I am very grateful to punk because I was a girl, and I felt like if I got in a band, I'd be kind of a novelty act, but punk was all about non-discrimination. No one cared because it was punk, so, you know, anyone could do anything they wanted.
DEVO was like the punk band that non Punk America saw as Punk and so when people who were really into Punk rock would be walking around on the streets the jocks who learned about Punk through Devo would roll down their windows and yell at the Punks: 'HEY, DEVO!!'
When I finally turned 18, I started to wonder if rave was now different to what it was and whether I'd missed out on the golden days of rave. So, I thought I'd talk to some of the legends in the game and get an education on how music was made, listened to and the rave scene from before I was even born.
People want to feel united, they want to have that religious sense they want to feel like at a rave 10,000 people at the rave are feeling the same emotions, a very primal need that's not being fulfilled in the world today.
I kind of remember a friend of mine saying, like, you guys should make a rap record. You know, because we were already making punk records. We were a punk band. And I kind of thought, that's crazy.
I don't think punk ever really dies, because punk rock attitude can never die.
We never fit in completely to [the punk] scene because we were writing love songs that were heartfelt and endearing. Some of the punks didn't know what to make of us, but I finally realized that was what made us punk. We sang what we meant, from the heart, and didn't worry about what anyone was going to think.
I've been on the edge of everything, like one of those characters at the side of a Brueghel painting with a warty nose. I've been very lucky - I lived through three of the most profoundly important musical revolutions of the 20th century: latterday rock and roll, punk and then the rave culture.
I listened a little to punk when I was younger, but it was straight edge punk. It was nothing like what is going on now, like poppy punk.
The fans never gave up on CM Punk. If CM Punk wants to be part of 'All In,' he can be part of 'All In.' But I am not putting it on him to draw those 10,000 seats. If we did have CM Punk, we would not tell you we had CM Punk - unless we didn't sell any tickets.
It was an important period for us, because even though we weren't a "punk band", and what became a model for a punk band, we were able to be dragged along by the spirit of that time.
On the first album, we were trying to do a pop-punk album with a classical influence. We'd say 'pop-punk,' and people would say, 'No, you're like burlesque-cabaret-punk,' or, 'It's baroque-pop,' and we were like, 'That sounds way cooler.'
I threw my son, Brandon, a rave for his birthday and I fully set it up like a crazy rave with lights and sound, me and my partner DJ'd - I got Mix Master Mike from the Beastie Boys to come DJ for a bit.
...because I rant not, neither rave of what I feel, can you be so shallow as to dream that I feel nothing?
Our intention when we first started as a band, was to be a rave band. We kind of just got it wrong. We tried, but we didn't have the talent or the knowledge to make a rave record.
Punk rock, to me, was always outsiderness. When I first saw large-group-scene punk rock, I was repelled by it, because there were way too many people who agreed with each other.