The people who send us fan mail written in blood say the nicest things, so it doesn't freak us out too much.
People do get ridiculed for liking us or because they look the way they do and they're a part of what we do.
As far commercial success, I don't think that's a focus but it's not that we don't enjoy that. It's not something you can attempt and achieve.
For us, the pressure comes from internal matter of having recorded eight records.
Personally I have never found the practice of recreational drug use appealing. In fact, I have always found the lifestyle and the people who surround it to be abhorrent.
I find drug use disrespectful, self-destructive, and weak. I want no part of it.
I was the freak who moved into the nice neighborhood.
It's a wonderful side effect of what we're doing, to give someone the strength to come out of the closet to their family, or simply present themselves aesthetically in a way they feel happy with, whether or not their friends are going to be allowed to like them anymore.
There are only a few places that I go where people recognize me anyway. I have to be at the right place, in the right city. It's not really that much of an issue.
I attribute a lot of the success to Live 105, of course, because it's something they've nurtured and grown.
I have an affinity towards extremes.
When we make a record, we don't discuss how we are planning on doing it. It's a very natural and organic growth.
I think, a lot of times, bands will break up because their goal is commercial success, and most bands aren't going to get that: it's out of their control. If you do, you're one of the lucky ones, but that commercial success will likely fade, and you'll end up breaking up anyway.
I think sometimes people have a different idea of what starting a band is going to be.
I'm very grateful that anyone takes the time to read what I write, coming from people perceive to be exclusively a musical background and having no traditional schooling in writing.
For anyone to take the time to care about what I write and read a book is so flattering to me because it's fun.
With anything you do and you dedicate yourself to and you dedicate thousands and thousands of hours, eventually you're gonna get a little bit better at it unless there's some innate impairment preventing that.
I love Baz Luhrmann.
To me, 'Crash Love' is the most stripped-down record that we've made since the early Nineties, and I would say that 'I Hope You Suffer' is indicative of the overall tone of this record in being the opposite of that.
Due to the world I've been part of in creating art for so many years, I feel really connected to pop culture and what younger people are talking about.
