do what thou wilt
In Alkaline Trio, a twisted conclave composed of two card-carrying members of the Church of Satan and a left-leaning pacifist craft devilishly gory pop punk. Discuss.
by jon wiederhorn
photography by pamela littky
The Reaper is catching up to Matt Skiba. He’s not ready to strike the final blow or anything, but the beast sure wants to make the Alkaline Trio frontman uncomfortable.
Last night, Skiba was up for hours with a high fever; today, he’s achy and congested, and when he inhales too deeply, he coughs up globs of blood-flecked phlegm. Alas, there’s work to be done, which is why Skiba has been on set at a film studio near Los Angeles since 9 a.m. to lip-sync and pose for the video for “Time to Waste,” the first single from Alkaline Trio’s new album, Crimson (Vagrant).
During the shoot, which is being directed by Linkin Park turntablist Joseph Hahn, Skiba is upbeat and energized, but when the camera’s not rolling, he sniffles and rubs his eyes. “I feel like I’m totally hung over and I haven’t had anything to drink,” he says, then spits. “I don’t get sick very often, but when I do, it hits me hard.”
Despite his illness, Skiba is friendly and agreeable, plugging through take after take of the song with the enthusiasm of a gun buff at a firing range. Toward the end of the day, he happily poses for photos with members of” the makeup team and catering staff. Then, when his fiancée, Monica, enters the building, he warmly embraces her and rests his head on her shoulder as they slowly sway.
Is this the same Matt Skiba who, in “This Could Be Love,” from 2003’s Good Mourning, sang, “I shat the bed and lay there in it thinking of you wide awake for days?” Or the guy who, in Crimson’s “Fall Victim,” croons, “Down on my knees, but not to pray/Hit so hard across the skull it buckled my legs”?
“Being in love doesn’t change the darkness in the world and doesn’t change the things that interest me,” explains Skiba the next day at his management’s office. “It would be no fun if that was the case. There’s nothing wrong with a happy love song, but I don’t have much interest in writing them.”
Anyone who knows Skiba will tell you he’s a nice, mellow, funny guy who just happens to be interested in some pretty dark shit, including the occult, slasher flicks, serial killers, and true crime novels. He’s not the quiet postal employee who one day loses it and mows down his coworkers—he’s just a sarcastic prankster who refuses to look at the world through rose-colored lenses.
“The things people don’t like to think about, like death and violence, should be celebrated along with everything else,” he says, adjusting the baseball cap that reads “Virgins Make Better Sacrifices” sitting atop his head. “You can’t have good without bad, and being in touch and comfortable with death makes you appreciate the value of life.”