Matt Skiba

“Long before punk entered my life, I loved scary films and stories.”

“Never had a mullet.”

“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.”

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

“The Devil is fun.”

“Heaven and hell are something that people create to make some people feel guilty and other people like myself laugh.”

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

“I go with what I know and what I see, and I believe in reality.”

“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 went through some pretty rough patches in my life, and I've come out of them a stronger, more inspired, and energetic person.”

“I'm from the MTV generation.”

“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.”

“We have this song called 'Radio,' and I wrote that song when we needed one more song for a record. So I went back into the other room and wrote it in 20 minutes.”

“I love being in Blink!”

“I'm thankful for everything good and bad that happened to our band.”

“I see kids in Cradle of Filth shirts at our shows, which is awesome.”

“There is sort of an unspoken 'no skateboarding' clause on tour that I break pretty often.”

“Touring with Blink helped introduce people to Alkaline Trio who otherwise wouldn't have ever heard of us.”

“Making your band your career just seems like a pipe dream when it's not happening, and when it does, it seems so surreal.”

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