I'm from Chicago, I live in Chicago and I wanted very much for the music in Chicago to succeed.
My favorite band - and Bobby Cannavale and Terry Winter have already made fun of me for this - is Chicago.
Being from Chicago, you kind of are shielded in a way from the other stuff that goes on in music and the industry.
My mom actually had a band called Six Pack - even though there were seven of them - who went around Chicago performing popular songs. Her voice was like Gladys Knight mixed with Aretha Franklin.
When the Chicago rap scene came about, I listened to all of the upcoming artists like Lil Durk, Chief Keef and G Herbo.
I like a lot of that Chicago stuff, house music.
We were fans of Green Day and Nirvana or whatever, but the bands we really loved were Chicago bands that didn't really sound anything like Alkaline Trio.
I really value what Closed Sessions is doing to build the Chicago music scene and am excited to partner with them for my first solo project.
But my favorite band is Curbside Life, out of Chicago.
For Alkaline Trio, Chicago is our hometown. The band started there. Even though we all live in different cities now, we still call Chicago home, and it's always really exciting to come back and play for our best crowd.
I'm only involved really right now with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Brass Fantasy.
The first band I identified with from Chicago was the Muddy Waters band.
You know what I'd really like to do? I'd like to record some white Chicago jazz.
