Yeah; absolutely. And everybody here has such diverse musical tastes that it’s not ever just gonna be one genre. For me personally, there’s a lot of indie rock bands I would love to have on. Everyone from Dirty Projectors, Animal Collective and Band of Horses and all those kinds of bands. But there’s also people here that are passionate about hip-hop and know who’s great and up-and-coming in the hip-hop scene and I want to have them on as well. So, yeah, we want to have big name guests and big name performers but we also want to have artists that people might not have heard of before that we think are awesome.

Which sounds like an outgrowth of your interest in producing relatively unknown bands.

Yeah; absolutely. I mean It’s something that I’ve always been passionate about; I’ve always felt it was an obligation. Coming up out of the punk rock scene, the thing was if your band got a chance to do anything you brought your friend’s bands with you. So when blink start having some success, we would bring bands that we loved on tour with us to try and get them some shine. And that was what the podcast was for and that was what Hopp on Pop was about and that’s really what this show is about also. Not only talking and having discussions with well-known artists but putting new bands on.

What is it that draws you to bringing on a band like Animal Collective or Dirty Projectors? What is it with those types of bands that attracts you?

I think that their creative process is so foreign to me that I’m fascinated by it. The way that they structure their songs and the instrumentation that they use in their arrangements and things are so outside the formulaic verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/out kinda thing. And even when their songs follow that structure they’re so different musically, it’s just fascinating to me and something that I love to listen to and get inspired by. And I would love to see how that translates live so I’d love to have them come and perform on the show just to see how that kind of instrumentation and mentality is put into a live situation.

You’re in a comfort zone when you talk to other musicians? It’s different talking to your opening band on the road as opposed to appearing in front of a camera and interviewing a musician on camera. You have to be insightful and entertaining.

Yeah, I hope so. I hope that being in a band for 20 years and producing bands and just being in this industry for so long, I think I’m able to communicate with artists on an artist’s level. I think a lot of times the artists that are uncomfortable talking about something are uncomfortable because they don’t know where exactly they can talk about music or talk about inspiration and things like that. And I have a sensibility about that, I hope, that I can get good interviews out of people.

Will you talk to the musician’s about musician’s stuff?

Not only just talking about like, “Oh, tell us some funny shit that happened on tour” but also like, “Hey, on this record in this song there’s a really amazing guitar sound. What was that? What amp structure did you use? What was your mic line?” Obviously I don’t want to get too techy because I’ll lose a lot of people that don’t follow that kind of stuff, but it is something that I’m absolutely passionate about. I want to know and I think the artists love talking about that. I know that some artists like John Mayer is a total gearhead and when I talked to John Mayer back in LA, we talked about his collection of Dumble amps and vintage effects pedals and his old guitars and things like that; I love to talk about things like that. And I will get into some of that and also, “We want to know so what’s your recording process?” Or even things that aren’t so techy but like, “Why did you choose to record at Capitol Records basement studio? What other amazing artists have recorded there that inspired you to record there?” Just things like that.

Might you have on some of your blink buddies?

Yeah, for sure. I absolutely want to and plan on it. In fact when blink comes out with new material, I wanna have blink perform on the show.

There will be a new blink-182 record?

Oh, absolutely. We just finished a tour of Europe and as soon as Travis gets back from his boat trip back over the Atlantic, we are going into the studio. Aside from taping the show, we are locking ourselves in the studio until it’s done.

The band hasn’t been together for a while and there was some bad blood between you and Tom DeLonge toward the end there. How does it feel touring with them again eventually going back into the studio?

Honestly? It feels better than it ever did. When we first started off, we were all struggling; we were all touring in a van and then all this success came our way. I think that we really kind of lost perspective towards the end of the first cycle of blink. And now that we’ve gotten a chance to step away from it for a few years and really appreciate how amazing blink-182 is for all of our lives, that coming back to it now we have a whole newfound appreciation for it. I mean just having the chance to come back after five years and have the reaction be so positive is so humbling and simultaneously inspiring that we really want to go in and try and record the best album of our lives. And doing what we live.

Will anything be happening with the +44 band?

Not right now; obviously +44 is on complete hold because me, Tom, and Travis are all devoting everything we have to blink-182 right now. But that’s not to say that nothing will ever happen with that band again. It’s just right now between blink-182 and this TV show for me personally there’s no time in the day.

How much pre-production goes into putting on a weekly one-hour show?

Well, we start taping tomorrow our very first show [this interview took place two days before the show’s kickoff] so we really haven’t gotten into that kind of rhythm. It’s been a lot of creative meetings and definitely every artist that comes on I want to do good research on and know more than just like what’s on their Wikipedia page. And listen to their albums and make sure that I’m educated on as much as I can. I don’t think that I would ever feel comfortable just like reading a research paper that someone put together for me. Like, [in mock commentator voice] “OK, here’s some highlights of this band. They first toured in 2005 with Sum 41.” Whatever it is. I want to know the artist I’m interviewing and be able to ask them really good questions. Because as an artist myself, you can tell when somebody’s just kinda gone online and looked at a couple of things and are trying to put together an interview. And you can tell when people actually have listened to your music and are interested in what you have to say and I want to be that interviewer.

You can tell the difference between the good and the bad interviews?

Yeah, exactly. For sure.

Are you nervous?

I’m absolutely nervous. My son came up with the best word ever for it. We were talking about him going to school and he said he was “nervecited” and that’s exactly how I feel [laughs.] I really want it to be great and I really want it to be a special show and I want these first couple episodes to be in the can. You know what it feels like? It feels like the night before the first show of a tour.

Does it really?

Yeah, it totally does. Where you’re like, “OK, we have these songs; we haven’t had the opportunity to play them in front of people in a while.” I want it to be like the third or fourth show of a tour where you’re kinda used to what you’re doing and you’re finding your groove and you’re finding that shorthand on stage and kinda knowing where things are gonna go before they go there. Like that kind of thing that only comes after you’ve been on tour for a little bit. I want that feeling with the show.

That image you project from the stage when you’re performing in front of an audience is really the same person standing in front of the camera. In other words, that profile and that personality that comes across in front of thousands of fans needs to be translated to come across a television screen. Doesn’t it come from the same place?

That’s the trick for me. I think in some of the first like test episodes, I was trying to be like what I thought a talk show host was. And then I kind of stepped back and I was like, “You know what? I’m just gonna be myself.” I just wanna be who I am like I am onstage. Whatever I want to say onstage, I say, and that’s how I want this show to be as well. I want to feel comfortable in the host’s chair and just have a really great time and inspire the other people that are on the show to have a great time as well.

Have you seen people like Mark McGrath hosting Extra or Elvis Costello on the Spectacle show?

I’ve seen Mark do his show; I haven’t seen the Elvis Costello show. They do their thing and I think Mark does his thing great. Honestly, knowing Mark and touring with him, it makes sense to me that he would be doing that show and I think he does it well. I think the trick to that is that he’s himself.

Might you jam with some of the bands or go and shake a tambourine or something?

Yeah; totally. I’d absolutely be down with that. It’s not something that I would ever force on a band or whatever. But if a friend’s band were coming on and they were like, “Hey, you wanna sing backups in this one part?” then I totally would.

Are you working on anything new production-wise?

No, not at all; not right now. It’s just so busy right now. Thanks for your time.