Photo: Giles Smith/Reading Festival
Few punk bands have stood the test of time quite like Alkaline Trio, but now in 2013 you'll still find them in the prestigous slot of headlining the Lock Up Stage at Reading and Leeds Festival. Their secret? Simple: their fans respawning and passing on their good taste through DNA. Watch our video interview with the band below.
Ahead of their blistering set at Reading, we caught up with the band to discuss their legacy, the secrets to their survival, the catharsis of their latest album and how punk will never die.
"England always feels like a second home to us," said bassist Dan Andriano. "So coming and playing the Lock Up Stage, which has always been a huge champion of our band and we appreciate everything that Mike (Davies) has done - it's important to us.
"We're with some great bands like Quicksand, RX Bandits and a lot of good friends."
When asked about the secret to appealing to generation after generation of punk fans, frontman Matt Skiba said it was a simple matter of biology.
"I feel like most of the rejuvenation of fans comes from people having children, oddly enough," said Matt. "That's when you know you've been a band for almost 20 years. New people get turned onto it, and I think the thing about English fans is that in the States you'll neversee a Slipknot t-shirt at an Alkaline Trio show, but here half of the kids are wearing Slipknot and Alkaline Trio shirts - it's not as snobby, gentrified or segregated. People are more open-minded here.
"Also, people fuck and have way more children here who turn out to be babies who turn out to be Alkaline Trio fans. If these two punkers were to fuck and have a baby, and that baby had ears then it's going to like Alkaline Trio."
Watch Alkaline Trio discussing their success, their love of Reading & Leeds and 'making babies' below:
