There’s a certain vibe in my hometown; Buffalo is a city that has no illusions. John Rzeznik Read Quote
There was always a guitar hanging around the house when I was a kid. It was a much lower impact instrument than me playing the drums, which is what I really wanted to do. My mother put a stop to the drumming. John Rzeznik Read Quote
I got into alternative rock in the early 80s, bands like Husker Du and The Replacements. Bob Mould’s playing was a huge influence. It was very heavy with a lot of open tunings, which was great because I played in trios, so I used open tunings to get a fuller sound. John Rzeznik Read Quote
The first record we made in three days. We literally stayed up for three days making the first album. It was crazy, crazy, crazy for us to do that. We couldn’t believe anyone would give us a record deal. I look back on that record fondly but with just the slightest bit of a cringe. John Rzeznik Read Quote
I got really sick of playing just, like, ‘Bop-bop-bop-bada-bop-bop-bada-rapa-pah.’ Just playing that 190-beats-per-minute punk-rock songs, I didn’t feel it anymore. And I always loved melody – when you looked back on those early records, there’s always a hook buried in there somewhere. John Rzeznik Read Quote
Punk was key to the early part of me playing guitar. I was really into melodic punk-rock. I related to punk more than Lynyrd Skynyrd or Yes or Van Halen. John Rzeznik Read Quote
Sometimes it doesn’t feel like I’m in control but that I’m going along for the ride. And I’m a lousy passenger; I love to drive. John Rzeznik Read Quote
I’ve met very lonely people who have 10,000 friends on Facebook. And it’s just not real. We’ve set up this artificial society in cyberspace. And that’s supposed to be a community, like a real community. It’s supposed to be where people go to get solace or friendship or have fun. John Rzeznik Read Quote
At its best, MTV puts a face to the names, if you know what I mean. I think if you can take the expression of a song much farther, that’s great. And it’s one of the only outlets there is for artistic filmmaking. But it’s a double-edged sword. At it’s worst, MTV is just a lot of TV commercials for songs. John Rzeznik Read Quote
One of the things about live music that’s so incredibly important and can’t be replaced and automated is the common focus of a room full of people having that human contact and being immersed in the sensory overload of a rock concert. John Rzeznik Read Quote