Matt Skiba will be joining Alkaline Trio in the studio in January 2023, adding more fuel to the rumors that Tom DeLonge is back in Blink-182. Blink-182 Italia posted:
Apparently, Alkaline Trio is aiming to hit the studio in January.
Now, let’s try to put this information into context before fan theories go off the rails.
Why does this say literally nothing about Matt’s status in blink-182? Here are some ideas:
• By the sound of it, this seems just an indicative target, an approximate timeframe that is obviously subject to change and could even not happen at all. It is far from certain that Matt will focus on Alkaline Trio for the foreseeable future while blink-182 will fall by the wayside for him. Also, this is all just based on a single Reddit post, and while we personally have no reason to doubt that this is true, please always take this kind of information with a grain of salt.
• Mark and Travis are recording new music. No one knows if they are working on their own or together. No one knows if they’re working on blink-182 or a different project. Matt can’t join them right now because he’s on tour with Alkaline Trio until August 17th (+ a few dates in September/October). He can still join them after the AK3 tour is over if they’re working on blink-182 (which is a BIG if), whereas if they’re not working on blink-182, it makes sense that Matt would want to take advantage of this downtime to focus on AK3.
• For the sake of argument, let’s assume Mark and Travis are indeed working on new blink-182 music and Matt joins them later. There are 4 months left until January. Enema of the State was recorded in 4 months. California was recorded in about 2 months. In theory, there is plenty of time to record a new album, if they want to. Otherwise, they could record a follow-up to NINE after Alkaline Trio is done working on their new record. There are plenty of possibilities that don’t say anything about Matt’s status in blink-182.
Having said that, all of this does not mean that Tom’s return is out of the question. This post is just meant to provide some arguments as to why Matt’s alleged plans to focus on Alkaline Trio from January do not mean that he’s no longer in blink-182, as some people have speculated. It’s all about nuance!
