"We were concerned with having good songs, not just songs that go two hundred miles per hour."
"We never worry about the big things, just the small things."
"We just wrote songs that seemed good to us. We wrote the album in like two weeks. We could have had more time, but we accomplished what we needed to in the two weeks."
"We just wanted to write a bunch of songs that we thought were good songs."
"We all write the music, and then Mark and Tom write the lyrics."
"We all liked the Descendants and stuff like that, so we started playing it. It's not that it was really hard, well, it does take skill to play fast and keep up your stamina. But it was something that just happened."
"Then I tried out for the Fontana High School drum line, in Riverside, and I did really well. I got second chair, and played snare in that drum line for three years."
"On tour, you never have a home, you don't get used to anything, and you're always super busy."
"Oh, I was super serious about practicing and rudiments, and still am. I still have all my books."
"My mom passed away a day before high school started, and her dream was for me to be a full rock and roll guy, and play drums in a band."
"My mom listened to the Beatles and Elvis, a lot of different types of music."
"My chops are still up, even though I'm not still in high school."
"In junior high, I sang in madrigals, men's' and women's' choir. I played piano too, but then I got out of it."
"In 1996, I was in was in an acoustic kind of rock band, we were called Feeble. We were just playing locally."
"I've always liked Dennis Chambers, he's real flashy."
"I'm super serious about that stuff. I mean, it's rare that I sit down at a drum set when I'm not touring, because we tour so much."
"I'm a freak, everything has to be totally flat when I play. Ed Will, my jazz teacher, set up everything completely flat, and then you'd tilt your snare drum away from you, so I do that too. So my snare tilts away from me."
"I was told once if I kept breaking things on my legs, that I wasn't going to be able to walk soon, you know? I wanted to be a pro skateboarder, but it was too hard. I was trying, but it wasn't going to happen."
"I was playing with the Aquabats, and then I quit to join a band called Suicide Machine in Detroit."
"I was in a band called Hooker for a while."
"I was a kid, and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to play the drums, you know? All I wanted to do was skateboard, but I was still learning and taking it in, so it was good."
"I used to have friends come on tour and work as my drum tech, but they get bummed out when I have to tell them what to do. This time I'm just going to fly them out and let them hang. It's all good."
"I practice every day, I warm up before I play."
"I play Orange County drums. I love those guys. I've got a four piece kit."
"I listened a little to punk when I was younger, but it was straight edge punk. It was nothing like what is going on now, like poppy punk."
