I moved to Naples, Florida, and by 15 I was into punk: Green Day, Rancid, NOFX, Operation Ivy. Along with the classic punk bands, like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat - all those bands that you get into when you're first getting into punk.
— Laura Jane Grace
At 20, I was married, working as an auto mechanic, and living in Gainesville. I was doing Against Me!, but it wasn't by any means a full-time gig.
Living in Italy meant growing up without MTV.
Two Coffins' is a song I wrote for my daughter.
If you look at the difference between the first Clash record and 'Combat Rock,' what an evolution.
My whole identity is not gender. My whole identity is not talking about gender. There are so many other things in my life that are fulfilling that I like to think about too.
I sleep with a notebook next to me, and most nights I sleep with my guitar next to me.
I turned to punk because I didn't fit in anywhere else.
Manic depression in general is something that runs in my family, and it's something that I battle with.
Musicians are kind of like pirates, you know? You have to be free to follow whatever your muse is, or wherever life is pulling you - especially if you aren't in, like, U2, and making millions and millions of dollars.
You know, sexism in the punk scene - or just in rock and roll in general - is so easily demonstrated by the amount of women or queer people that you see on stage versus the amount of cis males that you see on stage.
The first record we made, we recorded and mixed in a day. The second record was recorded and mixed in a week. The third was recorded and mixed in a month, and 'New Wave' was mixed and recorded in six months. It was an epic project.
A lot of what keeps me going is wanting to be better, thinking I'm not good enough.
I guess I've been existing in my own head a lot.
I'm big on hair. I love Julianne Moore's hair. That's all I'd like: Julianne Moore hair.
I was always taught by punk to think for yourself and to question authority. That's what I've always tried to do.
I had some real health complications with my HRT - hormone replacement therapy.
At 8, I got my first cassette, which was Def Leppard's 'Hysteria.'
Any way that I can use my career or my platform to push along transgender visibility in the mainstream and society serves me on a personal level in that it will make day-to-day existence when I'm not doing this that much easier.
When I was fourteen years old, I got arrested for battering an officer and resisting arrest with violence. I was beat up by the cops and they charged me with that. There was no original arresting charge.
It's not like I came out in 'Rolling Stone' and all of a sudden I had a closet full of all the clothes I want.
I was married for like seven, eight years. And then coming out of that I was like, 'Okay, now what? I guess I would like to date? That's a reasonable thing. I'm allowed to have that!'
I grew up with a mother who always had every fashion magazine stacked up on the side of her bed. When I was really young, I'd lie in bed with her, and we'd look at the magazines.
My least favorite thing about being in a band is photo shoots and video shoots. I like writing songs.
I've gotten to do some really amazing things, gone to some really amazing places, and just have some really unique experiences. And if I have one regret looking back it's that - not a regret even, because I think that's kind of labeling depression as something you can control - but I just wish I would have been able to enjoy it more fully.
Going on tour for 10 years straight and playing 200-plus shows a year, you can't ever come back from that mentally. You're twisted in a weird way where you need that in order to be a person still.
I want to write songs, and I would like to play and sing them. I'm not a politician; I'm not a comedian. I hate coming up with bits to do between songs.
I think that on paper we did make so many of the classic mistakes that a punk band makes, signing to a major label, getting in business with the wrong people, stuff like that.
Every artist has the song where they say, 'I wish I could have written a song as good as this,' but they don't feel like they've done it yet. It pushes you to evolve.
When I'm on tour, people see me in one way, but in normal life I doubt people even recognize me.
As an artist, you're just observing the world around you. So much is overwhelming and it's all so inescapable that it can't all speak to general cultural statements.
I want to be an involved parent in my daughter's life and do the things that other parents do, like go to the PTA meetings.
I really like dumb romantic comedies; that's the way I can turn my brain off and let go.
I've been keeping tour journals since I was 17 years old.
My father was stationed in Italy in the military. I had no one to feed me what was cool, so I was into Guns N' Roses and New Kids on the Block and MC Hammer and a lot of '80s hair bands. But I was never into Motley Crue, they never stuck with me.
I just always knew that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a musician. I never had any doubts.
What people don't realize when they talk about our lineup changes is that the original Against Me! broke up in 2001. It never recorded a full-length record.
Any doctor will tell you a great treatment for depression is exercise, physical exertion, that it really ups the dopamine in your brain, so that's what a show is. I play a show and that's a high for me; I can ride that.
Trans people should be able to fall in love and sing love songs too, and have that be just as valid. You turn on the radio and every other song is some guy singing about some girl who broke his heart, or vice versa. And there's not a lot of trans representation with that.
To know that the people who are singing along at your show actually have something in common with you and can identify with what you've gone through, makes the songs that much more meaningful to sing.
I have gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia. I don't like to see pictures of myself.
I think the hardest part for musicians is what a wide gulf of time there is between when you decide to sober up and when you have the ability to navigate being social and having relationships and being in a band and having friends while sober.
For most people who are transitioning, surgery isn't really a financial reality. So to place these goals of 'in order to be happy with my body, I must do this thing' is really damaging to yourself.
In a perfect world, in my opinion, 'they,' 'them,' and 'theirs' would be the pronouns that everyone would use.
Butch Vig was a true friend and really guided us, and it was such a fulfilling relationship with a person to make records with.
Most people I know stopped talking to me after I came out.
I guess I get a little impatient and frustrated when people ask what ‘Manic Depression' is about.
Saying to someone 'I'm a transsexual' is the most empowering thing I've ever felt in my whole life.
I dealt with depression for my whole life. That's not something that was caused by being trans.
That's one of the biggest fears a lot of trans people have if they decide to come out, that they're making themselves unlovable and that they'll never have a relationship again.
