Blink-182 are known as much for their goofy affects as they are for their guitar chords. However, the video for their second single from ‘Neighborhoods,’ ‘After Midnight,’ doesn’t feature the band streaking or in costumes. The clip is darker and more dramatic than the post-apocalyptic suburb of ‘Up All Night.’
The concept for the video took a while to narrow down, but the band and director Isaac Rentz — who also directed ‘Up All Night’ — finally agreed on a story. “We went through probably 30 different treatments for this video, and a lot of them were great, and a lot of them weren’t so great but Isaac’s stuck out as a really cool idea,” Mark Hoppus told MTV News. “We wanted it to be something different than just a bunch of people having fun and having a party; we wanted it to be a little darker, a little more troubled, and Isaac’s treatment did that.”

The band never loses their trademark humor — even when talking about dark subjects. ”The song itself is about troubled love, it’s about damaged people who fall in love,” Hoppus told MTV, “and the video takes place in a psychiatric ward, and this guy and this girl escape from their rooms and have a night of romance and passion and fun and wild existence …”

DeLonge cut Hoppus off before he could finish. “It’s about sex.”

“It’s not, it’s not that tawdry,” Hoppus laughed. “Why would you make it that cheap?”

While the video took a bit of time to conceive, the song itself was easier to write. “‘After Midnight’ was one of the last songs that we actually wrote for the album,” Hoppus revealed. “It originated from a beat that Travis made up. It was one of those moments in the album where everyone just had a bunch of ideas, and they came together pretty quickly.”

“It’s kind of an ode to ‘I Miss You,’” Tom DeLonge said. “An homage, if you will. Specifically on this song, I remember Travis saying we should have something in that category, the planet of ‘I Miss You.’ What’s cool about this song and ‘I Miss You’ is Mark and I write lyrics in different places, and they come together and wind up being about the same thing,” DeLonge continued. “They’re usually about us kissing and making love to each other,” DeLonge deadpanned. “It’s love. Love is really ambiguous sometimes, and I think it worked out really great on this song.”