Interview: Alkaline Trio

Fresh from their sound check overlooking the empty Plaines D’Abraham in Quebec City, Chicago’s favourite punk rock trio Alkaline Trio sat backstage to discuss the event that brought them back to the city for the first time in a decade. Of course, it was the Festival D’Ete de Quebec – an eclectic, eleven day festival that sees more than a million people pass through the gates, savouring every minute of music possible.  It was this type of recognition that convinced the band to come out and do the one-off show in the first place and as Alkaline Trio soon found out – the hype was not unwarranted.

For while the fields may have been empty a few minutes prior to the interview during their sound check,  that was not the case when they took the stage that evening in front of close to ninety-thousand people. A packed house from front to back, the show was vastly different than when they were last in Quebec City and had to spend the night on someone’s couch. It was, as Matt Skiba announced at the end of their set, “the best show they’ve ever played, ever.”

That’s saying a lot considering the band has been touring heavily for sixteen long years. We talked to them about their touring schedules, festivals, their writing process and their plans with Heart and Skull Records all the while Dan sat trying to come up with the set-list for the evening’s performance, a set that will be remembered by the band for years to come.

Read the interview here.