Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
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.
My parents are both war veterans; they met in Vietnam. They were involved in a war that they absolutely disagreed with.
The Sekrets record is very much me, and Dan's Emergency Room is very much him. And then Alkaline Trio is very much ours.
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.
Making your band your career just seems like a pipe dream when it's not happening, and when it does, it seems so surreal.
Falling in love with somebody is like a rush of heroin, and trying to break up with somebodyis like trying to kick heroin.
I've done some stuff with Glenn Danzig before, and while I can't really say that we're friends, we're friendly acquaintances.
I went through some pretty rough patches in my life, and I've come out of them a stronger, more inspired, and energetic person.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
I think I'm a man about the things I need to be a man about, but I get paid to play, pretty much. I do what I love for a living, and I also get to build BMX bikes in my spare time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.'
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.