Fear is sort of like jealousy. It's an unnecessary emotion.Collection: Jealousy
I'm thankful for everything good and bad that happened to our band.Collection: Thankful
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.Collection: Thankful
We've had kids come to our shows and ask us why we hate Jesus. It's like, 'Well, we don't hate Jesus at all. We just think religion is silly, and it's a really popular thing, but that doesn't mean we have to agree with it.'Collection: Religion
My attraction to the Church of Satan... is the same thing that initially attracted me to punk rock. It was something that wasn't very entirely popular, and it was sort of like the adversary to mainstream culture and beliefs.
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.
We were fans of Green Day and Nirvana or whatever, but the bands we really loved were Chicago bands that didn't really sound anything like Alkaline Trio.
There was some real bad alternative - 'alternative' - stuff that came out in the '90s that's completely cringe-worthy.
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.
My parents are both war veterans; they met in Vietnam. They were involved in a war that they absolutely disagreed with.
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.
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.
A cousin of mine was a graphic designer, and he took me as a kid to see Flesh for Lulu and Social Distortion in 1988 in Chicago.
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.
We definitely like to write songs about darker things, but we like to think of it as a celebration of the evil ideas that run through everybody's head.
The Sekrets record is very much me, and Dan's Emergency Room is very much him. And then Alkaline Trio is very much ours.
My parents have always been very supportive. But now that I play in Blink, all of my parents' friends are so jazzed that it makes my folks excited.
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.
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.
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.
When I agreed to do the Blink shows, I said that I'd do it as long as they were willing to practise every day.
The Church of Satan was something, aesthetically, that we were always really fascinated with and wanted to emulate. I think it's a good look.
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.
I went through some pretty rough patches in my life, and I've come out of them a stronger, more inspired, and energetic person.
The first line of the song is always the hardest thing to write. And then after that, the song should - unless it sucks - it should write itself.
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've done some stuff with Glenn Danzig before, and while I can't really say that we're friends, we're friendly acquaintances.