“I didn’t listen to punk music growing up at all.”
That’s become one of the more interesting revelations about Jxdn, the 20-year-old ascendent pop-punk superstar bolstered by TikTok and boosted into the pop sphere by Blink-182’s Travis Barker. For the singer born Jaden Hossler, MTV’s Push artist for August 2021, the time since then has been a quick education.
What got Jxdn into punk music was an ex-girlfriend introducing him to Blink-182 once he first moved to Los Angeles. Little did he know that Barker would eventually take an interest in his work after hearing his breakout hit “Comatose.” “It was the first time I heard of Blink consciously. I knew their songs in passing but it was the first time I ever heard them,” he tells MTV. “And then my manager calls me and she was like, ‘Travis Barker just called and wants to be talking to you about working with you.’”
Jxdn especially enjoyed collaborating and making “Think About Me” with the Blink-182 drummer. “It was such a fun track. I remember that’s when Travis was like, ‘We’re gonna make some pop-punk.’ So we did.”