“Even when I interviewed bands, it was about asking them about writing songs, so it was more for me than anybody else.”

Ive been making music since I was 14, but for a while, I was afraid to perform.

I realized that the reason why my head was so cluttered and why I was so unstable and not taking care of myself, all of these things, was that I was unhappy. If I wanted to get to a happier place and find some kind of peace,

I dont think I ever wanted to be a journalist – I was more interested in what comes from being a journalist.

I hope that I can make music that helps people in some way or that they can connect with, and that I can just live a life where I’m surrounded by people that I love.

It’s not enough to have good intentions. If you want to be a good person, you have to make good decisions all the time and live a life that’s worth living and that you can be proud of, and that’s what I wanted.

Life is short, so I am one of those people – and luckily my girlfriend is too – who wants to live everywhere. I don’t know how long I’ll be there, but I like it right now.

You have to have some kind of clarity or understanding of what’s happening to write.

I was just a music lover who wondered what it would sound like if Otis Redding strapped on a guitar and played in a punk band. Thats it.

I was going to have to address problems with myself, things from my life up until that point that I hadn’t dealt with: insecurities, fears, and those kinds of things.

I think everybody that grows up in Florida, you’ve got a little chip on your shoulder. It’s not as bad as people think it is, but it’s pretty bad. When you go to other places you’re just like, “Oh, god. What was that about?”

Blind Willie Johnson is a pretty big vocal influence. He can be very harsh, like gargly, gruff vocals, but also just slip into some very delicate, vulnerable soft stuff. I like that combination.

You will never have the answers, but you have to keep pushing yourself and keep reading and keep working on yourself.

Being a new band, I just can’t think of a better way to get your name out to all of the Hard-Rock crowd than playing with twenty of the biggest Hard-Rock bands in the world.

It doesn’t always necessarily translate into them doing a better job for a band, but I think especially if you’re playing the game of commercial radio and making videos and stuff like that, that’s sort of an expensive proposition.

Everything is completely democratic in this band so far and that is the way that we would like to keep it.

The more you tour, the better the band gets, and you get caught up in a lot more things than just traveling. It becomes a way to survive.

We just wanted to get as far away from the rap-rock scene as possible, because its been done and other bands do it better than us anyway.

When you start getting into a full-band, democratic context the little things almost immediately get thrown out the window because you don’t think they’re important.

People always – when you rise, whenever you’re getting to a point where you’re a very big band, which is a very rare thing, there are always going to be people that aren’t going to like you.

I’m my own worst critic and I think everyone in the band is a perfectionist.