Me personally, I side more with punk rock bands. I grew up with The Misfits, The Dead Boys, The Damned, Dropkick Murphys, and early AFI. That was the stuff that really got me into music. Song writing wise, bands like Alkaline Trio were very important to me for beginning to write songs.

It would be weird for me to be raging against all of the bullies in my life because it would be disingenuous. I've gotten through all of that and I'm living a wonderful life, but that doesn't mean that people aren't mean to me.

I need to have something to source my energy to and something to remove me from my own weird brain.

I know that isn't always easy and that there is self-harm in the world. Sometimes it's hard for people to rise above things.

Aside from comic book heroes, the only real life heroes I had were musicians.

Because of the kind of music that I liked, and the different way that I dressed, it was kind of a perfect storm, creating a situation where I existed on my own throughout my schooling.

I see so many bands, that are trying really hard to write for a person that they've never met. I get the idea behind it and the idea of helping people, but I feel you help people more by exposing yourself.