How the Cure Influenced Mark Hoppus and Alex Gaskarth's Simple Creatures

Last week, Mark Hoppus and Alex Gaskarth revealed their new project, Simple Creatures, and shared their first single, "Drug." Since then, the blink-182 singer announced that the band's debut EP, Strange Love, would be dropping in March while chatting with ALT 98, and in the process admitted one of his favorite things about the project is that fact that "it doesn't sound like either of our bands." Now, he and Alex are going into detail about what influenced the music.

“We’re both deeply sad people on the inside,” said the All Time Low singer when asked about their influences during an interview with Kerrang, “that dark pop, goth, emo thing. The Cure being a massive one.”

“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," Alex continued. "The sensibility that you can have these weird, out-there, pseudo pop songs and lace them with real emotion and darkness. That was a big part of what went into these tunes.”

“There were many, many times during the recording process that we referenced The Cure sounds, or the way that Robert Smith writes," Mark added. "He’s obviously a huge inspiration for me. I think Alex and me come from a catchy punk rock background. 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.”

Look out for Strange Love this March, and listen to "Drug" below.