jonathanweiner:

Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio, Los Angeles 2013 for Rolling Stone.

I spent the day yesterday documenting my good friend Matt’s first day on tour for Rolling Stone. Please have a look at the gallery, share with friends and enjoy!

deaths-praises:

Matt Skiba: The Songs That Changed My Life

From Kerrang magazine sometime in 2006

To Hell and back for Skiba

Even though Matt Skiba is supposed to be singing the praises of his new album with Alkaline Trio, the prolific punk songwriter is clearly excited about the record he’s recording with his side project.

The Hell is a band he founded a couple of years back with former Angels & Airwaves drummer Atom Willard. The fact that he fields this call from the studio is proof that he’s clearly not very good at sitting still.

“If I’m not recording something I’m painting something or making a mess of some kind somewhere,” Skiba begins.

“But I love what I do and I have access to a beautiful studio and beautiful friends to make music with. You know with this new Hell record what we’re doing is a total studio piece. So it’s been a lot of fun.”

The beautiful studio is Studio 606, which Dave Grohl moved from his basement in Virginia to Los Angeles and is topped off with the Neve soundboard featured in the Sound City documentary. “It’s the same board, it’s a different location but it’s very similar to Sound City minus the personnel and the bong on the console,” Skiba adds.

The new Hell record follows on from My Shame Is True, Alkaline Trio’s ninth album recorded in Colorado’s The Blasting Room with producer Bill Stevenson - a dream come true for Skiba, who grew up worshipping everything Stevenson laid his hands on, be it Black Flag, the Descendents or All.

“Yes, sir, it was really an honour,” Skiba says. “Descendents and Black Flag are my two favourite bands. I grew up playing drums so he was always my hero as a drummer, and he’s such a great songwriter. He wrote a lot of the really catchy poppy Descendents stuff, and all the All hits. Bill wrote all that stuff, and he’s a shredding guitar player and killer producer, and a killer guy. He’s a mentor but also a really good friend.”

Already thinking ahead to Alkaline Trio’s next album, Skiba says he’d like to record with band mates Dan Andriano (bass) and Derek Grant (drums) in a similar fashion to the way the Hell operate.

“We all live in three different cities and we don’t really have time to mess around,” Skiba says.

“Maybe next time we make a record I would like to do it that way because the way we’re doing it here at 606, we’re building something from the ground up and doing it together, it’s really neat. And I have that relationship with my (Hell) bandmates you just don’t have unless you have the convenience of being in the same place.”

source

In this interview, Matt talks a bit more about the upcoming TheHELL EP. 

Another new track, “The Temptation of St. Anthony” lyric video. 

And an interview - 

“I went through some pretty rough patches in my life and I’ve come out of them a stronger, more inspired and energetic person. I don’t personally feel that I’ve lost my fire,” says Skiba, confident he once again found a way to channel “the young, angry, fuck-everything, who-cares kid that had no responsibilities,” a fellow that Trio fans grew to know and love on 1998’s now-classic “Goddamnit.”

Read the rest here @ billboard.com 

“It’s kind of an unspoken feeling,” Alkaline Trio bassist Dan Andriano tells Rolling Stone, breaking down how he and his bandmates know it’s time to put aside their respective side projects and join forces in the studio for a new album. That feeling struck again last year: in short order, the three Chicago-native punk-rockers that comprise Alkaline Trio, including guitarist-vocalist Matt Skiba and drummer Derek Grant, made the trek to Bill Stevenson’s Blasting Room studios in Fort Collins, Colorado, to record My Shame Is True – their ninth studio album, and the first with the drummer and founder of the seminal punk act Descendents serving as producer.

Despite never having worked with Alkaline Trio, Stevenson has a long history with the cult punk band: Skiba forged a friendship with the drummer when Alkaline toured with the Descendents on several occasions over their career. Grant, meanwhile, first met Stevenson at a More gig in Detroit at age 14; the drummer happily relays a story in which he challenged the accomplished Stevenson to a drum-off. (Sadly, such a battle never came to fruition.)

Grant says Stevenson is the “most comprehensive producer” the band has ever worked with. Skiba appreciated the producer’s candor: “He’ll tell you whether [your music] is shit or champagne,” the singer says.

Having a keen ear like Stevenson’s in the fold helped Alkaline Trio cook up their most soul-baring and personal album yet. My Shame Is True, due April 2nd on the band’s own Heart & Skull label (a joint venture with Epitaph Records), retains the threesome’s trademark hard-charging punk ethos, anchored by a slew of gnarly riffs. It also leans heavily on sentiment. That’s not surprising: 2010’s confessional This Addiction hinted at a band eager to spill its guts.

Grant admits that when Skiba and Adriano, the band’s lyricists, first brought the new songs to the table, he was a bit uneasy with the album’s blatant honesty. “It just shocked me,” he says. “I was taken aback by how forward and heart-on-the-sleeve that a lot of the lyrics were.”

The band’s open-book attitude is palpable throughout My Shame: amid the staccato riffing of “I’m Only Here to Disappoint,” Skiba drowns himself in a whirlpool of emotion. “I’m hurting for someone else to feel this pain,” he wails. Elsewhere, on the chant-aided lead single “I Wanna Be a Warhol” the 37-year-old contemplates his legacy, imagining himself a work of the iconic artist – “I wanna be a little piece of history/ I wanna be a painting for all to see.”

“I’m not scared to share,” Skiba says. The singer adds that he finds it increasingly difficult to recognize himself even only a few albums back. “I don’t even know who that guy was 10 years ago,” he says of the band’s breakout album, 2003’s Good Mourning.

Despite a collective insistence on looking ahead, the three members of Alkaline Trio share the belief that their years spent together have made songwriting a far smoother process. “There’s no secrets anymore,” Andriano says. “It’s not hard to read between the lines to [gauge] someone’s reaction to a song.” Adds Grant, “[The band] seems to be one of the most natural, organic things I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

That’s not to say there aren’t occasional obstacles. “You’ve got three guys with attention disorders that all want to play the other guy’s instruments,” Grant says, laughing.

Nearly two decades on, Alkaline Trio have no plans to slow down. In fact, Skiba says he feels as fresh as ever. “I can’t fucking believe we’re pushing 20 years,” he says. “I don’t even feel like I’m 20 years old!”

-source

metroretrochicago:

Alkaline Trio’s history as a punk band has a long tenured history in Chicago. Originally based out of McHenry, Illinois Alkaline Trio formed in 1996 immediately ingratiated themselves as a part of the Chicago punk/hardcore scene of the day. After many a lineup change and EP release, the band found their niche as a hard rocking punk power trio.

Alkaline Trio exploded onto the scene with their catchy vocal hooks and instrumentation. Not quite punk, not quite pop punk, the band got heads turning everywhere they went and in turn even got some much deserved mainstream attention. The band has worked very hard to get where they are, when they’re not road dogs they’re making records, and as of now there’s no sign of them slowing down.

Alkaline Trio are no strangers to playing the Metro, having played in their early days and during their ascent to stardom as a band.  In 2010, Alkaline Trio held a brief residency at the Metro playing two nights in a row on February 27^th and 28^th. Both shows were nights to behold with the band Cursive opening up for them setting the mood for the energetic punk showcase. Alkaline Trio played two different sets full of new goodies and fan favorites and on both nights closed with two different Misfits covers.  Never one to neglect their roots Alkaline Trio looks to recreate their insane residency this year on May 30^th and May 31^st.

epitaphrecords:

You can now preorder Alkaline Trio’s new album “My Shame is True” here and get the new single on itunes here!

My Shame Is True out April 4th!

Cult punk rock heroes, Alkaline Trio return on April 2nd with My Shame Is True, their most dynamic album to date. In anticipation of the release, the band have debuted a brand new single “I Wanna Be Warhol” from the forthcoming album.

Fans can purchase “I Wanna Be A Warhol” on iTunes and check it out via YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEiGG4XCTWI&feature=youtu.be

Recorded with Bill Stevenson of punk legends The Descendents and Black Flag and with Jason Livermore at the producers’ Blasting Room Studios in Colorado, My Shame Is True pushes the band into new musical terrain while embracing their classic Trio sound. The album contains 40 minutes of passionate punk-filled rock that showcases guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba, bassist/vocalist Dan Andriano and drummer Derek Grant at their absolute best.

“We’re very proud of it,” says Matt Skiba. “Once we got in the studio, the songs really took on a shape of their own.”

From the album’s first melodic opener “She Lied To The FBI” to the first single, “ I Wanna Be A Warhol” the Trio waste no time setting the tone for their energetic, hook-filled, eighth studio album. For the first time ever on an Alkaline Trio record, My Shame Is True finds a guest appearance from Rise Against’s Tim Mcllarth on rousing punk rock anthem, “I , Pessimist”, while songs like “I’m Only Here to Disappoint” and album closer, “Till Death Do Is Part” remind fans of classic Trio, with stellar song-writing and catchy choruses.

Determined to never make the same record twice, Alkaline Trio have preserved the most electric elements of their collaborative songwriting abilities while pushing ahead creatively and as a band. With multiple world tours, numerous chart successes, and over fifteen years under their belt, the dark punk trio have cemented their legacy with My Shame Is True.

“It’s never been about being rich or famous,” continues Skiba. “We always wanted to have the band be our career… to have that longevity… that should be the goal. We are going to do it until it stops being fun. If it ever feels like a job, why would you be involved in the arts at all? We have the right chemistry as a band and with crowds, big or small. We have community within a community.”

- source

Alkaline Trio enter studio with Descendants drummer Bill Stevenson

Alkaline Trio have announced they are recording their ninth studio album—the follow-up to 2011’s Damnesia—with the Descendents drummer Bill Stevenson, who has produced the likes of Rise Against, NOFX, Hot Water Music, Comeback Kid and more. Frontman Matt Skiba said, “If someone would have told 20 years ago that I would be making a record with Bill Stevenson, I simply wouldn’t have believed it. Today we start.”

-source

indulgesound:

REVIEW: Alkaline Trio - Camden Barfly, London - 12th May 2012. Check out our review from the wonderful Alkaline Trio’s intimate club show at the weekend! Only around 200 in attendance AND they played a set full of audience requests - crazy!

Read review | Follow: TUMBLR | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE

Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba has been especially prolific these last ten months, releasing with his band an album of acoustically performed chestnuts, “Damnesia,” last summer, then an EP as theHELL, a side project with Angels & Airwaves’ Atom Willard. Now he’s got Matt Skiba and the Sekrets, his first all-out solo project, and the debut album “Babylon.”

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