I dropped out of arts school because I didn't wanna stare at a computer all day - I get headaches.

Never had a mullet.

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 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'm in Alkaline Trio; I guess I get to rip off myself. I give myself permission.

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 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.

I don't personally feel that I've lost my fire.

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.

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.

Orange County encompasses a large area that has a lot of Alkaline Trio fans.

There are just as many dirt bags in independent music as there are in major labels.

Dallas is a good town. I spent a lot of time there as a kid. It always nice to come back.

Being a drummer definitely influences how I play guitar. And then piano influences drumming and vice versa.

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.

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.

The Sekrets record is very much me, and Dan's Emergency Room is very much him. And then Alkaline Trio is very much ours.

Being on Epic, it wasn't like we got signed to a multi-million-dollar deal.

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.

I grew up on Edgar Allen Poe, and I loved Alfred Hitchcock's movies.

I first heard of Ulver reading the 'Lords of Chaos' book.

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 done some stuff with Glenn Danzig before, and while I can't really say that we're friends, we're friendly acquaintances.

I've written songs about love or about a relationship, but never just, 'I love you.'