Quotes

[on high school] I was a geek who thought I was cool. I didn't hang out with a particular clique, but with different people from different cliques. I was a total nerd, trying to fit in. Luckily, I found music and that was my niche. That sorta took me out of my geekdom. I was never invited to parties as a teenager--I turned up with the popular people. That's where the lyrics to "Guilty By Association" came from.

The fans are the biggest reason we do what we do.

I always wanted to be a rock star. That was my childhood dream. That's what I told everybody I was going to be when I grew up.

It's not cool to be an alcoholic.

I don't drink. I choose to be sober now. I have drunk over the last six years, but I just don't want to be that person anymore.

I don't like to hold back, because that's how you hurt yourself.

For me, you say the words "concept record"' and the first thing I think of is theater or the opera or something.

When I'm writing, I'm constantly thinking about myself, because it's the only experience I have to draw on. And I don't see an exact reflection of myself in every face in the audience, but I know that my songs have validity to them, and that's why the fans are there.

We'd like to think that our music will always be bigger than any one of our individual personalities.

This is a business of love and labor.

As an artist, I want a reaction.

It's cool to be a part of recovery. This is just who I am, this is what I write about, what I do, and most of my work has been a reflection of what I've been going through in one way or another.

We're not a political band, we're a socially-minded band.

If fans come up to me, I talk to them.

Asking someone to describe what something sounds like is like telling a blind person to guess what I look like.

You're constantly trying to prove yourself, even after you've made it.

Well, we promised our fans that we'd put out records faster, and that's what we're doing. We figured out a way to condense our cycle, so to speak, by . . . continuing to write, trying to keep the creative ball rolling as often as possible.

We like playing smaller venues, but we know how many people want to come and see us so we don't ever want to stop anyone who wants to come to a show from coming.

I have been able to tap into all the negative things that can happen to me throughout my life by numbing myself to the pain so to speak and kind of being able to vent it through my music.

All of our songs take these really big creative turns and twists throughout the process, so sometimes songs will start out as a melody or some musical chord progressions.

We're shooting for the title of hardest-working band in America.

We don't sit down and go, "People are uneasy about the economy. Let's write about that".

Touring for two years is excruciating.

To pigeonhole a genre as being successful or unsuccessful is weird.

There are always going to be encounters that you kind of wish went differently. But the average fan really isn't fanatical.

Once we start hitting lyrical themes that can whack you from all these different perspectives, we know we're onto something special.

My favorite jellybean is the pink one with the flavor inside.

I don't go out and pick fights.