As the drummer for Blink 182 Travis Barker is one of the top-tier sticksmiths in the world today. And as the producer for Machine Gun Kelly, Avril Lavigne, Fever 333 and more, he’s becoming something of the go-to hitmaker for bands aiming to emulate his success.
Needless to say, after a couple of decades in the business, when it came to putting together his own Waiting Room Studio, Barker had more than enough gear to choose from and plenty of experience and opinion as to how to use it – both sides to his work that a new video on Reverb shows off royally.
Taking a huge, neutral rehearsal space, Barker has made it all his own and made his big-name guests as welcome and relaxed as possible should they come to practice or record.
“I've been here about three years now. Every time we get ready for a tour we're here for like a week and a half practicing every day,” Barker explains. “I really love the vibe of the studio – to just be really plain… There’s always a clean palette. Especially in the writing rooms. I don't like anything on the wall. But out here [in the large communal area] it's a little more fun.”
Barker then goes in deep on how the Blink 192 sound has progressed over the years: “The way Blink albums were written, was a different style of production to what happens now. The songs would be written and we would just go in and record them.
“Trav, you're gonna come in and you're gonna record all your drums in one day… For the entire album… I'd be like, ‘OK you guys. See you in three months… And Mark and Tom would stay there for three months and record guitars and vocals.”
“But when I was there for some guitar stuff [Producer Jerry Finn] would be like, ‘You can play better than that. Play it right. You can think of a better part than that – you can beat it.’ Seeing him do that kind of stuff was really helpful.”
“He was very good about making sure that everyone's ideas were heard and challenging everyone to play as good as they could.”
So is Barker as fastidious as Finn these days? “I don't take quite as long as Jerry did with drums. He would spend more time getting drum sounds than it would take me to record the entire album,” Barker admits. “But I understood it and that's why I pay attention to using the right snare drum, if the kit sounds right, if the ride cymbal’s right.”
And Barker certainly has his pick of kit these days, proudly showing off “part of my collection of snare drums.”
“There’s everything from [Ludwig] Black Beauties to old Slingerlands to some of the best OCDP snare drums. This Sonor snare drum is so cool.” Travis highlights a Sonor HLD-590 Signature cast bronze Horst Link model. “You are not losing in a war with this one, you know what I mean?”
“And the Black Beauties. I don't feel like there's a sweeter snare drum.”
"Take like the best drummer and put him on the trashiest kit, and he's gonna be great.”
But Barker is keen to point out that it’s not great gear that makes great music.
“If I wasn't recording albums every month, multiple albums, and I wasn't playing on everyone's songs, I wouldn't need any of this,” he says. “If I was just playing in Blink, or if I was just practicing, I'll play on your drum kit.
“I never want kids to think like you have to have the best drum kit. I could play Blink shows all around the world on rental kits if I needed to.”
“It's really about practicing and you'll make any kit sound good. You take like the best drummer and put him on the trashiest kit, and he's gonna be great.”
That said, Barker’s live room Studio A certainly has plenty of kits in there, but there’s one in particular that Barker is keen to highlight.
“This is my main kit. I've tried all different variations. Nothing beats this stainless steel DW. It's ridiculous. Live, I love acrylic drums, but in the studio, the stainless steel kit? It's so bright. It's so loud.
“I've recorded songs with the exact same drum parts against the stainless steel and it wins every time.”
“The entire One More Time album is this. Lonely Road… MGK [Machine Gun Kelly] is this… I just did the entire new Yellow Card album on this.”
But aside from Barker’s burgeoning drum artillery, what’s his weapon of choice in the control room?
Turns out that Barket is a fan of Neve, with a brand new, retro-inspired Neve 5088 console in place. And this isn’t Barker’s first brush with the famous vintage British brand.
“I had a 70’s Neve before. It was awesome. We recorded [Barker side project] +44, Neighbourhood, some of the demos from Boxcar – we recorded a lot of stuff with it,” says Barker.
“It was tricky though – it’s a 70’s Neve so some days we’d all show up to work and it’d be like, ‘I’m not working today’, and I’d have to get some wizard to come through and spend days with it to get it working again.
“There was one guy that could fix it. I couldn’t rely on it any more.”
“So when I moved into this studio I contacted Neve and they said. ‘We would love to have that board,’ so if you want to trade that board in, we’ll give you credit… We’ll make you a deal, and that’s what I did.”
“This is ‘THE bass’…"
And from bass, to guitars to synths, it looks like Barker has got it covered.
Reaching for a distinctive blue and white, star-spangled Fender Precision bass, Barker explains its importance.
“This is ‘THE bass’… On the [2002 joint Blink 182 and Green Day] Pop Disaster tour me, Mike [Dirnt] and Billy Joe from Green Day would jam all the time.
“At the end of the tour Mike was like, ‘Dude, I want to give you this bass. I want you to have it.’ It was so cool, and who knew it was going to be something that’s used every day in the studio?
“Anything besides a Blink album, everything that we’ve recorded here, is this bass. We’ve only changed the strings one time. We got to it because it’s dead sounding… In a great way. It doesn’t poke through too much, it’s not too bright. This is the go-to.”
And the go-to guitar?
“The go-to Tom [DeLonge] guitar is this one,” Barker explains as he reaches for a Gibson Tom DeLonge Signature ES-333. Of course…
“I’ve had it forever, since when these came out and he gave me it.” [That’ll be 2006 then.] “We’ve used it on a bunch of stuff.”
And there are keyboards galore too.
“Lately, this is my go-to keyboard, this Novation [Summit],” says Barker. “And every time you hear low-end on an album, it’s this Moog [Sub 37]. Usually the same bass setting - Percussive Bass? Yeah, that’s my go to.”
Surprisingly there’s even room for an old Tascam 426 portastudio in there, a rare expansion of their classic 424, this time featuring a six-channel mixer. “This Tascam, we’ve been experimenting with,” says Barker. “Giving really cool guitar tones… Even running drums, through it, bass, vocals… Sometimes using it as a master.
“If you’re going for something more indie and you don’t want it to be super polished, it adds a lot of character.”
“Dude, are you serious?”
Elsewhere Barker dishes the behind-the-scenes gossip on his work for Machine Gun Kelly, most specifically his crossover breakout hit My Ex’s Best Friend.
Upon hearing the track for the first time [“Sometimes it’s really good not to be in the room when someone starts something”] Barker said “That’s not a chorus… It’s in the place of a chorus… But we could beat a better chorus… Why don’t we just repeat the ‘I’ll never fall in love’…
“This could be your crossover song. This is like a pop song. That’s what you want to do right? Have a big big song? Why don’t we prep it like it’s a big song?”
“He was like ‘Dude, are you serious,’ and I was ‘Let’s try it. And he was like, ‘Oh my god. This is a hit!”
“I got a feeling about this one… The song that almost didn’t make the record, was the biggest song on the album”
And it looks like Barker’s skills, range and confidence in the studio is only going from strength to strength.
“I've recorded. I've written. I've done all of the pre-production where I listen to everything soloed. I listen to every bass track soloed. Whatever I'm looking for, I do all that stuff. Then I really feel comfortable sending it off to get mixed and trusting the process.
“I really respect them as mixers and I'm going to them for a reason.
“I find that when you try to do everything, you're weak in some places, you know? Why fix it if it’s not broken?"
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