Making your band your career just seems like a pipe dream when it's not happening, and when it does, it seems so surreal.
— Matt Skiba
I miss the videos that are short films, back when MTV played videos all day.
I grew up on Edgar Allen Poe, and I loved Alfred Hitchcock's movies.
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 see kids in Cradle of Filth shirts at our shows, which is awesome.
I first heard of Ulver reading the 'Lords of Chaos' book.
Creating a record on my own and deciding who plays and how the songs were structured, it was fun to do.
Death isn't something that should necessarily be glorified, but I also don't think it's something that people need to be afraid of. It's just the way it is. There's nothing we can do about it.
When we're on tour, we try to keep our voices sharp. We get up there and put on the best show we can.
To be in touch with death, and the darker side of life, makes the lighter side more enjoyable.
I love being in Blink!
I'm a bookworm, so I read about a book a month.
There are things about this country that are horrible; there's things about this country that are beautiful. I've been almost everywhere, and there's nowhere else I'd rather live.
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.
I consider myself a pagan and a witch.
I feel like everything happens for a reason.
The really smart conspiracies are the ones that explain, 'This is why this is plausible,' not, 'This is what happened.' If it makes sense and if it's possible, I'd investigate it.
We have the best fans in the world. A lot of artists say that, but in this case, it's actually fact.
I haven't eaten an animal in over twenty years!
Long before punk entered my life, I loved scary films and stories.
I'm the die-hard that still goes out to buy records.
I think who I am as a person on and off the stage is always kind of the same thing, but I don't take a lot of things very seriously.
There are just as many dirt bags in independent music as there are in major labels.
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 grew up on Michael Jackson, Pat Benetar, and Van Halen - all the things coming out of the television.
Heaven and hell are something that people create to make some people feel guilty and other people like myself laugh.
I honestly couldn't have asked for or expected the amount of love and support I've received from a large majority of Blink's fans.
Touring with Blink helped introduce people to Alkaline Trio who otherwise wouldn't have ever heard of us.
I was always a punk rock skate kid from a very young age.
My parents are both war veterans; they met in Vietnam. They were involved in a war that they absolutely disagreed with.
Glasgow is one of my favourite cities.
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.
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.
It's never been about what we want others to see: it's about what we want to see; it's about what we want to do. We only have a career because of our fans, but we have to keep making music for the reason we started making music.
Meditation has really done wonders for me personally and artistically.
I loved anything spooky, mysterious, or frightening.
I want recording to be fun.
Orange County encompasses a large area that has a lot of Alkaline Trio fans.
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.
Everyone who signed us to Epic, all of the people we trusted there, were let go.
I like even numbers.
I'm from the MTV generation.
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.
It feels really good to be doing Blink justice. Stepping on stage for the first show was pretty crazy. I've been skydiving several times, and that's the closest thing I can compare it to. Such a beautiful rush.
Fear is sort of like jealousy. It's an unnecessary emotion.
I dropped out of arts school because I didn't wanna stare at a computer all day - I get headaches.
When George W. Bush was up for re-election, we took part in Rock Against Bush.
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.
When you're 20, you think you know a lot more than you do.
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.
