Brian Fallon

It's all about knowing your audience. When I buy a record by a band and it sounds completely different, I'm just like, 'Why didn't you change your band name?' ”

When Tupac came out, my writing changed for sure. I learned from it. It was a cultural thing. ”

Too many bands record an album and feel, 'Well, this is okay,' but after a time, they grow to not like it. ”

I did the coffee house thing - we have coffee houses where people play, or we used to - and when I was 14, I started there. Just played all the time. Every weekend I had a show, or every Thursday. Open-mic nights, the whole thing. ”

Every time I look at the Eiffel Tower, it completely blows my mind. ”

There can be a wrong time - it's happened to countless bands where they release their first record on a major label and never learned what they maybe should have learned on an indie. ”

When you're a musician, a lot of time people help you out; they take pity on you. Family members will kind of come around and are like, 'Listen, I bought you a bunch of groceries because I know that you're a screwup.' ”

The first time I heard 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais,' I loved the vulnerability in the music and the lyrics. ”

I like building houses, working as a carpenter, painting. You work with your hands to the best of your ability, and at the end of the day, you go home with some satisfaction: 'I built that!' ”

Major labels have always been around our band since the beginning, and we just waited. We knew we had to do some things, and we needed to grow as a band before we made that step. We needed to do it our way and not do it how it works for other people. ”