Silence is never so impenetrable as when the whisper of steel on paper strives to pierce it.
I kind of got into music in middle school, although at the time I didn't know it as punk music so much as just rock music.
I love Chicago. It was an awesome place to grow up. It's a big city but it doesn't feel like one. I can't imagine that if I had kids I would raise them anywhere else besides Chicago.
It's hard to say. Whenever you play with a group of people for a long time it influences the way that you play with others. They were all very defining in their own way and all affected the band in one way or another. I don't think they are so obvious in the music. The fact is that The Lawrence Arms is the culmination of a long search of trying to find people who play well as a unit.
I'm not ashamed to say that I really loved some of the hair metal bands of the '80s.
I started playing guitar when I was in eighth grade, and that led to trying to write songs and trying to figure out how to play in bands. That led to meeting people, and getting into the local punk rock scene, and going to shows. So that was how I really got into the culture of it.
Art is so subjective--it means something different to every person. The important thing for it to do is to touch on the senses and emotions.
It is outrageous to know that security procedures are apparently so lax at the Department of Veterans Affairs that a single bureaucrat had the ability to put the personal information of over 26 million Veterans at risk for sale to the highest criminal bidder.
I am part of everyone I ever dated on OK Cupid.
Most people travel with a good book, but I also keep my agenda with me; I'll flip through the pages and take a few moments to organize my life a little - I rarely get the time to do this normally.