Alternative Rock Singers

"It’d be great if the record industry wasn’t completely falling apart and people’s interest in music wasn’t totally disappearing. It’s sad on a cultural level. Not even from the perspective of being in a band, just as a fan. It’s heartbreaking to see how little music means to people in modern times. And people say, “No, no, no — music means more than ever before! People are consuming music at a greater rate!” Well, that doesn’t mean anything, that’s just a statistic. All that’s saying is that people are downloading music more than before. That doesn’t mean that they’re listening to it, that they know anything about it, or that they’re going to see it."

"As far as vocal preparation goes, it’s really an interesting thing for such a fragile instrument and using it properly is like walking a tightrope. I have learned not to do extensive warm-ups. It’s really more of a cerebral mind-body connection Zen hippy thing, just knowing your body and figuring out if I do that then I will be able to speak tomorrow."

"Usually, old ladies tell me to find Jesus. Look, I'm just trying to find some chai and a good vegan muffin."

"I’ve heard we’re Christian, and that always tickles me. I’ve heard that I’m a junkie. I’ve heard that I’m a vampire. I’m a junkie vampire. That can be your pull-quote."

"I've found that at times that question and the dubiousness that I seem to exude has given people something — not simply gossip or whether God is going to smite them for liking our band, but actually they've found strength and become more comfortable with who they are as a person. It's pansexual, that sort of reach. 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. So it's actually a really cool side effect to all the rumors."

"It’s not a matter of imaging, despite what a lot of people would feel that it is. I’ve never presented myself in a way that I don’t feel comfortable with; I’ve never presented myself in a way to appeal to anybody. For the most part the way I’ve always looked to not appeal to most people. Really, my aesthetic was really more of a terrorism or violence than it was something to attract; more of a representation of my detachment than anything else — though it’s not always a very conscious thing."

"Q: You seem relatively upbeat and sociable. It’s funny, because I’ve always had this idea of you, like, always crying in the dark. A: Most people do. Q: Do you care about that? A: Oh, no. It doesn’t bother me. Whatever people think of me is fine, however they want to envision me. I find it curious. I’m always intrigued by who people think I am and the persona they have created for me, what they think I’m into, what they think I’m not into. But I certainly understand that consideration, that I would be a bleak and miserable person, because a lot of my lyrics are very despondent. Luckily, I have the music to use as catharsis. If I didn’t, I might spend more time sitting and crying in a corner than I need to. Also, I think manners are very important. To be a sullen rain cloud when conversing with someone, be they your friends or a journalist, I think is inappropriate."

"Q: Especially starting off in punk and hardcore like you did, you’re taking a huge risk by constantly expanding your sound, and it’s something you’ve gotten a lot of flack for. Have you reconciled yourselves to that? A: Absolutely. It’s something that we accepted very early on. It really comes from the ethos of being a punk and hardcore band. It was really because we just didn’t give a fuck. In the same way that we were playing punk and hardcore and didn’t give a fuck that anybody liked it, we continued to write and play what we liked and didn’t give a fuck if anybody liked it. Our hope is that people do like it, but if they have an issue with it, it doesn’t matter because we’re doing what makes us happy."

"I’ve gotten kicked in the face, got my nose broken, I’m constantly chipping teeth and there’s been a lot of very close calls with Hunter [the band’s bassist]. In a recent show, if our movement had’ve been inches different, I might be dead. I almost caught his bass to my head at full velocity. You laugh but it’s really scary."

"I just heard a story from someone the other day where somebody was beaten up by Christians for wearing one of our shirts. Of course, that's a very Christian thing to do."

"The front man, Davey Havok, comes straight out of the Velvet Goldmine school of glam rock. Wearing more make-up than Carol Channing at the Tony Awards, Havok emerged with his band, all wearing white, a shocking change of pace for a group known for an approach to fashion blacker than Saddam's mustache. Havok brought the Civic crowd to a frenzy with his brash and messianic front-man antics. At one point, he stepped out into the undulating, adrenaline-mad masses, literally walking on the shoulders of fans like You Know Who walking on water."

"He’s a man of both immovable conviction and incorruptible beliefs; who unabashedly holds true to the virtues of his heart. /—/ Though always outspoken, opinionated, outrageous, and passionate, Havok has never been one to willfully impart the mystery surrounding him."

"The rules were always there. There was always one rule; don't break the golden rule, which is if someone says that they love your music, so they love you and you're amazing; you're not amazing. You're not amazing. It's not you, they don't know you, you know? It's not that way. So don't believe that. I don't believe that about myself, and I don't believe when someone likes me too much or hates me too much. I don't believe they know what they're talking about."

"I am not a perfectionist at all. I love failure. I love mistakes. I love the bizarre. I love characters. I love missing teeth. I love beauty because your eyes are off-center. And how can you notice that in the buzz of the city? So I like the emptiness."

"My years of reading P.T. Barnum is finally coming into play. [snaps fingers] This notion of saying nothing, of keeping a secret, and doing it in a way that's not elitist but that's like, You wanna come in here and hear? [whispers] We have a secret. That's all that I can tell you. But you're involved. You know?"

"Yeah, I can make all the tequila in a bottle disappear. It’s a talent. Nothing comes easy and talent is something you get but, if you don’t develop it, it becomes like an apple; you keep taking bites of it until it’s gone. So you have to plant the seeds. Then you have the orchard. And then you have Jonestown.’"

"I get scared all the time. I try not to let it have any impact on the decision of whether to do it or not. I think you can separate yourself from your fears. You know what you should do, and it’s just scary to do it. But I’d hate to let the fact that I’m scared to do it make me not do it. It ends up defining you."

"Music is the best way that I know to say the things that are difficult to say in English. Words get in the way sometimes."

"And the fact of the matter is that everyone should play music because it's such a beautiful gift. It's my religion. But maybe not everyone should play it in front of me. It's okay to play music in your rocking chair or whatever."

"I THINK OF INTERSCOPE AND ALL THESE LABELS AS THE BIGGEST FUCKING IDIOTS ON THE PLANET. And print that in capitals, because they can’t do anything to me."

"Time wounds all the heals, as we fade out of view."

"I want God to come and take me home, 'cause I'm all alone in this crowd."

"The more you've found, the less you've been around."

"You're solid gold, I'll see you in hell."

"This song is actually about when I got arrested for about 30 minutes in Mexico, and as we were just about to cross into Tijuana, we were just about to cross the "Bridge of Freedom", which I always thought was an ironic name for the bridge into Tijuana, or the one coming back for that matter. And this woman was selling these crucifixes before you got to the bridge, and she looked at me and said "You're in for trouble", and I just scoffed and laughed and was like "You don't live forever" and I thought "Jeez, what's up with the weird old woman?". And then later that night I was sitting in this police car in Tijuana and they just beat the crap out of this other guy, not that I was with, and I was like "Am I next?". I had bought this fake gold chain because my dad had said "If you go to Tijuana, have some fake jewellery to barter with". I traded with them - they just wanted cash. But I felt so sick in the back of the police car that I was like "If I throw up in here I'm dead"."

"Dave (Catching) played lap steel, a little guitar, keys and did a lot of drinking."

"Josh (footage): Y'all ready to see Foo Fighters?"

"(during "Feel Good Hit of the Summer") They tried to put me in rehab too, but that shit didn't work. Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol. Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol. Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol. (song pauses) I cannot be killed by anything."

"'Frayed not. (in response to a question on whether he considers The Fray an influence after they listed him as an influence)"

"Alain Johannes: How come everything's red though? Is it a red light or..."

"There's no one here And people everywhere You're on you're own."

"Hey you, with the stupid fuckin' tattoo. This ain't a place to fight, you dipshit. You wanna fight, go to a gay bar. Go to a fuckin' gay bar if you wanna fight, you understand? 'Cause I will fuck you in the ass. Ik pak je klootzak, ik pak je vieze lul! Got me? You better, or you'll get me. Alright, this song goes out that that asshole. Everybody party and have a good time, fuck that dick. Let's do this."

"You can't upstroke yourself into toughness."

"(in response to someone shouting "I miss Nick (Oliveri)") Well, if you miss Nick, you can go out to the parking lot and go fuck yourself. Maybe you should get started immediately. And maybe if you're really lucky, he'll beat the shit out of you too. Because that's what he likes to do to girls, so maybe you can go miss him, I dunno... Do you feel satisfied about making you comment now? Are you happy that everyone looked at you and know what you look like? See that, Jesus Christ. Yeah, I remember my first beer too."

"Risk nothing, get nothing. If you wanna be famous, then it's OK if the music is fake, because fame isn't real."

"But I like to be a real man because I have a son and a daughter and they should know what that's like. It's OK to not be macho. But it's not OK to be a pussy."

"(In response to the question; "What are you going to tell a ten year old who wants to play guitar?") For me that's easy; when you expect anything from music, you expect too much. So you play for yourself, you play to enjoy it and you make the most of it for you, period. You don't - I never thought I would be doing this now. I feel so lucky to be doing this now - I can't believe this is what I do all the time. I know I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world, but I just love it. And I hope that's the only reason I'm here, you know? Because I think - I honestly think that that's enough."

"This is my fuckin' stage!"

"(during "Feel Good Hit of the Summer") I wanna tell you something. I'm never gonna give you up, I'm never gonna let you down. I'm never gonna run around and desert you."

""Punk fusion"… "metal", "alternative"… "grindcore". What the hell is all that stuff?"

"[In response to the question "This record will probably be bigger than the last one, which was bigger than the one before, and so on. How big do you want to be?"] Man, I don't really give a shit. I mean... you know, let me just break it down; I love to play, I'm from a small town in the desert, I never thought I would be here and I just wanna play, man. I don't care if it's big or small, you know? Like, Nick is gone and that affects me the most, because I didn't want it to be that way. And some people are going to be like "Well, I don't like it now!" and to them I say fucking goodbye. This is goodbye. Let me be the first to say it, goodbye. Because all I'm doing is just wanting to just play. I just love to play music, and I like people, you know. And there's all kinds of things that get... shoved into that along the way, but that's not alright with me, you know? So, I want to say most of all, like, I'm just going to just show up and play. I'll let everyone else deal with that because I've already dealt with the hard part, you go ahead and deal with the easy part, whether you want to listen or not. And either way; I understand. Because, when it comes to the Queens, whatever everyone else is dealing with, I've dealt with it already, man. So I'll either be drinking with people after the show or not and it's going to be five, five thousand, five million, or five - I don't give a shit. Because I'm really proud of this record and I put a lot into it, I put what I am into it and after that I can't control it. It's not up to me, it's up to you, you know? And I'm okay with that because when I left the studio I knew I loved this stuff and I got to save my friendship, and both of that is a victory, you know? And the rest is up to you, and I'm okay with that too. So let's get it on."

"But the truth is, I don't have ADD. I have OKHY: OK, hell yeah."

"[On "grunge"] Music's music, and the weird thing is Brant [Bjork] has said this before; Soundgarden and those bands and Nirvana, those are great bands, but they did not create rock and roll. This whole "grunge" bullshit that everyone's talking about. "Oh my gosh, it's amazing!", they did not create rock and roll! It is rock and roll music. It's good rock and roll, that's all it is. They did not start something, they don't corner the market on anything. [...] I think it's a shame, because it's a great media tool and it worked. Like, whoever thought of the word "grunge" should be rich by now because it's a great media trip, you know? But it's just all good rock and roll; Soundgarden, Nirvana, all these bands are just good rock and roll bands. People spend too much time categorizing what everything is. Just throw it on your turntable, throw it on you CD player or whatever you have and listen to it. Don't worry about what it is - no one cares, it doesn't matter anymore, you know? That's what should have happened, it shouldn't matter anymore what you are. There's so many, like, "fusion" everything and whatever that it shouldn't matter anymore, you know?"

"I'm also beyond pissed, as in not pissed, because I kinda figure they just don’t know better by now. It’s like when a dog shits in the house, you can hit 'em with a paper but they really don’t know what the fuck happened. How can retarded kids know to not throw a Frisbee at the forehead of another retarded kid?"

"I think that provided us to do it this time, because it's like okay, we've cleared that air, you know, we're friends and we respect that he's the best rock drummer in the world, you know. You can be as good, but you’re not better than Dave Grohl."

"...but I'm also a father, a husband and a raging alcoholic..."

"It's like catching a fish, you know what I mean? It's the fish that's beautiful, not the fisherman. And I think whoever hasn't understood that attitude in Queens is not here any more. And if I ever think the fisherman's better than the fish, I hope someone fuckin' fires me too."

"If ignorance is bliss, then I'm in heaven now."

"It's truly a lie, I counterfeit myself."

"You say bigger's better, but bigger's bigger."