Alkaline Trio - Staying Strong by Having Fun
By Naughty Mickie  notymickie@earthlink.net

Alkaline Trio, vocalist and guitarist Matt Skiba, vocalist and bassist Dan Andriano and drummer Derek Grant has just released "This Addiction" (Epitaph Records/Heart & Skull) and is currently out on the road. Despite their hectic schedule, Skiba, the only original member, was happy to chat with me about music, art and life.

"The band formed in 1996, we were all friends, played in other bands and had known each other for a while. All three of us are from the same area, we went to high school together and started playing in bands together," Skiba begins. "We were all in art school and we decided we were going to make music for a living. At that point I was going to school for graphic design and it was switching over from analog to digital. The design stuff I was doing was very hands-on, which I loved, it was paper and pen or whatever the medium, but there was no computer involved. I went to school freshman year and the following year they installed the new computer program.  I can't sit in front of a computer screen, it physically makes me feel sick, I get headaches, so I couldn't do it.

"What I really wanted to do anyway was play in a band. That's just a pipe dream, that's something that happens to other people and then I snapped out of that really quick and said it's something that's going to happen to me, I'm going to make this thing happen. I talked the other two guys into it and we just all became bike messengers and living in very dangerous neighbors in Chicago where gun shots were common.
 
"On a daily basis there was gunplay outside our place," continues Skiba. "We'd be inside practicing and there would be gangbangers outside selling crack and they wouldn't call the cops on us and we wouldn't call the cops on them and we had this synergy with the gangsters. Luckily we never had any problem. We did that for a while and then slowly but surely saved up to get a van, started touring. That's when cool people that had record labels started putting stuff out for us. and the rest is history."

As my way, I prod Skiba to share when he first became involved with music.

"I was really young, my mom made me take piano lessons when I was seven," replies Skiba. "But when I was a toddler I was banging on pots and pans all the time and we would go to music shops and I was fascinated with guitars-- all the colors and the designs, not that I was going, 'Wow, the design on this is really interesting,' I was just in awe.

"I've always had music in my life, I was always drawn to it. At a very young age, Survivor played 'Eye of the Tiger' on I don't know what late night show and it changed my life. It gave me chills. It was pretty amazing, so music and art, like painting and drawing, were always my biggest interests." Skiba adds, "I paint quite a bit, I sell art and I do shows once in a while."

"Do you do landscapes or what?" I ask.

"No nobody wants me to paint any landscapes," Skiba laughs. "But a lot of it is like pop art. I incorporate a lot of propaganda and pop art ideas into my art. I also generally paint people that I admire, that have had impact in my life in one way or another."

We return to Alkaline Trio talk, focusing on how they create their material.

"What we usually do is Dan or myself will write a song." Skiba explains, "We both share vocal duties, so the songs he writes he usually sings and the same with me. Derek our drummer, he can play anything. There's a lot of times where we switch instruments and we'll be working things out, but it starts with an initial rough idea. Sometimes it stays exactly the way it was written, but oftentimes it gets switched up and turned into something more interesting. We generally come up with an idea and make it a song together."

"This Addiction" is the band's seventh studio album. It is available as a standard CD, a limited deluxe CD/DVD and Gatefold LP vinyl, as well as digital download.

"Hopefully the album can speak for itself." Skiba says, "I don't really know what to say about it other than we're excited about it. The songs are really fun to play, the record was really fun to make and I think it translates."

During my research, I came across a quote by Skiba, where he spoke about Alkaline Trio's music as the "thinking man's punk." I asked him to clarify what he means.

"I think that quote got a little twisted around," Skiba responds. "Taken out of context I can understand that you would say that I said that, but it's something we're striving for, not necessarily achieving. A band like Jawbreaker where there are references to things that only people who read and people who pay attention, conscious people, are going to understand and there's a lot of bands. No Means No has some very profound amazing stuff and it's not rocket science, but it is poetic and oftentimes you have to know your history a little bit to get what somebody is saying or to get some of the references and we do a lot of that too. That's what I meant, not that we're smarter than anyone else. I think a lot of times people dig our band because of the lyrics. They pay attention to what the words are saying and what they mean."

I remark that one of the things I like best about Alkaline Trio is that I can understand what they are singing.

"Yes, I don't like getting yelled at," assents Skiba. "I love Slayer, there's a lot of bands that I dig, Minor Threat is just screaming out about different things that I never believed in, but I always loved the band. But I like singers, I like people that can really sing or even people that can't really sing, like Daniel Johnston, but it has melody and the truth to it that screaming, at least for me, doesn't transcend anything or... it doesn't do it for me, I don't want to feel like I did something wrong."

OK, so what is the secret to the band's staying power?

"The fact that we love what we do and we're all really good friends," says Skiba. "I think that's important and unfortunately it's rare. Musicians or any kind of artist may love what they do, but they're doing it with people they don't like. You spend enough time with someone, whether it's a roommate or a band mate or your husband or wife, divorce rates are at an all-time high, people can't stand each other, but we get along really well. We communicate as friends and as musicians. When we started the band we said if this ever stops being fun, we would quit the band. Fun is our religion."

The band members also all have side projects, which makes me wonder how they manage to do and balance so much.

"It's not that hard," Skiba tells me. "If you want to do something, make time for it. There's people who have done far crazier things, look at the Sistine Chapel or some of the things that Leonardo DaVinci did. If those guys can do that crazy ass shit, I can sure can juggle a couple of music projects. I look at the greats as very inspiring to make it happen, if you have an idea, do it. So maybe I have to wake up a little earlier.

"There's a bunch of demos I'm putting out this summer on Asian Man Records and those are actually demos for a record I just started recording," Skiba goes on. "There's going to be a couple of things coming out, but the record, when it's done, who knows when that's going to be, that will be a new album. I'm juggling a few things, but you know, idle hands."

Alkaline Trio is touring the U.S. and plans to go on through Europe, Japan and Australia.

"We've got our work cut out for us and we have to space it out so we're not overplaying, but we also don't want people to forget about us, so we definitely try to balance that. We're going to be busy for a couple years," says Skiba.

I ask Skiba for any final thoughts and am surprised by his response.

"Read 'Dark Mission (:The Secret History of NASA)' by Robert Holguin (and Mike Bara), it's on Feral House and it's amazing," states Skiba. "Holguin is pretty brilliant, he's a NASA scientist that wrote this book that the New York Times called possibly one of the most dangerous books ever written because they exposed some pretty sobering evidence of- well, read the book, it's interesting."

"Do books inspire you?" I ask.

"Maybe some paintings, but writing a song, I don't think so." Skiba adds, "I wouldn't even know how to begin writing a song about something like that, it's very exciting for a person like me, but it would be terrifying to a lot of people I think. I think a lot of people, it would just be easier for them to write it off  as a conspiracy theory rather than really look at it and put the information together themselves because if you do, you're going to come across some pretty amazing information about our universe."

OK, now that you can't sleep, take time to check out Alkaline Trio's Web site at www.alkalinetrio.com

The band's fan site is www.thisaddiction.org  and you can learn more about Skiba's art at www.myspace.com/mattskibaartwerk

Also visit my blogs at http://mickieszoo.blogspot.com and www.insidesocal.com/doodah

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