In the early days of the band, Hoppus worked at the record store The Wherehouse, and became friends with his supervisor, Pat Secor.

Hoping to start his own record label, Secor pulled money from his savings and helped finance and produce Buddha.

The demo was recorded live at local Santee studio Doubletime, comprising nearly all of the songs the trio had written up to that point.

Buddha helped the trio cement an audience and was a deciding factor in their signing to local label Cargo in 1993.

After Mark Hoppus graduated from high school in Ridgecrest, he relocated to San Diego to work at a record store and attend college.

[2] DeLonge recruited friend Scott Raynor for drums, whom he met at a Rancho Bernado Battle of the Bands competition.

The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink".

[6] Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an avid surfing, skating and snowboarding scene.

[7] San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", but the band's popularity grew as did California punk rock concurrently in the mainstream.

[7] The band's equipment was piled into a blue station wagon for touring purposes and they first began to play shows outside San Diego.

[12] The recording sessions at Doubletime Studios in Santee, California took place in January 1994, and were scheduled around work and school commitments.

"[11][14] The trio were "super stoked" about a sound effects tape they found at the studio, and took time out to add in applause and laughter tracks because they deemed it humorous.

DeLonge recalled that the band spent more time at the end of production on Buddha trying to perfect the joke songs rather than their serious tracks.

[1] To produce the artwork, Hoppus and Jones spent an afternoon together taking "artsy" photographs in and around Raynor's backyard.

[11] Hoppus and his family in Ridgecrest would spend hours folding and combining pieces of artwork to compile the Buddha cassette.

According to Secor, he and the band had a gentleman's agreement: he would pay for the costs of recording and manufacturing the tape, and in exchange would receive half of all the profits from it.

According to Raynor, the oral agreement was that Secor would invest $1,000 and when that money was recouped, the band would have complete ownership of the work product.

He alleged that Cargo Music began calling him and making threats, and he could not afford to fight back and was unlikely to win since he had no written contract with the band.

"[17] Reviewing the 1998 re-release of Buddha for AllMusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated it three stars out of five, calling it a "promising debut" and "a solid skatepunk record that illustrates the group's flair for speedy, catchy hooks and irreverent humor.

"[19] Rolling Stone viewed it, alongside proper debut album Cheshire Cat (1995) as "slapped together lilting melodies and racing beats in an attempt to connect emo and skate punk, a sort of pop hardcore.

"[20] "This fast and furious beauty may have been recorded in two days, but it soon had the labels knocking at DeLonge and co's door," said Total Guitar in 2012.

[15] All tracks are written by Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Scott Raynor, except where notedBlink Production Design