Who’s your fashion influence right now?
I have this fucking cool pair of John Lennon sunglasses. My dad gave them to me. He’s had them since he was 17. I dress “scantily clad” because people think it’s scary [laughs]. It’s either there’s nothing put into it and I wear whatever is on my floor and is clean, or it’s thought out and inspired by how I’m feeling and what I’m listening to at the moment. I don’t really look to people fashion-wise. I don’t have any style icons or anyone I want to emulate. I take different things from different people even if they weren’t “style icons.” If I think they are fucking great musicians, I’m like, “I like that belt because he’s wearing it.”
What’s the theme of your new record?
I’m not kidding either. The record is religion, it’s death, it’s love, it’s sex, it’s politics–it’s Rock ‘n’ Roll. It’s a rock record that touches on life–observations of it–and all those topics. Each song has its own thing to it.
Some of these songs were released earlier this year. How much on your album is new material?
‘Make Me Wanna Die’ is the first song that anyone’s heard off the record. It’s a whole new record. And “Make Me Wanna Die” was specifically written for the record. [The rest] is kind of spearheaded off of that.
You’ve told me before that you like to work really late at night. Is that how this record came to be?
I would write a lot of things at night and then call Ben [Phillips, guitarist] and wake him up. What was written for this record was when I was touring on the earlier stuff. So I’d leave him voicemails at five in the morning of whole songs being sung with no guitar [laughs]. When I got back from tour, we buckled down, put it together, and finished everything.
Are you feeling a new satisfaction with transitioning from acting to music?
It’s something I’ve wanted to accomplish my whole life. Not to just make a record, but a great record that I’m really proud of and to sing for the rest of my life and not have to fucking worry–know what I mean? Even if people don’t like it, I like it and I’m proud of it.