Daniel Johns
I have a theory because I was being beaten up a lot by people outside of school, it was almost like if I could make myself sick enough they'd take sympathy on me.Collection: Sympathy
With our first two records we backed ourselves into a hole musically.
It makes it hard to get over a certain period of your life when you are constantly revisiting it every night.
None of us are really dumb and none of us are really smart. We're in the middle.
There are no big groupie fans or anything.
There was three or four years of my life where I hated myself and you know, would have quite happily ended it.
So I went and visited a doctor and he diagnosed me with reactive arthritis.
I'm lucky the arthritis happened at the time that it did because of the record.
I never really paid attention to sales until the second record.
Though, since the first record, I've dramatically changed my expectations for our records.
I had to try and find a way to express happiness without sounding corny.
We were perceived as a post-grunge band.
The touring for this album was definitely going to be the most intense touring we've done.
We were really motivated to do something with this record overseas, even though I hate touring.
Touring doesn't kill me and I can handle it.
I know if I don't tour people will forget the record and you run a high risk of the record failing.
Kinda when I stopped eating was on our second album, just as it felt like everything was so out of control.
I think I definitely got scared by the second or third time a doctor told me I was dying.
I wrote... Neon Ballroom in that time where I hated music, really everything about it, I hated it.
It just makes everything more pleasurable when you've got someone that emotionally is there to rely on.
Basically, the reason I'm vegan is because when I was about 16 or 17 years old, I began to understand that we don't need to contribute to the killing and exploitation of animals to feed our bodies correctly.
I have not really experienced any significant conflict with anyone in regard to my choice to be vegan, although going out to eat is hard sometimes.
I'm always active in trying to educate people when it comes to eating animal products, testing on animals, and the health benefits of being vegan, although I'm probably not the best person to be talking about the latter at the moment.
Reactive arthritis is something I've been dealing with for nearly a year.
I try to stay positive by focusing on how much I'll appreciate my health if I get better.
I have never had a social life, don't ever want one because it's boring. I'm just not very good with people, and you meet people every night who expect you to be this rock star with these developed social skills, which I don't have.
I am very scared of being outside my home for long periods of time.
I start sweating and shaking and having panic attacks if I am not at home.
I get very anxious and am scared in crowds and things like that.
I am doing everything humanly possible to try and get well, but lately things have just kept getting worse.
We met The Cult and were talking to them for a while. We went a few places with Offspring.
There's an inherent thing in me where, if things are going too smooth, I'll sabotage the hell out of them, just to make the music more of a sanctuary.
We never considered ourselves to be a good band or anything, we just thought we were playing for fun and we wanted to play music that sounded like Black Sabbath or Soundgarden or the music we were into at that time.
When we first began and I was 14, my influences were the stuff that was in my parent's record collection like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.
Yes, I am old enough to grow a beard actually. So ner-ner-ner-nerCollection: Beard
You say that money isn't everything, well I'd like to see you live without it.Collection: Money Isn't Everything
Trees have feelings too, and no one ever says 'hi' to them. Next time you're outside and see a tree, say 'hello'.Collection: Tree
I don't know if sitting home everyday is normal, but that's what I do.Collection: Home
If negative meant positive we'd be heroes.Collection: Hero
Think what you want, this is what we are.Collection: Thinking
People don't understand sarcasm, like, they take everything too seriously. People need to lighten up and go ice skating.Collection: Sarcasm
Me and my dog are best friends.Collection: Dog
I would stay in bed and get an extra 10 minutes sleepCollection: Sleep
I'll always remember 1995 as the year i found out Star Trek wasn't realCollection: Stars
I made a conscious effort to make a record that would affect people in a good way rather than the last one, which affected people in a bad way.Collection: People
There are a lot of wankers, and a lot of people who think they are really hardcore and cool but they're not.Collection: Thinking
I've never had a social life, don't ever want one because it's boring.Collection: Want
Candles are good as long as you're not me and you don't fall asleep and your house burns down.Collection: Fall
A lot of people who get into any art form have some form of mental..something in their head which is unstableCollection: Art