3 years ago I was stocking shelves at Target, living on Ramen noodles, and crashing at Billy's house. Now I'm on tour

I didn't even write the lyrics down. I got in the booth, I put down a little guitar riff and the idea I had was it was going to be really simple, I just want it to be all about the lyrics and I just literally sang the lyrics.

I got a little tattoo on my face, I'll never be able to work another real job so I consider that to be kinda forcing myself to stick to music.

The whole time you're bouncing ideas off each other, you continue to try and push the songs as far as you can take them and make them the best that they can be.

We want to give kids something to hope for. If one kid says, "Your cd helped get me through this year," that's all it takes.

A lot of bands don't really like each other. I read an Interpol interview the other day, it was a really good interview because it was showing a different aspect of a band. They don't really like each other - they work together and they kinda exist together and that's how they like it. They're like, "we didn't get into this band looking for friends."

Often people think they know what they want, but what they really want is something that's genuine. So they'll be saying, "Do another one like that," but you liked that one because it's real. So as long as I keep it real and I do something that's real to me, you're going to feel it in the same way.