Inked: Do you feel like this album is returning to your roots musically?

Collins: Production wise and stuff is different in places but the spirit is the same. We had our own positive pressure that we were putting on ourselves to do something that moved us. We got to kind of go back to the well a little bit. It was like a creative gratifying process, the writing and recording. In that way, I would say yes.


Inked: And how did you guys come up with the title?

Collins: It comes from a lyric from the first song on the record, Kurt. A lot of the songs deal with personal relationships and different sides of the same story. Dealing with personal relationships and sort of how language is—the way people speak to each other is kind of like speaking in code.


Inked: I heard that you released the album in vinyl. That’s pretty cool. Why’d you guys decide to do that?

Collins: It’s something we always wanted to do. I used to collect when we were kids. And yeah, we were given the opportunity so we jumped on it. It’s pretty cool.


Inked: Do you write most of your own songs?

Collins: Yeah, we write everything. We’ve never taken any outside writers.


Inked: And you have Don Gilmore behind the production of the album?

Collins: That’s right.


Inked: How’s that going for you and how’d that work out for you?

Collins: He’s incredible. He’s like a fourth member of the band in a lot of ways. He’s capable of delivering the message back to be better in a way that is inspiring as opposed to scary. A way that makes you kind of want to show up and go there and get to this open, creative place, as opposed to just shutting down, and that’s a real talent when you’re dealing with overly sensitive people I think.


Inked: So let's talk about your tattoos. Are any musically or band related?

Collins: No, they’re not, actually. I kind of go for tattooing that’s like pretty idiotic. I’m pretty lucky that my friend who did the work happens to be really talented because I sort of like, I just gave him my arm and picked a theme. Traditional American stuff and he just went to work.


Inked: What are some of them?

Collins: I’ve got the hinge working on the inside of my elbow, a cherry bomb, a dagger, a pretty girl with fire, spider wings, an anchor, flowers…there’s no real theme going on, you know.


Inked: And you’re not the only one who’s tattooed in the band?

Collins: No, no I’m not. The other guys have some stuff too. Jon has a big Japanese piece on one of his lower legs.


Inked: You can call him Sweet Pea if you feel more comfortable.

Collins: (Ha) Right. Thank you, I appreciate that. Sweet Pea has a big koi fish. Tony has a lightning bolt thing. I think he wanted to get a tattoo and he didn’t know what to get and the first thing that came to my mind was a lightning bolt thing.


Inked: You have some fans who get you guys tattooed on them—your album or your symbol from your original album. How do you feel about that?

Collins: Conflicted. Honored, I guess. Flattered at first. But then you always just worry that they’ll regret it tomorrow. But there’s a lot of that actually. A lot of people get lyrics.


Inked: It’s pretty cool though. A mini-tribute I guess.

Collins: It’s definitely cool.


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