Matt Skiba
I think that the more that you play and the more instruments you play and the better you get at them, then you will be better off for it as a guitarist.
As a kid, I took piano lessons, and I didn't like it. It wasn't cool. I was into Duran Duran and rock music. I didn't have any interest in piano. I did it for three years, and because of piano, I learned percussion. I learned scales. I learned how to sing. Piano gives you all of the basics of those things.
Being a drummer definitely influences how I play guitar. And then piano influences drumming and vice versa.
I collect motorcycles and art.
Being on Epic, it wasn't like we got signed to a multi-million-dollar deal.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Falling in love with somebody is like a rush of heroin, and trying to break up with somebodyis like trying to kick heroin.Collection: Falling In Love
I just feel like all the things that I do in my life just make me feel like a grown-up kid. That's pretty much what I am.Collection: Kids
I usually just wear black so my shoes and my socks are my rays of sunshine.Collection: Sunshine
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.Collection: Bmx
I told myself I would never stop skating. I would never stop riding bikes or riding motorcycles. I raced dirt when I was a kid; motocross. So it definitely keeps me in tune with my youth. I'm almost 40 years old and I feel like I'm 17 years old, and I feel like that's really healthy.Collection: Kids
Even when I'm old and grey I'll probably be cruising around and bunny-hopping and stuff. In the words of the Descendents, "I don't want to grow up."Collection: Growing Up
I do what I love for a living, and I also get to build BMX bikes in my spare time.Collection: Bmx
I have the '86 Haro Master that I built. It was the bike I wanted as a kid and couldn't afford, and I'm like, "I'm going to build that Haro and never ride it."Collection: Kids
The bike that I've been riding is a Big Ripper. It' an SE Racing 29" bike that Famous [Stars & Straps] did a collaboration with and Travis [Barker] gave to me. So that's the bike that I cruise around on and bunny-hop on.Collection: Stars
I was a bicycle messenger when Alkaline Trio was formed as a way to make ends meet and I've just always been a cyclist and then I got really into - through messengering - I got really into road bikes and fixed gears.Collection: Gears
Skating is what got me into punk rock.Collection: Rocks
I was thinking about hitting races and stuff, but it's just, I think it's more of the era of when I was a kid and it just brings back memories. I gotta just chill and live in the past.Collection: Memories
The extent of my personal BMX adventures were all [on] dirt tracks. But just the aesthetic of it that early-to-mid-'80s BMX is something that's just part of me.Collection: Adventure
I feel a certain amount of freedom just cruising to the liquor store to get water or whatever. It just feels good. It makes me feel young getting on the bike and - again, not going crazy, I do bunny-hops and I'll hit some curbs and stuff - but just feeling like a kid again.Collection: Crazy
I used to race at the YMCA in Crystal Lake, Illinois, they used to have a dirt track there, and there was also a track near Rockford, Illinois, that I would go to.Collection: Lakes