Alkaline Trio (acoustic) by Ashley Lester on Flickr.

Alkaline Trio (acoustic) by Ashley Lester on Flickr.

Alkaline Trio by Ashley Lester on Flickr.

alkaline trio by kelly!hamilton on Flickr.

“It’s better to burn out then to fade away,” said a wise rock and roller (who has yet to do either after over 40 years).  But these words ring even truer in the world of punk rock. Like a red dwarf, these bands burn brightly with passion and fury, then fade out quickly. It’s just too damn hard to maintain that intensity, and, in some cases, the lifestyle.

Alkaline Trio have been together for 17 years and just released their ninth album, My Shame Is True.  It has all the intensity that 1998’s Goddamnitcontained. And it should, it stems from a very intense and personal time in lead singer Matt Skiba’s life.

In his interview, Skiba talks about that turbulent time in his life, the new album, and how the band has changed and grown (sometimes to the chagrin of their fans) over the years.

Read the full interview here @ AMG 

(source)

Matt Skiba talks surfing

Matt Skiba talks motorcycles

From TheHELL’s facebook: 

You can hear a little bit of one of our new songs in this…

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.