For me, it's about eating a bunch of fruit and exercising, which opens up the creativity, makes it easier to give ideas a chance and bubble to the surface. I'm no angel, but it helps me, as does hiking, heading to the ocean to catch some waves - for me, sweating it out is definitely good for the creative process.
Matt Skiba
I've written songs about love or about a relationship, but never just, 'I love you.'
I've done some stuff with Glenn Danzig before, and while I can't really say that we're friends, we're friendly acquaintances.
With Alkaline Trio, we are who we are. We never really feel too confined, but when we get together, there is an Alkaline Trio sound, and when I go off and do something on my own, there is an element of freedom that I don't have with the Trio.
I first heard of Ulver reading the 'Lords of Chaos' book.
I grew up on Edgar Allen Poe, and I loved Alfred Hitchcock's movies.
I think people hear the words 'transcendental meditation' and 'paganism,' and that's almost worse because it's real. Those are real things. Those are absolute energies. Satanism is like Halloween. Transcendental meditation and having a realization of how we really are - whether we want to be or not - we live in a pagan culture.
Being on Epic, it wasn't like we got signed to a multi-million-dollar deal.
The Sekrets record is very much me, and Dan's Emergency Room is very much him. And then Alkaline Trio is very much ours.
The feeling that you want the listener to get, you should get yourself when you first hit that chord, and that melody comes to mind.
I'm really thankful for the time that I grew up in that we didn't have cell phones, and we made a lot of our own fun.
Being a drummer definitely influences how I play guitar. And then piano influences drumming and vice versa.
Dallas is a good town. I spent a lot of time there as a kid. It always nice to come back.
There are just as many dirt bags in independent music as there are in major labels.
Orange County encompasses a large area that has a lot of Alkaline Trio fans.
In this day and age, though, no matter how many people you play for, if you're playing with a band like Blink, millions of people will see it thanks to YouTube and everything recording it.
For Alkaline Trio, Chicago is our hometown. The band started there. Even though we all live in different cities now, we still call Chicago home, and it's always really exciting to come back and play for our best crowd.
I don't personally feel that I've lost my fire.
I really like a lot of the old 2-tone ska. I definitely went through a phase where I was into The Specials and The Busters. But a lot of the ska revival - I never really have had an interest in that.
I think I'm a man about the things I need to be a man about, but I get paid to play, pretty much. I do what I love for a living, and I also get to build BMX bikes in my spare time.
I'm in Alkaline Trio; I guess I get to rip off myself. I give myself permission.
I love working with my band-mates in Alkaline Trio, but to make a rock record that was just mine was something that I wanted to do.
I don't think we're any more preoccupied by life and death or heaven and hell than anyone else, but it's fun to write about the inevitable - you're alive, and you're going to die.
Never had a mullet.
I dropped out of arts school because I didn't wanna stare at a computer all day - I get headaches.
I was a bicycle messenger when Alkaline Trio was formed as a way to make ends meet before the band became a career, and I've just always been a cyclist - I BMX'd, and then I got really into - through messengering - I got really into road bikes and fixed gears, which I still have.
I was always a punk rock skate kid from a very young age.
The Ramones all hate each other, and they did it for decades. I wouldn't be able to do that. That would be like working at the bank or something.
Everyone who signed us to Epic, all of the people we trusted there, were let go.
We have the best fans in the world. A lot of artists say that, but in this case, it's actually fact.
I'm the die-hard that still goes out to buy records.
We have this song called 'Radio,' and I wrote that song when we needed one more song for a record. So I went back into the other room and wrote it in 20 minutes.
I think for us - and for a lot of people in the Church of Satan - we definitely like ruffling people's feathers and poking fun at organized religion a little bit.
At an early age I told myself I would never quit skating; I would never quit riding BMX and being a motorcycle junkie. I just can't stop doing those things.
I grew up on Michael Jackson, Pat Benetar, and Van Halen - all the things coming out of the television.
I've been to the Bahamas before, and it's so crass. You land in Nassau, and the whole island is replete with beauty and culture, but there's a lot of poverty. It is a largely black population; then they build these places like Atlantis and The Cove that are walled off.
Meditation has really done wonders for me personally and artistically.
With every inch of my energy, I wanted Fyre not to happen. I put all the electricity and energy in my body against that thing happening.
As far as, like, the moon landing... did we go there? I believe so. Is it everything that we're told? I don't think so.
We certainly are proud of our punk-rock heritage, but when people who like other kinds of music are into your band, it's flattering.
Rock n' roll is the Devil's music.
Touring with Blink helped introduce people to Alkaline Trio who otherwise wouldn't have ever heard of us.
I miss the videos that are short films, back when MTV played videos all day.
When George W. Bush was up for re-election, we took part in Rock Against Bush.
I went through some pretty rough patches in my life, and I've come out of them a stronger, more inspired, and energetic person.
Making your band your career just seems like a pipe dream when it's not happening, and when it does, it seems so surreal.
To worship the devil, you have to believe in it first.
Long before punk entered my life, I loved scary films and stories.
My parents are both war veterans; they met in Vietnam. They were involved in a war that they absolutely disagreed with.
I like even numbers.
