If you’re waiting around for something to be handed to you or win the lottery, chances are nothing is ever going to go down, you know, so you got to make it happen on your own.
The older I get, the more I realize that you don’t have to be around people you don’t want to be around, and you don’t have to be in a situation you don’t want to be in. You have the power to rise up and leave.
Never let your fear decide your fate.
Look, one of the things that I know for sure is that none of us truly knows. That’s it. It’ll hit you later.
Let’s say I’m at a party and I don’t like the feeling I’m getting, I’ll just leave. Why do I have to be there?
Everybody has got their vibes – it could be mountain biking, it could be hiking, but for me, it’s surfing and music. There’s a lot of different things, but I think love gives us peace one way or another, and a calming effect on our soul, so I don’t know exactly what love is to me, but I know I try my best to surround myself with that.
I just find that with music I’ve always felt a sort of comfort.”Paranoid Android” was the saddest song I’d ever heard in my life, but it felt so good – it was like, “Oh, you understand where I’m coming from.” I was at a weird age at the time, in a hardcore band that had no melody, no chance of finding any success, and I was just trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do with my life. And that came out and changed my life forever – on an artistic level, and a lyrical level, for sure.
I don’t know that I can say what exactly love means to me because it would be hard to put that into perspective.
My point is I’m kind of an outlier. For whatever reason, the success still blows my mind – that I’m able to talk to people about the music I’ve written.
I just find that I enjoy the music that feels like there’s a journey to the top of this mountain, then you’re at the top of the mountain finally with this magical feeling, and you’re stoked because you made it, and you’re up there, but there’s a little bit of sadness to think of all that you lost along the way to get there. I guess I relate and enjoy the path and the struggle very much. Maybe it’s the competitive spirit in me.
I haven’t touched meat or anything like that in over six years. You know what’s pretty trippy, once I stopped, I didn’t get sick from that point on. I’ll get a light cold once in a while, but ever since that, I’ve just been completely on my toes and it helps for surfing too, to stay light on your toes and be healthy.
I never try and force-feed any song idea or lyrical message. It’s really what’s on my mind and what comes out of me. And a lot of these lyrics are metaphors for specific life situations that I’ve been through, and in most cases, the struggles. Something about human beings wearing sadness heavily on their sleeve inspires me to make something uplifting about the situation.
My point is, I don’t see the need to eat animals. I love animals; besides the horrible stuff that’s put in meat, I actually love cuddling with animals and petting them and stuff.
In fact, on a side note, after the success of the first record, I got asked to write for some pop artists, as everybody does, and I did a couple songs for some of these massive stars and the review that I got back was, “This artist likes the song but it’s too POP-y for them.” I was like, “What do you mean, I thought I was writing for a pop star.”
I was in a hardcore band that had no melody, no chance of finding any success, and I was just trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do with my life. And that came out and changed my life forever – on an artistic level, and a lyrical level, for sure.
I can always be reminded how small I am when I try to surf a wave that’s a little bit out of my league, and I just get pummeled. And, when your life flashes before your eyes kind of stuff, deep down under the water where you don’t know what’s up or down, and that kind of thing, or just Mother Nature reminding you how small you are compared to it. That’s kind of the main thing for me.
You got to head north. It’s always about going north, you know?
There’s a bunch of songs that I call B-sides on the record that you could argue could maybe have some potential commercial success with another artist, but for me, they just felt really whack.
Videos are tricky because stuff sounds amazing on paper and it seems like it’s going to be this mystical experience and you’re going to look back and go, “Wow, that was magic.” But more times than not, it doesn’t end up that way, so I never know what I’m going to get.
My drummer is my favorite drummer in the world, and he also happens to be the funniest person you’ll meet.
You don’t put out music unless you have a sense that people will maybe like what you’re doing or you’re standing for something artistically.
The world’s pretty trippy. I just like to travel around and see what’s out there.
More than anything, I’m excited to have the artistic freedom and opportunity to make a sophomore record. Everybody dreads the sophomore slump, whereas I am embracing it and can’t wait to either go down in flames, or take it to another level. It’s not going to be in the middle – it’ll be one way or the other. That’s how it has to be.
I’ve always found it pretty difficult to write a happy song.
Coming from heavy music too, it’s really hard to have heavy music not sound too butthead-ish or jock-ish, and there’s a fine line between Limp Bizkit and Nirvana – there’s a fine line there, and it’s terrifying.
