So it was a lot of treading lightly on the stuff that was already written, but also putting your stamp on things that you could, you know? The work ethic, though, was already there—but that kind of seeped in from my past band, Pencey, because we had a lockout.

…You would go, and you would practice, and if you had practice next you would go there early and watch the other band practice and then wait for your turn, y’know? And so we knew that, y’know, we were in there to work. So the work ethic was pretty strong.”

 His tastes were way more varied than the people that I was playing with. So, that, immediately was like, ‘Oh shit, what he’s doing right now—I need to learn from him. And also, it’s making my brain do other things. This isn’t like four-chord punk rock that I’ve been playing for years, y’know, like, I’m actually going to grow and expand.’”

He called himself ‘a masochist’ (again) for only paying attention to negative feedback on his work

Upstairs at the Philly L.S. Dunes show, everyone backstage—band, kids etc.—participated in a 2.5-hour rubber ducky trash can basketball game 

Frank still gets contracts from Warner Brothers that say ‘Frank Lero’

Anthony was the only person anyone in the L.S. Dunes wanted to sing for the project, so Tucker sent the tracks without telling him who else was in the band—to give him the opportunity to say yes or no to the project based on artistic merit and his interest level, rather than obligation to his friends

It’s twofold: it’s the ten thousand hours, but it’s also, like, ‘I’m gonna fake it ’til I make it,’ kinda thing. In real life, if I’m not confident and I don’t like that about myself, I can be whatever I wanna be onstage. And so, he became who he needed to be. 

And that’s the thing, y’know, like you either get so scared that you can’t move, or you get so scared that you put on a persona and it seeps into your personality and becomes part of you, later. And Gee just—there’s a part of him that was in there that he brought out, and he dug it out, and it fuckin’—it became, y’know, who he is now. And I think that it’s a wonderful thing, because he’s a fuckin’ phenomenal artist… He’s the kind of guy that can do anything—really, truly can. And it may not be the greatest when it first comes out, but it’s inspired. And he can get to become the greatest at things if he works at it.

…Motherfucker, like, he’s just got it, dude. It’s crazy, how talented he is. 

I’m just happy to be here.”

And those were stressful times, I think, but it was what we needed to do in order to make it what it became. We knew that it was luck, it was talent—but it was also perspiration. Early on, it was like, the rules of the band were like, ‘No one’s girlfriends [are] allowed in here; you fuckin’ show up to practice early…’ It was like, militant. And at times—was it always fun? Fuck no, dude. Were people upset? Yeah!

And that’s the thing, like, especially in Jersey, there’s a thousand other fuckin’ bands here, and they’re really fuckin’ good. So we’d better be great.”