Sitting in a local pub after an early evening trip to the cinema, I received a phone call from a Punktastic staff-member. “Tom DeLonge has quit blink-182,” the voice said. It was January 26th 2015. And with that, the iconic pop-punk band that simultaneously spawned an ever-flowing sea of sound-alikes and provided the soundtrack to millions of teenage romances, breakups, and most notably parties, re-emerged as an unknown entity.

Their sound had already travelled the globe since the release of their ‘Cheshire Cat’ debut some twenty years earlier. Teenage gatherings weren’t complete without ‘Take Off Your Pants And Jacket’ and ‘Enema Of The State’, delivering their risqué mischievousness with just enough innuendo to make naïve parents roll their eyes. Back then, blink-182 felt like a teenage rebellion, as we giggled away to juvenile tales of bestiality.

Then they grew up, as much as blink-182 could. Their self-titled release presented a more mature sound yet retained everything that had attracted the youth in the first place. It allowed listeners to attach a whole new range of emotions to their sound. Even recently, as the band geared up for the release of ‘California’, ‘I Miss You’ sparked a marriage proposal live on BBC Radio 1.

Having announced the departure of DeLonge under less than civil terms (DeLonge himself rejected the news shortly after it broke), Matt Skiba – most notably of Alkaline Trio – was declared his successor. Queue some initial live shows and teasing in-studio photos of the new trio, followed by cryptic tweets. Despite the early confusion, Skiba had been well and truly welcomed into the blink-182 family. New material was promised, eventually making its appearance in the form of ‘Bored To Death’ in late April 2016.

“We just started writing like crazy,” Skiba tells me, rejecting the idea of any pre-planned vision or sound. “We wrote the entire record in the studio.” It marked a change from his other projects. “With Alkaline Trio or any other projects I’ve done, we generally have the songs written and demoed before we get to the studio.”

Through this, ‘California’ is an unmistakable blink-182 record, yet one created with experience and an abundance of energy lacking from its forerunner, ‘Neighborhoods’. By stripping the writing and recording process right back to basics, ‘California’ is far from convoluted. The majority of the subject matter has shifted away from the juvenile to talk of family, relationships and adulthood.

“There’s a cynical feeling saying I should give up,” opens ‘Cynical’, the first track on the album, “you’ve said everything you’ll ever say.” Yet blink-182 have found a new voice, one enhanced and boosted by the addition of Skiba and their now vast life experience. ‘Sober’ and ‘Left Alone’ offer a dark insight into life’s struggles, presumably a reference to drummer Travis Barker’s battle with substance abuse and his eventual redemption. These sit next to the summer anthems provided by ‘Bored To Death’ – one of the catchiest songs to emerge in recent months – and ‘Kings Of The Weekend’.

There are more than a handful of nods to growing up. “Sometimes I wonder where our lives go,” they spell out on ‘San Diego’, one of three odes to the title state, “and question who we used to be.” With ‘She’s Out Of Her Mind’, Barker credits his daughter. It’s an unashamed acceptance of adulthood, but one veiled under the characteristic frivolity that has dominated their back-catalogue. As the record speaks of settling in California, it mirrors the idea of blending sun-kissed parties with the responsibilities of life. And it always stops itself from getting too serious.

“First thought, best thought,” Skiba offers as a response when asked what his involvement with blink-182 has taught him so far. ‘California’ isn’t overthought or complex. With this, the unknown entity from back in January 2015 hasn’t churned out a copy of prior blink-182 material. Nor has it morphed into an entirely new beast. ‘California’ is blink-182 through and through, only a little older and a whole lot wiser. The thirty second interludes; the tongue-in-cheek ‘Built This Pool’ and the unnecessarily crude ‘Brohemian Rhapsody’, ultimately act as a redundant reminder that these are fundamentally still the same guys who ran down the street donning their birthday suits back in 1999. They’ve just come a long way since.