Even though it's an unpopular paradigm, wear your heart on your sleeve, and mean what you say. Believe in what you say, and there will be a time for that. Maybe that time hasn't come yet, but there will be a time for that.
What we get in punk these days are layers of 'anti-', and so many of them are so self-serving. It's not about larger freedom.
There's definitely privilege in the upper classes, but as a whole, music can be enjoyed by anybody who can gather around a radio.
People see musicians on a huge stage playing a festival for 80,000 people and are like, "Oh, they have such magnetism," but it always embarrasses me more than it makes me feel proud.
I'm still totally going out and sleeping on people's floors so I can play a house show and give away music. Of course I would. That's how I started. All that sort of stuff reminds you to stay true to the essence of what art is about.
Art is the one thing that's the universal virtue that you can have in any class.
We should self-examine and talk about things like our own white privilege and these phony senses of being an artist.
As a band, it's just me trying to please my own basement-hardcore sensibilities that I grew up with. It's not actually the future of anything, it's totally nostalgia.
People aren't really paying attention when they're listening to your record, so unless you're shouting exactly what you want them to hear, they don't pay attention.
I know how absurd things can get. I've had years where I've had questionable things going on in my life.
The future of punk rock has nothing to do with guitars. Everything interesting that I've heard in years has been nearly all electronic.
Punk is no longer a subculture or a counterculture in any way. It's totally just a small reflecting mirror for the same things that go on in larger culture.
What we get in punk these days is the "anti-anti": Someone comes up with something, then the next generation is against that, and then the next generation is against that, and then that thing becomes a problem. There's these layers of anti-, and so many of them are just so self-serving. It's not about larger freedom.
I got married in Vegas on Warped Tour on July 4 - that's how crazy my life has been.
